Waynewood Hotel, Wayne Hotel, Louella Hotel

Pictures of the same place, taken at periods as much as 50 years apart, are usually shown to point up the changes the years have made. But in this case it is the lack of changes rather than the presence of them that makes for interest in these two pictures.

The dining room of the former Wayne Hotel, as it looked on Saturday evening, October 16, on the occasion of its re-opening as Helen Kellogg’s Dining Room in the Wayne House. –(photo by Ansley)
The dining room of the former Wayne Hotel, as it looked on Saturday evening, October 16, on the occasion of its re-opening as Helen Kellogg’s Dining Room in the Wayne House. –(photo by Ansley)

To at least one person in the well-filled dining room last Saturday, this similarity was almost startling. Malcolm G. Sausser, who took the second picture many years ago, remembers the room when the softly burning candles were used on every table each evening during the greater elegance of living of 50 years ago.

On October 16, when Miss Kellogg opened her new dining room to the public, candles were again a necessity. Twenty-four hours before, the hurricane that swept its way through the Philadelphia area had torn down trees, electric poles and wires in its path, throwing streets, homes and other buildings into total darkness. Miss Kellogg had her opening night without benefit of electric lights or of heat.

The same room as it appeared 50 years ago, as the dining room of the Waynewood Hotel, owned and operated by Charles Wood.
The same room as it appeared 50 years ago, as the dining room of the Waynewood Hotel, owned and operated by Charles Wood.

In contrast to the darkness of the outside world, the softly lighted interior of the building was a delight.
Many well-wishers among local merchants and townspeople sent flowers in such profusion that every wide window sill in the room, as well as all the tables and sideboards had their generous share. Each table had on it a small round glass vase filled with flowers, with a candle upright in the center of each, and tall candelabra on the sideboard shared in the illumination of the room.

The candles turned back the years to the turn of the century when Charles Wood first bought the large tract of land, on which he later built the Waynewood Hotel.

A musician and an organist by profession, Mr. Wood had been the manager of the old Louella Hotel in the era when many families left the heat of Philadelphia homes for the comparative coolness and comfort of Main Line hotels. After a few seasons of managing the Louella, Mr. Wood bought the large tract of ground directly adjacent to it on the west, and later built his hotel.

Probably no one except its owner was more closely connected with the management of the new hotel than Miss Frances Hughes, now Mrs. Malcolm G. Sausser. With a business initiative uncommon in a young woman of that period she obtained a position that in present day parlance might be called that of a “hostess.” Her duties were many and varied, since Mr. Wood was more musician than hotel manager. She had entire charge of the office and the safe, answered all telephone calls and assigned rooms to guests. In addition, she directed the hotel’s personnel. “Old Jack” was then the chef and there was a large crew of waiters, with whom the young Miss Hughes had at one time to settle a strike.

In addition to his ability as a musician, Mr. Wood possessed a really extraordinarily keen mechanical mind, according to Mrs. Sausser. She recalls with admiration, as well as amusement, some of the mechanical devices by which he took care of the large amount of washing necessary in a hotel. For instance, he utilized the heat from the machinery that ran the elevator to dry the hotel linens once they were washed!

In addition to this picture of the old dining room, Mrs. Sausser has lent your columnist three other pictures, all of them of the grounds of the Waynewood Hotel as it looked in the early 1900’s. These will be used in next week’s column for which Mrs. Patterson would welcome other old pictures and further reminiscences of the hotel.