BIO: Robert B. Adams, Tillard Pen Pictures, 1911, Blair County, PA

Contributed April 2003 for use in the USGenWeb Archives 
by Judy Banja <jbanja@comcast.net>

Copyright 2003.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/
_________________________________________ 

               Pen Pictures of Friends and Reminiscent Sketches
                               by J. N. Tillard

            Altoona, PA: William F. Gable & Co., Mirror Press, 1911 

                            The Dean of Hotel Clerks

        MAJOR ROBERT B. ADAMS Has Greeted More Guests at The Logan House
       Than Any Other Hotel Clerk in The State and Probably in The Country

TIME was when it was the boniface or landlord who oftenest "welcomed the coming 
and sped the going guest," but times and manners change and with the passing of 
the stage coach and wayside inn and the advent of the steam horse and the huge 
hotel, the old time boniface has retreated to the depths of his private office 
and the duty of making the stranger feel at home has developed upon the hotel 
clerk; and well and ably has he discharged his duties to the traveling public. 
Though the cartoonist sometimes takes a fall out of him by picturing a lordly 
personage resplendent with diamonds and his nose in the air condescendingly 
pushing the register toward the humble suppliant for accommodations, yet the 
fact remains that the average gentleman who stands behind the desk at a big 
hotel is at least the equal of any of the patrons of the place in courtesy of 
manner, kindness of heart and urbane demeanor. Patient and long suffering, he 
puts up with the foibles of all sorts of cross-grained people, world-weary and 
worn, whose tempers have been soured and sharpened by the many annoyances that 
have beset their lives in this world of vicissitudes.
  Though not a traveler himself, the clerk at the first-class hotel lives in a 
cosmopolitan atmosphere and learns to know all sorts and conditions of men who 
come to him from the ends of the earth and not infrequently enjoys the 
friendship and esteem of the earth's greatest because of his unobtrusive, but 
none the less real helpfulness and cheeriness. Even old travelers are likely to 
get homesick and distraught and long for the companionship of their kind while 
among strangers, and many a man has struck up a lasting friendship with the man 
of rooms who rules the destinies, more or less, of the denizens of the big 
caravansary. The man who stands behind the desk of the same hotel for three or 
four decades has been in a position to receive a liberal education by contact 
with the thousands who have marched past his post of observation, especially 
when his post is located along one of the great arteries of travel.
  The dean among hotel clerks in Central Pennsylvania is Robert B. Adams of the 
Logan House, and indeed it is very likely that there is no other man in the 
state who can boast so long a continuous service in this capacity as Mr. Adams. 
The Logan House is an unusual hotel and its history is rather unique among the 
great inns of the state. When the Pennsylvania Railroad was constructed by way 
of the Horse Shoe Curve up the eastern slopes of the Alleghanies, railroading in 
the mountains of America was in its infancy and in view of the comparatively 
feeble motive power of those days and the primitive methods of clearing the 
tracks of snow during a severe winter, it was necessary that some provision be 
made for the comfort of passengers near the base of the mountains in the event 
that trains should be snow-bound. The fact is, that Altoona probably owes its 
existence to the fact that the promoters and builders of the line across the 
mountains in the early "fifties," recognized the great natural difficulties of 
this sort and wanted their repair and equipment shops as close to the base of 
the big hill as they could be conveniently placed, as there would be the seat of 
trouble in the operation of the road.
  The shops were the first buildings in the new town and the need for a hotel 
for the accommodation of local trade was very slight indeed, but in order to 
accommodate the passengers with sleeping rooms in case of emergency, and to feed 
them upon the arrival of all trains, one of the largest hotels in the state was 
built. The Keystone Hotel Company was formed for the management of this and 
other hotels along the line that were built under the auspices of the railroad 
company and the Logan House soon became famous as a hostelry.
  There were no dining cars in those days and a much longer time was required to 
cover the Middle and Pittsburg Divisions, and all passengers were ready for a 
meal when they arrived in Altoona, the few trains being timed to arrive at 
nearly the normal meal hour. Electric signals had not then been invented to 
announce the near approach of the trains and a porter on the roof signaled the 
dining room when they hove in sight at Blair Furnace or Mill Run dump and when 
the head waiter pounded the big Chinese gong as the train pulled into the 
station, the dining room force had the food on the way to the table, for as the 
stop was only for twenty minutes there was no time for the leisurely consulting 
of menu cards.
  From the beginning the house contained one hundred and twenty-six rooms and 
though the commercial traveler was not so much a factor as he is today and the 
business of the town had nothing to attract him, the hotel was well patronized 
for the reason that Mr. Pullman had not yet done much in the way of sleeping 
cars and our grandfathers were partial to their beds at night. Even though they 
did stop off at night, the pace was very swift as compared with the stage and 
canal boat to which they had been accustomed and the beds of the big house at 
the foot of the mountains were generally occupied.
  Mr. Adams became clerk at the Logan House when it was at the zenith of its 
prosperity. He was born in Hollidaysburg and when quite a young man came to 
Altoona and worked as a molder in the shops under Archie Maxwell. In 1868 he 
took up his stand behind the desk of the big hotel and his commanding presence 
and genial face has seldom been missing since. Mr. J. D. McClelland was the 
manager then and the business of the house was growing so rapidly that it was 
found necessary to add the wing, now filled for the most part with railroad 
offices, next to Twelfth Street. The new addition had reached the plastering 
stage, when on the morning of March 20, 1872, it was almost totally destroyed by 
fire. However, the body of the house was not injured and the damage was soon 
repaired. The hotel had housed many of the greatest of the earth, and Mr. Adams 
has greeted and bade good-by to many illustrious men who have been its guests. 
Generals Grant, Sherman, and a host of other military celebrities were made 
comfortable by his offices, and the governors of most of the states at that time 
stopped there on their way to Washington. Andrew Curtin, Pennsylvania's great 
war governor, spent much time at the mountain hotel and its size and 
accommodations were everywhere commented upon. Robert J. Burdette, the prince of 
humorists, after a visit to Altoona, in a magazine article, referred to the 
house "as being about the size of the state of Rhode Island."
  Besides the numerous distinguished public men Mr. Adams has known, he has been 
honored by the acquaintance and friendship of every president of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad from J. Edgar Thomson down, and has met all general 
superintendents from Mr. Williams to G. W. Creighton; Pittsburg Division 
superintendents from Robert Pitcairn to R. T. Morrow; Middle Division 
superintendents from Mr. Black to C. A. Preston, and Philadelphia Division 
superintendents from Mr. Lockard to W. B. McCaleb.
  Mr. Adams has grown old with the house and neither of them are so spry as they 
once were, but any morning, rain or shine, the active form of the venerable 
clerk can be seen striding about the city as he takes his constitutional of six 
or eight miles, and though his hair and beard are silvery white, his step is as 
springy as a man of forty and his genial face shines with good will toward all 
men. His life has been a busy one, and the four decades and more that he has 
supervised the comings and goings of the hosts that have patronized the house, 
have witnessed a development of the great trunk line never dreamed of by the men 
who first projected it.
  If he could reproduce the photograph that his memory holds of the innumerable 
faces that have confronted him in the years of his service, what a mighty 
gallery of faces would be thrown on the screen; most of them have gone the way 
of all flesh in all lands in a thousand different ways. Though not a great 
traveler himself there is probably no other man in the country who has conversed 
with more strangers. Among the multitude he has many friends who will wish him 
many more years of mortal greeting before he goes hence and himself says a last 
farewell in parting.

                                       #