“The Hotel Taft contains about three hundred guest bedrooms, each connected with a bath, arranged singly or in suites of three to five rooms. The building has extensive public accommodations, including regular dining rooms, private dining rooms, a banquet hall, roof garden and accommodation for small society dinners. In construction the building is fireproofed with usual precaution. The trim and doors about the stairs and elevators is of hollow metal, thus thoroughly fireproofing these portions of the structure.
F. M. Andrews & Company were the architects of the Hotel Taft. V. J. Hedden & Sons Co., were the builders. The Wells Architectural Iron Company did the ornamental iron work, and the Federal Terra Cotta Company supplied exterior terra-cotta. Lime was supplied by the Farnum Cheshire Lime Company. The front, inside and hollow brick were all furnished by the I. L. Stiles & Son Brick Co. The interior woodwork was done by the John Rouzer Company. The hollow metal doors and trim were installed by the Dahlstrom Metallic Door Co. Wilson’s Venetian blinds were used in all the bedrooms. The lighting fixtures were supplied by Bagues Freres Co. Bollentin & Thompson furnished rugs, interior furnishings were supplied by John Wanamaker, N. Y., bentwood chairs by Jacob & Josef Kohn, and the U. S. Changeable Sign Co. put in a special hotel bulletin board. The electrical contractors were the Watson, Flagg Engineering Co. Wire was supplied by the Habirshaw Wire Company, and the Metropolitan detachable mechanism push button switches were used and Otis elevators were installed.
The silver service for the dining rooms was supplied by the International Silver Company. Bramhall-Deane Company equipped the kitchen. The Emery Thompson Machine and Supply Company furnished ice cream freezers. The vacuum cleaning equipment was installed by the Spencer Turbine Cleaner Company.
The steel smokestack of the Hotel Taft, of which we have shown a special illustration, was built by the Felber Engineering Works, and is of great interest. The illustration and the plan of the stack as depicted on the first story plan of the building shows how space has been economized and how little the stack interferes with the plan of the building. This steel stack fits exactly over the proper area which is necessary for the passage of gases from the power plant. It is lined with 2 inches of vitrified asbestos securely attached by clips to the steel shell and entirely covered within with a coating of asbestos cement. While this stack is a permanent feature and practically indestructible, it may be removed without excessive cost if remodeling of the power plant is necessary at any time.
The sanitary equipment was installed by Hotchkiss, Vail & Garrison Co., and Vitrolite partitions and wall linings were used in all the toilet rooms and in the barber shop.”
-Excerpt and images courtesy of the HathiTrust Digital Library, University of Michigan, Architecture and Building, Vol. 44,, No. 4, “The Taft Hotel, New Haven, Conn.,” by F. M. Andrews and Company Architects, April 1912. (top) Image courtesy of Yale University, “The Yale Record, Freshman Number,” 1912
Roger Sherman house 