Activities for Men and Women
Investigators recovered a wide range of items from the Baber Hotel site that reflect the leisure activities of its patrons. Items likely linked to male clientele included a billiard ball and a piece of billiard chalk, a die (such as those used in craps or other games), and fragments of three dominoes. Ninety-one tobacco pipes and parts of two spittoons also were found.
Women clients are represented by a large assortment of artifacts associated with making and repairing clothing: sewing needles and thimbles, bone needle cases, and bone implements for knitting and specialized embroidery. Some of these items may have been used by hotel staff, who could have provided mending services to customers, but others were likely owned by female clients who spent their evenings in a parlor visiting while mending, darning, knitting, or embroidering.
Excavations also recovered parts of musical instruments, such as mouth harps. Documents research discovered that a piano was among the hotel’s furnishings.