The Hiram S. Thomas Story

Black Excellence in the 19th Century

By Suzanne Spellen
Before COVID-19, we couldn’t imagine a world without restaurants. Whether plain or fancy, no matter the culture or meal, we have all gotten used to the idea of being able to enter an establishment where we could sit, choose our food from a menu, be served, and eat a meal prepared for us.

The modern American restaurant as we know it is not all that old. While taverns and inns that served food have been with us for centuries, the full service restaurant is a 19th century invention. Based on many worldly antecedents, it was born of the pre-Civil War urban experience and the rise of cities.

In 1762, NYC’s oldest tavern opened. Fraunce’s Tavern, like many such watering holes, served patrons whatever was in the pot that day. Vendors selling all manner of street foods have always been a part of the city, too. In the early 1800s, the direct ancestors of the city’s restaurants were its popular coffee shops and oyster bars.

Delmonico’s, in lower Manhattan, was the first and finest of New York’s restaurants. By the end of the century, it was THE place to eat and be seen as NY’s elite filled the cavernous restaurant every night. They had everything we associate with upscale dining – white clothed tables groaning with fine fare served on silver platters, an extensive wine list, a large menu of favorites and exotic new dishes to choose from, all served by impeccably mannered waiters who treated their guests like royalty.

But after the Civil War, the growing wealthy classes in our cities wanted more. Businessmen found conducting meetings over a meal could be conducive to better business. The rich on their Grand Tours were enjoying the restaurant experience in Paris and other European cities. Here, they were becoming more social, with theaters, concerts and other activities that took them away from home in the evening.

It didn’t take long for this kind of dining and service to be replicated not only in places like Gage & Tollner and Peter Luger in Brooklyn, but in cities across the country. It was also expected in the resort hotels of the Gilded Age: the huge upscale palaces of Coney Island, the Jersey Shore and in resort towns like Saratoga Springs, in upstate New York.

Hiram S. Thomas’s Story
Into our story comes Hiram S. Thomas. Niagara Falls, Ontario was still called Drummondville when he was born in 1837. His family’s history there is unknown. He was college educated, but opportunities for black men with a college education were few in mid-19th century North America. He spent his early working years as a waiter and steward on passenger boats plying the Great Lakes and the Mississippi.

By the 1870s, during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas held the position of steward at the prestigious Capitol Club, in Washington DC. The club was the favorite dining place of politicians and businessmen. A steward was not just a waiter. While he could be called upon to deliver food or drink, he was more responsible for running the dining room and making sure the guests had everything they needed and had a pleasurable dining experience.

Many fine dining establishments of the day were staffed exclusively by black waiters, a trend that continued into the 20th century in some places, including Brooklyn’s Gage & Tollner. For reasons no doubt derived from slavery, it was seen as very classy to have a contingent of elegantly dressed black men trained to deliver impeccable service, performing their duties to perfection. Hiram Thomas was described as a tall, elegant and refined man himself, and his job as steward allowed him to interact with presidents and kings.

Everyone writing about Thomas describes him as well-spoken, witty and engaging. He was a favorite of President Grant, and later, of Presidents Cleveland and McKinley. He chatted with other prominent politicians and saw to the culinary needs of heads of industry and commerce, all patrons at the club. He was able to make a good living, much more than most black men of his time. He married, and he and his wife Julia would eventually have eight children: five daughters and three sons.

He left the Capitol Club and moved with his family to Saratoga Springs, the famed resort town north of Albany famous for its mineral springs, horse racing, gambling and luxury hotels. By the 1870s, Saratoga was the country’s top upscale resort destination. Visitors could board the Empire Express train at Grand Central Station in NYC and travel due north to Saratoga. Wealthy people from New York, Boston and Canada built large mansions in town, many of which still stand.

Anyone who was anyone came north, out of the city, for “the Season.” Many stayed at the Grand Union Hotel, which by 1876 could accommodate 2,000 guests and was billed as the largest hotel in the world. At that time, it was owned by A.T. Stewart, the ultra-wealthy owner of Manhattan’s largest department store of the same name. Writers from NYC called the hotel the “Waldorf of Saratoga.”

Hiram Thomas was hired as the hotel’s head waiter. An 1878 article in the St. Louis Globe, (syndicated from the NY Herald) describes the scene at dinner on a typical night at the Grand Union. His staff, many of them veterans of colored Union Army regiments, stood at attention at the doorways.

“At 2 pm 200 colored waiters stand spotless in an orderly array. The far-famed Hiram S. Thomas, a man of gigantic but graceful frame, is their generalissimo. His captains-general, attired like himself in full evening suits of black, are stationed at equal distances apart down the center aisle. The lieutenants stand along the sides.

Every table is attended, according to its size, with two to four waiters, and every waiter is watched by the assistance of the generalissimo…Watch the generalissimo! With what intuition he comprehends the disposition and wish of each hungry guest.

Always polite and accommodating, never hurried, yet performing his task with a celerity that saves everyone from waiting, this potentate of the dining room is an artist.”

Thomas did well here, and his fame and reputation grew. His bank account and ambitions grew too. In 1888, he took over the running of an upscale resort hotel on Saratoga Lake called Moon’s. He renamed it the Lake House. In the beginning he only owned the restaurant, he later bought the entire establishment.

He brought his now-famous class and elegance to the Lake House. The hotel was mentioned often in New York’s society pages, where they referred to Thomas as the well-known and respected colored man who owned it.

(To be continued)