It’s 1908. We've lots to learn today. Class is in session:

And it’s a floor polish!

Washburn Crosby, as I never tire of noting, turned its corporate initials into a powerhouse broadcast brand, and the first part of the name is the reason my daughter’s school team is the Millers.

I don’t think that hair style will ever come back.

A woman's work is never done. Even when it's a man's job:

You might be wondering how many different types of coal they sold. It’s not a type of coal, it’s a size. Egg, chestnut - you can see where the terms came from.

The Commonwealth Building was built in 1891, and it still stands:

Yes, they added more stories in 1910, and no, they didn't try to hide the fact.

Just was the thirsty, dusty, hot-as-blazes manual laborer wants: near beer.

A veritable restorer of recreative and soothing potency to the aged. So, it’s Viagra.

Ah, the Hoffman House.If it was fireproof, it no doubt went up in a blaze at some point, right? No. Much more interesting than that.

Thanks to this site, I learn that the Hoffman House was the HQ for two women - Victoria C. Woodhull and Tennessee (Tennie) C. Claflin  - who set up shop as stock traders in 1870. I was able to find the newspaper quoted in the piece, and have snipped some excerpts from the interview.

Mrs. C's personality certainly comes through loud and clear.

The Commodore, eh? We'll get to that. Bring in Mrs. Woodhull:

The September Panic. It was bad.

 The 1907 Bankers' Panic or Knickerbocker Crisis  – was a United States financial crisis that took place over a three-week period starting in mid-October, when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% from its peak the previous year.

The 1907 panic began with a stock manipulation scheme to corner the market in F. Augustus Heinze's United Copper Company. Heinze had made a fortune as a copper magnate in Butte, Montana. In 1906 he moved to New York City, where he formed a close relationship with notorious Wall Street banker Charles W. Morse. Morse had once successfully cornered New York City's ice market.

The ice market! Cornered!

Translation: they're a FRONT! Maybe. The Commodore backed them, that's for sure. More on that in a second. From their wikipedia bio:

Woodhull and Claflin had hit upon an untapped source of investment capital. Society wives and widows, teachers, small-business owners, actresses, and high-priced prostitutes and their madams sought out Woodhull, Claflin, & Company and the firm was an immediate financial triumph.

High-priced call girls in New York City in 1870? Why i never

With the profits from their brokerage, the sisters started their own radical newspaper, Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly.  Woodhull and Claflin used their newspaper to advocate for Free Love, a movement which in the nineteenth century pushed to separate sex from marriage.  The Free Love movement was considered very fringe at this time and their advocacy of the movement shocked many.

Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly was also the first paper in America to print ''The Communist Manifesto.''

Yeah, well, to hell with them, then. Yay for the whole suffregette business, but ixnay on the Red thing.

As for the Commodore:

The sisters left New York for London in 1877. ] Evidence suggests that the sisters' move may have been funded by the heirs of the recently deceased Cornelius Vanderbilt who wanted the sisters indisposed during the fight over the family's inheritance. Cornelius Vanderbilt had been widowed in 1868 and remarried in 1869. The second marriage had surprised Tennessee who expected to marry Cornelius herself. 

More on her sister here. Fascinating stories.

Oh, the hotel? Right. The Hoffman House in the ad was the final version, cobbled together over the years by tearing down the old part and building something bigger and more modern. Alas, this last expansion doomed the hotel: the Financial Panic of 1907 hit while it was closed for remodeling, and it opened in the hole. Went bust in 1910, limped along, and closed for good - a relic of the Gilded Age - in 1915.

Quick - before some buys it! Take a look!

Smug little sort, ain’t he?

As for his office: Okay - what was it . . .

. . . and what happened?

The whole neighborhood is gone.

The Switzerland of America! Whip your weak-willed whelp into a MAN:

Wikipedia:

The campus was originally located in a small building, which no longer exists, on College Street in Sweetwater. Bachman remained president until 1902, when he was replaced by Col. O. C. Hulvey.

The name of the school was changed to Tennessee Military Institute in 1909. It was known by this name for most of its life. Due to the "TMI" acronym, it was often jokingly referred to as "Ten Million Idiots" by locals and students alike.

The campus is vacant today, awaiting a new purpose.

Did you know that Vaseline once came in so many . . . well, flavors probably isn’t the word.

Rod Wax of the finest kind.