Arago: Hotel Room Key Tokens

Owney received this hotel check key from the “Trainman’s House” in New Haven, Connecticut. A number of railway companies, including the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, owned hotels along their rail lines. The title indicates that this particular hotel was intended primarily for the company’s railway employees, as well as the Railway Mail Service postal clerks who were also working the trains that passed through. The token was manufactured by Hoole Manufacturing Company of New York. Edmund Hoole had a small manufacturing company that produced baggage and key check tokens. In 1893 his company was purchased by the American Railway Supply Company.