Why are they: Pins from the Hotel Dixie in NY

[paulb104]

These are nine pins from the Hotel Dixie in NY.

That hotel is now the Hotel Carter. Dixie opened in 1930.

Two interesting facts about this place. The Hotel Carter is one of the Nation's Dirtiest Hotels.

There is a bus depot inside the hotel. See what's left of that here
The 1930s Bus Station Hidden In A Times Square Hotel | Scouting NY

Anyway, the pins are standard 1.5" celluloid. There's no writing anywhere, or any kind of markings.

Any ideas why these pins might have been made?

 

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[Theakiki]

I could only make guesses about those pins, but that's a cool article about the bus depot!

 

[paulb104]

I could only make guesses about those pins, but that's a cool article about the bus depot!

I thought so too, which is why I shared it

 

[DCMatt]

I'm guessing coat check pins.


Hotel coat check girl - 1935.

 

[bradyboy]

great guess

 

[paulb104]

I'm guessing coat check pins.

I'm not feeling it. I've seen paper, brass and steel coat check tags, and fobs, but I've never seen a pin.

 

[paulb104]

You know, I've had these pins on my desk for about four years. I've known their real estate history from the first day.

I never made this connection...

Hotel Dixie became Hotel Carter...

 

[Terry Soloman]

I'm not feeling it. I've seen paper, brass and steel coat check tags, and fobs, but I've never seen a pin.

Most likely they are hotel laundry pins, placed on the bag from the room.

 

[paulb104]

I found Urban Remains Chicago | reclaimed and recycled american antique architectural artifacts and other oddities, and I emailed them and asked their opinion.

 

[paulb104]

Most likely they are hotel laundry pins, placed on the bag from the room.

They seem too flimsy for laundry pins. Usually they are more like jumbo safety pins.

 

[Bramblefind]

Here are some other pins with numbers and proprietor type names - the baseball team pins with numbers are said to be for different stadium employees.

Maybe these pins were meant to be worn by certain hotel staff so that guests could identify them by number?

Vintage Century Cabin Camps Inc Numbered Pinback Button Badge | eBay


4 Antique Vintage Grand Trunk Railway Railroad Employee Numbered Pinback Button | What's it worth


https://baseballpinbackbuttons.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/baseball-pins-worn-by-stadium-employees/

 

[cw0909]

was thinking the same , Employee Number

 

[paulb104]

Here are some other pins with numbers and proprietor type names - the baseball team pins with numbers are said to be for different stadium employees.

Maybe these pins were meant to be worn by certain hotel staff so that guests could identify them by number?

Vintage Century Cabin Camps Inc Numbered Pinback Button Badge | eBay


4 Antique Vintage Grand Trunk Railway Railroad Employee Numbered Pinback Button | What's it worth


https://baseballpinbackbuttons.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/baseball-pins-worn-by-stadium-employees/

interesting!

 

[cw0909]

paulb, have you gone through your FnL, files paper work
seems he would have kept a recorded of his antiques and
collectibles for insurance

 

[paulb104]

paulb, have you gone through your FnL, files paper work
seems he would have kept a recorded of his antiques and
collectibles for insurance

FnL?

There is no paperwork. No records. No inventory. No insurance. No cohesion. He would go to a show as a patron with things in his pocket from his collection to sell. Then at the show he'd buy things and then at the same show he'd sell the things that he just bought (at a significant profit). He's also sell some of the things that he'd brought with him, as well as buy things to keep. Then he'd put everything in the same bag on the way home and he'd "get to it eventually" to sort it out.

All we have is an unimaginably large, diverse, weird, collection.

 

[cw0909]

FnL?... father in law

maybe he talked with his collector friends about some of his collection/s

 

[paulb104]

Everything was in his head. He could tell you, with clarity, with just about every item, where and when he bought it, what he paid, what he thought it was worth it at the time, what it was priced at originally, what he and the dealer talked about while he haggled the price down. For forty years worth of stuff.

Friends wouldn't know about little things, and most wouldn't know about the big stuff either. There was just so much stuff.