When the current Battle House Hotel was completed in November of 1908, newspaper accounts described a “Magnificent Convention Hall, as big as a small theater, seating 800” on the seventh and eighth floors. The hotel also claimed that “it is so ventilated that the temperature there in the middle of summer is not over 70 degrees,” and it could accommodate up to 1,200 people.
The long room extended east-west on that level and featured polished maple floors and a “roomy gallery” at its western end. It was designed for “balls, dinners and business or political meetings” and had design elements reminiscent of the lobby below.
The hall had an adjoining kitchen described as “well-ventilated” with serving and stock rooms. And further south on this floor was a huge commercial laundry described as having concrete floors, walls and ceiling to assure a fireproof space…