Manufacturer: Bauscher Brothers
User: Whitcomb House
Date of matchstand: 1903 or 1905

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Notes: After Alonzo G. Whitcomb's lease on the National Hotel in Rochester, New York expired in 1872, he secured financing to build a new hotel on Main Street across from the Osburn Hotel. Initially named the New England House, it attracted so many patrons that Whitcomb added the third and fourth floors in 1878 and renamed it the Whitcomb House.

After A. G. Whitcomb died in 1880, his widow continued the hotel business with her son-in-law James Downes as partner. A decade later, they acquired the adjoining property at the corner of Maine and Clinton, practically doubling the hotel capacity to 200 rooms. The hotel advertised then as being "Conveniently located to shopping and Theatrical District."

Prominent hotelier John E. Boldt later purchased the hotel, but passed away in 1906 at the age of 50. At the time of his death, he was also proprietor of the Broezel Hotel.

After Boldt's passing, W. E. Wood was the proprietor of the hotel in 1910 and it was managed by Thomas C. Riley from 1911 to 1922. The Whitcomb House was not listed in the 1925 Hotel Red Book Directory.

By the 1930s, the Odenbach Company absorbed the Whitcomb House, opening Odenbach's Peacock Room — a popular place for big bands and other famous orchestras, bands and singers of the era.

By 1947, Odenbach's had closed and the hotel structure at East Main and Clinton was razed to make way for new commercial structures.

Sources:
Rochester History, Edited by Blake McKelvey, City Historian, Vol. 31, October 1969, No. 4.
Hotel Red Books

White body matchstand with brown lettering and brown floral swag border with bows. This pattern reflects the era when John E. Boldt was the proprietor. The topmark logo consists of two stallion horses flanking the sides of a stars and stripes shield with a spread-winged eagle on top of the shield. The banner beneath the shield reads "Whitcomb House, Rochester." The words "Whitcomb House, John E. Boldt" appear above the shield with the words "Rochester, NY" beneath the shield & banner.

ID, match stand photos and postcard image contributed by dbstoneware
Add'l ID information and unmarked egg cup photos contributed by Union Depot Hotel