The Lincolns stayed in the Astor House in NYC during the inaugural journey. So I shall guess the Astor House.

Hotel is correct, Roger, but not the Astor.

How about the Fifth Avenue Hotel where Mary Lincoln stayed?

Mary is hot, but still not the correct place.

Perhaps the Metropolitan?

What about the hotel where she stayed during the clothing sale "scandal?" Was it the St. Denis?

There are current plans to demolish what remains of the St. Denis

Kudos, Laurie, that is correct. I found the image here - the article is entertaining and well worth reading:
http://americanpast.blogspot.com/2013/04...3.html?m=1
This is a nowadays photo of the hotel:
   
https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2...k-in-1867/
Laurie, you win a trip to the original St. Denis, which actually means a trip to Paris:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Saint-Denis

(02-02-2019 04:50 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Kudos, Laurie, that is correct. I found the image here - the article is entertaining and well worth reading:
http://americanpast.blogspot.com/2013/04...3.html?m=1
This is a nowadays photo of the hotel:

https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2...k-in-1867/
Laurie, you win a trip to the original St. Denis, which actually means a trip to Paris:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Saint-Denis

That works for me. My last trip to Paris was in 1971.

The history of the Basilica is amazing!

As is the list of VIP burials!

Let's try this one without Googling: What film was the highest grossing of the silent film era? What book was it based on? Who authored the book?

I'll guess "Birth of a Nation", but I can't say what book it was based on.

Yankee - .5
Laurie - 0

Birth of a Nation was based on the novel The Clansman by Thomas Dixon.

I agree with Joe and Steve...Birth of a Nation seems like the logical answer. But maybe Laurie asked this because the answer is not the logical one; so I will say Ben-Hur based on the book by Lew Wallace who was on the 1865 military commission that tried the Lincoln conspirators.

The New Jersey Yankee gets .5 for correctly answering "Birth of a Nation" as the highest grossing film. Southern me is outnumbered, because a Pennsylvania Yankee earned the other .5 for completing the question with "The Clansman" and Thomas Dixon.

Dixon wrote a number of things that are probably totally banned today. He put the capital letters in "racism" during a time when American society was more than ready to read his work in order to reinforce their attitudes on the situation.