Indy Hotel Capacity - 1909

This is an interesting attached article from the August 7, 1909, Indianapolis News forecasting the level of spectator and industry interest in the first auto race meet of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway based on hotel reservations for the scheduled days of August 19, 20, and 21. In a reference point that is instructive to the development of the Hoosier capital at that time, a total of 800 reserved rooms for those dates at the time of the attached article's publication was considered impressive.
 
The Chicago Automobile Association was in the process of organizing a 300-mile touring ride of 100-plus cars carrying up to 500 people to Indianapolis. The plan was to leave the Windy City on August 18. Heading that delegation was C.H. Tyler, a club officer. He had placed a reservation of 200 rooms with a Mr. Holt, the manager of the Denison Hotel at the time. The Denison was serving as the headquarters for the race sanctioning group, the Federation of American Motorcyclists (FAM). The report indicates that this was one of the largest single reservations made at an Indianapolis hotel up to that time.
 
The article notes that one of the Chicago Automobile Association members, Robert Drach, who managed Chicago's American Roadster dealerships, planned to drive in the races at the Speedway. Most notably, he planned to drive an American Speedster in the Wheeler-Schebler Trophy.
 
The Stoddard-Dayton Company reportedly had reserved an entire floor - 50 rooms - at the Denison. The company had 10 cars entered in the Speedway events. This brought reservations at the Denison up to 310 rooms.
 
At the Claypool Hotel, managers there shared that over 200 rooms had been reserved. This article indicates that other Indianapolis hotels were reporting similar levels of capacity use.