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History column: ‘Good to the last drop’ not presidential, just savvy marketing

"More than a century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt paid a visit to Nashville that is best remembered for a cup of coffee he drank and something people think he said but probably didn’t say."

"The story starts in the 1850s, when John Overton financed a five-story, 240-room hotel in Nashville. The Maxwell House, as it was called, was arguably the finest hostelry outside New York and Chicago. The lobby was decorated with massive chandeliers, the finest marble and beautiful artwork."

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"On Oct. 21, 1907, President Roosevelt came to Nashville, mainly to visit Andrew Jackson’s former home and pledge federal support to its restoration. While touring The Hermitage, Roosevelt said he was impressed with everything that he saw. Then, as he was entering the dining room, he asked for a cup of coffee."

“I must have the privilege of saying that I have eaten at Gen. Jackson’s table,” the Nashville Banner, a newspaper, quoted him as saying.

"The president was handed a cup and saucer, and he sipped it. 'This is the kind of stuff I like to drink, by George, when I hunt bears,' he said, according to the Banner article."

"The article didn’t say what brand of coffee Roosevelt had tasted. But in newspaper advertisements that ran immediately after Roosevelt’s visit, two companies claimed that he had been sipping their coffee. H.G. Hill claimed he had been sipping Fit for a King coffee. Cheek-Neal claimed that the president had been drinking Maxwell House." READ MORE
 
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