As Houghton grew into the center of the region's major transportation routes, it served a transient population of mining men, salesmen, and newly arrived immigrants, creating strong demand for food, shelter, and entertainment. In its early years, many newcomers without steady income or established homes relied on temporary lodging, whether boarding with families or renting rooms in Keweenaw villages and towns. By 1902, Houghton had at least 22 hotels and boarding houses, including the Houghton House at Shelden and Huron Streets, where William Allen offered daily and weekly boarding, barn space for wagons, carriages, and horse teams, and a saloon serving wines, liquors, beers, and cigars. Other hotels such as the Germania and Torino likely appealed to European immigrants. Over time, hotels increasingly served businessmen and traveling salesmen, with Miller's Hotel and the Douglass House Hotel offering more upscale accommodations on Shelden Avenue. Built in 1867, Miller's operated under several names for more than 100 years and, at four stories with a distinctive tower, stood as early Houghton's tallest building. The Douglass House began as an 1861 wood-frame hotel along Isle Royale Street near Montezuma Street, with a veranda and terraced lawn descending toward Shelden Avenue businesses, and in 1902 it was replaced by a larger brick and terra cotta building with retail storefronts, a telegraph office, a jewelry store, a ground-floor saloon, and a dining parlor. Hotels commonly shared space with other amusements for this mobile population, including saloons, restaurants, billiard halls, and even a five-lane basement bowling alley in the Hotel Dee, built on Shelden Avenue in 1900. Houghton's saloon trade also prospered, ranging from simple bars focused on drink and gambling to more elaborate places such as the Board of Trade bar on Isle Royale Street, which advertised a palm garden cafe, private dining rooms, and ornate furnishings. In 1909, a county directory listed nearly 40 saloons in the village, 27 of them on Shelden Avenue.