The greatest number of independent businesswomen in the Adirondacks owned or operated lodgings. What started out as an opportunity to add a few extra dollars to the farm income often grew into a principal source of livelihood. Visitors in the Adirondacks could stay at a farmhouse to pick berries with the farm wife and hunt with the farmer, or they could stay at a hotel such as the Loon Lake House with full-time guides and parlor entertainments.

Women who ran smaller establishments needed the skills of keeping house for a large family; those who ran hotels became business managers as well. When Mary H.H. Chase and her husband Ferd opened "Hunter's Home" on Loon Lake in 1879 they catered to a handful of hunters and fishermen. By the turn of the century "The Mrs." had taken over the management of their business, which had grown into the mammoth Loon Lake House, serving 1,000 guests at mealtimes.