Hotels and motels have long competed for customers on the comfort and amenities of their rooms. Long before cable, Wi-Fi, coffeemakers and hair dryers entered the picture, more basic things were offered as lures. This month in 1829, the 170-room Tremont hotel in Boston became the first in young America to be considered a modern, first-class lodging. It was distinguished by the availability of single rooms, with keys for the guests, and plumbing in the basement bathrooms. Uniquely, the Tremont was gas-lit, and provided washbowls, pitchers and bars of soap in each room. Today, there are nearly 50,000 hotels and motels across the country, providing free guest soap as a most trifling amenity. You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey, at www.census.gov.