palmer house, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

palmer house v.

[the walking done by the hard-working waiters of Chicago’s Palmer House Hotel]

(US black) to walk flat-footed; thus palmer houses, flat feet.

1942

Z.N. Hurston ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in Novels and Stories (1995) 1009: Palmer House: walking flat-footed.