Wiggins Old Tavern

Wiggins Old Tavern is located in the Hotel Northampton in Northampton, Massachusetts.  Although I have never had the opportunity to eat here, the Dalai Lama did, as did Richard Nixon, David Bowie, and Eleanor Roosevelt.  The hotel and tavern are still open if you think you might want to visit.

Havana, Cuba

I've always wanted to visit Cuba, and hope to do so before it changes too drastically.  I imagine it to look similar to this 1949 postcard, though I'm sure there aren's so many commercial signs. The cars may look similar though, since Cuba still has many vintage cars in working condition. The Saratoga Hotel, dating back to 1879, is still open for business and looks like an elegant place to stay.

Here's another card that shows an earlier view, but the postcard itself wasn't sent until 1954. Note that the card was published by the Roberts Tobacco Co. of Havana. I like how the Asturiano Club Building extends into the white border of the postcard.

Here are the backs of the cards in the same order.

Hotel Plaza - Laredo, Texas

Here's Laredo's famous Hotel Plaza with its Spanish Grill. The hotel doesn't seem to be there anymore.

 The message on the card, sent to Miss Rosalie Newcomb of San Antonio in 1943, reads:

Dear Roesel: This is where we are - bridal suite. It's raining cats outside. Say "hello" to Flo.

Love, Annette

Tram Tuesday - San Francisco at Night

Looking at this postcard, you might think this is a cable car rather than a streetcar, but it's hard to tell since any overhead wires are invisible. It's even hard to read the printing at the top: Market Street and Palace Hotel at Night. San Francisco, California. 

There were cable cars on Market Street until the 1906 earthquake and fire; after that, there were streetcars. This card was sent in 1912, and the picture shows the new Palace Hotel, built in 1909. The original 1887 Palace Hotel was destroyed by a fire following the earthquake. That means these would be the new trolley cars not cable cars.

This reminds me of that wonderful film footage of a trip down Market Street on a cable car, just days before the earthquake. In case you haven't seen it, it's a great ride.




And here are some pictures of the original Palace Hotel and the new Palace Hotel.

Here's the back of the first card, sent to Jack Keegan in Portland, Oregon.:


Frisco 11/3 -12

Dear Jack

Regards to you and yours from me and mine. Best remembrances to "Chubby" and rest of bunch. always be sure your eggs are hard boiled. Tell C. Johnson that the D. & R. G. have grand offices in Frisco. The cubs (?) at Garibaldi Hall were asking for you

TIP

(Note: I think the D. & R. G. refers to the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad)

Augusta, Georgia

This is how Augusta, Georgia looked in the 1920s.

And here's an aerial view from around the same time. If you look closely, you can see the memorial in the middle of Broad Street.

If you were visiting Augusta back then, you might have stayed at the elegant Bon Air Hotel. The hotel was built in 1899 and burned down in 1921. This card shows the rebuilt structure of 1924. The hotel attracted northerners looking for some sunshine and warmth in the winter months. It was an elegant getaway, attracting famous people such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Winston Churchill.  It was also the place you would go if you were attending the Masters' Golf Tournament, at least in the early days. In 1970, the Bon Air Hotel sued Time Magazine for reporting that the hotel had declined into dishevelment.

Over the years it lost its appeal and became a retirement community. Now it serves as government subsidized apartments for seniors and people with disabilities. 

In 2011, the Augusta Chronicle reported that a young man was shot there in what was believed to be a drug turf dispute. The arrested man also lived in the facility with his mother.

For more old postcard views of Augusta, be sure to look at Picturing Augusta, which features historic postcards from the collection of the East Central Georgia Library.

Perkins Hotel - Portland, Oregon

There were a number of elegant hotels in Portland at the turn of the century, catering to wealth visitors. The Perkins Hotel stands out from the other hotels though. Richard Perkins was a cattle driver and owed his success to driving cattle from the Willamette Valley to Idaho. He was a native of Bristol, England, the son of a wholesale cattle dealer and butcher. When Richard Perkins built the  six-story Perkins Hotel on the NE corner of 5th and Washington streets in Portland in 1891, he honored his roots as a cattleman by placing a golden steer on the exterior above the top floor. The hotel catered to visiting cattlemen and served steaks in its restaurant across the street, but it also attracted politicians and actresses such as Sarah Bernhardt.

Mr. Perkins had financial trouble in the following years and had to sell the hotel.  The hotel was redecorated and re-opened by its new owners without the golden steer in 1908. However, when A. Everett Meyers leased the hotel in 1924, he returned the steer to its alcove. It remained there until 1957. At that point the hotel had been declared a fire hazard and the top floors were closed. The entire building was demolished in 1962. The golden steer is now stored (though not on display) at the Oregon Historical Society.

I love the message on the front of this card sent to Mrs. E. Thrall of Albany, Oregon in 1907:

Dear Mamma - All we girls are up on Council Crest. How are you? (???? T.)

At the time, Council Crest was the site of an amusement park. I'll post a card of that one of these days too.

For more on the Perkins Hotel and history of Portland, visit Vintage Portland.

Hotel Gregorian

Here's the excerpt from the previous post on the Hotel Gregorian:
In April 1906, The Montreal Gazette described the Hotel Gregorian as being among those 'realizing the highest ideals of the best homes with an atmosphere of refinement and well ordered ease'. The hotel is still there and is now operated as the Comfort Inn Manhattan Hotel.
This card was sent in November 1939 to Jean Weaver from her mother. Both this message and the one on the previous Hotel Gregorian card are puzzling and mysterious.

I am very curious as to what Mom was up to. She requests that her daughter fill out mail-forwarding requests for two different addresses. Both of these addresses and her daughter's address in Hyde Park, are within blocks of each other. Here's the back of the card.

The message reads:

Dear Sis: Please put pink card forwarding address thru for me at once. Former Chi. addresses

6230 Kimbark

6207 Kenwood

Will write you all as soon as get a machine. Love to all Mom.

I'm at the Imperial Hotel. Where are You?

The architect who steals my covers recently returned from the annual Frank Lloyd Wright conference with this piece of memorabilia.

 

I'm re-posting the card from a previous post that shows the hotel itself, along with the background information.

At the turn of the century, there was an increased demand for rooms for foreign visitors to Japan. In order to meet that demand, a directive was issued to build the Imperial Hotel. Frank Lloyd Wright was hired for the project in 1916. He designed just about every aspect of the hotel, including doorknobs and carpets.

According to the architect who steals my covers, these are some of the significant aspects of the hotel:

1. The job was an important one for Wright because he had no work at the time. He was still recovering from the murder of his mistress Mamah Borthwick-Cheney, who had been hacked to death with a hatchet along with her two children at Wright's house at Taliesin. The murder was committed by one of Wright's servants, who had just served them lunch moments before. After that, the servant also burned down Wright's precious Taliesin house. Frank Lloyd Wright was at his office in Chicago at the time. The scandal of the affair with Borthwick-Cheney and her subsequent murder diminished Wright's appeal to prospective clients.
2.  The Imperial Hotel managed to withstand the great Kanto earthquake in 1923, which destroyed just about every other building in the vicinity.
   
3. The hotel was demolished in 1967 because the property values were so high that a two-story building simply didn't make financial sense. The center part of the building was preserved and reconstructed at the Meiji Mura Museum, an outdoor architectural museum in Inuyama.

Hotel Gregorian to the Sanitarium

In April 1906, The Montreal Gazette described the Hotel Gregorian as being among those 'realizing the highest ideals of the best homes with an atmosphere of refinement and well ordered ease'. The hotel is still there and is now operated as the Comfort Inn Manhattan Hotel.

Here's the back of the card.

The message on the card addressed to Mrs. Louise Perry at Dr. Sahler's Sanitarium reads:

I expect to be at the Sanitarium next Sunday and shall be so glad to see you. Please tell Myra Powers I am coming

cordially  E. Hathaway

The story of Dr. Sahler's Sanitarium is probably more interesting than the postcard itself. Dr. Sahler, who was educated at Columbia, was also an expert in the occult. An advertisement in a 1901 edition of the Metaphysical Magazine: a monthly review of the occult sciences, included this clip on the sanitarium:

 

Dr. Sahler also received a glowing assessment in the Phrenological Journal and Science of Health, volume 109, 1900. Phrenology, according to Wikipedia, "is a pseudoscience primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules." Phrenologists would measure the skull and feel the bumps in the skull to assess personality traits.

Dr. Sahler also worked with mediums and auras, as reported in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research (1909). Here's an excerpt:

I only wish that Louise Perry could tell us about her experiences at the Sanitarium.

Hotel Times Square

I guess that Hotel Times Square has a better ring to it than Hotel Claman, but it's not nearly as distinctive. I appreciate that the sender of this card marked the room where he stayed though.

This was a new hotel when the sender stayed here in 1925, but years later it became a welfare hotel. In 1922, The New York Times reported that the hotel was to be built at a cost of $1,500,000 and would provide accommodations for 'men only' for a proposed price of $9-$14 per week.  It is currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is rented as efficiency apartments, but for a lot more than $9-$14 per week.

I wonder if the recipient of the card, Frank Yates, was the famous sculler from Cornell.

The message reads:
Hello Dick, Am spending a couple of Red Hot weeks down here making some water grant surveys. made one at Poughkeepsie last week + have some on L. I this week. took a boat trip down to Atlantic Highlands N.J. today trying to cool off but didn't have any chills on the water. This is the hotel where I am staying + have fine accommodations. Regards to the boys HSB (?)

The Broadway Central Hotel

Here it is - the only medium-priced hotel on Broadway. Only $1.00 per night for the European Plan and $2.50 per night for the American Plan. What's the difference? Well, the European Plan includes accommodations only, and the American Plan includes three meals per day. I'll take the European Plan, thank you. It's hard to imagine having enough time to explore the city if you always have to be back at the hotel for lunch and dinner.

This hotel, located at 673 Broadway, was originally known as the Grand Central Hotel. With 630 rooms, it was considered huge at the time. The Broadway Central, designed by Henry Engelbert, was opened in 1870.  An enormous sum was spent on luxurious furniture, carpets, and furnishings.

Over the years, the flavor of the hotel changed. In the 1950s, Bill Haley and the Comets played there nightly, and by the 1970s it had become a welfare hotel, charging $5 per night. By then, the building, plagued with rats, prostitutes, and garbage, was considered a public nuisance.  Illegal alterations probably led to the 1973 collapse of the hotel, which killed four residents. Check out Tom Miller's blog for more information on the history of the hotel.

Sadly, this postcard was never sent. I love reading the messages on these old cards, especially if they say what they did during the day and mark the window of the room they stayed in. No such luck this time.

Hendersonville, North Carolina

Here are some views from a postcard folder of Hendersonville, North Carolina. No hurricanes in sight, but I'm not sure I like they way FDR is looking at those young women.

The historic Skyland Hotel is still standing, but it's now condos/apartments. You can rent one for about $500 per month. Here's a description of Hendersonville. It may be a little dated, but I love that they use the word salubrious in the text. How often does anyone say salubrious anymore?

Keokuk, Iowa

Here are some views from a postcard folder of Keokuk, Iowa. Today the town has a population of about 10,400, with lots of historic buildings and attractions.

Here's a view of Main Street, which looks very much the same today, except for the cars.

And here's a great view of the generator room at the power plant.

Here's a view of the Union Depot in better days. It's still standing, but has fallen into disrepair. The City of Keokuk bought the building in 2010 for $1 so they could add it to the National Historic Register, making it eligible for federal preservation grants.

The Hotel Iowa, built in 1913, is also still standing and was renovated in 2006.

Broadway - Portland, Oregon

This section of Broadway in Portland has never been my favorite.  It seems stark and traffic oriented, although it looks a little more appealing in this early 1900s view. On the left, you see the Hotel Oregon, which no longer exists. An annex was built onto the Hotel Oregon in 1913, and was initially called the New Oregon Hotel and later the Benson Hotel. In 1959, the original Hotel Oregon was demolished to make way for a new addition to the Benson Hotel.

At the time this postcard was printed, the U.S. National Bank Building (below on the right) had not yet been built.  It was completed in 1917,with major additions in 1925. A.E. Doyle, the building's architect, was a devoted classicist who also designed Portland's Central Public Library, the Meier & Frank Building, the Lipman Building, the original Reed College buildings, and the Benson Hotel.
Here's the modern view:

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And here's the back of the card, with a message to Viola in Grant's Pass, Oregon that reads:

Dear Viola

Thanks for the seeds. I shall look patiently for the pretty flowers. I do think Asters are such choice flowers. Haven't heard from your mother since she left guess she is having the time of her life. I guess Vada is pretty well considering.  _______will have another job with time. Celia

Hotel Weyanoke - Farmville, Virginia

I have a postcard and stationery from the 'best hotel within 50 miles' in Farmville, Virginia. It doesn't seem to exist anymore, but I don't think it burned down...because it was advertised as fireproof.

Watch Gadaffi

You probably won't be visiting Libya right now, which means you won't be picking up any of these fine Muammar Gadaffi souvenirs. I didn't go either, but my mother did and brought back these gems -a watch and a keychain. Let me just say that the wristwatch NEVER worked - not Mom's fault.  I'm not about to take it back to Libya and ask for a replacement.

This may not be the ideal time to visit Iran either, and the hotel doesn't look so great for that matter, but at least you'll have a place to stay...if the hotel's still there.

Great Wall Architecture

Trying to be helpful, I suggested that the architect who steals my covers might want to emulate these fine examples. It seems he's a little stubborn and not open to new ideas.

Amazingly, the Great Wall is still standing.  It looks much the same in the street view, but it was closed in 2010.  Here's a link to the street view and to a photo on Flickr with commentary on the restaurant.

I think it's fair to say that the Sands is in a separate category from the other two. I'm adding some extra information, inspired by Howard's question in the comments below.
The Sands was designed by Architect Wayne McAllister and built in 1952.  In its heyday, it was the place to be.  It was the place where Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.,  Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford first appeared on stage together.  At one point,  the Sands was owned by Howard Hughes.  By 1996, despite the addition of a large tower, it had lost its appeal and was imploded and demolished.  The Venetian was built in the same location after the Sands was demolished. It looks like this now. Makes the Sands look kind of quaint in comparison.

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Here are the backs of these cards, in case you want to go see them in person.