Old Hotels

Interestingly, the Redmont Hotel in Birmingham is still around and is/was scheduled for renovation in 2014:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redmont_Hotel

Information on the history of the former Broadway Central Hotel in New York City, include its notoriety and demise can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Central_Hotel

Portland's Congress Square has been the subject of a broad & energetic re-development debate.

One interesting part of the history of the Congress Square Hotel (note the initials) was as the home of WCSH radio and, later WCSH-TV.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WCSH

The hotel was built in 1896; this postcard was postmarked some twenty years later.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The President Hotel in Kansas City MO

This card is one odd duck; consider:

- the name of the hotel does not appear, in text, on the image/art side of the card (especially odd, as the name of the hotel is barely visible on the building);

- its very famous lounge, The Drum Room, is not mentioned in the caption on the address side of the card;

- the artist did not capture (or add) any vehicles.

Looking at the many hotel postcards in this thread, I'm thinking that an intermediary drawing, not the final proof, went to press.

Q/ Whaddayathink?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey







http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_President

http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/mi...F/index.html current website

It appears to be an artist's rendition of the hotel. It's also got a noticeable color misregistration ... just look at the flag on top of the building!

The well-column'd, well-portico'd Hotel Saint Anne in New Bern NC USA.

Lotsa shady spots for that mint julep, honey-child.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The Monticello, of Norfolk, Va., appearing on Page 1 of this thread, was, of course, the site of one of the greatest philatelic thefts of all time - the McCoy block of inverted Jennys.

I don't collect postcards, per-se, but I thought I had quite a few of hotels. Turns out I could only find two!

Here is one of the Ocean Park Hotel in Old Orchard, Maine:






...and here is a German one, which I assume has a little more historical significance:






Al

Here's a newspaper photo of the demise of the old Ocean Park Hotel in Maine:



Interestingly, the Ocean Park, ME postmark shown was from the post office which, at the time, was located right in the Ocean Park Hotel!

The Baltimore Hotel in Kansas City MO.

Funny how many cities have hotels named after other cities. They don't do that with train terminals, airports, sports stadiums, ciy parks, colleges & universities ... only hotels. Anybody know why?

I gifted this one to a pal (well, a palette) living in KC.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey







Of the Hall Bros, the Metropolitan Postcard Club database reports:

After some success in selling packets of postcards in 1910 Joyce Clyde Hall set up his own distribution business the following year. By 1912 his brother Rollie joined him and they began printing greeting cards as they saw the postcard market failing. All their inventory was lost to a fire in 1915 but they recovered and continued publishing. In 1917 they invented gift wrapping and they became the first company to advertise cards on a national basis. These innovations helped them capture half of the greeting card market. They changed the Company name to Hallmark in 1928. Even though their focus was on folded greetings they continued to publish sets of souvenir cards.

In the case of the Baltimore Hotel in Kansas City, it was so named because it was on Baltimore Avenue. So the question comes down to how Baltimore Avenue in Kansas City got its name.

This quote was taken from a history of Kansas City:



Incidentally, the Baltimore Hotel was built in 1899 but went into bankruptcy during the Great Depression and was razed in 1939 to make into a surface parking lot.

The 30-story City Center Square was completed on the site in 1978.

Thank you, wt1.

But the hotel being named after the street only begs the question: "Why was the street ..."

My error is in asking 'why Baltimore', when the honor being extended was to many other cities, and not specific to Baltimore. Fair enough, but when a city names its streets after other cities, what is it doing? Is this aspirational? Does it 'join the club' of those other cities? Why do some cities do this, and others, not? Do cities in other countries name streets after each other?

There are streets in Jerusalem named after some other local cities - Yafo/Jaffa, Schehem/Nablus, Hebron - but those streets lead/led to those cities, so they are more directional than deferential.

During first dates, awkward social pauses, and those moments when I am desperately trying to sound interested/interesting, I shall ask strangers "Did you ever live in a town that names its streets after other towns?" and see what the cat drags in.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I don't think there's any cut-and-dry answer. I can't speak for other countries or all communities in the US, but in general it all is dependent upon the city or town administrators who laid out the street pattern. Sometimes they are named after famous people. Sometimes after the not-so-famous, but involve family names of those who originally settled there. Sometimes after the previous locations where some of the people settled from. Some even after railroads and their stations, etc. There's really no definitive answer.

As a resident of Massachusetts, I do postal history research on discontinued post offices from my State -- some names of which I never even heard of. This research has often proven to be quite interesting as to how some towns got their name.

For example, here's a postmark from a discontinued post office formerly known as Norwich (Hampshire County), Massachusetts (DPO 1882-1909):



In New England, the first "Norwich" that comes to mind is Norwich, Connecticut. Well, historical research has revealed that the reason Norwich, Massachusetts got its name is because a majority of people who settled there originally came from Norwich, Connecticut.

Fast forward to the present day and the area is now known as Huntington, Massachusetts. Wiki has indicated that Huntington was named after Charles Huntington, an attorney who was instrumental in merging several rival towns into the present Huntington.

Similar examples can be found about many towns and, to a lesser extent, the street names within these towns. Often some research will reveal that many locations or street names have some local connection with those who originally settled there.

Apropos stampfan9's earlier post on a wigwam village ...

https://goscf.com/t/33043&whichpage=3#326176

... here's an earlier card from a sister village.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The Danmoore Hotel in Portand OR was quite the destination in its day ... in fact, it was quite the destination after its day ... or, if you prefer, it had yet another day after it had its day.

The postcard designer made some interesting choices.

One was the signage, which was probably not positioned quite as drawn, on a building that did probably not loom that large.

Another was that church which, at first, looks like it also looms too large; but if the hotel was really only 3 stories, maybe the church steeple was really that tall?

Sometimes, these distortions are awful, or pandering, or amateurish but, in this case, I think they work, and make a better postcard.

I read the production date as 1940.

I chased a few links, and found a lot of story in this guy's photo stream:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/98071...photostream/ 'my' postcard of the Danmoore Hotel, with a 2-story building.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/98071...photostream/ the 'other' postcard of the Danmoore Hotel, with a 3-story building.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/98071...photostream/ & https://www.flickr.com/photos/98071...photostream/ More photos that match 'my' postcard, and include a bit of the church. But keep on clicking ...

===

http://pdxbuildingads.blogspot.com/...e-hotel.html explains:

Danmoore Hotel, 1912 (west half), 1924 (east half)

The Danmoore Hotel at SW 12th and Morrison was built in two stages. The top two photos show the "FREE GARAGE - HOTEL" sign on the newer eastern half of the building and the completed hotel. When that part of the building was demolished in 2005 (lower photo), it exposed the original outer wall of the older west end; "HOTEL" and "ON THE CORNER" signs are clearly visible.

The Danmoore came down in 2005 to make way for the First Presbyterian Church's garden and underground parking garage.

===

http://www.art.com/products/p107957...d-oregon.htm offers 'art' prints of 'my' postcard for U$D 25-260.

http://www.amazon.com/Danmoore-Port...p/B00PCNLB5I CardCow lists 'my' postcard on Amazon for only U$D 34 + shipping; personally, I hope they get it ;)

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey