I decided to get rid of all the “tablescapes” and family photos and random stuff on every table in the house so first I cleared off the dining room table…
and then cleared everything off the little tables and bookshelves etc…
resulting in this!
Which, though a mess, did reveal a few hidden gems…
a matchbook from Hayes INC. Restaurant and Barbecue, North Avenue at Harlem, River Grove, Illinois…”We are open 7000 hours a year to serve you”
and this matchbook for the Edgewater Beach Hotel. This hotel was an elegant 1920’s landmark of my childhood…when driving south from the North Shore to the city (Chicago) you spotted the Edgewater Beach Hotel just as you arced onto Lake Shore Drive…it had a red light in the cupola at the top…torn down maybe about 1969…
…and then, the bunnies…
On The Way 
I remember the Edgewater Beach Hotel too. Quite a lovely landmark that no longer exists like so many important structures on the lakefront.
My father remembered when the hotel really was at the water’s edge…before the landfill for Lake Shore Drive…before my time.
bonnie, that sure is a cool piece of ‘lucky strike’ cardboard you’ve got there. what’s its story? (nic)
There was some measure of revenge for the destruction of the Edgewater: when they were tearing it down, the reinforced concrete from which it was constructed caused the contractor to spend many times longer than estimated to wrestle it to the ground. I remember passing the site quite regularly and rooting for the building to win the struggle. Alas, it didn’t, but it sure put up a good fight.
Nic…the Lucky Strike is a tin box. It belonged to the father of my friend Patricia LeGai and he kept sheets of gold leaf in it. Now it has some old match books …and one of a few things I have of Patricia’s. BTW her Dad was the first person to have the idea of decorating street street trees with little white lights…downtown Chicago, Michigan Ave near the water tower…
How…R actually walked into the old EB hotel as it was going down…as a kid it sort of signaled “sophistication” to me…around the hotel, onto the drive with the little round street lights on the bridges…those crazy 90 degree turns just as you saw the skyline…the magical city of secrets, as I thought of it then…and now…
But Bon, the table top clutter is always so interesting at your house! You don’t want your tables to look like those in “interior decorator” houses, do you? We have a lot of those in Kala Point and Port Ludlow – and they all look the same to me – sorta sterile!
How do your cleared tables feel to you? So enjoyed the little stories of the matchbooks and the lovely, lost Hotel. Also good to have Patricia LeGai mentioned as well as the interesting historical note re: her father.
I hate my cleared off tables…but I have a new strategy…stay tuned I guess…