Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family
history through old photographs.
This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt features a lovely 1930s
hotel room outfitted in the popular Art deco style. The two beds, seemingly a
requirement in most hotels, immediately grabbed my attention because of this
photo in my collection:
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| two double beds |
The identity of this lovely woman stretched out across
one of the chenille-covered beds is not known, but I know where she was and
when.
It was June 25, 1941. She was in the Courtesy Court Motel
located on Route 1 in St. Augustine, Florida. It says so right on the back.
(Couldn’t she have included her name?)
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| Postcard Courtesy Court Motel St. Augustine, Florida |
There are numerous postcards for sale on eBay featuring
St. Augustine’s Courtesy Court. Like most motels of its era, it was a one-story
building of connecting rooms all opening onto the parking lot. There was a
manager’s office and swimming pool surrounded by picnic tables and Adirondack
chairs.
The postcards from the 1960s boast of such amenities as a
telephone, television, and air conditioning. In 1941, however, there was a
small fan sharing real estate with a lamp on the table between the beds. What
do you want to bet that there was a Gideon bible in the drawer?
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| Postcard Courtesy Court Motel St. Augustine, Florida |
Since my great-grandmother Sudie Rucker enjoyed her
annual trips to Florida, it has occurred to me that maybe this unidentified
woman accompanied her or was someone Sudie visited.
Whoever she was, this mystery guest of the Courtesy Court
did some touring in St. Augustine. She went to the Hotel Alcazar, which today
houses the Lightner Museum. However, the nature and extent of her visit leaves
a question mark. The hotel, built in 1887 to appeal to wealthy tourists, closed
in 1932. It did not become a museum until 1947. Perhaps the Spanish Renaissance
Revival architecture simply attracted visitors even if there was nothing going
on there.
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| at the Hotel Alcazar June 25, 1941 St. Augustine, Florida |
I doubt the Alcazar had chenille bedspreads.
Hop out of bed and take a tour of Sepia Saturday to see
how my friends have been inspired by the prompt photo.
Wendy
© 2016, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
Looks like a nice place to stay. I too wish people would label pictures somehow so later others woukd know who they were. I have done that for our ones.
ReplyDeleteBetty
I'm woefully behind in labeling my photos. I need to practice what I preach!
DeleteThat's an interesting pattern on the bedspreads. Someone must have taken the photographs, perhaps your great grandmother? You must be young to have had a great grandmother around in 1941.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it pretty? I made out a big leaf on the corners but after that I can only guess more leaves or flowers.
DeleteYoung? Thank-you. But aren't we both young?? I was a kid in 1958 when Sudie died.
Hi Wendy, the hotel room looks quaint!
ReplyDeleteIt does indeed.
DeleteI agree there was and probably still would be a Gideon Bible in that drawer. I doubt they would have glued the lamp onto the table as they do now in hotel rooms...glue or nail them so you can't remove them. Always makes me feel like the management assumes the guests are all thieves.
ReplyDeleteI imagine there are lots of hotel thieves, but nice towels and robe would be more alluring than a lamp, not to mention easier to sneak out with.
DeleteMislabeled photos are fun, too. Our ancestors just never knew bow interested future generations would be in their lives. These are great photos.
ReplyDeleteI guess they figured they would remember the person but not necessarily the place or date.
DeleteLooks like the Sepia theme was not so challenging as I thought it was. Bravo! How many years do you think that bible stayed in that room? Maybe it's still there!
ReplyDeleteIf the hotel is still there (and there is one by the same name so I guess it's the same one), I would guess the pages are brittle by now.
DeleteWhen I lived in St. Augustine in the 90s, there was a time when the Alcazar had a luncheon cafe in the basement swimming pool area. I remember it as a slanted floor with lots of palms imported. It didn't stay open very long, and the next time I ate there the dining room was our choice for a grand brunch. Love seeing the old post cards and the photos from the 40s!
ReplyDeleteI would love to have seen the Alcazar in its heyday. Grand brunch -- ooh, I bet that was, well, grand!
DeleteChenille? Boy, Wendy, I haven't thought of that bedspread style in years; my grandmother had them in the room I slept in -- I'd pluck at those little bumps all the time. Drove her crazy.
ReplyDeleteThere was a time I thought chenille was old fashioned and tacky, but crafters have made me love it again. They are making wonderful gifts of pillows and stuffed animals and even funky little jackets with vintage bedspreads.
DeleteSpot on with the theme and that bedspread looks luxurious. I remember similar ones on my parents’ bed, although we called them candlewick not chenille.
ReplyDeleteI've heard of candlewick, but I thought it was different from chenille. I think of candlewick being tighter and knottier whereas chenille is soft and fuzzy. No?
DeleteBarbara's mention of a basement hotel swimming pool reminded me of the swimming pool in the basement of San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel. By the time I was in my late teens & early 20s it had been turned into a South Sea Islands setting called the Tonga Room with cocktail tables along the sides of the pool, a dance floor at one end, & a band playing while seated on a floating platform moving back and forth from one end of the pool to the other. And when the band took a break, there'd be a simulated rain shower over the pool. So far as I know, that's all gone now, & what a shame.
ReplyDeleteOoh that sounds like something out of a movie.
DeleteI'm not exactly sure what constitutes a chenille bedspread but I remember my grandmother (not THE grandmother that you "know") had twin beds in her room with these white bedspreads with big bumps on them. When she died, I hung on to those bedspreads for awhile and then realized I never liked them and still didn't so out they went. :-)
ReplyDeleteI know that bumpy style bedspread, but is that chenille? I think chenille is soft - the designs are fuzzy.
DeleteIt do miss those old motels where the people who worked at the front desk owned the place instead of a corporation. And yes, there was always the telltale signs a Gideon had been there.
ReplyDeleteI miss those days too when you didn't get a survey in the email after your stay.
DeleteYes I agree with you re chenille vs candlestick. I had a chenille bedspread as a child, and it was smooth and soft rather like patting a cat.
ReplyDeleteHow frustrating to have all the details but not the name!