Postcards From The Past

 

 

Lewiston Maine today. The terrific building that used to be there on the left is now, as so often the case, a parking lot.

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 The Windsor Hotel opened in February of 1889, two years in construction. On November 20,1889, a formal opening was held with “Promenades through the spacious court, corridors and parlors,” while music played and sumptuous refreshments were served. The local papers exclaimed that the opening of the hotel marked an “epoch in the building of Garden City and the beginning of a new era of prosperity.”

The atrium on the second floor extends upward for three stories and is topped by a vaulted skylight. Balconies with mahogany balustrades surround the court on three sides; and the graceful stairways on the fourth side converge on the central court floor. The hotel rooms are arranged in two rows around the court, the interior row opening onto the central court.The building is considered a very early example of the open air central well interior.In 1972, the Windsor Hotel was placed on the National Historic Register of Historic Places. It was one of four locations in all southwest Kansas to carry that distinction. It continued in use as a hotel until 1977, when it was closed by the State Fire Marshal.The Windsor hotel is truly unique not only in style and design but purpose as well. It is not just another building in a small Kansas town. It stood for opportunity and enterprise, for accommodation and dreams of wealth, a promise of a better future.http://www.gardencity.net/windsor/history/

Judging by the cars photo was likely taken in the 60’s?

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 1905 Postcard of the majestic 1891 Paso Robles Hot Springs Hotel. This hotel was destroyed by fire in 1940. The hotel on the site today is regarded historic in its own right.

Sportfishing Boats, Municipal Yacht Basin, San Diego Harbor, 1958

Hotel “Ruiz Galindo,” Fortin, Veracruz Mexico 1940’s

“One of the new luxuries of the period was the emergence of mass tourism for pleasure. A daily Pullman sleeper train made the trip from Saint Louis, Missouri to Mexico City in 48 hours. Similar fast trains came from El Paso (46 hours), Laredo (49 hours), and Nogales (65 hours). Although foreign travelers had been attracted by Mexico’s charms for centuries, working tourists on holiday were beginning to come to Mexico in 1940 in large numbers. In 1940 139,000 visited Mexico. The number increased to 305,561 by 1949.

“And when tourists found their way to Antonio Ruiz Galindo’s exquisite new hotel at Fortin de las Flores, Veracruz, where fresh gardenias float on the swimming pool each morning, many thought they had found the Platonic ideal of tourism.” Source: Stephen R. Niblo “Mexico in the 1940’s: Modernity, Politics, and Corruption.
Unused postcard, Hotel Ruiz Galindo, Veracruz Mexico.