Blogfinger

By Kathy Arlt, Contributing Writer  @Blogfinger

My interest in the Hotel Clarendon began with this undated photograph of a huge sign hanging over one of the entrances. It reads: “Nature’s Own Tonic—Pure Unfermented Grape Juice—Put Up Here by Proprietor of this Place—On Sale in Bottles or at Fountain.”

And here are some very respectable-looking gentlemen seated at the fountain. (Notice the juice distribution area in the upper left of the photo, and the long line of bottled juice on the right. And remember: this photo was probably taken during the summer, in a room without air-conditioning…yet these gentlemen haven’t so much as loosened their ties.)

I wonder if any of them—or anyone else—ever took the juice home and converted it to wine.

Unfermented grape juice and rooms weren’t the only offerings at the Hotel Clarendon, which opened for business as simply “The Clarendon” in 1877. (The name was changed to Hotel Clarendon in 1900.) As the next photo shows, an ice cream parlor and a tea room were also advertised, though less prominently than the grape juice. Undoubtedly, there was also a dining room somewhere inside the hotel, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.

In 1923, however, the ground floor of the Hotel Clarendon changed completely. It became the first location of…

…which would later move to Main Avenue.

So, where was the Hotel Clarendon? What did it look like? Does the building still exist? If it does still exist, what does it look like today? If it doesn’t still exist, what happened to it, and what replaced it?

Next installment….Part two will appear on Blogfinger Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 8 a.m.