Postcard: Hotel Ryan
This postcard isn't in my collection, but I wish it was. I love this 1930s (I guess?) view of the Hotel Ryan. I think the graphics and coloring of the card are so charming. I also think the "fireproof" statement is a little comical. If I remember correctly there were several mysterious fires in downtown hotels at one time. Does anybody else remember hearing that?
According to Special Collections at the Chester Fritz Library, the Hotel Ryan was designed by prominent local architect Joseph Bell DeRemer. The library provides some very good background of DeRemer's work and his two periods of building design in Grand Forks. The first period, from 1902 to 1912, included many Classical and Renaissance Revival style buildings: the old Grand Forks Public Library (torn down for parking garage), the Ontario Store (later Griffith's Department Store), the Corliss Block (now Avante), the Widlund Block, the Masonic Temple, the New Hampshire Apartments, the Elks Lodge, and the Central High School Gym. The second period, which started in 1919, included buildings in the Art Deco and Art Modern styles: Whitey's, the Hotel Ryan, United Lutheran Church, the administration building for the Grand Forks Municipal Airport, and the Grand Forks County Courthouse addition. DeRemer also designed many buildings at UND and the North Dakota State Capitol. Talk about leaving an impact on the city and the state!
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Looking for photos and info about hotel the Beloff guys owned. Think it was The Northern near courthouse. Have an interesting photo of downtown appliance store power washing out freezers after the flood of 1997 ! Did those units get sold as new? Did they have black mold ? Just wondering ! greenglass4.
Why must everything always devolve into a place for you to air your conspiracy theories...do you ever do anything but complain?
Those appliances were taken to the dump.
Geez, I can see why the Forum greenglass' blog away.
DeRemer lived at 625 Belmont, which he also designed and which is currently for sale....$349,000
Fireproof. lol.
I remember the northern hotel...wow I had not thought of that in 20 years..
how about Freidman furs? or Benners?
Why must everything always devolve into a place for you to air your conspiracy theories...do you ever do anything but complain?
Look who's touchy today...
Benners. Wow, talk about a magical place for a kid. To think one could actually rent time on the model car racetrack.
I remember staying with my dad one night at the Northern Hotel. We could look out of the window into the mortuary in the basement of the building next door. The shades were drawn, naturally, but at night one could see the shadows of the mortician doing his craft. Brr. As if the clientele of the Northern often wasn't scary enough! :O)
Miss the Blue Bird Shoe Shop, too...and Gus, who helped so many kids out. And Mr. Olson, the stern barber in across the way in the same building.
The lunch counters at Kresge's and Woolworth's...sitting in the lobby of the Ryan in the big leather wingback chairs, smelling the always-present cigar smoke while waiting for either of the parents to finish their shopping and drive us all home...and, yes, the corner coffee shop.
The Club Cigar store...how I loved that narrow building...even when it became Browning Arts.
The postcard brings back lots of memories, for sure.
Great memories, Charlie! Thanks for sharing them.
Sorry to disappoint, but our blog is alive and well, just a different name. By the way the freezers were not hauled out for garbage, were they sold at 32nd st store ? greenglass4.
halibut at the golden hour??
a coke at the counter of Webs?
I'm trying to understand the connection between Dakota TV's post flood activities and the Hotel Ryan...
Perhaps you've heard of the open threads, greenglass?
Ah, yes...the Golden Hour...a delightful place---for halibut, certainly...but also, a great place to find more regular fare: hot beef sandwiches, delicious chocolate malts, while occupying a booth possibly too long with friends.
Webs...talk about jarring one's memory! :O) More good vibs...
Remember Toby's on the northend? Phil and Lil's on South Washington?
What was that place called on old highway 81 where they sold fresh produce? Amazing places for a young person's eyes...and taste buds.
P.S. Anyone old enough to remember the great dances held at the Grand Forks Armory? So much negativity is connected with that building these days, it seems...but it once provided an environment young people sought.
grenglass4, where's your blog?
Phil and lils?!
I believe you could actually order "shit on a shingle" at phil and lils..if I remember that was "creamed peas on toast??
"shit on a shingle"
Isn't that just cream of mushroom soup and ground hamburger on a piece of toast?
Either way, sounds delicious.
Laughing, here...can't say that either of the last two posts are incorrect...but I'm thinking the orignation of SOS was from Navy jargon, and that it consisted of creamed dried beef on toast. I know there's gotta be variations.
And, yes, Phil and Lil's served it up with as much style as one could expect! :o)
(Thanks, GFG, for jogging the memories in this blog...lots of fun, especially to get away from the oftentimes 'griping.')
In our house, shit on a shingle was chipped beef mixed with a sauce made of milk and flour poured over toast. I think mom had created a rue and didn't even know it.
These cards produced decades ago are so charming and attentive to detail. Have you seen the current crop of GF-related postcards? They're an embarrassment.
Way before my time, but my parents have mentioned Phil and Lil's. They've also talked about a King Leo's (or something like that, I think) and a similar restaurant across the street...I forget the name. It's really interesting to hear about Grand Forks businesses from the past!
It was probably "Henry's"-the other faster food restaurant on South Washington.
We used to call it Filthy Lil's but at 3AM who noticed?
Well I dated Lil's daughter, she said "I am no saint" , but they did have a good jukebox. greenglass4.
I remember some of this.
Was the library torn down for the parking ramp or was the parking ramp just built where the library used to be?
The kids section was down the stairs to the right, wasn't it?
The beloffs ran the Ryan hotel.I played in a band in the 70's and performed in the lounge.
Tried the email, but being Yahoo, I figured I was too late. Didn't see many posts since 2007. Well, Anyway, I found a mechanical pencil from the Ryan Hotel with a calendar on it starting on a Saturday which would make it 1927,1938,1949? It even says "Fireproof". If anyone would like it, I'd be happy to send it to you!
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