Las Vegas is a happening place, but what's not happening is the preservation of old structures, such as the one pictured on this matchbook from the Hickory Wood Bar-B-Q. The first thing the KC Matchgirl thought when she noticed the address was, "Bet that building isn't there any more!"
In fact, 315-17 Fremont is not an actual address any more either. The whole block has been consolidated as one address, 301 Fremont, where The D Las Vegas, a 638 room hotel/casino now stands. Prior to 2012, the hotel was known as Fitzgerald's, and prior to 1987, was known as Sundance. How long Hickory Wood was in business has been hard to pinpoint, but its fate as a small business was probably sealed when the Golden Nugget Casino opened two blocks away in 1946, which lead to the Fremont Hotel opening in 1956 a mere block away.
Meat smoking on a grill has since been replaced by neon and blinking lights. Fremont, one of Las Vegas' original platted streets dating to 1905, now boasts the Fremont Street Experience, a canopy that stretches four blocks, from Main to 4th street. This 90 ft. barrel-vaulted structure cost $70 million to build in 1995. The pedestrian walkway's highlight is a nightly music-enhanced light show that runs hourly from 6 pm to midnight. Originally, the technology used incandescent bulbs, but a $17 million upgrade in 2004 switched to a LED system.
It all sounds like quite an experience, unless you just want to sit down in a small joint and chomp on some tasty looking "Q"...
Matchbook timeframe: 1940's, due to the 4 digit telephone number and artwork style.
The KC Matchgirl knows that you think she's made a major typo in her title for this blog, but in this case "Cupple" and not "couple" is correct.
This unassuming little matchbook actually has quite a tale to tell, and the first clue comes from the part of the matchbook called the saddle (not pictured) which reads "Top Quality Since 1851". The second clue is in the address, St. Louis 2, MO. The "2" is a postal code used prior to the current 5-digit Zip code, which dates the matchbook at more than 50 years old. So by the time this matchbook was produced, the company had already been in business for more than 100 years!
But "Good Housekeepers" is not not the name of the company, nor does it have anything to
do with the well-known "Goodhousekeeping Seal of Approval".
As the matchbook implies, we're going to start in 1851, when a young Samuel Cupples (1831-1912) arrived by steamboat to St. Louis to sell a shipment of wooden buckets, churns, and utensils. He was so successful that he decided to stay and build his business. By 1882, he had incorporated his business as Samuel Cupples Woodenware Co., distributing 1,000 items from 200 suppliers of household products. Over the years, he built a complex of warehouses (Cupples Station) of 23 warehouses in downtown St. Louis, connected by rail lines at the riverfront to facilitate loading goods.
In 1900,
Cupples expanded his product line to include paper products when he purchased an envelope company. By then he had joined the Board of Directors at Washington University, donated company assets worth 4 million dollars and funded the construction of 3 campus buildings. His 1890 Richardsonian Romanesque mansion was purchased by St. Louis University and stands today as a well-known landmark.
The company expanded once more in 1917 to include rubber and charcoal products, becoming the Cupples Manufacturing Co. A short list of products includes napkins, toilet paper, waxpaper, paper towels, brooms, clothespins, clotheslines, Mason Jar lids, and matches.
Since none of us have any of these products on our shelves under this company name these days, it is safe to assume the company has gone out of business. Even after consulting historians at the St. Louis Public Library, there is no clue what year the company ceased being a viable business. By 1965, portions of his warehouse complex were coming down to make way for Busch Stadium and I-64. Some warehouses still stand and several have been transformed into hotels and lofts. While there are businesses located in St. Louis bearing the Cupples name, it is unknown if or how they are related to the original business started in 1851.
Note: While the Cupples Company manufactured matches and matchboxes, the matchbook pictured was made by a different company.
Come on over and take a break from the hustle and bustle of the holidays, and join the KC Matchgirl at the fireside for a chat.
While we relax and enjoy the warmth of the flickering flames and gaze at the towering pine festooned with baubles and beads, I will tell you a story of a Christmas matchbook from long ago...
It all began with a little girl who was charmed by the cozy fireside scene on the cover and the size of it. She had never seen a matchbook so big and it held 10 large wooden matchsticks. Her father had gotten it from the bank and yes, she could have it once the adults had the chance to use all the matches inside. One by one, the matches were used and the little girl got her prize- an empty matchbook to add to her growing collection. And when she grew up, she became the KC Matchgirl. The End.
Anyway, this giant matchbook is 4 times the size of a regular matchbook. The fact that it contained wooden matches probably meant they could be used to light a fireplace, such as pictured on the cover, but alas, our home did not have one. Despite the traditional American scene on the cover, this giant was actually Made In Italy. Inside, the imprint reads "Compliments of North Kansas City State Bank". Also known as Norbank- "Let Norbank Be Your Bank", it was located in what we called downtown Northtown. Since it's Christmas time and you've got a lot to do, I'll not delve into explaining Kansas City geography. It's so cozy here I'll just put another log on the fire and stay a while longer. Thanks for stopping by!
Time frame: 1970
Matchbook dimensions: 3 1/4 X 4 1/4 inches
Business information: Norbank, 401 Armour Rd., North Kansas City, MO. Currently a Country Club Bank branch location.
There's a "Sure Sign of Fine Service" in Leavenworth, Kansas according to this deluxe matchbook. At least there was until this Mid-Century Googie-style sign was considered outdated and Leavenworth Mutual Savings & Loan Association changed their logo and sign.
The turquoise "pinched rectangle" topped with a golden starburst reigned at 4 locations, printed on an inside listing- 2 in Leavenworth proper and also nearby Tonganoxie and Oskaloosa. With 2 branches not located in Leavenworth, the name was eventually changed to Mutual Savings Association, with a new logo and signs.
MSA (as they currently refer to their business) has since added locations in Eudora and Bonner Springs and updated their logo yet again in 2012. This year the business is celebrating a 125th anniversary. As posted on Mutual's Facebook page, the festivities included attaching balloons to the clunky-people statues in front of the main branch building and a sheet cake with the newest logo copied in icing. (This seems to the KC Matchgirl pretty low-key for celebrating 125 years...)
Founded on April 11, 1888 as the Leavenworth Mutual Building, Loaning and Savings Association, it's easy to see why the name gets shorter with each consecutive logo/sign update.
Timeframe: mid-1970's
Address: 100 S. 4th, Leavenworth, KS
The KC Matchgirl is a vicarious armchair traveler- she goes where the matchbook takes her. Via this classy gold foil matchbook, this time she's ended up at Jorgenson's, located in the capital city of Helena, Montana.
As viewed in the illustration, this Mid-Century Modern restaurant & lounge has a mountain range looming just beyond their back door. In actuality, the Rocky Mountains loom farther down the road, but the closet peak, Mt. Helena, is highly visible from the restaurant's new patio.
Built in 1958 by Danish immigrant Fred Jorgenson and his grown children, the restaurant has been remodeled to even more modern standards- and amazingly- is still in business under the same name, operated by the 3rd and 4th generations of Jorgensons. The Holiday Inn that gets front cover billing is not the same as the chain of motels that claims to be "The World's Innkeeper". The motel was standing when the Jorgensons chose that location for their restaurant; later they purchased the 37 unit operation and expanded it to create 102 units.
Fred Jorgenson had already retired from a career in restaurant cooking that began when he arrived in Helena in 1912. After a brief one-year retirement, he joined with his children and their spouses to begin a successful catering operation in 1951, which they sold a few years later to settle into their own restaurant. After 3 decades, they sold both the motel and restaurant, but the new owners kept the family's name on the signage and convinced the Jorgenson offspring to return to the restaurant.
Located just 6 blocks from the Montana state capitol building, Jorgenson's Inn & Suites is at 1714 11th Avenue.
Matchbook date: early 1970's
The KC Matchgirl was born and raised in the big city, but she has plenty of kinfolk that live out yonder, along a distant country road. And when you need gas, something cold to drink, a fresh, hot pizza- or just a clean restroom- you pull into a Casey's.
A common sight across the American midwest, a Casey's General Store is most often found in rural towns with populations less than 5,000. With 1,700 locations in 12 states, Casey's founder Donald Lamberti (you notice his name is not Casey), started his first general store in 1959. Located in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, it operated as an old country store until 1968 when the building was remodeled as a convenience store. Soon after, a friend convinced him to purchase the Square Deal Oil Co. in Boone, IA and Lamberti decided to name his new business after that friend, K.C. Fish. (No relation to the KC Matchgirl.)
The new store was so successful they kept adding locations, again in small towns where the "Mom & Pop" stores were starting to close their doors, and a marketing plan was born.
Despite the "general store" moniker, Casey's has never been old-fashioned. In most cases, Casey's is the most modern business located within those small town limits, providing jobs and freshly baked items like doughnuts and pizza. (KC Matchgirl has found Casey's pizza to be okey-dokey!)
And the modern Casey's General is not only found in small towns anymore, they're creeping into the suburbs; there are even 2 locations with Kansas City addresses. Big City customers are likely to do a double-take someday when they spot a Casey's way out yonder on a country road.
Compare the late 1970's matchbook to one from 2013.
It is a little known fact, at this point, that the KC Matchgirl was once fluent in Spanish. Once, as in, when I studied the language in my formative years, to the extent that I was awarded "membership" in the Spanish Honor Society. While I would hardly consider myself fluent today, I could read the name on this matchbook that hails from Mexico.
Featuring a scenic view with a reflection of a building, palm trees, festive colored lights, the spray of a fountain, I surmised that Del Lago (The Lake) must be a resort. In this age of search engines, all I have to do is type in "Del Lago resort" and it takes me to a resort of the same name- in Maine. (What?)
Looking inside this deluxe matchbook (40 matches) the next clue is "nuevo bosque de Chapultepec", of which I can only translate 2 out of 4 words. But I know Chapultepec is a place name, so I type that into the search engine and Bing! (I actually used Yahoo) After some scrolling and clicking, I found an image that matches the lake, the fountain, and a building.
Bosque de Chapultepec is a huge park in Mexico City that dates back to the early 1900's. The nuevo (new) Chapultepec was created in 1964, with a larger lake, the Monumental Fountain, and several lakeside restaurants.
Did I mention that Chapultepec was huge? There are 3 lakes, a zoo, museums, an amusement park- and Del Lago! Which is actually a restaurant, not a resort.
But, somehow the building was not exactly the one pictured on the matchbook, even though the phone number is the same. Current photos seemed to show a larger, more modern building- could it be that Del Lago had been remodeled?
Alas, one can not find everything on the internet, or in English either. But a Flickr search turned up a photo merely captioned "Mexico City 1968" that showed a blurry Del Lago in the background behind some canoers on the lake, matching the building on the matchbook.
Since the change in its overall appearance, the restaurant is now named El Lago and is known for its international cuisine. There is a lovely view of the lake and fountain from the tall, angled windows.
