The End of the Amazon

(Click on images to enlarge)

In the September 13, 1918 issue of the Hobart Gazette, George Watkins announced his intention to close the Amazon restaurant.

The following week he advertised a sale of his household goods. Apparently he and his wife, Tillie, and their family had been living in rooms in the same two-story building that housed the restaurant.



George was then about 51, Tillie 42. They had been married around 1901 and now had two children, Elizabeth (12) and William (10).

According to the Gazette, the end of the Amazon meant that Hobart was left with "only three public eating houses in town, the Orcott restaurant and the boarding houses of Mrs. Pio and Mrs. Barnes." A week later the News amended that list to exclude Mrs. Barnes.*


The Amazon in happier days.
Click on image to enlarge.
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

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*And it spelled the restaurant owner's name "Orcutt." Two newspapers, two spellings. *sigh*


Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 27 Sept. 1918.
♦ "Amazon to Close." Hobart Gazette 13 Sept. 1918.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 3 Oct. 1918.
♦ "Public Sale." Hobart Gazette 20 Sept. 1918.