Mr. Moehl Wants to Build a Garage

On May 28, 1923, William Moehl bought a lot on Second Street (near his home) where he planned to build his garage.


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Hobart News, May 31, 1923.

Higher up in the same column are a couple of items that involve our friends the Harmses. The first just tells of a visit by Herman and Minnie (Rossow) Harms, along with her sister and brother-in-law, to her parents. The second tells us that Herman Harms bought a cottage, intending to move it elsewhere in the city. The Fairbank cottage was being moved from New Street to make way for what would eventually be the Roosevelt Gym.[1] In an earlier report, however, the Gazette named the buyer as Herbert Harms — whom I cannot identify in any local census — and the intended destination of the cottage as being in "the Melin subdivision," which may be Andrew Melin's Fairfield Addition on the east side of Wisconsin Street.[2] I will just add that in all the time I knew Herman's son, Eldon, he never mentioned any such cottage to me, but that doesn't prove anything.

An item over in the right-hand column tells us that the Amlong family was spending a second summer camping out near the village of Deep River.

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[1] "Local and Personal," Hobart News, May 17, 1923.
[2] "School Board Sells Dwelling," Hobart Gazette, May 18, 1923.

Breaking Camp

Mrs. George Thompson was Lee's (and Eva's) mother. Her maiden name was Swartz and per the 1900 Census she had married George Thompson in 1899, but I've not yet been able to find the record of their marriage.


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Hobart News, 19 Oct. 1922.

The little Amlong family started camping out near the village of Deep River in June. They must have spent a few chilly nights in their tent before finally moving into a house for the winter. The "Humes residence south of the city" was likely on what's now State Road 51, though I still don't know exactly where.

A Big Tent

When last we met the Amlong family — Ossie,* Lottie, and their daughter, Martha — they were living on Lake Street in Hobart, in a rented house. That was the autumn of 1921. Now it's the spring of 1922, and the Amlongs, unable to find a house they like, have decided to leave behind the summer heat and fragrances of town to camp out in a country setting.


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"Local and Personal," Hobart News 1 June 1922.

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Meanwhile, more mundanely, Charles and Amelia Goldman are selling potatoes in Ainsworth, at what I suppose was a good price for 1922.


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"Local Drifts," Hobart Gazette 2 June 1922.

At the moment I'm guessing that Everett Newman went by the nickname "Mickey." It would be nice if someone could confirm that for me.

And yet another party at the Fasel home on East 10th Street.

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*I've just learned his given name was Osceola: small wonder that he chose "O. Amlong" as his public name.

Adjourned Sine Die

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Hobart News 17 Nov. 1921.

I find something touching about the last meeting of the old Hobart town board, with such attention to correct procedure, being adjourned sine die — as if someday its business might be taken up again.

But that's not what we're here for. We're here to celebrate the marriage of Samuel Lathrop, the son of George and Eva, named for his grandfather. The last news I had of Samuel goes back to 1903, when he and his father moved to Michigan. Evidently, Samuel had come back to the area by 1920, when the census-taker recorded him boarding in the Gary home of Osce Amlong and working as a railroad engineer. In fact, I find a Samuel G. Lathrop listed in a 1913 Gary city directory, and again in 1918 — by which time it appears he has a spouse named Lula, so if that's our Samuel, this is not his first marriage.

However, from what I can see in the records on Ancestry.com, Samuel and Nellie stayed married. They remained in Gary for a couple more decades at least, and then I gather they retired to Florida. At present all the Lathrops are out of my bailiwick and it doesn't look as if they intend to come back, so, in spite of my peculiar fondness for them, I shall have to consider my writing about them adjourned sine die.

The Unpleasantness with the Prohibition Officer

On an October afternoon in 1921, two prominent Hobart citizens mistakenly got into a car chase with a federal Prohibition officer.


(Click on image to enlarge)Hobart Gazette 12 Oct. 1921.*

The story suggests that the officer's car had no markings that would have made it identifiable as such. From what I've read about the early federal Prohibition enforcement effort, I gather it was grossly understaffed, with the officers poorly paid, often untrained and ill equipped.

Above that story, we have the news of the death of William Krausse (father of Carl), who had a more interesting life than I suspected.

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The "Local and Personal" column of the Hobart News of October 13, 1921, included this item:

O. Amlong and family have moved to the Chester Cooper residence on Lake street and Mr. and Mrs. Otto Maicke of Ainsworth have moved to the Humes flat vacated by Mr. and Mrs. Amlong.

… which leaves me knowing very little except that Ainsworth had lost its Maickes.

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*This issue of the Gazette is erroneously dated "Friday, Oct. 12, 1921." Friday was the usual day for the Gazette to come out, but that week's Friday fell on the 14th.

Hobart Then and Now: Third and Center, NE Corner

???? and 2011:



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Top image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

The top image shows the Amazon restaurant on the northeast corner of Third and Center Streets. The photo is undated. If you really want me to guess at its date … well, based on my general loosey-goosey impression of the clothing styles, I'd say 1910, give or take ten years.

Here's a photo of the restaurant in 1917. It's the building furthest to the right in the background. (The photographer was standing on Third Street, east of Center Street, and looking west toward Main. The man in the wheelchair is B.B. Bale.)


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

I don't know when the building was built, nor what, if anything, it was before it was the Amazon restaurant. That, I know, was in business by 1918, and perhaps much earlier (I wasn't paying enough attention while reading the early-20th-century papers to get a more specific idea).

Sometime later this building became Amlong's restaurant. Or, at least, that's what someone has written on the back of this undated photo:


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Amlong's Restaurant had previously operated in the former Hobart House building. In Hobart High School's 1927 Aurora, we find the two restaurants advertising side by side:


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And here's a view of the interior of Amlong's circa 1927, when it was still in the Hobart House building.


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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

I do not know when the building at Third and Center was demolished. I think it was gone by the time they took that 1952 aerial photo on display in the window of that one building on East Third Street.

Hobart Then and Now: Hobart House/Art Theatre

1911 and 2009



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At top is the Hobart House circa 1911; below is the Art Theatre, built on the site in 1941.

The Hobart House was built in 1870. It operated as a hotel and restaurant, with a banquet room; it also had a ballroom on the third floor. Behind it was a livery stable (partially visible in this circa-1910 photo) to accommodate travelers' horses. It ceased to operate as a hotel in 1918 and became a community building. Weekly dances were held in the ballroom; the banquet room was available for rental; other rooms were rented to businesses. In 1927, the tenants included Axel Strom's tailoring shop and Amlong's Restaurant.

The Hobart House building was torn down in 1940, and the Art Theatre built on the site in 1941.