Blog Archives

Merry Christmas!

12/22/2015

Merry Christmas readers!

This blog post is more of a heads up about things that have happened recently and an update about our hours over the holiday season.

First, I would like to thank everyone that came to the Dedication for the Wall of Witnesses relief of Mike Kanealy. Although the relief was not quite finished yet, it was still a wonderful event. Plenty of people came and shared their stories of Mike, as well as ate a cake with his picture likeness in the icing. If you want to read more about it, you can read the article on theperrynews.com here: http://theperrynews.com/family-and-friends-draw-perfect-likeness-of-mike-kanealy/

Secondly, I want to remind you all about the QR Code Tour in the Hotel! There are about 25 QR codes in the Hotel Pattee, and each one will lead you to more information and fun facts about the art that you are seeing in the Hotel. If you have some time this holiday season, why not swing by with your family and learn something new?

Finally, I wanted to let you all know that the Hometown Heritage office will be closed until the New Year. We will be open January 4th though, so feel free to stop by!

So I hope you all have a Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!

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The Bottom of the Dumbwaiter

12/16/2015

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Hello readers,

Today we are going to talk about some of the items that I have accessioned into our system recently. Unfortunately, most of it appears to be junk, and for good reason. People found all of these items in the bottom of the dumbwaiter shaft during the renovation of Hotel Pattee in the mid ninetees!

If you look at the pictures below, you may understand why I think a lot of this appears to be junk. There are things such as a smashed up pumpkin Halloween decoration, blocks of wood, lids to various cans and even a ball of twine. Some of the objects even look nasty. For instance, one bottle has what looks like some tar along the inside. Another bottle has a small amount of orange liquid, probably just some rusty water or something. In case you are worried, both bottles are sealed and neither of them were dangerous. They just look disgusting.

However, the renovators also found some interesting items in the bottom of that dumb waiter. There is a gavel from the International Rotary club, which is of some interest to us as it is a piece of Rotary Club history. The renovators also found two keys in the bottom of the shaft. These keys are very interesting: they have no labels, and are unmarked, so I have no idea what doors they open. Maybe they open some secret rooms in the Hotel! Most likely, however, they belong to doors that no longer exist due to the renovation.

Two final remarks about these items. First, if you seem anything in the pictures that you think has value, please let me know! Many of these items are a mystery, so I would greatly appreciate any help identifying them and their value. Finally, and perhaps the biggest mystery of all, is how these items got to the bottom of a dumbwaiter shaft in the first place. Who was putting these things into a dumbwaiter? I am fairly certain knobs for drawers and other things should not go into a dumb waiter, but I could be wrong. Since it has been awhile since the Hotel renovation, we may never know the answer.

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Hotel Pattee QR Tour

12/9/2015

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Hello readers!

I have some exciting news for you all! Have you ever walked around the Hotel Pattee, taking in all the great works of art on the wall, and wanted to know more about them? Now you can!

I am happy to tell you all that the QR Code Tour is up and running in the Hotel Pattee. This may be a bit of old news to many, since it was up during Art on the Prairie a few weeks ago. I would have told you about it then, but we were busy setting up things here at the office for the event. Still, to those of you who have not heard about it, now you have, and can experience it!

The tour is a great opportunity to learn about some of the art in the Hotel Pattee. All you need is a smart phone, a QR code scanning app, and some free time. To start, simply go to the front desk of the Hotel, there are some more instructions and a map near the Alley Oop statue. From there, you can go to each of the codes in order or just go right to the ones that you are interested in. On each code is usually a picture of the art and a short audio, narrated by John Patrick Perdue, which will give you more information, ranging from why the artist made the piece to the techniques that were used. In all, you can scan about 23 codes. It is a great opportunity to learn more about the art at the Hotel, and about Soumas Court. If you have free time, please take the tour!

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Honoring Mike Kanealy

12/2/2015

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Hello Readers!

Today is another short blog post, but we wanted to get the word out to all of you about an event coming up this month.

Hometown Heritage and the Perry Historic Preservation Commission are pleased to invite you to the unveiling of a new relief for the Wall of Witnesses in Perry, Iowa. The new relief depicts Michael Kanealy, who was not only the owner and operator of Michael’s Pub for 25 years, but also a longtime supporter and promoter of Perry. The Perry Historic Preservation Commission chose to honor Mike after receiving numerous nominations earlier this year, and Newton artist Rick Stewart created the relief. The unveiling and a short program will take place on Friday, December 18th in the gallery of the Town Craft Building at 4:30 pm. There will be light refreshments, and the event is free and open to the public.

I hope to see you all there to honor Mike at this special event.

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Merry Christmas!

The Bottom of the Dumbwaiter

Hotel Pattee QR Tour

Honoring Mike Kanealy

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