Vintage Postcard – Hart Hotel – Battle Creek, MI

The Hart Hotel
Fireproof – Air-Conditioned
Battle Creek, Michigan
100 Rooms with Bath
Dining Room – Coffee Shop
Battle Creek’s Newest and Finest Hotel

MWM Color-Litho “Bursheen” Finished, Made Only By MWM Co. Aurora, Mo.
3263F

Battle Creek News Co., Battle Creek, Mich.

Genuine Curteich-Chicago “C.T. Art- ColorTone” Post Card (Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.)

Bob got me these two beautiful cards at the Lansing postcard expo this summer. That’s right, while I was looking through stacks of Florida chromes, he selected these and surprised me with them. Isn’t he sweet?

The Hart Hotel still stands in my hometown, though in much sorrier shape. It was purchased by the Scientologists in 2002 and they have supposedly been renovating it into a church, but there is no change that anyone could see. This BC Enquirer article from 2005 has some history on the Hart.

Linen cards were generally produced from 1930 – 1945. The number on the front of the second card, 5B-H589, would put that one printed in 1945 (Curteich cards are well dated).

Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any interior historical photos of this place. When built, the hotel had a soda fountain, coffee shop, dining room, ballroom and three shops: Mae Dorsey Hicks Jewelry, Seaman’s Dress Shop and a bookstore. In the 1960s, local high schools had their prom at the Hart (mine was held at the Federal Center). In its final days as a hotel, it ran rooms to questionable characters, and probably by the hour. I don’t remember when exactly it stopped being a hotel, but I do remember in the 1990s having to go pick up a coworker who was “living” at the CAP center at the Hart…sort of a half-way house between jail and freedom.

More of the Cereal Capital of the World here:

Kellogg Regional Airport

Maple Street 

Lakewood Inn