The Decline of Precious Things
When Places Pass Away
I live in a small town in southeast Michigan. By midwestern standards, the town is ancient, being slightly more than two hundred years old. Our roots can be traced back to a lodging house built by our founder. The building began life as a stopover on the road from Toledo to Detroit, at a time when that trip was long and treacherous. Our founder’s fortune grew and he built a sawmill, a grist mill, and in time there were churches and a school and homes. It became a thriving, proud township. Today the farms are gone, the timberlands are vanished, but the lodging house remains, converted to a senior living facility more than a decade ago.
When I found the above photograph, I thought of my lodging house and then felt great sorrow for those precious things that cannot be saved. The New Empire House, as pictured, is a former hotel and lives on the shore of Lake Kauneonga in Sullivan County, New York. Eighty years ago, in her prime, a room could be had for three dollars a day (or eighteen a week) and the leisure activities could fill up a summer season: boating, swimming, handball, tennis, theatrical events.
