This postcard was mailed 100 years ago today — July 7, 1922. The illustration presents an aggrandized version of the Rex Hotel, which later became the Curtis Hotel, then Milner Hotel, then Seaway Hotel, and then briefly the Esmond Building. It was actually a three-story building, not four like the postcard shows, and the ground floor wasn’t so ridiculously tall as to dwarf any people or automobiles in front of it.

The building was gutted by a fire and demolished this past winter.

The recipient of this postcard was Mr. Orval Klug of Waterloo, Iowa. The sender did not sign it. The message reads:

Well Orval how are you? We are well so is Uncle Walter & Aunt Lula. We got here last night. It is real cold here. Some are wearing their overcoats. I don’t know yet when we are coming back. Never heard from anybody but Alma, so you better write to Granny.