The Hotel Winecoff, Atlanta, GA

January 28, 1933

Sat. A.M. Here we are at the bus station getting breakfast.  Leave here at 9 o’ clock our time 8 their time.  Was so cold here last night and this A.M.  Notion to go back to Toledo.  Colder here than it was at home when I left.  Have to get my underwear lined I guess.  Ha!  Ha! 

Love Maude

Miss Virginia Rusher

2008 Calumet Ave.

Toledo, OH

The Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, GA was built in 1913, and is the site of the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history.  13 years after Maude sent this postcard to Miss Rusher,  119 people died leading to better building codes.  One of the survivors, Daisy McCumber was photographed jumping 11 stories by Arnold Hardy, who went to become the first amateur photographer to win the Pulitzer prize for photography.   Mr. Hardy passed away in 2007, but his photograph is still noted for it's haunting depiction of that eventful night.  Today, the building has been restored into the Ellis Hotel, after about 20 years of vacancy.

As to the identity of the recipient, there are quite a number of Virginia Rusher’s in various geneaological sites that have partial information that could indicate a probable match for the unmarried recipient of this card.   One puts Virginia Rusher's birth at 1899, making her 34, and another places her as being born in 1915, making her 17 when she received this postcard from Atlanta.  As far as the identity of "Maude" is concerned, I stumbled across a 2004 obituary from the Salisbury (Ohio) Post for a Anna Owen Troutman, daughter of a Maude Rusher Owen.   It lists a Nora Lee Barbee in the contact for memorials, so perhaps Ms. Barbee will Google herself and provide some more insight into the Rusher family.


The house at 2008 Calumet Drive was built in 1924, and is still standing.   Lucas County's property records are difficult to access, but perhaps this home is still owned by descendants of the Rusher family.

Hotel Lizotte, Pass-A-Grille Beach, FL

March 22, 1913

Dear Paul,

Had a (short?) dinner today at this place.  It is a fine day and warm- oh my!  We go to Clearwater tonight and write you then a letter. 

(Love?) (Ardell?)

Mr. Paul W. Rusher

Toledo, Ohio

c/o Goulet and Co.


Today's card is a well-weathered missive from Pass-A-Grille Beach, FL.  Pass-A-Grille Beach, homesteaded in 1886, has been a beautiful beach destination for many generations and is home to the historic Don CeSar Hotel.  A Pass-A-Grille history blog run by Bill Kneppler of Prudential Tropical Realty has two entries (near the bottom of the page) from a Boyce Keith Smith,  whose Great Grandfather George Henri Lizotte "built the very first hotel The Bonhomie," later called the Hotel Lizotte.   According to Mr. Smith, George Lizotte was the "very first Post Master and the very first Post Office for Pass A Grille was located in his Hotel."   Mr. Lizotte "also had the very first restrauant located in the Bonhomie then his other hotel the Lizotte," where the sender ate a short? dinner.


Mr. Paul Rusher, was married to an Ardell Van Vorce, had a daughter in 1914, Virgina Rusher, who may have been the recipient of the Hotel Winecoff postcard seen in my earlier post.  It's hard to make out the handwriting, but Ardell seems to be the sender of this card.  Both Paul and Ardell Rusher died in 1916,  at the ages of 44 and 26 respectively.  Why was Ardell in Florida two years before her death, traveling separate from her husband, who was busy working at Goulet and Company?  And what became of the couple who died at relatively young ages in the same year (or day)?