If these walls could talk…

The walls at The St. Charles are talking. Yesterday I was walking down the central hallway upstairs at the old St. Charles (originally a hotel) and I noticed some peeling paint on the wall. I took out my pocket knife, did a little careful scraping, and found graffiti underneath the paint. Since the place couldn’t have been painted in the last 75 years (it has been unoccupied that long) then that graffiti must be really old.

I have a lot more scraping to do, but did uncover some interesting stuff, including writing in Spanish and French and a few names. One place had the dates “Feb 13 & 14” which must have been the dates they stayed at the hotel, but no year listed.

I’m planning to remove these wall panels, as well as some of the ancient wallpaper and floor coverings in the building, frame them as art, and hang them on the walls of the B&B. They’re an interesting part of the building’s history.

Enjoy the photos below (click the thumbnails to enlarge, use browser’s Back button to return here). I’ll post more photos when I get more old paint scraped off the walls.