WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:06.879 Rain bat at the windows of the main reading room 2 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:09.199 with a persistence that suited my project. If I'd been 3 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:11.439 hoping for distractions, there were none to be at the 4 00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:15.240 SAUGI Wednesday morning. The old library, built of locally quarried granite, 5 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:17.399 a serious face to a mostly gentle city, always felt 6 00:00:17.399 --> 00:00:19.839 a touched sepulchal on wet days. But that suited me too. 7 00:00:20.519 --> 00:00:22.839 Past the arch double doors and through the echoing lobby, 8 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:24.800 the main room was nearly empty but for a mess 9 00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:27.280 chen at the desk and a nodding regular with headphones. 10 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:30.839 I had arrived armed with note carroads, a well shoppen pencil, 11 00:00:30.920 --> 00:00:34.159 and that familiar blend of anticipation and routine satisfaction. Preparing, 12 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:35.880 as I told a mess chen on my way in 13 00:00:35.960 --> 00:00:38.520 for in a coming talk at this historical society, she 14 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:41.039 smiled and ducked into the stacks, soon emerging with the 15 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:44.200 Tamiwan City Directory from nineteen thirty four, its spine patched 16 00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:47.280 with tape. Start here herriot, she said, the corners of 17 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:50.759 her mouth, working all our ghosts in one place. I 18 00:00:50.840 --> 00:00:52.880 settled in at a long oak table several feet to 19 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:55.600 myself a luxury, and started flipping through block by block 20 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:57.600 accounts of a city just john enough in those days 21 00:00:57.640 --> 00:01:00.960 to brag about its telephone numbers. Task find a few 22 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:04.079 overlooked landmarks, maybe a vanished hardware store or the first 23 00:01:04.079 --> 00:01:07.319 candy factory. To sprinkle into my talk. The challenge was 24 00:01:07.359 --> 00:01:10.079 more pleasure than work. After nearly forty years teaching at 25 00:01:10.120 --> 00:01:12.400 Williston Middle, I had a taste for tracing thirds others 26 00:01:12.439 --> 00:01:14.840 had lost or snipped. I was half way through the 27 00:01:14.959 --> 00:01:17.319 MS when I noticed an entry in bowld Tight spanning 28 00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:20.280 nearly half a page. Monach Hotel Seesaid Grandeur, known for 29 00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:23.040 its elevated ball room and rooft up gardens s nineteen 30 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:27.239 fifteen manager Felix Lawton, Chef Henry de Lacourt, address one 31 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:30.280 hundred forty three Southcroft Ave. I looked down at the 32 00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:34.359 details the reception hours, cocktailane staff list. That address nodded 33 00:01:34.359 --> 00:01:37.480 my brow. One hundred forty three Southcraft was now a 34 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:40.079 battered concrete lot with a fully sign and when blown 35 00:01:40.079 --> 00:01:41.959 WP as a spot I passed every morning on my 36 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:44.719 way to George's bakery. I'd lived in the city since 37 00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:47.959 the late seventies, and my mother before me toward its 38 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:51.480 history led students on field trips watched Stalin Commerce come 39 00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:53.840 and go. Yet I had no memory, and had never 40 00:01:53.879 --> 00:01:55.840 heard so much as a rumor of a monic hotel 41 00:01:55.879 --> 00:01:58.480 at that address, or any hotel grander than the westport In. 42 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:02.560 I checked again. There it was. I ran a finger 43 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:05.239 beneath each line, waiting to feel sheepish with espotted. Some 44 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:08.400 clear that this was a typographical error, misplaced listing or remnant, 45 00:02:08.439 --> 00:02:12.360 confused with another building, But there were no such hints. Detail, 46 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:16.240 stacked names, dates, architectural superlatus, laid with a loving specificity 47 00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:19.159 I would have envied in my students. A prickly unease 48 00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:22.319 began to worm through my morning's satisfaction. Not fear, not 49 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:25.919 even suspicion quite, but rather a deep bristling perplexity. I 50 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:28.520 must have misread it, or may be the monarch was 51 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:32.560 before my time, and demolished quietly, and remarked stale selfcroft 52 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:34.639 hadn't changed much in eighty years. The spot had been 53 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:37.520 vacant as long as any one remembered. I penciled the 54 00:02:37.639 --> 00:02:39.599 entry onto a note coud with a small question marked 55 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:41.280 beside it, made a note on the BAP to ask 56 00:02:41.319 --> 00:02:44.000 mister Gourd, and continued on with my research trying to 57 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:47.280 refocus my attention on forgotten cobbles and civic fountains. For 58 00:02:47.360 --> 00:02:50.599 a few minutes I managed, but the monarchotel flickered at 59 00:02:50.599 --> 00:02:52.719 the edges of every thought surfacing even as I tried 60 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:54.759 to read about lamp light of routes and trolley lines. 61 00:02:55.439 --> 00:02:57.560 I flipped back to the original entry twice more before 62 00:02:57.560 --> 00:03:00.000 closing the directory's lower, this time taking in the head 63 00:03:00.039 --> 00:03:02.000 after the book and the feel of its battered cloth cover. 64 00:03:02.719 --> 00:03:06.120 My curiosity, once gentle sharpened into a more demanding instrument, 65 00:03:06.759 --> 00:03:08.639 I told myself I'd sort it out later, perhaps with 66 00:03:08.680 --> 00:03:11.639 help from another pair of eyes. I am Harriet Marshat 67 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:14.199 had now. Though teaching never really leaves you bones, however 68 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:16.719 many farewell cakes and folder cards you were given. I 69 00:03:16.759 --> 00:03:19.919 spend almost four decades guiding students through the city's histories 70 00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:22.599 and the absurdities of English grammar, the last twenty seven 71 00:03:22.599 --> 00:03:25.439 in a rusber classroom two blocks from the boat. Some 72 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:28.039 years back, I began giving little talks to the Willison 73 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:30.319 Historical Society, a group with a temperament, I say this 74 00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:33.439 affictionately halfway between a book club and a confessional. We're 75 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:36.000 a dozen older folks, a few newcomers, several with life 76 00:03:36.039 --> 00:03:39.159 on roots and stories to match our sessions run along 77 00:03:39.319 --> 00:03:42.560 everyone in terrupts. My talk next Thursday would be about 78 00:03:42.599 --> 00:03:45.479 vanished local landmarks, places that once o loomed large, now 79 00:03:45.479 --> 00:03:49.000 paved over or reduced a bronze plaque. I'd started assembling 80 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:52.960 notes from city archives, college collections, and the libraries deep files. 81 00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:56.080 Most of my mornings began with the walk along Front Street, 82 00:03:56.120 --> 00:03:58.599 past to Biggery, through the drizzle, always downward of the 83 00:03:58.599 --> 00:04:01.000 briny wharves, and wound up with in the reading room. 84 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:04.479 Among the slow parade of regulars. There was masss Rider 85 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:07.840 Gray and quok Eyde, always scrippling charts for her genealogical puzzles, 86 00:04:07.879 --> 00:04:11.039 two art students who haunted the east window, sketching architectural 87 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:15.240 flourishes for their portfolios, and most appendably, mister Good. Mister 88 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:18.120 Good was neither affiliated with the society nor especially humble 89 00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:20.439 about his credentials. He wrote letters to the local paper 90 00:04:20.439 --> 00:04:22.720 correcting city monument dates, and had once given me a 91 00:04:22.759 --> 00:04:25.639 pamphet and the true boundaries of old Dutch Williston. We 92 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:29.560 traded findings, sometimes cordially contradictory, always with a mutual understanding 93 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:32.160 that history in this town was both a communal pastime 94 00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:35.519 and a perpetual point of debate. Ames Chen meanwhile, ran 95 00:04:35.519 --> 00:04:37.920 the library with measured efficiency, a woman a few words 96 00:04:37.959 --> 00:04:40.600 and sharp memory, whose gift was never losing track of books, 97 00:04:40.920 --> 00:04:44.199 facts of visitors once she'd learned your name. These little 98 00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:46.879 rituals rooted by days, the library smell of old pages, 99 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:49.360 masss riders raised ibro whenever I ran a fowl of 100 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:52.920 genealogical evidence, the students' sidelong glances when I corrected them 101 00:04:52.959 --> 00:04:56.360 with a century old anecdote. Williston, like any city, was 102 00:04:56.439 --> 00:04:58.720 less agreed of streets than a sediment of memory. Bakeries 103 00:04:58.759 --> 00:05:01.480 He could taste as a child, juries whose timetables dictated 104 00:05:01.480 --> 00:05:04.319 summer afternoons, shops whose windows still echoed with the laughter 105 00:05:04.360 --> 00:05:07.959 of friends long gone. Our facts were an invention of consensus, 106 00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:10.959 held together by years of retelling. But there were rules, 107 00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:14.920 double check everything, triangulate facts, but were hasty theories. This 108 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:18.920 was my world, tidy, testable, consistent, which is why, when 109 00:05:18.920 --> 00:05:21.120 I finished my survey and romise through the thick directory 110 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:23.600 a second time, the impossible hotel refused to slot into 111 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:27.560 any familiar category. Not a race by time, but apparently unmade, 112 00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:30.920 not a whisper in the city's oral histories, and yet 113 00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:33.199 here it was, in black ink on yellow paper. Its 114 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:36.319 ballroom holding parties i'd never heard, described, its chef preparing 115 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:39.319 banquets for committee I could not recall. After half an 116 00:05:39.319 --> 00:05:42.240 hour of searching, I snapped the directory shut suddenly, impatient 117 00:05:42.839 --> 00:05:45.240 time to test my instincts, beginning as always with the 118 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:48.600 ones I trusted, memory, experience and the opinions of fellow 119 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:52.079 devotees of city history. With my question cards still in hand, 120 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:54.319 I approached him as Chen, who was shoving returns at 121 00:05:54.319 --> 00:05:57.879 the circulation desk. Mss Chen, have you ever come across 122 00:05:57.879 --> 00:06:00.959 the Monarch Hotel? I kept my voice, lefe, choosing casualness 123 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:06.720 over confrontation. She paused, considering monic hotel. She glanced over 124 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:09.879 her glasses at me. No, Harriet, not in the city 125 00:06:09.959 --> 00:06:12.040 self croft. That's always been the vacant lot with the 126 00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:15.680 old Armworks Foundation, hasn't it. That's what I thought, I replied, 127 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:18.480 But it's in the nineteen thirty four directory, as plain 128 00:06:18.519 --> 00:06:22.199 as day, half a page. Very grand sounding. She pursed 129 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:23.959 her lips, as if wayhing whether this might be a 130 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:27.600 belated April fool's joke. Do you want reference help? Sometimes 131 00:06:27.639 --> 00:06:30.279 our old city books get their geography wrong. Nilly addresses 132 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:33.720 can be tricky, maybe, I said, Or maybe a type 133 00:06:33.720 --> 00:06:36.920 siter was dreaming of palaces. It wouldn't hurt to verify, 134 00:06:37.639 --> 00:06:40.120 I spotted. Mister Good hunched over a stack of newspaper 135 00:06:40.120 --> 00:06:43.279 clippings near the microfiche machine and called softly. Mister Good 136 00:06:43.399 --> 00:06:45.439 indulged me. Have you ever heard of the monach hotel? 137 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:49.560 He peered over, unamused, Harriet, I could give a lecture 138 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:51.600 on every hotel from the Exchange to the Seaside. If 139 00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:53.879 there had been a monarch, especially at South Croft, I'd 140 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:56.439 have written about its implosure myself. The city's only ever 141 00:06:56.519 --> 00:06:59.759 kept two decent hotels open at once max, He grinned. 142 00:07:00.439 --> 00:07:02.319 But if you can find a cocktail menu, I'll eat 143 00:07:02.360 --> 00:07:05.639 my hat. I described the grand Entry, the rooftop garden, 144 00:07:05.720 --> 00:07:09.600 the exact address. He snorted. Noe, some editor must have 145 00:07:09.639 --> 00:07:11.800 been embellishing, or some one mixed up the records from 146 00:07:11.800 --> 00:07:14.680 another city with ours. I nodded, but folded my not 147 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:18.439 card more tightly than before. For all mister Good's mbastic confidence, 148 00:07:18.519 --> 00:07:21.439 his was not memory easily rattled. Maybe there was an 149 00:07:21.439 --> 00:07:24.040 answer in the wreckers he hadn't seen yet. There was 150 00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:27.000 one more gig keeper to check. I wandered back through 151 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:29.240 the main room and found Missess Rider elbow deep in 152 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:32.560 a tangle of census microfilm, making notes in halooping script. 153 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:36.439 Missess Rider, forgive the interruption in your family trequests? Did 154 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:40.160 your ancestors ever mention a monarch hotel? South Croft nineteen thirties? 155 00:07:40.879 --> 00:07:43.600 She looked at me, face scrunching in thought. Well, my 156 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:46.279 people lived at one hundred forty seven Southcroft through the war. 157 00:07:46.360 --> 00:07:49.120 Nothing but the eyemworkscent later that Antieplat we used to 158 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:51.800 pick will Fennel along the tracks. There no hotel, not 159 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:54.360 unless it appeared for three months and left without a footprint. 160 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:57.920 Thank you, I said. I tried to hide my frustration 161 00:07:57.959 --> 00:08:00.519 behind a teacher's mile, but she saw through it. Is 162 00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:03.839 it freer talk in a way, I replied, watching her 163 00:08:03.839 --> 00:08:06.759 eyes doart with new curiosity. I just can't make it 164 00:08:06.759 --> 00:08:10.360 add up. City histories don't always agree with themselves, as 165 00:08:10.360 --> 00:08:12.920 my mother liked to say. She remarked, returning to her 166 00:08:12.920 --> 00:08:17.040 microfilm pencil, tapping the reel, It was clear memory consensus, 167 00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:20.240 an expert opinion, all agreed, no monarch. And yet the 168 00:08:20.279 --> 00:08:23.800 next time I opened the directory, there it lay and wavering, elaborate, 169 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:26.040 not a slip of someone's pen, but a full entry 170 00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:28.879 with the authority of printed history. I checked the following 171 00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:31.360 year's directory, its cover a little shinier, the page is 172 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:34.799 a little less foxed. Again, the monarchray and supreme over 173 00:08:34.840 --> 00:08:38.399 half a column. Its manager promoted, its staff expanded, even 174 00:08:38.440 --> 00:08:40.559 its phone number was listed to something I could recall, 175 00:08:40.600 --> 00:08:44.440 the city's exchanges, never having reached, I turned through foul cards, 176 00:08:44.639 --> 00:08:48.960 some handriten, some typed labeled hotel's historic and Southcroft establishments, 177 00:08:49.639 --> 00:08:52.240 every card, every guide book showing an entry for the Monarch, 178 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:54.679 or a note referring to its brief but memorable heyday. 179 00:08:55.320 --> 00:08:58.879 These art facts, curated through generations of local librarians, all 180 00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:01.720 converged in the reality I never noticed, stand apparently no 181 00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:05.080 one else could recall. By mid day, my appetite had vanish, 182 00:09:05.240 --> 00:09:07.559 replaced by quiet tension in my chest, the vague news 183 00:09:07.559 --> 00:09:10.159 of missing a crucial step in a simple equation. I 184 00:09:10.200 --> 00:09:12.799 gathered my notes, sipped up my raincoat, and stepped into 185 00:09:12.799 --> 00:09:15.200 the drizzle, Rehearsing already the story I bring home, but 186 00:09:15.240 --> 00:09:18.240 would not yet tell. Was this a miscatalogged ghost, a 187 00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:20.879 widespread but forgotten hoax, or a glitch in the city's 188 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:23.639 own memory. I promised myself I'd answer it, not with 189 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:27.639 speculation of story telling, but with evidence, calm, methodical. That 190 00:09:27.799 --> 00:09:30.840 was my way. I came back the next morning, umbrella 191 00:09:30.919 --> 00:09:33.480 topped beneath my arm, determined to trace the monarch's shadow 192 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:36.600 through whatever wreckers I could find. If there was an error, 193 00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:38.240 it would show up with light and pressure, like a 194 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:40.320 floor on a table top, only needing a fresh polish 195 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:43.360 to reveal its shape. First, I turned to the bound 196 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:45.519 city newspapers. Snuk on the world wore I eight ear 197 00:09:45.679 --> 00:09:48.600 rolling racks I leaf through the late twenties, then amid 198 00:09:48.679 --> 00:09:52.480 minutes one thousand, nine hundred thirties. There the monarch's name 199 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:55.360 graced advertisements for jars, knights, and cotillions, each with a 200 00:09:55.399 --> 00:09:58.639 blocky restaurant coupon at the bottom. In another edition June 201 00:09:58.679 --> 00:10:01.080 nineteen thirty seven, I frowned the human interest piece about 202 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:03.840 Chef Henry Delacout's revolutionaries who flay his solemn face and 203 00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:06.919 chef sat next to the city's mayor's wife. Scattered through 204 00:10:06.919 --> 00:10:10.159 different months were editorials waxing poetic about the coastal splendor 205 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:12.159 and bird's eye views of the harbor from the Monarch's 206 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:16.960 ballroom windows. Excitement tinged now with deeper confusion kept me moving. Surely, 207 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:19.919 if the Monarch was nearer, it must be a shared one. Perhaps, 208 00:10:20.039 --> 00:10:22.799 I told myself the city directories relied on these papers. 209 00:10:23.480 --> 00:10:26.320 But how could no one remember something so grand? I 210 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:29.559 began pulling physical pamphlets, tourist guise and the old City 211 00:10:29.559 --> 00:10:32.799 Council minutes from the reference shelves. Banquet hosted at the 212 00:10:32.840 --> 00:10:36.600 Monarch Hotel appeared in Mondainless right alongside public works Southcroft 213 00:10:36.600 --> 00:10:39.960 Project nineteen forty. Not only did the Monarch exist in 214 00:10:39.960 --> 00:10:42.279 the written pass starred in the city's narrative for half 215 00:10:42.279 --> 00:10:45.639 a decade. I decided to compare these to digitized versions. 216 00:10:46.360 --> 00:10:48.600 Using my own laptop in the librari's Wi FRAI, I 217 00:10:48.600 --> 00:10:52.720 scoured newspaper archives, city council records, and business licenses digital 218 00:10:52.759 --> 00:10:55.840 scans I'd uced hundreds of times before not a single 219 00:10:55.879 --> 00:10:58.759 mention of the Monarch Hotel anywhere outside the physical materials. 220 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:01.960 Other hotel and city events were present, but whenever I 221 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:05.679 searched for Mona Hotel, Felix lawdon or that exact Savecroft address. 222 00:11:05.720 --> 00:11:07.919 The only entries referred either to the ironworks or to 223 00:11:07.960 --> 00:11:10.840 listings for a vacant lot future home of municipal Incinerator. 224 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:13.240 It was as if the Monarch existed only in the 225 00:11:13.240 --> 00:11:15.480 paper records and never made the leap to scan or 226 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:18.799 online history. Even stranger. I copied the text of some 227 00:11:18.840 --> 00:11:21.399 of the physical articles onto a stack of blank note cards. 228 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:24.759 Monarch Hotel, see our new roofed up garden, live music 229 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:27.799 every Friday. As an experiment, I checked my note cards 230 00:11:27.840 --> 00:11:30.200 upon leaving the library a step into the cold, wet 231 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:34.639 light outside. There the wood became harbor trained timetable October December, 232 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:37.480 or a review of McLean's Restaurant. I being to flip 233 00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:40.879 the card, tried another, No Monarch, nothing even Adjicent to 234 00:11:40.919 --> 00:11:43.679 the hotel. When I stepped inside and checked the same 235 00:11:43.720 --> 00:11:46.639 card at the reference desk, the handwriting again read Monach 236 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:51.320 Hotel now accepting guests inside normal outside Impossible. Even the 237 00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:54.639 books themselves seemed to conspire. I tried checking out a 238 00:11:54.679 --> 00:11:58.639 slim volume on hotels of Southcroft Avenue nineteen hundred nineteen fifty, 239 00:11:58.679 --> 00:12:01.679 which should have a chapter on the mon construction mess 240 00:12:01.720 --> 00:12:03.799 Chen checked it out from me, noting the due date. 241 00:12:04.480 --> 00:12:07.200 I took it to George's Bakery, ordering a sandwich and coffee. 242 00:12:07.240 --> 00:12:09.399 As soon as I cracked it open, the Monarch's section 243 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:12.519 was absent, replaced by a chapter titled Vacant lot form 244 00:12:12.519 --> 00:12:15.320 A sight of Eroemworks. I tried again and again, with 245 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:19.559 note cards, copper pages, even photographs with my smartphone. Each 246 00:12:19.639 --> 00:12:22.080 time the references to the Monarch simply dissolved once I 247 00:12:22.200 --> 00:12:25.200 was physically outside the library's walls. It was not a 248 00:12:25.240 --> 00:12:27.799 trick of the mind, nor a matter of miscatalogging. The 249 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:32.320 anomaly hovered persistent within the building's perimeter, entirely inaccessible, intangible, 250 00:12:32.360 --> 00:12:35.679 and even undetectable. Beyond it, I'd again catalog in my 251 00:12:35.720 --> 00:12:39.039 own attempt, tempting variations do to changes depend on whose 252 00:12:39.080 --> 00:12:42.120 present or on which materials are brought together. If it's 253 00:12:42.159 --> 00:12:45.159 only a matter of location, what about the courtyard, the vestibule, 254 00:12:45.320 --> 00:12:48.080 or the periodicals in the reading nook. Each trial was 255 00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:50.600 met with the same result. Once the boundary was crossed, 256 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:53.639 all vanished references to the Monarch reverted or vanished entirely. 257 00:12:54.279 --> 00:12:56.519 I jerked with myself grimly if only to keep the 258 00:12:56.559 --> 00:12:59.200 whole procession from feeling unmanageable, that perhaps, if I wanted 259 00:12:59.200 --> 00:13:02.240 to eliminate an embarreling historical footnote, I should simply carry 260 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:04.679 it through the doors. But while I felt the first 261 00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:07.000 flickers of worry about my memory and my methods, I 262 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:09.559 prided myself from both, the greater force swelled or tinted 263 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:12.080 with a shade of disbelief. I had never seen a 264 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:15.799 contradiction so elaborate or so precisely contained. How many of 265 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:18.159 these details had I missed in a lifetime of walking 266 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:20.840 past that very lot? I sat at the same table 267 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:24.360 each day, cross referencing, sketching out comparisons, and maintaining a 268 00:13:24.440 --> 00:13:29.919 running list newspapers, city directories, physical Monarch present, digital coppers, 269 00:13:30.039 --> 00:13:34.840 personal notes outside library Monarch absent photographs of pages monochabsent 270 00:13:34.919 --> 00:13:38.840 and vowen inside or out borrowed library books. Monarch's action 271 00:13:38.960 --> 00:13:43.600 vanishes outside memory and reference only reliable inside. If it 272 00:13:43.639 --> 00:13:47.399 was a prank, it required the complicity of generations of librarians, editors, 273 00:13:47.519 --> 00:13:50.320 record keepers, and but binders, all far longer than even 274 00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:54.000 this dubborn curiosity could last. So why hadn't the city noticed? 275 00:13:54.600 --> 00:13:57.879 Why did the mythos remain so local, so invisible, when histories, 276 00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:00.840 especially small town once flourish at the faintest before lost grandeur. 277 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:05.039 And if this effecticsas suddenly here, why what could possibly 278 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:08.399 unite physical wrecords collective forgatting and the single building's four 279 00:14:08.440 --> 00:14:11.799 granite walls. I resolved not to speculate, but to gather 280 00:14:11.879 --> 00:14:14.840 more data. On my walk home Umbrella am Feld, I 281 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:16.919 tried fruitlessly to imagine the block as it might have 282 00:14:16.919 --> 00:14:19.559 been with the gleaming hotel instead of batterdashalt and weeds. 283 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:23.000 My own memories all the way back to nineteen sixty 284 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:25.639 four yielded only emptiness, scattered with the scent of rain 285 00:14:25.720 --> 00:14:28.679 and rusted metal. There had never even been a ghost story. 286 00:14:29.159 --> 00:14:32.519 I kept probing, seeking the edges of impossibility, already certain that, 287 00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:35.120 however this puzzle resolved, the facts alone could not account 288 00:14:35.159 --> 00:14:37.840 for what I was seeing. Resolved now to be thorough, 289 00:14:37.879 --> 00:14:40.159 I set about testing the boundaries of the Moner problem 290 00:14:40.200 --> 00:14:42.200 with a rigor that might have embarrassed my thirty year 291 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:45.399 old self. I snapped the photograph of the Monarch's newspaper 292 00:14:45.480 --> 00:14:48.960 advertisement on my smartphone. The picture in the phone's preview 293 00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:50.879 looked for all the world like my own handwriting a 294 00:14:50.919 --> 00:14:54.120 test message called across a blank note card. The text 295 00:14:54.200 --> 00:14:57.120 on zooming in was generic business listings see paid for. 296 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:00.639 I tried again, this time with the city directctory. Again 297 00:15:00.759 --> 00:15:04.080 my photo resolved a page about municipal street repairs Southcroft 298 00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:08.360 document it yet always eluding evidence. One afternoon, as sun 299 00:15:08.440 --> 00:15:11.200 rake diamond lines across the bay in startled patrons inside, 300 00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:13.879 I retreated to the alcove body art and architecture shelves. 301 00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:17.399 There the two art students, Sabrina and Myles, shuffles, sketch 302 00:15:17.399 --> 00:15:19.759 books and compared drawings, one flipping through pages, the other 303 00:15:19.879 --> 00:15:22.840 peering at an architectural feature. Should sketch repeated it. I 304 00:15:22.840 --> 00:15:26.039 couldn't help but overhear snippets as I passed. But there's 305 00:15:26.039 --> 00:15:28.679 no old photo of it. Myles was saying, you sure 306 00:15:28.679 --> 00:15:31.960 you weren't looking at the Rosemont. Sabrina hesitated, thumbing for 307 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:34.840 a stack of dog ear prints. It was the monarch. 308 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:37.559 I did that study last semester. Remember big grund at 309 00:15:37.600 --> 00:15:43.120 Awning iron gate orchid carved doors. What's the monarch? Myles said, laughing, 310 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:46.120 isn't that just the empty parking lot? My dad's shop 311 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:48.039 used to face that way. He says, there has never 312 00:15:48.039 --> 00:15:51.200 been anything but city trucks and pigeons. No, there's an 313 00:15:51.240 --> 00:15:54.919 old photo, ask missus Ryder. Sabrina frown then turned to me, 314 00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:58.120 as I was rifling through my own book. Excuse me, 315 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:00.879 mess Marsh, you know about the monarch, right? Did the 316 00:16:00.919 --> 00:16:04.519 library ever display this blueprints? Their question was sincere, as 317 00:16:04.519 --> 00:16:07.960 if the hotel's existence were obvious. I've heard both sides 318 00:16:07.960 --> 00:16:11.679 to day, I admitted, what do you remember? She descried 319 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:14.039 in surprise and detail, drawing from a photograph in the 320 00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:16.200 arka of a photograph she now could not locate. Among 321 00:16:16.240 --> 00:16:20.000 her prints, she remembered chop copper, gutters, etched nameplates, a 322 00:16:20.080 --> 00:16:22.639 winter scene with staff post beside a tope pierious one. 323 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:26.320 But Myles, shaking his head, insisted, I've never once seen 324 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:29.039 any blueprint or photograph here, never heard any teacher talk 325 00:16:29.080 --> 00:16:31.639 about it. Maybe you're confusing it with their store. That 326 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:34.879 exchange struck a new chord. It was not only records 327 00:16:34.879 --> 00:16:37.639 that seemed unstable, but memory two, one press in certain 328 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:41.360 another blank, both entirely genuine. When Sabrina come through a 329 00:16:41.360 --> 00:16:44.639 bout Daca fold her, she muttered confused that strange was 330 00:16:44.679 --> 00:16:47.279 sure I had the monarch's image right here. I pursued 331 00:16:47.320 --> 00:16:51.919 the experiment with the library staff. A mess Chen, reliably unfazed, insisted, 332 00:16:51.960 --> 00:16:54.200 as we reorganized the vertical files, if there were a 333 00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:56.679 monarch among the cataloged hertels, I would have seen it 334 00:16:56.720 --> 00:16:59.159 in all these years, not single blueprint of photograph and 335 00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:02.279 every catalog the whole earth. Three months ago, but later, 336 00:17:02.679 --> 00:17:05.480 just afternoon, a substitute desk clerk named Jamie was feeding 337 00:17:05.480 --> 00:17:09.559 my crofilm through an aging projector. I asked, nonchalantly, ever 338 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:12.200 come across the monarch. She hung to herself for a 339 00:17:12.200 --> 00:17:14.519 moment as lazy on the screen, then said, or at 340 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:16.640 the rooftop garden was beautiful. My parents took me to 341 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:18.720 a wedding there. Maybe I must be mixing it up 342 00:17:18.759 --> 00:17:23.000 with the old roseman. She rewound the tape, blinking, confused. Funny, 343 00:17:23.039 --> 00:17:25.319 I could have sworn it was the MONARCHA my list 344 00:17:25.319 --> 00:17:27.960 of anomalies now grew not only printed records, but the 345 00:17:27.960 --> 00:17:31.759 shape and content of memory itself appeared malable. Inside the library, 346 00:17:31.799 --> 00:17:34.400 people's awareness seemed capable of tilting toward the existence of 347 00:17:34.440 --> 00:17:37.680 the monarch, sometimes retrieving details with a sudden, vivid conviction, 348 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:41.920 sometimes abruptly forgetting them. In every case, once outside, their 349 00:17:41.960 --> 00:17:45.039 sureness reverted to the mean, hotel gone, replaced by suspicion 350 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:48.039 at their own fleeting certainty. I returned to my seat, 351 00:17:48.039 --> 00:17:50.839 thinking over the boundaries. How every physical test, every attempt 352 00:17:50.880 --> 00:17:52.640 to record the anomaly in a way that could leave 353 00:17:52.680 --> 00:17:56.119 the library, resulted in arasia or polite confusion. The effect 354 00:17:56.119 --> 00:17:58.960 did not depend on intention, equipment, or even my own will. 355 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:02.559 It was as though within these walls something ank of reality, 356 00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:05.519 less to the facts themselves than to something unspoken. Was 357 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:10.160 it expectation, story telling the way libraries accumulate memory, habit, 358 00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:13.400 and wish an equal measure. I began sketching maps, little 359 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:16.279 a boundaries drawn over the floor plan, marking the threshold 360 00:18:16.359 --> 00:18:20.279 with certainty unraveled, cataloging which memories and which people were susceptible, 361 00:18:20.319 --> 00:18:23.839 how long details lasted before returning to ambiguity. The monarch 362 00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:26.920 impossible outside felt inside like an echo that could swell 363 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:29.279 or dwindle, depending on who was present and how keenly 364 00:18:29.319 --> 00:18:32.119 they wanted to remember. I was reminded in a way 365 00:18:32.200 --> 00:18:34.279 that delighted me of the exercises I'd run for my 366 00:18:34.359 --> 00:18:37.480 more skeptical it graders read the passage and then described 367 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:40.119 the character as hair color. They would go back, sure 368 00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:42.640 they'd remembered it blonde, or read only to find a 369 00:18:42.680 --> 00:18:45.920 detail never existed in the texts. Here the memory of 370 00:18:45.960 --> 00:18:48.319 the Monarch became vivid and detailed, in direct proportion to 371 00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:50.759 our own attention and conviction, made real in some sense 372 00:18:50.799 --> 00:18:53.839 by those determined to see it. One quiet morning, having 373 00:18:53.880 --> 00:18:56.920 noticed I was not alone in affixation, oppressed the experiment further. 374 00:18:57.599 --> 00:18:59.440 I found mister Good at his usual haunt, deep in 375 00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:02.519 a stack of pamphlet folders. Let me ask you again, 376 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:05.279 not as adversaries, but as allies. Do you remember the 377 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:09.400 monarch hotel? He raised his fine white eyebrows, shaking his head. No, 378 00:19:09.799 --> 00:19:13.240 I told you, Harriet, never await the Monarch. He paused. 379 00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:16.839 I do remember a reading, maybe a poetry night upstairs 380 00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:20.039 when I was at college. The velvet carpet's Chandelier's goodness, 381 00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:22.480 that's odd, Harriet. I've never been there, I'm sure of it. 382 00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:25.680 His certainty wilted as quickly as it appeared, leaving us 383 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:29.559 both blanking. Did you go to hotel readings often? I probed, 384 00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:32.440 half teasing, half hoping to anchor him. He squeezed his 385 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:36.440 eyes shut. No, No, it's ridiculous. There wasn't even a monarch. 386 00:19:36.519 --> 00:19:38.480 I must be confusing it with that rented hole over 387 00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:41.200 the Wollwards. Yet there was a tinge of embarrassment in 388 00:19:41.240 --> 00:19:44.000 his voice, as of court believing in a trick not 389 00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:47.599 far away. Missus Ryder, having overheard us, piped out. I 390 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:49.960 just remembered my grandmother used to take me to tea 391 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:51.839 at the Monarch's sun Room. We always sat near the 392 00:19:51.839 --> 00:19:54.000 bay windows. She let me have extra sugar cubes if 393 00:19:54.039 --> 00:19:58.240 I recited my lessons. She smiled, almost wistful. Funny. I 394 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:02.440 know she never left Seufkroff. She blinked, suddenly uncertain. Was 395 00:20:02.440 --> 00:20:05.519 it the Monarch or was it Marjorie's bakery. That day, 396 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:07.720 when I checked the nineteen thirty two theater programme in 397 00:20:07.759 --> 00:20:10.640 the archives, a slim folded play The Lejalla read Front Tobacco, 398 00:20:10.680 --> 00:20:13.039 found a new insert advertising a bread festival at the 399 00:20:13.039 --> 00:20:16.079 Monarcho Taball Room. The typhos matched the rest, as if 400 00:20:16.119 --> 00:20:18.160 the event had always been tied to the famous hotel. 401 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:21.240