A Little Bit Of Beer Garden Nostalgia, And A Lot Of History

Every time my sister Susan and I go to a beer garden such as the Denver Beer Company on South Downing Street here in Denver, Susan waxes nostalgic about going to a beer garden with our parents, Mary and Nelson, when she was a little girl growing up in Chicago. When everyone got up to dance, including our parents, she would go around all the tables and finish off whatever was left on them. Happy days indeed. I remember talking with my mother years ago, and she told me that beer garden was probably located in South Suburban Glenwood, Illinois. And so just for fun, I decided to do a little research, and found out that place was called Hottinger's Garden, that the building was built in 1843, and that it started out as a hotel and inn. Not only that, but it was also a stop on the Underground Railroad. The train would stop at the station across the street, and the escaped slaves would cross the street to the inn to rest before continuing their journey. The inn became Hottinger's Garden around the turn of the 20th Century and can be seen in the photograph on the left.

Over the years, the beer garden was added and can be seen in the photograph on the right from back in the day. Susan tells me she was around 5 years old when she started going there with our parents, which makes sense, since our father was drafted into the army in 1943, served as a dentist in Okinawa, and came back home to Chicago in 1947, which is when Susan was 5 years old. And with them all living with my mother's parents at the time, I imagine they really valued a night out.

The drawing on the left shows the "modern" Hottinger's Garden, which is the closest to what it was like when Susan and our parents used to go there. And in fact, I remember once going to a beer garden with my parents when I was young, too, and looking at this drawing, I think this was where we went. Sadly, over time, the exterior of that 1843 building was significantly modified. The business failed around 1970, and it became the Fireside Chalet/Amore Bistro. I found a Chicago Tribune review of this restaurant on the internet, and at first, I saw a date of 2021, thinking it was published only 5 years ago. However, when I looked further, it was "updated" in 2021, but originally published in 1994, and when I looked on the google maps site, it was a vacant lot. Evidently the building is no longer there. Doing a little more research, I found that the site was turned into an Underground Railroad Memorial back in 2023, which seems very appropriate, although it would have been nice if the original structure could have been saved. In any case, it is a tale of both nostalgia and history. And of course, beer.