Arts & Entertainment
A Blast from the Matchbook Past
The Urban Archeologist makes a chance discovery of a New York City burger joint and it leads to a Connecticut connection.
What do you collect?
Visiting as many sales as I do, it would be accurate to say I collect stories. From each sale there is at least one story that comes from looking at the things other people collect. Every sale is unique and interesting in its own way and each sale has a story to tell.
When I came across a collection of matchbooks at a Danbury sale, I knew I had found not just one story but several, maybe a hundred. Each is a book, though of few words, with graphics, slogans, maps and pointers that are screaming to tell the holder something: “Come Back!” or, “Stop By!”
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But there is the secondary story, or backstory, like how did the restaurant come to be? How long did it last? Was is popular, or are these matches the best part about it?
The lead image was just such a location. Hamburg Heaven came to be in the late 1930’s and was immediately popular. The interesting part? It was founded by a Wilton, CT housewife.
