Mavi Boncuk |
“Hotel des Deux Auguste” Era Grand Hotel Huck.
READ: “Hotel Huck Smyrna: Outstanding Hotel of the Glorious Port-City” written by Ali Özkan and translated from the Turkish by Görkem Daskan, 2012
EXCERPT
" The emergence of modern hotels started a whole new era in the long history of lodgings which still exists today. In the same century, centuries-old lodgings like the caravanserais and inns which had deep roots in the Turkish culture slowly left their places to modern hotels. With the opening of the Izmir-Aydın railway line and the securing of a faster and a more efficient mode of transportation to the hinterland of Izmir, caravans and caravanserais began to lose their rationale and gradually disappeared. The inns found in city centres, on the other hand, managed to survive serving as depots and offices/stores.
Truly one of the grandest buildings in Izmir, the Grand Hotel Huck was located at the intersection of the 1st Cordon Street and the Ottoman Post Office Street.6 On the ground floor of the building, on the left, was situated the Ottoman post office.7 Being a 19th century building, it used to occupy the parcel number 49 according to the insurance plan of 1905. This plan, made by the English civil engineer Charles E. Goad, especially has laid out the details of districts such as Kemeraltı8 and the Frank Street.
The hotel was named Hotel M. Mille, Hotel des Deux Auguste and finally the Grand Hotel Huck in chronological order.10 In a photograph by one of the early photographers of Izmir, Rubellin, dating 1880, it could be seen in addition to the sign placed high on the parapet that read “Hotel des Deux Auguste” and the signs on both sides of the main door and just above the first-storey balcony door that read “Hotel M. Mille”. In 1888, the hotel was run by a Berliner called Madam Huck and later to be named after her.
The restaurant based on the first floor of the hotel was known to be quite a popular and an attractive spot at the time. An advertisement published in a city guide in 1894 shows that the guests of the Grand Hotel Huck were presented with a fixed menu, famous alcoholic drinks, cold and hot baths and tourist guides fluent in every language."
SEE ALSO: EVOLUTION OF ACCOMMODATION AND THE HISTORICAL HOTELS IN IZMIR An article written by Emel Kayın[1] and translated by Görkem Daşkan[2].
[1]This article, originally entitled “İzmir’de Konaklama Anlayışının Dönüşümü: Tarihi İzmir Otelleri” (Kayın, Emel. 2000. Arredamento Mimarlık, Sayı:100, s.30-31) is translated from the Turkish consulting the author’s Ph.D. thesis entitled “Historical Evolution of Hostelry Buildings with Particular Reference to Those within the Inner-City Izmir from the 17th to the First Quarter of the 20th Centuries” (Kayın, Emel. Ph.D. dissertation, Dokuz Eylül Üniversity, 1998). Also see Kayın, Emel. (2000) İzmir Oteller Tarihi (The History of İzmir Hotels). İzmir: İzmir Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kent Kitaplığı. [2] Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, 9 Eylül University.
