The fabulous lobby of the Julien Hotel in Dubuque is a dim, dark, '30s-movie-style classic --- deep carpet, a once-bubbling fountain, cracked leather furniture, ferns to hide behind, a barbershop, and a German cellar restaurant (once a speakeasy?) down the velvety stairs. Chicago gangster Al Capone used to retreat across the Mississippi to flee Illinois warrents and stay here, the college kid at the desk told us. He laughed when we asked if there was a room available. The place was a ghost town. Above the front desk is an incredible hi-tech (for it's day) electric display that once shone your room number if you had a message. What messages in its heyday? "Your illegal hooch has arrived from Canada?" "Should we send up the usual girls?" "Mr. Jones is indisposed." |