[QUOTE=ethereal_reality;5968891]The overlooked
Kipling Hotel at 4077 W. 3rd Street. (at Kingsley Drive)
google street view
I used to live on S. Ardmore ( a block away from the Kipling) between 2nd and 3rd back in the early to mid 1980s. At that time, the Kipling attracted a shabby genteel crowd of elders and was being operated as an independent living facility. I became friendly with a homeless woman named Ruby who lived (she really did live there) in the bus shelter in front of the 7-11 across the street from the Kipling. Ruby spent most nights talking to the advertising photos (frequently make up models for cosmetics) in the bus shelter. She would sometimes disappear for a week or two to go on a "rest cure" at a local psych hospital. I thought that Ruby was my special homeless person project and showered her with attention. I had a wake up call one Thanksgiving when I took Ruby a take out turkey dinner from Piper's on Western Ave. I arrived to find that Ruby already had been given at least a half a dozen other turkey dinners provided to her by various residents of the Kipling. I am guessing that these elders were a collective set of "eyes on the street", and maybe I should not have been quite as concerned about Ruby's well being. Ruby is long gone by now. The bus shelter survives as does the 7-11 where Ruby was allowed to store her belongings. I wonder what kind of residents the Kipling attracts today. Do many of them tie one on in the bar room on the ground floor? I don't think there was a bar there during my time in the neighborhood.