I recently came across this ad, published in 1937 for a 75 cent Hotel Glasser chicken or turkey dinner. Wow that’s cheap! The closest thing you will find at that price today is a McChicken sandwich at McDonalds. It makes me wonder if the proprietors were keeping the prices ultra low so that everybody could afford a meal. After all, this was the middle of the Great Depression.
Well, they may have been doing their best to keep prices low but 75 cents in 1937 certainly wasn’t just pocket change. According to the InflationCalculator over at Dollartimes.com:
$0.75 in 1937 had about the same buying power as $11.57 in 2010. Annual inflation over this period was about 3.82%.
I would say that $11.57 is typical of what you would pay for a chicken dinner at a modern hotel restaurant today. It’s certainly a step above a McChicken sandwich.
I was also curious why the Hotel Glasser, located in Monongahela, would advertise in the Pittsburgh Press. Well, according to an old article I found online, the hotel was known for its good food and was popular with businessmen who would ride the trolley to Monongahela from Pittsburgh.
The Hotel Glasser is better known today as the Marble Hotel. The Marble is vacant and derelict but still standing at 144 West Main Street Monongahela PA. (next to CJ’s Furniture and across the street from the old Rite Aid Building) This hotel is an amazing building but I don’t expect it to be around much longer. I took a few pictures of it last year from a vantage point very few have access to but that will have to wait for another post!
Lost Monongahela 
I was very happy to see this article about the Glasser Hotel. My grandmother worked there many years ago, before she was married. I sure would like to have a picture of it to put with our family history.
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I will keep an eye out for some old pictures and will post what I find. I have a few from a few months ago and will post them shortly.
Does your grandmother have any memories she would like to share? Send me an email if she does. It would make an interesting blog post here on Lost Monongahela.
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Dan,
You are to be commended on this site. I have been on it for 3 days, reading it in its entirity.
My grandmother has passed on, but she told us she worked there before she married.
They lived in a small village called Frye Station in Carroll Twp.
Again, thank you.
Jacky
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The Marble Hotel was a different building. It stood where the Sheetz is today. It had white marble baseboards if I recall correctly.
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Hi Scott – you are thinking of the Hotel Main which was located where Sheetz is today. At some point in time the Hotel Glasser became known as the Marble Hotel. See this link from the Observer Reporter with a picture of Bruce Willis outside of Marble Hotel:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NxxlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NHcNAAAAIBAJ&pg=4928,5016089&dq=monongahela+marble-hotel&hl=en
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HI, My great great grandmother was a Glasser (originally from Carrolltown PA and then moved to Wilkes-Barre PA) and I found this in a family photo album. Does anyone know who the owners were?
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Hello, I can’t seem to comment to Carl, but I believe the Glasser hotel was owned by Otto and Andrew Glasser ! They are my great grand-uncles (my grandmother was their niece). I just found out that they owned this hotel and their father owned a different hotel in Carroltown, PA !
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Hi Courtney and thanks for answer. below is my email address.
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