Aku-Tiki Room at the Andris Waunee Farm Restaurant, Kewanee, IL (restaurant) - Locating Tiki

AT albino tiki Member Chicago Joined: Jun 24, 2008 Posts: 26	AT albino tiki Posted posted on Tue, Jun 24, 2008 5:20 PM my first post... Numatiki and I attended the auction and had a great time. We got some wonderful items including the Aku Tiki Room light box sign, a Maori(esque?) wahaika club, 2 O.A. poles and (the item that I REALLY wanted) the railing with cannibal posts. I'm in the process of finishing a masters degree in historic preservation so I hate to see any historic architecture destroyed much less a tiki establishment. The preservationist's mantra is to always maintain as much of the original fabric of a building as possible and significant architectural elements and features should always remain in situ. So I had very mixed emotions as we were wielding crowbar and sawz-all to remove the posts and railing. I can only imagine how bittersweet the day must have been for Carol. But she was great, as were Carol and Mark Guthrie and everyone else that was helping out--really nice people! We're not exactly sure where we will put the railing yet. Our home bar is fairly small and pretty full, but the plan is that our next home will have a much larger tiki bar and lounge. We hope to have a place to install the entire railing and keep it intact. However, if we find we can't use it all in the future, Duke and Tipsy each have dibs on one of the posts. For now, we feel lucky to be the guardians of some great historic artifacts with a wonderful provenance. I took a few photos of the items that we purchased, both in situ and after we brought them home. I will ask my tech savvy better-half to post them later. I wish I had thought to take pictures during the auction, but I was preoccupied watching the bidding. We agree with everyone else that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we're so glad that we were a part of it.

my first post...

Numatiki and I attended the auction and had a great time. We got some wonderful items including the Aku Tiki
Room light box sign, a Maori(esque?) wahaika club, 2 O.A. poles and (the item that I REALLY wanted) the railing with cannibal posts.

I'm in the process of finishing a masters degree in historic preservation so I hate to see any historic architecture destroyed much less a tiki establishment. The preservationist's mantra is to always maintain as much of the original fabric of a building as possible and significant architectural elements and features should always remain in situ. So I had very mixed emotions as we were wielding crowbar and sawz-all to remove the posts and railing. I can only imagine how bittersweet the day must have been for Carol. But she was great, as were Carol and Mark Guthrie and everyone else that was helping out--really nice people!

We're not exactly sure where we will put the railing yet. Our home bar is fairly small and pretty full, but the plan is that our next home will have a much larger tiki bar and lounge. We hope to have a place to install the entire railing and keep it intact. However, if we find we can't use it all in the future, Duke and Tipsy each have dibs on one of the posts. For now, we feel lucky to be the guardians of some great historic artifacts with a wonderful provenance.

I took a few photos of the items that we purchased, both in situ and after we brought them home. I will ask my tech savvy better-half to post them later. I wish I had thought to take pictures during the auction, but I was preoccupied watching the bidding. We agree with everyone else that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we're so glad that we were a part of it.

Post #389253 by albino tiki on Tue, Jun 24, 2008 5:20 PM