Ressurecting A Landmark

There is a little bit of history that thrives in Bloomington. Sitting across from the IU campus at 114 Indiana Ave. is a building remembered and revered as an icon of the University. Some know it as the Gables, some recall it as Garcia's Pizza Parlor and few know it as the Book Nook. \nAnd now, nearly a century later, the landmark will be the new home to Roly Poly, a wrap-sandwich restaurant chain.\nRoly Poly, based in Athens, Ga., is franchising Roly Poly in Bloomington and will celebrate its grand opening April 26. \nFranchise representatives said they are aware of the site's historical value.\n"We want to maintain the integrity and history of the building." said Bill Church, vice president of the Roly Poly's Carmel, Ind. location and soon-to-be Bloomington locations. "We're going to vitalize the Gables' history and the original layout of the place through photo archives. The corporate Roly Poly does allow flexibility when it comes to location specifics, but we will have to vitalize the corporate colors."\nThe restaurant will be called Roly Poly at the Gables.\nBradley Cook, reference specialist at the University archives, has worked closely with the partners of Roly Poly to authenticate the atmosphere of the Book Nook, a popular hang out for students that thrived before the Gables restaurant moved in. He said he believes Roly Poly moving into Gables is good for Bloomington because of the jobs it will create. \nBut some are critical of the type of company moving into the building. \n"It's a shame that they're not putting in something unique and quaint in place of Gables, instead of a food chain based on fad and style," said Spencer Goodson, as he passes by the vacated restaurant. Goodson is a physician and current law student. \n"This building is steeped in history and tradition," Goodson said.\nShabby to established\nIn 1919, George Poolitsan, owner of the Candy Kitchen on N. Walnut Street, bought the Book Nook from former mayor of Indianapolis, C.W. Jewett. The bookstore was housed in a white, wooden shack on Indiana Avenue. Poolitsan, "The Candy King," turned the Book Nook into a parlor where IU students could come to relax and have a cold drink and sandwich. \nThe Book Nook was conveniently located near the former library in the Old Crescent, which was perfect for students who wanted to take a break from their work and get something to drink or eat.\n"Contemporary observers described (the Book Nook) as a shabby, dirty student hangout with a sawdust-strewn floor," wrote Thomas D. Clark, author of "Midwestern Pioneer," a three-volume history of IU. \nBut the "shabby" establishment flourished into the local mainstay. After Poolitsan died in October 1920, his wife and family leased the building and the "Book Nook" name to their cousins, the Costas family, a Greek immigrant family from Chicago. The Costas brothers moved to Bloomington to begin their new business. This is when the legend began.\nThe Book Nook became the heart and soul of the IU student body. \n"The Costases were occupied with keeping fresh sawdust on their floor, sloshing together chocolate milk shakes, and the eternal clatter of jazz," Clark wrote.\nThe Costases took a special interest in the students and campus. Ceremonial mock graduations were held outside the Book Nook. Faculty and students would parade down Indiana Avenue wearing bathrobes and dunce caps in groups, playing drums and trumpets led by Hoagy Carmichael, IU's famous jazz alumnus, and a car carrying former president Herman B Wells. Standing on a podium outside the Book Nook surrounded by hundreds of students and local residents, Peter Costas would hand out honorary degrees in "Nookology" to students.\nCarmichael was a frequent visitor of the Book Nook.\n"It was at the Book Nook that a segment of jazz was gestated and born." Clark wrote, "Pecking away at the keys of a battered old upright piano, Hoagy Carmichael 'doodled' out such popular rhythms as…'Stardust.'" \nIn his autobiography, "Sometimes I Wonder," Carmichael, in his later days, wrote, "On Indiana Avenue stood the Book Nook, a randy temple smelling of socks, wet slickers, vanilla flavoring, face powder, and unread books. Its dim lights, its scarred walls, its marked up books, unsteady tables, made campus history. It was for us King Arthur's Round Table, a wailing wall, a fortune telling tent. It tried to be a book store. It had grown…New tunes were heard and praised or thumbed down, lengthy discussions on sex, drama, sports, money and motor cars were started and never quite finished. The first steps of the toddle, the shimmy, and the strut were taken and fitted to the new rhythm. Dates were made and mad hopes were born."\nClark described the Book Nook as keeping a slow pace during the day, but busy with "jazzy activities" until early in the morning. \nIn the roaring twenties, the Book Nook was prosecuted by the state government as the focal point of student drinking during Prohibition. \nDean of Men Charles E. Edmonson and Dean of Women Ermina Wells took the Poolitsans to court in the State of Indiana v. Book Nook. The Poolitsans lost the suit, were fined $500 dollars and handed a suspended sentence of 30 days in jail. George Poolitsan's grandson, also named George, who is 79 and retired, lives in Bloomington and has fond memories of the Gables.\nClark wrote, "Costas and his brothers were victimized in the prohibition years by students who brought hip flasks with them and spiked Cokes and even coffee. The Greeks realized the grave danger of being charged with running a speakeasy, but they had little control over the students' drinking." Clark continues, "Students drank in fraternity houses, Student Building, about town, in Indianapolis, and everywhere else…some vigilant observers of Monroe County, (Dean Edmonson and Dean Wells), thought they detected the aroma of bathtub gin, kerosene-laden moonshine; and basement homebrew"