Construction was begun on the Hotel St. Catherine in 1917 to replace Avalon's Metropole, destroyed by a catastrophic fire in 1915. By 1918 it was open for business. When the island was bought by William Wrigley, Jr., in 1919, a series of upgrades were made to the hotel, ending in the early 1920s. The casino (for dancing, not gambling) visible at the vertical middle toward the left, with the red roof, was built in 1920 by Wrigley and replaced by a larger building in 1929, at which time Sugar Loaf Rock, here seaward of the casino, was destroyed. Avalon Bay can be seen beyond the casino and rock--the next bay over. According to the back, this postcard was hand-colored. The approximate date is the 1920s.
