The Gallery is one of the oldest and most unmolested rooms in the Hotel St. George. The room was originally used to house portraits of the building’s founders and those who had helped contribute money for its initial construction. The room would have remained this mausoleum were it not for a restoration project in 1910, when the paintings were taken down for refurbishing. It was discovered that they had not aged as expected. Upon closer inspection, it was realized that the paintings had not aged because they were in fact not the original paintings, but were entirely accurate reproductions of the original paintings, save for a small letter "K" carved into the corner of the frame.
Curious, the hotel owners then examined the entryway table to the room, it too had a small "K" etched into its base, as did the lamp which sat on top of it. Even the guest book lying next to the lamp had been forged; each signature and well-wishing sentiment had been duplicated exactly. It soon dawned on the staff of the hotel that over the last sixty-five years someone had slowly and systematically replaced the entire Gallery with an exact replica of itself.
"K" was never located, but if a familiar relation was found to be spending an inordinate amount of time in the Gallery, they were often greeted with cautious glances in the hopes that they had not been replaced with their double as well. A small craze in 1918 among the youth culture was to place a small tattoo of the letter "K" at the base of the spine or ankle. During prohibition many speakeasy owners would grant a free drink to those who still sported the mark.
Today, the Gallery is used to house original originals, duplicated duplicates, and all matter of visual ephemera. Indeed when entering the cozy, yet removed nature of the room, one cannot help but get the feeling that one has crossed a threshold into someone’s collective unconscious: a hypermnemonic who has amassed and never forgotten the darkened crannies of a lost and beautiful visual culture. But do not linger too long or you may end up gazing into a mirror and see reflected back a face with which you are not entirely familiar.