Rebus Letter on Hotel Nicholas Letterhead

When Charles worked on architecture commissions away from home, he wrote to Lucia in his signature “rebus” style, combining pictures and letters to represent words. This game of coding and decoding messages carried on throughout Lucia’s childhood. At the time of this letter, posted on September 23, 1935, Lucia was one month shy of her fifth birthday and Charles was in the process of completing one of two churches he designed and built in Arkansas.

The translation for this rebus is: Lucia Angel, I saw many trains and also rode (row) on (dawn) one. I hope (hoe) you (pew) had a very (furry) nice time (tie) at (mat) Rosede’s party. XXX Daddy