$150.00 - Luxembourg American Heritage Information Center

Anton Krier, Sr. Family, circa 1900
Standing: Peter, Scotty, Val, Anton, Jr. Sitting: Anton, Sr., Mary, Catherine.
In the same building to the north was the original location of the Niles Center State Bank,
which was to become the First National Bank of Skokie, in 1946.
The Seul business consisted of bar, restaurant and three boarding rooms available on the
second floor. A three room apartment rented for $10.00 per month.
The restaurant earned its proprietor a certain measure of local fame for its potato pancakes
which were served as a luncheon special on Fridays. Dinners cost 25 cents and fish frys for
the local Catholic population were very popular. Tony Seul personally caught the fish in
Wilmette Harbor.
During the Christmas season, the house bought the first round of drinks for each customer
and special "health" concoctions were brewed during the Easter season.
It has been commonly reported by the old timers that downtown Niles Center was often
used as a background setting for picture films. The Author's knowledge of this history generally
came by word of mouth. However, the newspaper report from which this information about
Tony Seul came confirmed what had been told the Author orally. This report continued:
Tony remembers one day in 1912 when the movie men came into his place, had a round of
drinks and gave him some tickets for the picture they were about to film. At the start of
this melodrama, the actors staged a fearless bank robbery in the Niles Center State Bank
and then ran across the street where their horses were stamping against the ties which
held them to their hitching posts. In a blaze of shots and frenzy they were off. One of the
horses stumbled and fell upon his unfortunate rider who was fatally injured.
After the wounded man had been driven away to St. Francis Hospital the producers
came back into Tony's and asked for the movie tickets, because they explained, "this
won't even be a picture."
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