New book chronicles 150 years of hotels, restaurants and bars in Medina

Renee Lama worked 11 years on 390-page publication

Photo by Ginny Kropf: Medina native Renee Lama poses with her new book, which she will discuss and sign at 7 p.m. today at Lee-Whedon Memorial Library and from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at Author’s Note.

MEDINA – Renee Lama has worked 11 years chronicling hotels, restaurants and bars in Medina. The 390-page book – “Last Call: Hotels, Restaurants and Bars. A History of the Service Industry in Medina” – includes 150 years of Medina history.

Lama will discuss the book and sign copies at 7 p.m. this evening in an event with the Medina Historical Society at Lee-Whedon Memorial Library. She will also sign copies from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday at Author’s Note in Medina.

Lama, who currently lives in Hilton with her husband George, said she never intended to write a book.

A daughter of Kathy and the late Tony “Vic” Vicknair of Medina, Lama graduated from Medina High School in 1992 and then Niagara County Community College, where she studied art.

“I wanted to be a fashion designer,” she said.

Lama ended up in Orlando and attended the University of Central Florida and applied to get into the advertising course schedule. She was required to take (and pass) a typing test. I never took typing in high school so I could not type fast or properly and failed several times – it cost $35 each time to retake it.

“Not being able to pass the test to get into the advertising courses, I took a semester off to figure out what I wanted to do,” she said.

Lama got a job at Regal Cinemas and shortly after became Head of Promotions for that location.

“This was right when Disney’s Tarzan came out and I started drawing the characters for a promotion we had to do,” she said. “I quickly found that I loved that and applied to be in the animation department at the University of Central Florida and graduated with a degree in Animation.”

Before she graduated, she worked for Disney World by making candy, hoping to make her way into their animation department.

“But then 9/11 happened and so much shut down,” she recalled. “The animation department at Hollywood Studios closed. It took a very long time for Disney to recover. I remember it was so slow for months and months.”

Animation studios were not as plentiful then as they are now. “It was tough to find a job in animation unless I moved to California.”

By this time, she had met her future husband George and they moved to Medina. Renee started a job as a graphic designer at Lake Country Pennysaver in Albion. Renee and George married in 2004 and had their son in 2008.

Renee went out on her own in 2011 and what first started as George Lama Photography morphed into RG Lama Studios, which is mainly graphic design now.

Lama said she had always been fascinated with prohibition and wondered how it affected people, especially in her home town.

“I looked for speakeasy stories, but there were not a lot in Medina,” Lama said. “Most of them were in Holley and Albion.”

Lama has spent 11 years putting this book together. She found the first documented hotel in the area was the Ridgeway Hotel, built in 1811.

“For a long time, I had all these pieces of information, and I wondered how I was ever going to piece them all together,” she said. “I was becoming overwhelmed.”

Numerous times she thought the book was finished, and then she’d discover something new.

“Last Call” is packed with more than 150 years of stories, newspaper articles, scandals, fires, murders, mysteries and photos. The book focuses on Shelby, Ridgeway and Medina. Lama said she sought information from Alice Zacher, Shelby historian, among others. Marissa Olles did a wonderful job of editing, Lama said.

Not surprisingly, when asked if she might write another book, Lama replied, “I’ve already started it – about the history of the street names in Medina.”