The photo is mine. The idea is not.
Friend and Carbondale booster/historian Nancy Free recently had a photo of Carbondale's Hotel American on one of her web pages. Included was a close up shot of a stone carving, and I knew from the instant I saw it that it was blog header material. I took my photos a few weeks ago. The carving in question is beneath the bay window on the left side of the building. Here, it's obscured by the building's covered entrance.
I don't know much about the Hotel American, other than it stopped being a hotel long ago. It's now an apartment building.