Once again, Barbara Gargiulo's curiosity got the best of her.

        After moving to Cincinnati from Columbus 12 years ago, Ms. Gargiulo often found herself wandering downtown. She was intrigued by an impressive-looking building in Lytle Place. And as it's Ms. Gargiulo's nature, she did some research, discovering the building was called the Anna Louise Inn, a residence for low-income women established in 1909.

        She was interested in learning more. Ms. Gargiulo called the director of the residence, who invited her down for a tour and lunch.

        “I remember seeing the inn and being amazed the place was built nearly a century ago for low income women, and was still being used,” says Ms. Gargiulo, who lives in Milford.

        That did it. Ms. Gargiulo volunteered her services to the inn and soon found herself chairing a committee that, in two years, produced Reflections of the Inn: A History & Collection of Recipes (Little Miami; $22.50). Ms. Gargiulo published the book, which landed on shelves last month. All the sales proceeds go to the Anna Louise Inn.

Underwriters crucial

        Of course, producing a book with more than 300 recipes, historical sketches, anecdotes and old photos wasn't that easy. After Ms. Gargiulo took on the project, she approached her chapter of GE Elfun Spouses — a group of General Electric employee spouses that volunteer for charitable causes — to see if they wanted to help. They did. In fact, the Elfuns voted to help underwrite the project, along with the Cincinnati Union Bethel, which opened the inn.

        GE volunteers also helped collect, test and evaluate recipes for the book.

        “Sometimes they tested recipes at their homes, sometimes at my house,” Ms. Gargiulo says. “Sometimes they went on vacation to Florida and tested them there.”

        Early on, Ms. Gargiulo decided she wanted Reflections to be more than a cookbook. She planned to structure it by decade — beginning with the years 1900-09 and ending with 1990-99 — with a short historical synopsis for the period within each chapter. No one volunteered to research and write the chapters, so Ms. Gargiulo — who loves history and research — took on the task.

        There was much more to do: gathering anecdotes about life at the inn from former residents and their relatives, writing short stories about women's fashions of each period — and commissioning art sketches for those fashions. But with the help of more than 150 volunteers, Anna Louise Inn staff members and friends, the project became a book — a book that documents the life of a valued Cincinnati institution and how it made a difference in the lives of its residents. With more than a few recipes thrown in.

        It may not have been published if Ms. Gargiulo hadn't been curious about that interesting-looking building downtown

        E-mail cmartin@enquirer.com.

To get the book

        ; To order Reflections on the Inn, call the Anna Louise Inn, 421-5211. Cost is $22.50, plus tax and shipping. The inn also can tell you bookstores carrying the book.

RECIPE

        For Reflections of the Inn, GE Elfun volunteers solicited recipes from friends, family and celebrities (TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey contributed her recipe for Oprah's Potatoes). Several former inn residents and their relatives also sent recipes.

        This dessert was created by Bernice Young, mother of Elfun Spouse Janet Greenwald of Glendale. Ms. Young lived at the Anna Louise Inn during the Great Depression, after leaving the family farm in Hillsboro to find work in Cincinnati.

        PEACH COBBLER

        2 1/2 cups sliced peaches
        1 cup sugar
        1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
        3/4 stick margarine
        1/2 cup sugar
        3/4 cup flour
        2 teaspoons baking powder
        1/4 teaspoon salt
        3/4 cup milk

        Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To peaches, add 1 cup sugar and cinnamon; mix and set aside. Melt margarine in 1 1/2 quart pan or oven-proof dish; set aside.

        Mix 1/2 cup sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and milk. Pour this mixture over melted margarine in pan — do not stir. Pour peach mixture on top of flour mixture — do not stir. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until top is golden. Makes 6 servings.

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