About 8 o'clock  in the morning of December 1, 1939 , the telephone rang in the home of the Sage of Baltimore, H.L. Mencken, awakening him. The caller was the manager of the once and famous Rennert Hotel, then at the corner of Saratoga and Liberty Streets. The manager told Mencken that the Rennert was closing and and closing with it was Mencken's favorite dining room in the hotel, and invited him to a farewell party for the old place. What happened at the farewell party added to the history of the historic hotel.