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October 1941. "Railway crossing in Chatham, New York." Look Both Ways, Watch Out for the Cars, etc. Medium-format negative by John Collier. View full size.
This guy's on whippersnapper watch!
Minus the kiosk, it's all still there today (right down to the bricked-up windows on the corner building).
And if you happen to try to view it from the other side of the tracks in Google Earth, you'll find the Greatest Show On Earth blocking your view: http://goo.gl/maps/y19BQ
I went to high school in Chatham in the 1950s so the picture is a little familiar, although I don't recall the kiosk still being next to the RR crossing. The gates, by then, were automatic.
Just to the left of the kiosk you can see part of a "Coca-Cola" sign in front of the corner building. That was Alvord's Pharmacy, where Colonel Alvord personally wrapped Edna St. Vincent Millay's (she lived up the road in Austerlitz New Concord) manuscript of "A Buck in the Snow" for sending to her publisher. Or so one of his relations told me.
The buildings to the right of the kiosk were, in 1955 and in order, a bank, a garage, and a neighborhood grocery. It looks like it wasn't very different in 1941.
I'd enjoy seeing some more period photos of the town: the railroad station was a classic of its type.
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