Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
Circa 1907. "Lakeport, New Hampshire -- Union Avenue." Among the enterprises vying for your trade: All America Shoes, Mount Belknap House, a pool parlor, architect A.F. Crosman, Pickering Restaurant & Quick Lunch (the "hand" sign) and the Lakeport depot. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.
Tracks buried in any kinds of streets usually are just the same as elsewhere. Sometimes metal tie rods are used for street tracks instead of regular wooden railroad ties. Using just concrete to hold the rails in place is quite rare.
In front of the All-America shoe store there is an empty box or crate that used to contain Fletcher's Castoria.
Love the big windows of rippled old glass. My place has some broken windows that we won't replace because we can't find panes big enough. To get that look today, there's one place in New England that will heat and treat modern glass to give it that wonderful uneven look, but it costs. Oh, does it cost!
When, oh when, will they build the freeway?
In the zoomed image taken from the window below the "All America Shoes" sign, note the reflections of the man (red oval), pole (cyan oval), and sign (green oval). Note also that there are two reflections for the man and the sign (dashed ovals), as well as some other objects from that side of the street. The doubled reflections suggest that there are two panes of glass in that store window, and the distortions suggest that they're neither quite parallel nor quite perfectly flat (no surprise, given their size). My question is, was the use of multiple panes of glass (whether properly "double paned" or not) common back then? Was it for insulation, protection, appearance, or something else? Or is there another plausible explanation for the duplicate reflections in the window? (Bonus inset: the time of the photograph was approximately 3:43.)
[That's not a clock - the hands are painted on in the customary position for such signs, which maximizes the space for company name, slogans, etc. There are many examples here on Shorpy, such as this one. -tterrace]
(My mistake about the clock. I've removed the inset.)
Trolley tracks would be laid on a gravel bed to provide the necessary support. This actually would be true whether the roadway was paved or dirt.
what it says on the "hand" sign, still one of the best signs made.
[Yes, you can, by reading the caption. -tterrace]
OK, I give up as an old trolley rider out of the Brooklyn of my youth. I have often wanted to ask: What happens to trolley rails on a dirt road during heavy rains when the road turns to a quagmire of mud? Could the rails be anchored down several feet? What prevents them from swaying in the mud?
Knowing the answers to this mystery is on my bucket list.
Some of the buildings still there.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5