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New Jersey circa 1901. "Coleman House, Asbury Park." Fringe Festival in progress. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
How long until an unlocked bike was purloined in 1901? I'd give it five minutes today.
...and entirely possible with a fixed gear bike. Once a necessity, now a hipster status symbol/phenomenon. Google "hipster fixie" if you care to know more.
Top left of the hotel is what looks like to me a water tower built for the purpose of water pressure throughout the hotel. Best looking water tower I've seen.
I don't ever recall seeing a full-size buggy with wire wheels. Imagining it without the back seat, and the top, (and the horse!) it looks a lot like a early Winton auto.
According to http://noweverthen.com/asbury/ap1.1fold/ap1.12.html:
"The Coleman was torn down in the '50s and replaced by a modern motel, the Empress."
An early drawing of the Coleman, click to embiggen:
Nowadays, you have to pay someone to make a bike like that for you. We call them "fixies", and they don't have brakes because they don't have a freewheel: you cannot coast, your legs are always moving. Stop moving your legs, and you stop. Sort-of. Up a hill, not so bad. Down a hill, rather exciting.
Who needs brakes when you have a bell, though it looks like they may have lost the actual bell part.
Doesn't trust those newfangled bike racks.
But you get an Oscar for your Hammerstein reference anyway.
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