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Marquette, Michigan, circa 1905. "Front Street." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
That "One Price Store" is no doubt akin to the "Two Price Store" we all went to: The Five & Dime.
And who stole the Cent symbol from our keyboards?
Anatomy of a Murder - Great movie with ties to Marquette. Hard to believe James Stewart, Lee Remick, George C. Scott, and Eve Arden were once there back in 1959.
Most likely, the sign said Undertakers and Furniture. Both were often in the same business.
Was that the predecessor of the 99¢ stores?
For many years, it was common in small towns for the undertaker to also sell furniture. This was probably because the undertaker often made his own caskets.
Odd to see no horses or carriages or much of anything. Usually these old city street scenes were teeming with people, animals and vehicles.
It's Undertaker(s) or Undertaking & Furniture; the combo sounds odd today, but many undertakers did sell furniture & even Victrolas !
Here we go:
"Carl Tonella and John L. Johnason purchased the former Marquette Furniture Company owned by C.R. Brown and began operating out of a building on North Third Street which had been owned by Fritz Frei.
In 1894 with business thriving, they moved to a three story building on the corner of Front and Spring streets where they announced the addition of the undertaking business. " (from: http://www.canalefuneral.com/_mgxroot/page_10728.php )
Marquette was victim to many downtown fires that destroyed much of the beautiful brick and sandstone architecture from the 1850's through the 1930's. I would urge and self-doubters to revisit what is happening in Marquette today. As someone who is on the City's Planning Commission and working hard with others to restore and rebuild the classic architecture that once was, I would hope you would look twice at what we are doing. In fact, we were just voted the National Preservation of Historic Trust's Distinctive Destination for Historic Places! I love Marquette!
In frigid Michigan, fur underwear was a popular dry-goods category.
Just to let you all know that although l do not comment very often l view this site at least twice a day, the photos are fantastic and is by far one of the best sites on the internet today.
Thank you for letting me be able to view such fantastic old photos. it's like you are looking out of a window into a past time and you feel you could just walk into it.
Thank you all
Dean
Getz's is still there. In fact, I round the corner by Getz's everyday and hang a left at the top of the hill by the church (top of the photo) on my way home for lunch. On a side note, a New Year's "ball drop" is performed from the top of the savings bank (building with the clock) -- it consists of a slow-moving, lighted tinfoil ball being lowered to the street with thousands celebrating.
I wonder what that one price was? As a kid in the WWII years, I recall making many trips to the back of Menche's stationery store (in Forest Hills, NY) where two large glass cabinets were filled with a large variety of penny candy.
I wonder what the one price was here, and what it got you.
The young lad on the boardwalk is standing at the entrance to the Vierling's Saloon, which opened at that location in 1883. It is now called Vierling's Restaurant and Brew Pub. On its website, Vierling's has several historical photos of the saloon interior. The restaurant has seating in the rear overlooking Lake Superior. The streetcar, moving east on Front, is at the intersection with Washington Street, Marquette's main drsg.
I would guess that this street was on a continuous loop of the trolley line, therefore the cars only ran one direction.
I'd like to know the rest of the words "UNDE" and "FUR" on the partially obscured wall sign in the upper right. "Undertaker" and "Furniture" seems like an odd combo. "Underwear" and "Furrier?" Nah, can't be.
... that make me a little sad. It was such a gorgeous town. Google will take you to the same street, but a very different place. As noted below, Getz is still there. In the same building, too, so that's nice.
Unfortunately, the other places are pretty bad. I love that Shorpy's has put these here, however, so that we can see how incredibly beautiful they truly were!
If I'm not mistaken, Getz Clothiers is still in the same building to this day - at least up until 2000, when I spent an eternity in Marquette one year.
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