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Country Kitchen: 1942
July 1942. "Birmingham, Michigan (vicinity). Kitchen in a country house." 4x5 inch acetate negative by ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/19/2023 - 11:43am -

July 1942. "Birmingham, Michigan (vicinity). Kitchen in a country house." 4x5 inch acetate negative by Arthur Siegel for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Eleven Years Later ... ... I finally see the rest of the kitchen. I clicked on "Kodachrome treatment" and discovered I made a comment on 01/01/2012. [There's even a third pic! Check back in 2034. But seriously, the negative for this particular photo didn't get scanned until 2022. - Dave] Drink Sanka Coffee and Sleep!My grandma use to drink Sanka. I remember seeing the jar in her kitchen when we'd visit. I also remember seeing Grandma's weed she kept in a big jar, between the Sanka and the juicer. Ahhh, those were the days. Made in Detroit -- "Tasty-Krisp Popkorn"... just to the left of Sanka. Popcorn was the go-to snack in those days. Tasty Krisp Products was located at 11166 Grand River Avenue in Detroit. Now an empty lot in a much-decayed neighborhood, but in the 1940s it was growing and prospering. Cold QuestionHave to wonder what the jar of cold cream is doing on the kitchen counter. With 6 sisters I sure saw a lot of that product in my youth, but always in the bathroom. Perhaps there's a culinary use I'm not aware of? [In the kitchen, a cold cream jar is not necessarily a jar of cold cream. - Dave] The MirolarmThe clock on the shelf is a Telechron Model 7F77, or "Mirolarm". Made between 1932 and 1938, it was Telechron's first "buzzer" alarm clock and would have been rose colored glass with a mirrored background. [Not to be confused with "Mirro" brand kitchen timers, or Joan Miró. - Dave] Grandma's weed?My first thought was: What’s a jar of nails doing on the kitchen counter? From the breadbox libraryCharles Gundel's "Hungarian Cookery Book" had its first printing in 1934 and is still available 45 printings later, and Gundel's is a world-class restaurant in Budapest still in business today. If one enjoys Hungarian food, this cookbook with its delectable offerings is sure to throw one off their January weight loss diet. Sone things never change (much)The bottle near the middle of the top shelf, in the paper wrapper, is clearly Angostura bitters. The labeling is amazingly similar to the one on my shelf, 80-plus years later. And my tin of Colman's Mustard is still more like this one than it is different. Bitters with the sweetThere's a bottle of Angostura bitters on that top shelf next to what might be maple syrup. UtensilsArthur Siegel also gave this kitchen the Kodachrome treatment -- Maybe not weed --Oregano? Well-wiredAny decorator magazine today would publish this kitchen with the word "whimsical" somewhere in there, but they would either studiously ignore the exposed electrical conduit, or comment on its "industrial" aesthetic. This is certainly an unusual abundance of electrical outlets for a kitchen of this period, and no doubt added at the owner's discretion to serve their abundance of kitchen gadgets. (How many people had an electric orange juicer in 1942?) Notice the light fixture above, with the original wiring concealed in the walls. In 1940, the National Electrical Code added a requirement for a dedicated 20 amp circuit for kitchen appliances, something that had been recommended as a best practice for a couple of decades. My sense is that this rule was little-enforced, as wartime materials shortages soon prevented compliance. But here's the original concept, illustrated in an official publication of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Edit: I mistakenly typed "conduit," though this is clearly the first-generation iteration (1928-ca1950) of non-metallic sheathed cable, popularly known by the trade name Romex. Brought to You By --Shorpy should get ad fees for product placement: Kroger’s Colman’s Durkee’s Jell-o Sunkist Sanka Mary Scott Rowland Grandma's laboratory Perfect meals (The Gallery, Arthur Siegel, Kitchens etc.)
Liver & Lights: 1942
February 1942. Detroit, Michigan. "Sign in a grocery window in the Negro district: 'chitlins and hog ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8480795.stm Michigan Avenue at Roosevelt This was easily found and almost certainly the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/24/2013 - 4:25pm -

February 1942. Detroit, Michigan. "Sign in a grocery window in the Negro district: 'chitlins and hog maws'." Not to mention Taystee Bread. Medium-format nitrate negative by Arthur Siegel for the Office of War Information. View full size. HasletsMy dad, who was reared on a farm and sold gasoline and diesel fuel to farmers for 40 years, really raked it in when "hog killin'" time came around. We all loved country ham and tenderloin, but he really enjoyed chittlin's and haslets (liver and lungs) he'd get from the farmers. He wasn't the of the race that would refer to "soul food", but I know this stuff meant the same thing to him. Re: Lights"Lights" (i.e. lungs or other organs) cannot be sold raw, nor can they be used to manufacture food items in the United States; however they can be part of a shipped food that has already been cooked and imported to the U.S., such as Scottish Haggis. Say, do you have Prince William in a can?Let him out, he can't breathe! I also searched on "liver and lights", and now I regret having done so as it is very near dinner time. 1936 FordNosing its way in. My, My, MY, My, My!Making a virtue of necessity, traditional soul food -- like all cuisines particular to the poor -- took parts rejected by the privileged and prepared them in a delicious but deadly way. Here we see advertised the elements of many fatally alluring dishes, including that key ingredient, lard. The smoking tobacco seems almost superfluous. Of course, soul food had many rivals in that regard. I fondly, though with a shudder, recall my Pennsylvaina German grandmother frying pork chops in lard and, in memory at any rate, mighty tasty they were! "Lights"Another name for lungs, usually calf. If I'm not mistaken they are no longer considered edible in the United States and cannot be offered for sale. Pretty far Northfor a selection of Southern vittles. [Followed the workforce. - tterrace] I would starve there.Not one thing I would care to eat. Offal or Awesome?My Mom was born Italian, in northern California, in 1909. When she was a youngster, an aunt, uncle, and cousin immigrated to join the family. Grandma sent the cousin into town (a mile or two), to pick up a grocery and meat order. Dino came back with the order, but also dragging a gunnysack as big as he was, shouting, "Mama, look what they were throwing away!!" Full of the finest treasures - kidneys, hearts, tripe, and probably yes, lungs. It's all in one's perspective. Just don'tIf liver and lights made you uncomfortable, don't google Hog Fries. In a canIt's Prince ALBERT! Beyond Prince AlbertDoes the person who answers the phone also have pig's feet? I mean, are his hooves cloven? Winter FrontThat '36 Ford has a partial winter front on the grill to help with engine warm-up, a common accessory at the time. Taystee BreadWas baked in Flushing, Queens, NY - not far from where I was born. Prepared there until 1992, when it was bought over by Stroehmann Bakeries and moved to Pennsylvania. This NY Times article details its demise: http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/11/nyregion/taystee-bakery-closes-bittern... Good Bread, too! ToastI agree with Vintagetvs, not one thing I would care to eat that's advertised on the windows, except for the Taystee bread. Let's make toast! Hog Fries & MawsHog fries were the parts that were cut from the young male pigs. They were soaked in water over night, then sliced, breaded or battered, and fried. Some people made sandwiches of them. Hog maws referred to the lining of the pig's stomach. One popular way to prepare that was stuffed with sausage and potatoes and sometimes cabbage. It was baked, whole, and sliced. I have a recipe for pig's liver and lights, from The Black Family Reunion cookbook. It calls for slicing the liver and lungs and layering the slices with potatoes, bacon, onions, fresh parsley and sage. Other recipes include stewed kidneys, several for pig's feet, and chicken feet stew. I'd be game to try everything, with the possible exception of the last one. African American women took the parts that others didn't want, and skillfully turned them into tasty and nutritious meals for their families. I, for one, am in awe of them! Some of It is Pretty GoodI would agree that much of this food was not meant for human consumption. However, if you cut calves kidneys in half lengthwise, season and grill in the oven, they are delicious. Chitlins can also be pretty good as long as they aren't overly salted, which is often the case. In either case, enjoy these delicacies with a side of greens cooked with a little fatback. Yum! Had by my DadA '36 Ford, which he sold before I managed to wreck it, unlike his next two cars (please see my profile). His Ford's winter grille cover was a rubberized canvas with several zippered panels that provided various levels of protection depending on the temp. The one shown here is a bit different but does have two panels open. No one's mentioned tripe yet but in the same vein (sorry), long before I was ruining my father's cars he and I used to listen to boxing matches on the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports on the kitchen radio while we munched on pickled pigs' feet. Gnaw might be the better word. Today when I walk pass the jars of that, um, delicacy in stores I look at their jellied, pink mass and realize that once upon a time I was brave, very brave. Correctly Apostrophized.Chit'lin's is a shortened spelling of Chitterlings. The Bell System Couldn't help noticing the Bell Telephone sign hanging off the side of the building. I would say there was a coin operated telephone in the store that allowed many of their customers to make as well as receive calls. A telephone in 1942 in any working class or poor neighborhood was a luxury that then became scarce during the war years. My family did not get a phone until the early 1950s. I once asked my mother about it and she said we really didn't need the phone because very few of our extended family or friends had one anyway. There was a phone in the candy store on the ground floor of the tenement and in an emergency the owner would send someone to tell us to come down. Those calls rarely brought good news. No HaggisAlas, the importation of Haggis from Scotland is still banned due to the lung/lights content. There are imitations made, without the lungs, but they taste like imitations. See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8480795.stm Michigan Avenue at RooseveltThis was easily found and almost certainly the same location. Michigan Avenue is my favorite road - Detroit to Chicago. (The Gallery, Arthur Siegel, Detroit Photos, Stores & Markets)
Skinny Dippers: 1910
Detroit, Michigan, circa 1910. "News Tribune newsboys' plunge bath." Someone make these ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 4:58pm -

Detroit, Michigan, circa 1910. "News Tribune newsboys' plunge bath." Someone make these kids a sandwich. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size. There's one in every crowdToday was plaid day. Didn't you get the memo? What's the rule?Don't eat a month before swimming, or don't swim for a month after eating. Surprise Swimmer!If you look closely, you'll see an African-American boy in the water on his back swimming. WOW! That seems unheard of for the time. [That's no boy. - Dave] PB&Js coming right up!Some things never change, and one of those is preteen boys! They look the same and act the same as my sons and the dozens of little boys who have been here to play with them over the last 20 years. I wish I had a dime for every PB&J I have made! Those diaper things they are wearing are kind of interesting, aren't they? Interesting photoIs this a way that the newspaper had to retain the kids to work for them? sort of like perk? That is also a tiny pool there. But hey! better than nothing eh? Detroit Athletic ClubFrom an article on the Detroit Athletic Club in the December 1888 issue of "Outing": The bath-room caused much marvel in these parts. It is 30 by 16 feet in size. The centre of the marble-paved floor is occupied by the plunge-bath, 20 feet long and 12 feet wide. Its sides are lined with white enameled bricks, and a constant flow of water is secured from the city service-pipes. Swim timeat Neverland Ranch! Hoot Mon!Which Scottish clan are these laddies from? CoverageIf my experience in boys parochial school and the Y many years ago is any guide, the bathing attire might be only for the photo. Normally we did without. Not Too SkinnyIt is funny reading all of the comments about how skinny these boys are. In truth, this was normal and it becomes plain to see what an overweight nation we've become. Many old images posted from the period show everyday people and most are slim in our eyes when in fact this was considered normal. The trunks have drawstrings on the side a la "one size fits all," and it seems that is true! Even though they look strange. All Arms and LegsI remember when I was all arms and legs. That was in the late 1960's. Mother would tell us to go outside and play and never had to suggest it twice. I worry when I see today's kids brought up on video games and very little other physical activity. Pool party!I don't think I've ever seen a picture with so many kids smiling and having fun on Shorpy! They usually look so serious. Birthday-suitedWhile a junior high student circa 1955, all of us boys would swim sans swimsuits in our public school's indoor pool, perhaps 60 of us during the one hour period. Naturally, we all wondered if our female counterparts did the same during their own sessions in the pool! My inner 5th grader is all agiggle.The newsletter for the "Detroit Athletic Club" (where women may not have been allowed) was called "Outing?" I am not saying a word, but my inner 5th grader finds that extremely funny! Hams, Divers, and HooligansI really love this picture. It has an incredible timeless quality to it-- just energetic little boys having a great time. Sans period clothing (I guess the trunks are distinctive) and distinctive early-19th century hairstyles, you can really see this happening at any time. As opposed to the many serious, posed, portraits on this site, there are so many characters evident in this shot. I love the grinning ham in the middle of the pool, and the kid in the middle/back of the pool waving at the camera! The lone, overwhelmed adult probably telling the kids not to dive, and the kid in the left foreground making an exaggerated diving motion and mischievous smile either preparing to disobey or pretend that he is going to disobey. Just another great shot on Shorpy. ObservationsOne adult is in the pool. One adult is trying to control the playful boys, and a third adult is hiding from the camera, in the alcove at left. And none of the boys have shirts on, or the long wool pants you would see bathers at a beach wearing. Instead they all have strange plaid drawstring diaper-like trunks (except the fellow at the far left). Are they not wearing the full bathing suits because they are in a pool rather than outdoors? Or because they are all children? Or because they are all males? Or maybe all three reasons. If you said this picture was taken in 1970 instead of 1910, nobody would know the difference. That isn't true of beach photos from the same time. Here's The Real SkinnyI notice that the only adult in this picture seems to be giving orders, but only the biggest boy's eyes are on him. A long time ago at the YOh WOW! It is hard to believe that this photo is that old. But if it is, then all those kids are long dead! I went to the YMCA for swimming lessons. But we swam naked. The pool was the same depth throughout. Girls were at one end of the pool and us boys at the other end. The only people that wore swim clothes were the teachers. Then after the lesson all of us kids could splash around for about 10 minutes. No wet swim shorts or wet towel to have to deal with. I was about 11 or 12. Most of us were the same age. They was only one or two kids that were starting to develop "down there." Maybe some of the girls were the same. But you could only see from the neck up. There was nothing to see. The way you knew if it was a girl is that they wore swim caps to keep their hair. Those were the days. Would I go back to them. NO!! Why? Because I grew up with migraine headaches. I would have 3 or 4 headaches a week. sometimes I would think that I had two of them at the same time. My parents told me that it was all in my head. Well they were right. I had to endure them, but sometimes at school I would run outside and puke in the shrubs. (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC, Kids, Swimming)
Glazier Stove Works: 1901
Chelsea, Michigan, circa 1901. "Brass foundry, Glazier Stove Co." Shorpy makes an ... philanthropy with self-interest, and much of the Chelsea, Michigan he built survives. He got 5 to 10 in Jackson Prison when a 1908 ... spiral. Sad ending for a man who did a lot of good. Detroit, Stove City! In 1880, Detroit was the recognized center of the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/20/2012 - 10:49am -

Chelsea, Michigan, circa 1901. "Brass foundry, Glazier Stove Co." Shorpy makes an exciting visit to the stove factory. Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Elevated tracksI can picture some type of push car like railroad workers used running back and forth between the buildings hauling heavy iron parts. On the weekends could see Mr. Glazier's children and grandchildren playing or begging to ride on those cars. Wonder if it ever happened. Citizen FrankFrank Glazier was an old-school entrepreneur who combined philanthropy with self-interest, and much of the Chelsea, Michigan he built survives. He got 5 to 10 in Jackson Prison when a 1908 bankruptcy hearing found that his wife had destroyed all his financial records "because they upset" her husband. He was pardoned in 1912 and died in 1922. Look, Ma -- no air!That Michigan Central Railroad flatcar is not equipped with automatic air brakes as per the 1893 railroad safety appliance act. It may be restricted to service only within Michigan or could have become a car owned by the Glazier Stove and just used on their private sidings. From the looks of how the load is secured on the deck-I'd say the car is restricted to intra factory use. Brick by Brick.The brickwork in the arch around the large door is amazing! also are the eight brick 'chimneys' on the structure to the left of the flat car. Bricks built the modern world in the Victorian Era. Note the narrow-gauge plant railway on the trestle work. The Steam Railway flat car from the Michigan Central is of an older pattern, not having air brakes, and is constructed almost all of wood. The truss rods beneath the car can be tightened with the eye shown to keep the car deck level and straight. Altho' a poor place to ride on a freight car, this is where a hobo might ride when 'riding the rods', adding scrap lumber to make a platform of sorts. Vertical 'stake pockets' are mounted along the side of the car to take wooden stakes shimmed in with wedges to hold the load on the car. Often the tops of the stakes would be tied together across the load with wire for extra strength. The shaft of the hand brake wheel is bent. On later flat cars the wheel could be lowered into a round recessed into the timbers in the car deck by moving a U-shaped swivel at the bottom of the shaft. A Trainman was wise to stand back from the end of a car when being pushed by a locomotive, as a sudden jolt from slack in the car couplings could knock him off balance and down between the rails in front of the car to then get run over. The temptation to stand on the very front and 'show off' is very great, especially when passing a station with patrons out front. On this car the brake beams and their shoes are outside the trucks, the coupler knuckle has a slot in it to accommodate an adapter link which would allow the car to be coupled to older cars still using link and pin couplings. The knuckle has a vertical hole thru it for a pin, and the hole is still found on modern cars 100 years later, but, the slot is not. A red flag on a round wooden staff would be inserted into this hole to signify the car was the end of a train where corner brackets for coal oil marker lamps were not applied. Don't overlook the weathervane. Thank You. Some StreetlightWow: what an unusual bulb in the street light. [The "bulb" is the globe of a carbon arc lamp. - Dave] Brightest & Best Sights and Scenes Along the Michigan Central Line Chicago Photo-Engraving Company, 1895 The Glazier Stove Company Manufacturers of the "Brightest and Best" oil and gas stoves, dealers in coal, lumber and builders' supplies. This concern is the largest manufacturing establishment in this vicinity, and one of the largest in State, The business was commenced in a small way by the present proprietor, Mr. Frank P. Glazier, in 1890, and has gradually grown, through careful management, energy and progressive ability until it has assumed its present large proportions, ranking with some of the best manufacturing enterprises of the country. The growth has not been uninterrupted, however, neither has there been any lack of competition to retard its development, but by close attention to business, producing high grade goods and keeping their product and its merits constantly before the public, they have succeeded in not only building up a large trade, but through their own success have contributed to the material welfare of Chelsea. In March, 1895, the entire plant, with the exception of the offices. storage building, and power house, was destroyed by fire. Not disheartened, however, they immediately set to planning for a more extensive and better equipped plant, with its capacity largely increased by modern machinery of the finest quality, and every labor-saving device imaginable for producing better work and more of it than ever attempted before, They employ 120 men nine months in the year, and have facilities for the manufacturing of 300 oil and gas stoves a day. Their B. & B. trade mark brand, which stands for"Brightest and Best," is considered by the trade to be better in style, quality. finish and durability than any other stoves in the market. Right at this point, we desire to give special recognition to Mr. Glazier. He is a born business man, and is possessed of more than ordinary executive ability, thoroughly reliable in all respects, prompt and honorable in his relations with mankind, affable, enterprising and liberal, and his present prosperous business is a fitting monument to his industry, honesty and integrity. He is prominent in every movement conducive to the welfare and prosperity. Two years laterFrank Glazier began a downward spiral. Sad ending for a man who did a lot of good. Detroit, Stove City!In 1880, Detroit was the recognized center of the stove-making industry. But by 1902 the growth of other industries had relegated stove-making to sixth place in Detroit. An industry boom pushed stove-making back into second place by 1922. In 1860, Jeremiah Dwyer and his brother James started the city's first stove factory at the foot of Mt. Elliott on the near east side, where they prospered and expanded. The stoves could burn wood, coal or coke. Their success attracted others to the area. Gas ranges also became more popular and later replaced the old style stoves. By 1922 Detroit makers built 400,000 stoves worth $10 million in one year. The industry was dominated in the city by five major firms: The Michigan Stove Company, The Detroit Stove Works, The Penninsular Stove Company, the Art Stove Company, and the Detroit Vapor Stove Company. In later years the Welbilt Company emerged as the last surviving stove company and inherited the giant stove. From The Detroit News: http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=198#ixzz0uMQIVV8C TramwayGreat picture. There's an elevated tramway at left, and it looks like it has wooden rails. Carbon Arc LampsI have read about these in my 1917 Hawkins Electrical manuals. They usually operated at 50 volts with a draw of 15 amperes or so. A real heat producer! The carbons had to be changed regularly, that is why there is such a long drop wire going to the lamp. You can also see the pullies and cord used to lower the fixture, so that it can be lowered for servicing. Plant ExpansionBuilding 12 looks brand-new, possibly still under construction. Doesn't look like there's any stove work going on inside. A different tradeHow much more appropriate if Mr. Glazier had taken up a different line of work. Say, in the manufacture of windowpanes. Glazier Stove 2003Here is a photo of an Amtrak train passing the Glazier Stove Company in 2003. Photo by Robert Teed. (The Gallery, DPC, Glazier Stove Works, Railroads)
Classic Rockers: 1900
Grosse Ile, Michigan, circa 1900. "Group at Rio Vista." The Great Lakes shipping magnate ... Palmer Livingstone, born November 1891 in Wayne County, Michigan, died 1950 in Wayne, Michigan, has a child still living. 1918 ... Notes on the Livingstone Family of Lanark, Scotland, and Detroit, Michigan and Related Families , located in the present collection"). ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/20/2012 - 3:51pm -

Grosse Ile, Michigan, circa 1900. "Group at Rio Vista." The Great Lakes shipping magnate and Dime Savings Bank founder William Livingstone and family. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. I'm Not WorthyIt's been said before, but Dave you are the Headline Master. Gimme your best shot, Mister, we're hot!Doesn't appear that Mr. Livingstone contributed DNA to his offspring, except maybe a bit to his youngest son; they all are clones of Mrs. Livingstone. Appears hot enough to wilt the vine, and yet the family remains composed during the long exposure time, excellent breeding, eh. Wooden, you knowStudying this photo and the two other Livingstone family images triggers some observations (one mark of a good photo, I suppose): - Are the wood walkways a clue that this substantial house is the family's river side cottage (OK, OK, river view, as it's billed), and a more traditionally built home (you know, not a boardwalk in sight) in center city Grosse Ile is where they really live? [The family's main residence was a mansion in Detroit. - Dave] - In the photo of the boy and dog, is the sturdy-looking apparatus in the left corner a block-and-tackle boat hoist, indicating a rather serious boat down below? - Doesn't this look like a place where the Bobbsey twins come to visit, and the Livingstone kids wheel out their mom's fresh lemonade and cookies? Bert, of course, can't wait to get his hands on that spiffy new fishing pole leaning against the wall. The OthersInteresting family and location. A cursory search in Google reveals much about William Livingstone but nothing about his handsome family. Talk about a family resemblance! I wonder if we could somehow learn the names and relationships of this group? Which one is Mom?The two boys certainly take after Mom. If we could only figure out who Mom was? On closer inspection, I'm going to guess the woman on our left is Mr. Livingstone's wife. She has a wedding band on her finger, and woman on the right does not. EnigmaticThe enigmatic look on the William Livingstone's face makes this a photograph that make me exceptionally curious about the people in it and what happened to them in their lives. It is interesting that the house was so notable that information on it can easily be found but I have had no luck finding details of the people who saw to its creation. 1910 CENSUSAs of the 1910 census the William Livingstone family was quite a large one, living in the aforementioned house in Detroit. William 66 head Susan R 61 wife William A 43 Son Helen E 38 Daughter Susan A 36 Daughter Robert B 34 Son Isabourn 21 Son Thomas W P 18 Son William is an owner of a publishing company and Robert is a salesman for the same company. I find it quite interesting that apparantly NONE of the children are married. Pretty unusual for that point in time. Maybe that austere face scared any potential mates away. Well Guess WhatAs I noted in a previous post the oldest son was a publisher. Well we all have to give him a great thank you. The Detroit Publishing Company was an American photographic publishing firm best known for its large assortment of photochrom color postcards. The company was founded as the Detroit Photographic Company in the 1890s by Detroit businessman and publisher William A. Livingstone, Jr., and photographer and photo-publisher Edwin H. Husher. Nervous? Anxious?Look at the right hand of Mom. Livingstone FamilyAncestry gives the family in 1900 as William and his wife, Susan- age 51, and seven children living on Eliot Street. The two youngest (in the picture) are Seabourn and Palmer. Seabourn was born at sea according to the census record. I wonder if the other lady is either 29 year old Helen or 27 year old Susie. Thomas Palmer LivingstoneThe young boy is Thomas Palmer Livingstone, born November 1891 in Wayne County, Michigan, died 1950 in Wayne, Michigan, has a child still living. 1918 Photo Wifey?Whoever the mom is they both seem quite young to be Mr. Livingstone's wife! It is quite hard to tell who is who because they all look alike in some ways. The boys have very similar features to the lady on the right (chin and mouth). I am leaning towards the lady on the right to be Mrs. Livingstone. Even though the outfit the lady on the left is wearing is quite nice, I can't imagine a banker's wife wearing anything less than the outfit on the lady on the right. [Plus, the conventions of a pose like this would have the kids between the parents. - Dave] Detroit Publishing connectionI found this about the family - boys' names, at least: Detroit Publishing Company, founded in 1895 as the Photochrom Company by the photographer Edwin Husher with backing from the Detroit financier Rudolph Demme and Colonel H. Wild of Zurich. Demme and Wild withdrew in 1896. Husher then enlisted the financial support of William Livingstone, Detroit publishing and shipping magnate, and his sons William and Robert, who expanded operations, first as the Detroit Photographic and then as the Detroit Publishing Company. Until its collapse in 1924, the company was the most important North American source of mass-produced photographs, lantern slides, postcards, and colour reproductions for business, tourism, and education. Success was based on the skill of staff photographers William Henry Jackson, Lycurgus Solon Glover, and Henry Greenwood Peabody and the exclusive American rights to the photochrom process acquired from the Photoglob Co. of Zurich. — John V. Jezierski The Others Might BeThe 1910 Census lists the following people in the Livingstone household: William (66) head, Susan R (61) wife, William A (43) son, Helen E (38) daughter, Susan A (36) daughter, Robert B (34) son, Seabourn (21) son, Thomas WP (18) son. Subtract ten years and I think we have (from left to right) unknown married woman, William NMI (56), Thomas WP (8), Seabourn (11), and Susan R (51) Interesting names, A father and son with the same first name isn't unusual but mother and daughter with the same name is much less common. By the way, Seabourn was born at sea. My familyWilliam Livingstone Jr. was my great-great-grandfather and so I have quite a bit of family history and photos to draw upon. William and Susan had 8 children, plus an adopted niece. The 8 children were: William Allan (b 1867), Margaret (b 1869), Helen Edith (b 1871), Susan Alice (b 1873), Robert Bruce (b 1875), Florence Mildred (b 1881), Seabourn Rome (b 1888), and Thomas Witherell Palmer (b 1891). I am quite confident from family photos that the two boys are Seabourn and Palmer (as TWP was known). See the attached for another portrait of them. I'm also quite certain that neither of the ladies is Mrs. Livingstone (who was just five years younger than William) but rather they are two of her daughters. It's hard to tell which ones since they were very similar in appearance. However by 1900 Margaret (my great-grandmother) was married to James Scott, so that could be her on the left. (Their second child, my grandmother, would have been born earlier that year.) In fact this seems likely since the family history that I have indicates that Florence Mildred did not marry until 1908, and does not mention any marriage at all for the other daughters. Nor were any of the sons married in 1900 according to the family history. About the LivingstonesI've found some information about the Livingstones. In Bentley Historical Library, William Livingstone Papers there's a biography of William Livingstone ("A more detailed account of their family history can be found in David Sanders Clark's unpublished genealogy Notes on the Livingstone Family of Lanark, Scotland, and Detroit, Michigan and Related Families, located in the present collection"). In Young Henry Ford: a picture history of the first forty years, pages 160-2, there's more information about William Livingstone and two other photos. In The Henry Ford, Detroit Publishing & Co you can find a photo about 1917; Livingstone wife, Susan, is second from the right (also in the photo, William Livingstone Jr., and sons William Allan and Robert Bruce Livingstone) Same source, other photo, about 1910, William Allan Livingstone stands far left, his brother Robert Bruce Livingstone is third from the left Suecris commented on 01/14/2011 that success of Detroit Publishing Company was based on the skill of photographer William Henry Jackson; in this two photos (same source and same source), Robert Bruce Livingstone, also a photographer, appears with William Henry Jackson. About Seabourn, the elder of the sons in Shorpy's photo, I've found some quotations in old newspapers, here's one taken from Oswego Daily Palladium, 1918; Seabourn "returns to the sea to fight for his country." Seabourn married Marion Henrietta Scherer in 1920 (daughter of Hugo Scherer); a photo or Marion Scherer in 1915 here; they had a son, Seabourn Scherer, and a daughter, Marion Helen. Seabourn S. Livingstone died in 1998 at the age of 74. Marion Helen Livingstone is Helen Livingstone Bogle, donor in 1996 of the William Livingstone Papers. (The Gallery, DPC, Grosse Ile, Kids, Portraits)
Detroit Rubber Works: 1908
Detroit, Michigan, 1908. "Detroit Rubber Works." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/29/2012 - 6:16pm -

Detroit, Michigan, 1908. "Detroit Rubber Works." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. What do they manufacture? Vulcanized, galoshes and boots, rubber bands, or condoms? [Hmm. Detroit? Rubber? Morgan & Wright was the world's largest maker of bicycle tires when, in 1906, they moved from Chicago to Detroit to exploit the needs of the growing automobile industry. In 1911 the company was sold to the U.S. Rubber Co., renamed Uniroyal in 1961.] I found the steam whistle!Just to the left of the two "smoking" smoke stacks. Cookin' With GasGreat view of a gasometer complete with promotional message on it. Story in dBusiness Magazine this MonthI just read a story about them/Uniroyal in the Jan/Feb 2012 issue of dBusiness magazine (a Detroit business periodical). Morgan & Wright's Wartime WomenDuring World War I, Morgan & Wright hired many women to fill essential production jobs previously held by men. Here's a photo from the collection of Wayne State University. Amelia Bloomer and Parisian fashion designers usually get the credit for introducing women to wearing trousers, but it's likely that more American women got to experience this for the first time during their temporary wartime jobs. Strange PhotoIt looks like something painted by Edward Hopper. Not even a rubber band can be found there today.[Area immediately southwest of MacArthur Bridge Park.] View Larger Map What did they make?Bet they made some Baby Buggy Bumpers. Uni, Roy & AlUni, Roy & Al say "Cook with Gas". (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC, Factories)
Rural Mother: 1936
... oldest brother started to build a home near Mount Clemens, Michigan. A family pitched a tent in a field across the street from him and ... 
 
Posted by Ken - 07/05/2009 - 2:29am -

March 1936. "Mother and baby of family of nine living in field on U.S. Route 70 near the Tennessee River." 35mm nitrate negative by Carl Mydans for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. SonsRose, And notice that the boy you mention (the one on our right) is the only one wearing shoes. It looks like he's standing on maybe his father's feet--there's somebody else standing off the camera edge. But imagine: The clothes that they're wearing might've been their only clothes! Just to reiterate: there was no choice of what they could wear from day to day. What they have on now was all they (might've) had for possibly months at a time. "How do I get to the Susquehanna Hat Company?" What happened to them?While it's certainly disheartening to see that kind of abject poverty, the family probably fared better over the next decade. The TVA started bringing electricity to that area around the time of this photo and Tennessee had a pretty robust wartime economy. The draft board generally didn't take men with nine children so the father would have been around to find steady work. So however bad it may have been you can at least be confident it got better. And yet the boy is smilingAnd yet the boy is smiling :) Mother of povertyThis photo made cry. What more clear image of poverty in America could there be? A flour sack for a skirt and a safety pin holding a tattered sweater. I ache for her children and wonder what happened to this family. One bright spot is the boy smiling to his sister while holding her toe. Tatters...They may be poor material wise with their tatters and rags on their back, but they are rich in their love for each other. Mother of povertyThis is the worst case of poverty I have ever seen that wasn't from the third world, but look at them they are together, even able to smile, by far this picture is the best example of "the great depression". fakeThe picture is of far higher quality than existed in that era. It's obviously a fake. ["That era," the mid-1930s, when photography was 100 years old, saw some of the best photographs ever made - the work of Ansel Adams, for example. And of course a few minutes of Googling will show this to be a well-known Depression-era image in the Library of Congress archives. Comments like these are a good opportunity to point out that the farther back you go, the better and sharper the pictures get, because the recording media were bigger. Two examples are here (1865) and here (1913). As well as here and here and here. - Dave] Re: No exaggeration"And yeah, glass plate negatives are amazing. But even 35mm film actually carries more information than most digitals: ISO 100 35mm has an effective resolution of 10 megapixels, and when you up the negative size to that of a view camera or the 8x10 glass plates, you're talking resolutions and image quality that today's cameras can't touch." YOU'RE RIGHT ABOUT THAT ! No exaggerationIn addition to reading "Let us Now Praise Famous Men," check out the photos of Jacob Riis and read "How the Other Half Lives." Yes, muckrakers, but they were not making up the poverty they found and photographed. When people who were doing *well* had only 2 or 3 sets of clothing, there just wasn't as much "extra" around to give to the poor. Using flour sacks and sugar sacks was incredibly common - so common that it is a trope in literature of the time. Even solidly middle-class families "turned" collars and facings on their clothing when it wore to holes, to use the other side, and every family had a rag bag in which they saved *every* scrap of old clothing for other purposes. I guess in this day of cheap clothes made by slave laborers in poison-filled factories in China, its hard to believe anyone treated clothes as so precious that they were saved and worn until they were in this state, huh? And yeah, glass plate negatives are amazing. But even 35mm film actually carries more information than most digitals: ISO 100 35mm has an effective resolution of 10 megapixels, and when you up the negative size to that of a view camera or the 8x10 glass plates, you're talking resolutions and image quality that today's cameras can't touch. Rural mother 1936Oh how I wish I could take the doubting thomases back with me to the North East of Scotland during the time that this stunning photograph was taken. I am glad that it has been brought up to watchable standard by digital magic or whatever. I can still remember my grandfather filling his boots with straw to keep the cold/wet out before going out to the field to plough or cut corn with a scythe. He also used the very same material to wipe his bottom. Granny had a grain sack for a skirt and wore clogs. My favourite time of day was when she put the 'hen's pot' out to cool. I invariably ate the potatoes and haven't tasted better since. Money-wise it was a very poor time but life had a richness difficult to achieve these days. Re: Fake>> The picture is of far higher quality than existed in that era. It's obviously a fake. We get a lot of comments like this, I guess from younger people, or people who have never been to a museum. They don't realize that the farther back you go, the better and sharper professionally taken photographs get, because the recording media were much, much larger. An 8-by-10 glass plate negative is 80 times as large as a 35mm film frame, or the image sensor in a digital camera. Two examples are here (1865) and here (1913). As well as here and here and here. Also a lot of comments from people who seem to think color photography started around 1960. Poverty exaggerationOk, this photo is an example of early photo-journalism. The family could very well have been homeless and living in a lean-to or a wooden box on top of a truck chassis- during the summer, anyway. But the depiction of poverty is exaggerated- think about it- if someone steered the photographer toward the family, then others in the community knew they were there. There's no way a family can dress like that and not receive donations of used clothes. These rags were put on to evoke sympathy for the plights of many during the depression. Don't get me wrong - shock value was probably needed to raise support for many valuable social programs that came about because of the depression. But how long could a family dress like that and not receive donations from others, no matter how bad off the community was. [Most of these migrants, refugees from the Dust Bowl farms of the Great Plains, were not especially welcome in the communities where they dropped anchor, and people often did whatever they could to get them to leave. You might want to read up a little more on the Great Depression. A good start would be "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" by James Agee with photos by Walker Evans. Or "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck. - Dave] Not an exaggeration"There's no way a family can dress like that and not receive donations of used clothes." My mother was a teenager during those years and remembered how so many people were driven to desperation. Her comment was "there was always someone trying to cheat you." Two or three years into the Depression the do-gooders began to run out of sympathy and "used clothes." And after five more years of no improvement they began to fear things would never turn around and that they would end up in the same circumstances. There were just too many newly poor people and not enough people with excess resources to balance things out. BenIf anyone was ever interested in trying to achieve that kind of detail today, I'd highly suggest buying an old used medium format camera and using some 120 roll film. I have a couple of Yashica TLR's which were considered substandard in the 50's and 60's, but their quality still makes a 35 SLR look like a cheap point and shoot. It's not the camera that makes the pictures better, but the larger negative available in 120 film. Not only do you get more detail, but the color depth is far more realistic. ClothesMy Gramma has saved some clothes that her mother made from flour sacks. She also has some made from linen and wool they spun and wove themselves, when they were more prosperous. She lived in a house with a dirt floor and didn't wear shoes in the summer. The Face of the Great DepressionThank you Mr. Caruso. I echo the response from Dave....We read in history books about the Great Depression and over the years, in our mind it is simply a swirl of facts and figures, of almost dispassionate removal that was the reality. While it has been said that hindsight is 20/20, I think it can also be argued that hindsight, especially from such a distance can be sterile becoming almost become an illusion, an event without a substance. Hopefully this will once again place it into a reality ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSShPnOS15Y Dale Oh My GoshI'm 15 years of age and I had no idea that the Great Depression was that bad. This picture really oppened my eyes to the extreme conditions at that time. Thank you for this reality. Reality CheckI have a picture on my desk showing my mother during the depression. You can see her bones because at 5'7" she weighed 85 pounds...just from the simple lack of food. Each girl in the family had two dresses and each boy had two pairs of overalls - one to wear and one to wash. By "wash", I mean using a metal tub over an open fire. Mostly they went barefoot (in the Arizona desert) because if they had shoes, they were too valuable to wear everyday. In the picture my mother is looking directly at the camera and her expression is almost exactly the same as the look on the face of a shell shocked combat veteran. As I said, I keep this small black and white photo on my desk so that if I ever, ever have even a moment of thinking that I'm having a hard day I can look at my mother's face and get a reality check. Barefoot KidsMy parents grew up in the depression. When I was a kid (in the 60s) going outside barefoot was STRICTLY FORBIDDEN, reason being that in their minds if you weren't wearing shoes it was because you didn't have any, and therefore were poor, which they viewed as something to be ashamed of. Making doThe habits of the depression generation persisted into the better days of the '40s. I remember my mother repairing worn sheets by splitting them down the middle and sewing the good edges together to prolong their life. My dad brought home flour sacks from the restaurant where he worked. My mother made dish cloths and pillow cases from them. Some of the sacks were made from patterned material for dresses. The branding on the others washed out easily. To this day I an reluctant to discard clothing. ClothesMy parents did not allow us to wear jeans (which we didn't own) or sneakers because they weren't real clothing, but only worn if you owned nothing else. Believe me we weren't rich either. Mother of NineThank you so much for sharing this. I was born in 1977, but just hearing these stories helps me to realize that we are so spoiled and really puts things into perspective. Amen! Thanks, dalecaruso!I'm going to show this to my 7th grade students who LOVED the Newbery Medal-winning book "Out of the Dust" by Karen Hesse! Amazing...moving...thank you. The habits remained - for good or badMy parents grew up in the Depression. Members of their generation, roughly those born 1920-1935, often find it difficult to throw out anything "good". In my parents' case, I was left with stacks of thousands upon thousands of moldering magazines and newspapers, piles of old shingles, 2x4s, chunks of vinyl siding, and old cardboard; hundreds upon hundreds of doilies, knick-knacks, and figurines; and tons of worthless, useless plywood and cheap wood furniture. The cry was, "I might need it someday!" and "It'll be worth GOOD MONEY one day!" and "You're so wicked and wasteful and lazy to want to throw it out!". They were wrong in every single solitary instance, no exceptions. The figurines now go for five to ten cents each on eBay (and don't sell at that price); the shingles melted together into a big unusable pile; the 2x4s and cardboard rotted to dust; the doilies were attacked with mold; the magazines were destroyed by water and age; the furniture was rickety and undesirable in its shoddy construction and unattractive, unmarketable poor style. It all went away to the dump as useless, worthless, unrecyclable (because of the mold) garbage - and it cost over a thousand dollars to have it hauled away. And I'm not the only one. There are internet groups made up of people in their 40s and 50s who are, like me, dealing with the unhealthy hoarding habits of their Depression-era parents who have passed on. But we, the children, are not the ones hurt the most by this sickness. The older generation itself is harmed most of all. The mold and dust gathered by the things they've hoarded endangers their health. The sheer bulk of the hoard can endanger them in case of fire. And since they can't find what they've hoarded, they end up buying the same things over and over again, which reduces their ability to provide for themselves. No North American generation before this one has suffered from this level of hoarding, and I doubt any one after it will. Earlier generations didn't overbuy but also weren't afraid to discard; later generations might overbuy but likewise aren't afraid to recycle or discard. Re: Hoarders I would have to seriously question the sweeping and wide swath of the brush you painted this generation with. My parents lived through the depression and the dust bowl, as did my dads' 12 brothers and sisters. and the 5 siblings of my mothers' family. And not a hoarder among them. I am sure they used things longer and valued what they had more than we do, but I hardly consider this a "disorder". Now I am sure some did, but your statement to me really portrays this generation as unhealthy mentally, and I am just a little offended by it. Oh that we today were as mentally stable as they. And if "There are internet groups made up of people in their 40s and 50s who are, like me, dealing with the unhealthy hoarding habits of their Depression-era parents who have passed on", well then I would say, perhaps it is this weak-kneed generation, who need support groups because, "Oh No, Mamma kept things a Long Long time", are the ones who are unhealthy. You do this unbelievable generation a great disservice. Future Hoarders of America Unite!You know, I don't look at the faces of these little ones and concern myself with the idea that their biggest issue in their senior years is going to be that they held on to too much stuff instead of throwing it out. When your clothes are being held together with twine and your mother is wearing a cotton feed bag as a skirt, it's kind of easy to see how, in the future, when you're an old woman, you're probably going to hang on to every scrap and see its potential usefulness someday. It's amazing how differently our consumerist culture sees items today. How often I've longed to be able to hold onto a toaster that could work just fine if I had someone who could fix it for me. But instead, appliances today aren't meant to last for more than a few years and then off to dump with them. Our landfills are overcrowded with plasticized items that will never, ever decompose - plastic bags, water bottles, take out containers...the list is endless. I hate to politicize a picture but I can honestly see how having nothing more than the holey shirt on your back would make you take stock when one day you had tremendous bounty. We could learn a lot from these people and their troubles and how to see potential treasure in trash. Alive and wellPoverty can be because of chance or personal choices. Back in the times of the Depression it was heaped on people by powers out of their control. I see it today right here in Arkansas where I live and in my own neighborhood. I live in a small town of about 5600 and even in what is supposedly the world's most rich and powerful country people are lining up at the free food banks and food giveaways, receving government commodities and waiting in ine at the free medical clinic that is run by area churches and staffed with Doctors and Nurses who volunteer their time for free. Just walk into Walmart on the 1st of the month, they way some families are dressed would break your heart. But then you have the victims of bad personal choices. There is a single other in my neighborhood that recently lost her job because she failed a drug test. She has 3 children. Everyone in the neighborhood knows she sells her food stamps for alcohol. She would buy just enough (barely) food for them to get by and sell the rest If it were not for the kindness of neighbors her children would not have any decent clothes. She was just kicked out of what is very decent public housing where she was paying $16.00 a month rent because she had her alcoholic boyfriend living there with her. Her poor choices affected not only her children but many people in the neighborhood (who at their own expense would buy extra food so they could feed her children or spend money to buy clothes for them) who have tried to help her for years. In her children I see the NEXT generation of American poverty waiting to happen and it is so sad. HoardersMy parents are children of the Depression, too. And my father most definitely instilled in me the sense that one doesn't waste or discard anything useful. He has 2 barns and a shed filled with stuff, much of which I'll have to deal with after he's gone. But you know what? Virtually everything he has is valuable! His shed is filled with dishes and small appliances and the like, which has supplied many of his grandchildren when they went away to college or got their first apartment. He has one of nearly every tool known to man, and freely loans or gives them away. He paid cash for a brand new truck recently, using the proceeds from sale of scrap copper and iron he's been saving in the plum thicket. (He's never owed money on a car in my lifetime). He loves to give to others (it's nearly impossible to leave a visit empty-handed), and a lifetime of saving and storing means he has no shortage of things to give away. Because of my upbringing, it's very hard for me to discard anything that still has value, just because I don't need it any more. But I've learned from my dad - somebody needs that, so give it away! I understand that some hoarders are truly mentally ill. But to say that all Depression children who refuse to discard things that might be useful are "wrong in every single solitary instance, no exceptions" is absolute hogwash. The DepressionAnyone who says these photos are exaggerated or fake has never talked to someone who lived during that time. My mother lived on a farm during that period, and though she didn't have much that came from a store, they were able to eat and eat well. My father's family were poor tennant farmers on unproductive land and frequently had meals like "grease smeared on bread"....try to imagine that one. With several children, all but one had to quit school at 13 to earn a living. My husband's family has pictures of the children looking just like these - torn overalls and bare feet. Do some real research in your own family's past. Family HistoryMy father's family had a farm in southwest Nebraska during the Depression, so they were able to grow their own food and eat fairly well. My mother's paternal grandfather was a Methodist minister there, which was very rough since he was dependent on what the local community could pay, which wasn't much and people had an odd idea about what made a suitable gift. So instead of eggs and chickens, which Great-Grandpa would have taken in a heartbeat (he had 5 teenage sons!), people gave him things like fancy hankies, which he had no use for, and I found 50 years later still in the gift boxes. I know the Depression had a profound impact on my grandfather; he hated to throw anything away. When my mother cleaned out Grandpa's house in the late 80's she had to throw out dumpsters of metal pie plates, shopping bags, twine, bottles, newspapers, magazines and God knows what else. AgreedMy parents did not allow us to wear jeans (which we didn't own) or sneakers because they weren't real clothing, but only worn if you owned nothing else. Believe me we weren't rich either. I would have said this if you didn't. We had sneakers for gym class and gym class only. The picture, the video, the hoarding.Two things struck me about that picture: the caked on dirt on the mother's feet and the smile on the boy's face. Sure, I had heard the phrase "dressed in flour sacks." But, there's something about an image - seeing it. It hits home. The video, The Face of the Great Depression, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSShPnOS15Y from a previous comment. At first, honestly, I thought, "Can't the pictures move faster?" Then I looked, and listened, and let time stand still for a brief moment. By the end, I was crying. The license plate in the last photo was 1939. My mother would have been 13. NOW IT GET IT. Well, I'm beginning to. A second generation child on the South Side of Chicago, she always told stories of a her gang of kids distracting the cart owner so other kids could run by - stealing whatever vegetables they could grab. They would start little fires at the curb and roast them on a stick or boil them in a pot of water. She said that's why, as an adult, she hated boiled onions or potatoes. But, the stories she told, of washing out her underclothes each night, sleeping 4 to a bed, lard and bread sandwiches...I somehow cleaned up the images and made them all pretty. I left out what it smells like if you haven't had a bath. Or, what it must have felt like to really, really be hungry. Mom hoarded. Born in 1926 she left me the legacy of wall to wall, floor to ceiling piles of National Geographic magazines and "collectors" tins." "These will be worth something someday," she chided...and promised. They weren't. Well, some of it was valuable - more from memories of her than replacement cost. More than anything, I wish she could have culled her stuff so she had more room to live. Sure, it was a burden to empty. But it was easier for me to let go of her junk than it was for her to unload the fear of being "without." I can live with that. Everyday I understand and accept her more. One little photo... Can teach so much. The Great DepressionI've read the comments about this picture and echo the feelings of distress that people have had to exist under these conditions. We only have to look at some of the present day third world countries to see the same thing. Thank God that that level of poverty has never touched me. I was born in 1927 and raised, with my sister, in a single parent home. My Mother took in washing and ironing to make a living for us, and though we didn't have an abundance, we never went to bed hungry. She bought used adult clothes and cut them down to fit us (our sunday school and church clothes). No one told me that times were hard so I didn't know it until I was grown. The hobos (Hoover Tourists) used to get off the trains near our house and come to the door begging food. My Mother always made them a peanut butter sandwich. I spent my days in school or outside playing with my friends, I had a glorious childhood. It pains me to see today's children confined to the house, afraid to go outside alone, with only a TV or computer for a companion. So many children and young adults are overweight and under exercised. The Depression was hard on a lot of people but, as a child, I skated through it and wouldn't trade my childhood memories for being a child today. Where in SW Nebraska?Hello- A friend of mine introduced me to this website. I, too, am from southwest Nebraska. Where in SW Nebraska was your family originally from? MJ The DepressionI really liked reading all the comments. I intend to get the book "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" by Agee. I was born in 1921, the seventh child in a family of 10. My father died of TB in October 1929. Our church had a dinner after the service yesterday. I noticed some people not eating all the food they had put on their plates. I told them my clean plate was a reflection of living through the Depression, when at mealtime I would hand my plate to my mother with the words "All I can have. please." Every child in the family, when they were old enough, gave most of the money they earned to our mother. In the early 1930s our school clothes and shoes would be ordered by mail from Sears and sometime they would arrive days after school started. We lived in northwest Detroit and most of the kids had fathers with good jobs. In 1936 my oldest brother started to build a home near Mount Clemens, Michigan. A family pitched a tent in a field across the street from him and lived much like the family in this picture. My brother did not want me to visit them. I served in WW2, which I enjoyed because I had been working since I was 14 and it was nice to be free of responsibility. And seeing Europe was wonderful. I am a tourist at heart. Yes! Not getting killed and living into the Internet age is wonderful. Nebraska! With family now on the West Coast in Oregon and Washington we have been driving across this country about once a year. We like Nebraska and have been driving across that state on old U.S. 30, and find it much more enjoyable than I-80. Please try this some time. For those who don't believeRead "The Worst Hard Time" by Tim Egan. Never had heard of "dust pneumonia" until reading this. Also, a section of diary entries is just heartbreaking. Poverty and desolation on a scale unimaginable today. (The Gallery, Carl Mydans, Great Depression, Rural America)
Grand Trunk Railway: 1900
... York. Whirlpool Rapids (Grand Trunk Railway) Bridge with Michigan Central Cantilever Bridge in background." 8x10 inch dry plate glass ... The bridge behind the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge is now the Michigan Central Railway Bridge which replaced the Michigan Central ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/13/2014 - 10:41am -

Circa 1900. "Niagara Falls, New York. Whirlpool Rapids (Grand Trunk Railway) Bridge with Michigan Central Cantilever Bridge in background." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Conductor to apprehensive passenger:"If we derail, don't worry about drowning; the fall will kill you." Awesome!Awesome photo of awesome features. Wow! Bridges & TrainsLooking southwards/upstream, with the USA on the left and Canada on the right. The falls are about 3 kilometres upstream from here. The tracks on the left at the riverside are part of the Niagara Gorge Railroad, an electric line that ran from 1895 to 1935. The bridge may be owned by the Grand Trunk, but that's not a Grand Trunk train. The lead locomotive is a camelback, and the GTR didn't have any. This may be a Lehigh Valley locomotive, as there was transfer traffic between the LV and the GTR over the bridge Still in useThe bridge continues to carry both trains and on the lower deck, auto traffic; but no longer pedestrians. It's been designated a special NEXUS pass bridge here in Niagara Falls. Shame because walking across the bridge as a boy and teenager, it was thrilling to see the Niagara River Rapids swirling below through the spaces of the wooden planks on the pedestrian walkway. A Century-Plus LaterThis is a view from the Canadian side from October 2011. The bridge behind the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge is now the Michigan Central Railway Bridge which replaced the Michigan Central Cantilever Bridge in 1925 (and has itself fallen into disuse.) Another railroad below itWhat is the railroad at river level? and what it the infrastructure above and next to it? (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads)
Wayne County Building: 1908
Detroit, Michigan, circa 1908. "Wayne County Building." The Motor City before it got ... Unfortunately, the Old County Building, as it's called in Detroit, is now restored but empty. Wayne County moved its remaining offices ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/12/2022 - 3:52pm -

Detroit, Michigan, circa 1908. "Wayne County Building." The Motor City before it got very motorized. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. On the plus side, it's still thereOn the minus side, they replaced the spire and got rid of the awesome statues on the roof. (Wonder what they did with those?) Amusingly, the cannon appears to now be a playground. Creeping mechanizationI count 10 horse drawn vehicles and 11 motorized, so the tide is rising. [Actually 11 horse-drawn. See lower right between the cars. - Dave] Interesting that all of the steering wheels that can be seen are still right hand drive. Also another white clad street sweeper in the upper right - did they call them White Wings in Detroit as in NY? Wayne County CannonMy curiosity was piqued by the cannon on the lawn. Was it connected with a significant battle, fort or warship (if it is a naval weapon)? Not there now, and the most recent photo showing it that I've found online is from the late 30s or early 40s. No other mentions that I've located, unlike the War of 1812 cannon formerly on the grounds of the old Detroit City Hall. Wonder if it was a victim of wartime scrap drives? Ben-HurThose are incredibly large chariot sculptures on the roof. Only 46 StarsThe flag flying over the courthouse in 1910 would only had 46 stars. [And indeed they are 46-star flags. - Dave] Something Else is MissingIn recent photos, not only is the cannon missing, but so are the rather large and detailed triumphal statues once mounted above the entrance pediment. I have yet to even see mention of that in any of my Detroit links. Many of the statues and the bell tower etc. from the old Detroit City Hall have been "stored" out in the elements for decades at Fort Wayne. War prize from the cruiser Vizcaya"The prized cannon was taken from the Spanish ship Vizcaya during the battle of Santiago, Cuba, in 1898." (Detroit: A Postcard History.) It was a 5½-inch (140mm) cannon. Apparently there is a 140mm cannon at Fort Wayne, so maybe that's where it was taken after it was removed from this site. Several of the ten 140mm guns went to places like West Point and Annapolis, according to this page. [Everyone's grabbing cannons off the Vizcaya, or melting down bits of the ship to make cannon covers! I had no idea of the connection when I posted the very next photo. What an odd coincidence. Which we never would have found out about if tterrace hadn't asked his question. - Dave] Hey buddy, you wanna buy a building?Unfortunately, the Old County Building, as it's called in Detroit, is now restored but empty. Wayne County moved its remaining offices to the nearby (and breathtakingly beautiful) Guardian Building a few years ago, and the place has been the subject of an ongoing legal dispute between the county and the developer to whom it was sold several years ago. In recent months a sign has been posted in front of the building that states "Historic building, for sale or lease." The statuesThe sculptures were restored and and are back as of 2009. Left and RightDuring the early years of the automobile in America, right-hand drive cars were popular for those who had chauffeurs. Having the driver on the right enabled the chauffeur to quickly get out of the vehicle and open the back door where they passengers would be seated. It would have also enabled someone who was driving his own car to get out on the curb without stepping into muddy streets and also into traffic. In many places it was illegal for the driver to get out of a car from the traffic side, in some places, this law lasted well on into the 1960s. Interestingly, the habit of exiting on the curb side even from cars with left hand drive, and even in situations where it is perfectly safe to do otherwise can be seen in a number of films. "Psycho" for instance. In almost every scene where a driver exits the car, the do so by sliding across the seat to the passenger side. Quadriga RestoredThe two sculptural bronze charioteer groups of figures were removed for restoration, which took several years. They were hoisted back into place last December. http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthread.php?t=3763 The Statues are BackThe rooftop statues were returned a year or so ago - they had been removed for cleaning and repair. See them being installed (and close-ups) here. (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC)
Welcome to Detroit: 1900
Detroit, Michigan, circa 1900. "City Hall and Campus Martius." To the left, the Soldiers ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/13/2013 - 3:50pm -

Detroit, Michigan, circa 1900. "City Hall and Campus Martius." To the left, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument; rising to the right is one of the city's "moonlight tower" carbon-arc lamps. Palm trees and bananas strike a tropical note. 8x10 inch glass negative by Lycurgus S. Glover, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. American IdyllI think any city would be glad to have such a civic building. Interesting French (Second Empire?) style architecture. I love the two men languidly conversing on their bicycles, oblivious of the surrounding traffic. Try that today! In toto the pedestrians look like a idealized Hollywood scene representing city life at the turn of the 20th century; people running, promenading, talking, pricing fruit perhaps on a fine summer's Sunday. Moonlight Towers: now Austin residentsThose carbon-arc lamps were once very common ways to light a city, much more economical than a lower-wattage streetlight every 100 feet. The light they gave off was by all accounts glaring and harsh, though. In 1894 Austin TX bought a bunch of the towers from Detroit and moved them southwards. Through a fluke of history, half of them survive to the present day, making them the only remaining functional towers in the world. One played an important cameo in "Dazed and Confused." All the remaining towers (17 of the original 31) are protected historic monuments, though two were recently removed. Austinites, myself included, are strangely fond of them. The rest of the story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight_tower Idyll Over"I think any city would be glad to have such a civic building. Interesting French (Second Empire?) style architecture." You might think that, but Detroit tore this building down in 1961. It was seen locally as embarrassingly old-fashioned soon after the turn of the 20th century. The editor of the Detroit News described it thus: "It is an architectural monstrosity. It belongs back in the twilight zone of American development. … It belongs to the era of the whatnot and the putty vase and the ship carved in a bottle. It is not Colonial, it is not Gothic, it is not Byzantine. It just ain’t nuthin’. It’s been standing there these 70 years or more, a lumpy, gloomy, ugly pile of curlicued stone. No artist has ever painted a picture of it. No artist would. No lover of beauty has ever found a single line of grace or dignity in it." And not a car in sight. I think this photograph shows the destruction wrought on the American landscape, and social fabric, especially in urban settings, by the advent of the automobile a short time later. The Motor City!Where are the cars? (Always interesting to me how long it took for automobiles to take hold.) Moonlight Bat BuffetLiving in Austin in the 80's I used to frequent a cafe in the Clarksville section of town where I would often see some of Austin's famous Mexican free-tailed bats feasting on the insects drawn to glow of moonlight towers. Austin, whose unofficial motto is "Keep Austin Weird," is a Mecca for bats, batty moonlight tower protectors, and all things odd and different. I'm glad to hear from Kevin M. that the towers are still there. All those people are deadbut yet, when I put this on full screen, I still get the feeling I could just step into the scene and walk or ride my bike amongst them. I love these pedestrian/scenic pictures. Sure glad somebody invented the camera when they did. CinematicThis does look like a Hollywood scene! Now we have our cars, our phones, our iPods, etc., and you would never see people out strolling about and chatting like this! We (myself included) are always in our cars and in a hurry! Wayne County BuildingOne of the previous commentators mentioned that this building was torn down. It is actually still standing. [You're confusing City Hall with the Wayne County Building. City hall is long gone. - Dave] (The Gallery, Bicycles, Detroit Photos, DPC, Streetcars)
Smoke Monster: 1905
... Break The Ice The trick of breaking ice with the Lake Michigan (railroad) car ferries was their relatively shallow draft and the wide ... 30 or so railroad cars was generaly effective. Ice on Lake Michigan will sometimes "windrow" and boats could become stuck, calling for ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/22/2013 - 11:21am -

Circa 1905. "Transfer steamer Detroit of Detroit in the ice." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Brand new tractorsI love the brand new steam tractors out for delivery...can anyone see the make? IceCan some great lakers enlighten me as to how these steamers could navigate in thick ice without ruining their hulls? I thought even nowadays special ice breakers were needed to break up the ice around harbors, etc. Buffalo-Pitts TractorsThey're both Buffalo-Pitts tractors. A close up of this steamer was posted as https://www.shorpy.com/node/10517. Break The IceThe trick of breaking ice with the Lake Michigan (railroad) car ferries was their relatively shallow draft and the wide flat bottom. The boat would be driven onto the ice sheet and break through. The weight of the boat plus 30 or so railroad cars was generaly effective. Ice on Lake Michigan will sometimes "windrow" and boats could become stuck, calling for another ferry to help them get loose. Special ice breakersThe Great Lakes railroad train car ferries are also "special ice breakers," and some have even been rented out for that purpose. Some of the Lake Michigan boats, especially, even though single ended, had bow propellers, which also helped break the ice in front of them. The Detroit suckedTheir hulls were reinforced and many had prop guards of various sorts. The Detroit was considered by many to be the ultimate. She had four screws, two aft and two forward and they often ran all of them at once in ice. The forward screws would suck water out from under the ice as she headed into it, which would cause the resultant "shelf" to collapse into the void created below and break up under it's own weight without having to resort to ramming. The props on many of the car transfer river ferries were massive cast iron things that could grind up ice, rather than the more delicate (and efficient) marine bronze shapes found on some of their cross lake counterparts. Nifty tank carWe must have the granddaddy of all modern double hulled tank cars here. The reporting marks, ‘CTL,’ are a mystery, though. Cannot find any reference to such marks from the early 1900s. The “Association of Transportation and Car Accounting Officers,” Published in 1914 by the Railway Equipment and Publication Company, does list reporting marks of ‘CRX,’ for cars owned by the Cornplanter Refining Company of Warren, Pa. The X in any reporting mark represents individual or other non railroad entity ownership. My guess: the CTL marking, whatever it meant, was in place prior to the Association of Transportation and Car Accounting Officers implementing the X rule. Popular subject for ShorpyJust from memory this must be the fifth or sixth photo (at least!) of the Detroit. I remember a previous ice breaking, box car loaded photo as an interesting winter time screen saver. Also of InterestBehind the steam tractors sits a large water-tube boiler, presumably being shipped on a flat car. A better view of it is afforded in the closeup post of the tractors linked in a previous comment below. CTL = Cornplanters' Tank LineA quick Google search turns up Cornplanters Tank Line reporting to many state railroad and corporation commissions. Since on this same boat, Merchants Despatch Transportation Co. uses the reporting marks of M.D.T.Co., I think that I've solved the CTL question. The old boileris a Scotch marine boiler, which is a fire-tube type. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Detroit Photos, DPC, Railroads)
Bustling Detroit: 1912
... their appearance in 1933's "Duck Soup" seem plausible. Did Detroit, the city built on the automobile, get rid of their old-fashioned ... Party, staunch Abolitionist, City Councilman, Governor of Michigan and tobacconist. Long before Detroit was the center of Automobile ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/29/2017 - 2:57pm -

The Motor City circa 1912. "Campus Martius. Detroit City Hall, Bagley Fountain and Majestic Building." Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size. Testamentary ?/-'men-/ a. of or given in a person's will. Yes, I had to look it up in the Oxford dictionary. Zip!I'm always a little impressed with how quickly modern America happened: stone-built cities rivalling Europe's, built up from bare ground in little more than a lifetime and packed with cars recognisably like our own only eight years after Oldsmobile introduced mass-produced cars. And some of the people in this scene may have flown around the World on jet airliners. Always a surprise... to see how much the automobile changed both our lives, and the views of the city streets that these photos provide. When is the last time that Detroit saw horse-drawn deliveries? There are still enough horse-drawn carts for deliveries and vendors to make their appearance in 1933's "Duck Soup" seem plausible. Did Detroit, the city built on the automobile, get rid of their old-fashioned alternative sooner? Car-mounted catcherI just came across this picture last night, of this cow catcher touted for autos. https://www.shorpy.com/node/4468 This picture, on the rightThis picture, on the right hand side, looks the opposite direction down Woodward Ave than the Eureka 1910 picture does. I'm surprised mostly by how many streetcars are running up and down Woodward. Not just one every hour or half hour, but dozens in a one block area. Watch your step!Look at the drop from the front of that streetcar step to the pavement, yikes! Don't know how women managed with those long cumbersome dresses. It's good the miniskirt came along - strictly for the comfort of the ladies of course, naturally. Bagley FountainThe water fountain in the foreground was given to the citizens of Detroit by John Bagley; one of the founders of the Republican Party, staunch Abolitionist, City Councilman, Governor of Michigan and tobacconist. Long before Detroit was the center of Automobile manufacturing, tobacco was a huge business with over 100 cigar and snuff factories in different parts of the city. The Bagley Fountain was built for both humans and horses as I believe there is a horse trough on the side we can't see. It was moved to Cadillac Square in the 1920s (I believe). It is still there and was outfitted with new piping a couple years ago. I can't say I've ever drunk from the fountain as it is mainly used by our wandering class of citizens for their morning ablutions. Personally I care to honor their territorial markings. For more complete information, may I suggest: http://historicdetroit.org/building/bagley-memorial-fountain/ HorsedrawnWhen I was a child, in the early '50's, they were still delivering milk with horses, at least in Flint, "The Auto City". Hanging OnYes, you, the guy standing in the window in the Majestic Building. Watch Out For The Cows!tterrace's comment had me going to Google to see what these contraptions were called when fitted to streetcars. Apparently the proper terminology was "streetcar fender". There were an abundance of patents issued for designs to enhance the safety of pedestrians who were reckless enough to walk in front of moving streetcars. Some required the conductor to pull a cord to lower the fender when a collision was eminent, while others were designed to be deployed full time on the forward facing end of the streetcar. Streetcar catcher contraption?Looks like the the thing on the front of the streetcar was designed to provide a humane landing zone rather than just plowing cows/horses out of the way. [That's a cowcatcher. - tterrace] Gone, gone, goneCan you imagine that when the Old City Hall was demolished in the 1960s, they considered it progress? (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Detroit Photos, DPC, Streetcars)
Cadillac Square: 1916
Detroit, Michigan, circa 1916. "Hotel Pontchartrain and Cadillac Square from City Hall." ... advertised as the "Cock of the Walk." I was born in Detroit, but was 9 when my family moved us away. This looks like it was a ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/11/2015 - 4:58pm -

Detroit, Michigan, circa 1916. "Hotel Pontchartrain and Cadillac Square from City Hall." Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size. Earlier views of the hotel: Circa 1907, minus the upper floors, and 1910, minus most of the cars. 66?Well, you certainly don't look your age, or something like that. Kudos on your ranking, though it's hardly high enough -- I tell anyone who has the slightest interest in photography OR history about this site. Soldiers and Sailors MonumentThe Soldiers and Sailors Monument at left honored those who served in the Civil War. Dedicated in 1871, it sat there until 2004, when it was moved about 100 feet for a street widening project. In the base of the monument was found a copper box, which was taken to the Detroit Historical Society. It was opened only to find that water had seeped in. All that was found was a bronze medallion and papers (which had the names of all Detroit CW volunteers, according to papers of the day) that had turned to mush. Bertha Kalich,"leading tragedienne of the Yiddish theater." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_Kalich http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0435747/ Convention CityNote the "Worlds Salesmanship Congress - Automobile Salesmen" going on at the Pontchartrain Hotel that particular week. I wonder if car salesmen were as pushy then as they later became. Long-gone cityscapeOf all the buildings in this photo only two still stand, the old Wayne County building in the center background and the commercial building next to the Pontchartrain at the far right. View Larger Map For a Good Time..Go to Detroit. The Gayety Burlesque and the Old Kentucky Whiskey Co. are almost next door to each other. And if you overshoot the Whiskey Co. on your way from the Burlesque, there's a Bar just past it. Don't tell the management... I believe we have a coathanger from this hotel hanging in my closet (in Atlanta). I guess I got it from my father, who probably got it with some of his father's clothes when my grandfather died in Pensacola, FL. I think my grandfather spent some of his youth in Michigan, and I've always wondered how, when, and under what circumstances this thing came to be in our hands... How sad.You'd never see that many people downtown today. Recent AnniversaryOn July 12, 1909, at the Soldiers & Sailors Monument, a large group of cars began a 2000+ mile trek known as the Glidden Tour. On that same spot, 100 years later, a small group of cars gathered to commemorate the event. The Glidden Tour, along with the AAA, did much to promote road improvement in America by demonstrating the awful state of roadways of the day. Hotel What?To the right and behind the Pontchartrain, it looks like "HOTEL ROOKSTOO" What could it be? ["Room $1.00." - Dave] Asking for itI think I'd be afraid nowadays to ask for something advertised as the "Cock of the Walk." I was born in Detroit, but was 9 when my family moved us away. This looks like it was a really neat place. At one time. Does anyone know what the "throne" was for? Re: The ThroneThe Cadillac Chair, a tribute to Detroit's founder, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, was dismantled in the 1940s after it became a popular seating location for "vagrants and drunks." http://buildingsofdetroit.com/places/chair There are definitely more than a few buildings in that picture still standing, and the square itself is still somewhat intact. The PontchThe Pontchartrain to me is the angular-brown-glass '70s building, with its "Top of the Pontch" restaurant, that fascinated the suburban kid I was then on terrifying but exciting field trips or sporting-event trips downtown. Was that a completely different building? [The Hotel Pontchartrain in this photo was torn down in 1920. - Dave] Old DetroitI have been told that my father worked at the Hotel Pontchartrain. He died in 1929. In the late 1930s I went to the Gayety once in a while. Left Detroit in 1953. Left Michigan for Seattle in 1980. Another viewhttp://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=r1nq3q82cmv6&st... TrolleyLook at the two trolleys in the foreground. They are pulling trailers! A very rare thing in the US-trolley history. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Detroit Photos, DPC, Streetcars)
Downscale Detroit: 1908
... compete with the rising movie palaces such as the Michigan and United Artists theaters and quickly switched to burlesque with a ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/10/2019 - 7:38pm -

Circa 1908. "Monroe Avenue, Detroit." One of the nascent Motor City's seedier (and moldier) districts. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Monroe Avenue or Woodward Avenue?Cinematreasures lists the address for the Alhambra Theatre as 9428 Woodward Avenue. [And what are the address numbers on the storefronts in our photo? - Dave] My bad, I thought the one sign said they were moving to Monroe Ave when their building was ready. HometownSeedy but lovely in its own way. Thanks for the photograph of a typical Detroit street. Both of my grandfathers emigrated to the US, settling in Detroit around the time this photo was taken. Three years before the National TheaterMonroe Street (Avenue) was Detroit's first theater district. Near the center of the picture, the building with the arch on the ground level is the Royal Theatre (or "Royale Theatre" or the "Theatre Royale" as it's been known by over the years) on Monroe Avenue at Farmer Street. What's unique here is that this picture has the distinction of being one of the few in existence to show Monroe Avenue early in the 20th century *without* the 64-foot tall twin gold-topped towers of the National Theater - now the last remaining vestige from the aforementioned Monroe Avenue theater district. A few excerpts about the National Theater, in operation from 1911-1975 from HistoricDetroit.org : "Located on Monroe Street at Farmer, near Greektown, the National opened Sept. 16, 1911, as a vaudeville house. It was located in Detroit’s old theater district — before the movie palaces near Grand Circus Park were built. The old Detroit Opera House and the Gayety, Temple, Columbia, Liberty and Family theaters were among the venues that once stood nearby, making it Detroit’s main avenue of entertainment. Inside, its small lobby was narrow and lined with tan tile and led into the 800-seat theater, which was simple yet graceful with a high, square proscenium. The interior represents the earliest surviving example of theater construction that would later characterize Detroit’s movie palaces of the Roaring ’20s. It had a suspended plaster interior shell with a brick supporting structure. The shape and technique are similar to what Kahn used in his Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor (built in 1913). Intricate, gold-leaf designs were painted on the walls. Patrons would climb up staircases in the side towers to reach the seats in the balcony. As vaudeville slowly died out and newer theaters like the Madison (opened in 1917) started showing motion pictures, the National was forced to make changes. It, too, started showing motion pictures, but the small theater couldn’t compete with the rising movie palaces such as the Michigan and United Artists theaters and quickly switched to burlesque with a live orchestra. In the 1940s, the National Burlesk Theater was advertised as “Detroit’s biggest and best” burlesque theater. The runway was lighted from beneath with multicolored panels that the dancers pranced around in their high heels. In the 1960s, evening shows would often start at 8:35 p.m. Among the ladies strutting their stuff were Miss Dee Dee Devine, Miss Lorelei Lee, Miss Gina Gina, Miss Linda Love, Miss Leslie Lang and Miss Ann Darling. The National was Detroit’s last live burlesque theater, but burlesque was a dying fad. As its patrons took their business elsewhere, the National’s performers would start taking off more clothes. The Kahn-designed theater that opened with vaudeville closed with porn. In the early 1970s, the National made the logical progression from burlesque to showing adult films, operating as an X-rated movie venue known as The Palace. By the early 1970s, the Monroe Block was a dying, decaying area of mostly empty storefronts. In 1975, The Palace joined them." Incredibly, as of May 10, 2019, the National Theater still stands (even in its neglected state indoors, it still retains its original asbestos stage curtain), though it's been threatened recently with a proposed "redevelopment" of the entire block - in which, only the facade would be saved as some sort of "pedestrian walkway". Here's a couple of pictures of the same block with the National Theater. The first one is a colorized shot from 1918 at the intersection of Monroe and Farmer. The second is from 1988 from a similar perspective to the 1908 photo (looking south/southwest - the National Theater is at extreme left). By 1990, almost everything you see in that second photo will have been razed - everything except the National Theater: Entrepreneur heavenThe Monroe Block was a normal pre-Civil War commercial area. The area didn't change when Detroit grew up around it in 1920s. Instead, it hosted successive waves of immigrants starting their first business - for instance, David T. Nederlander, founder of the Nederlander Organization theater operators, had a pawn shop nearby when this photo was taken. In the 1970s, when Detroit hoped to build a downtown shopping mall, the city took over the Monroe Block and evicted tenants. Preservationists fought to save the buildings by declaring it a historic district, but couldn't stop the city's demolition by neglect - open windows and unmaintained roofs made the buildings unstable, and by 1990 they had to come down. The mall was never built, but earlier this year, builders started a 35 story mixed-use tower on the vacant land. 3 BallsFor many years I have known that the 3 Ball signs identified a pawn shop. This image illustrates the point where you see several shops labeled "Loan Office" with the 3 Ball symbols hanging out front. This got me to thinking, where did this symbol originate? After a very short internet search I found this link. https://www.hatcitypawn.com/blog/what-do-the-3-gold-balls-outside-a-pawn... Autobots transformed it.Urban renewaled into something else entirely. August 2018Similar perspective - 110 years later. The National Theater (left) is all that remains from Detroit's first theater district on Monroe. One thing I neglected to mention in my last post is that it's been said that Bud Abbott (of "Abbott and Costello") spent a brief stint managing the National Theater in 1915! : Two "Theater" LadiesHere is a painting I did based on a photograph taken in the 1930s in front of one of the theaters on Monroe Street. (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC, Streetcars)
Detroit River Tunnel: 1910
The Detroit River circa 1910. "Michigan Central R.R. tunnel -- sinking the last tubular section. W.S. Kinnear, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/09/2022 - 10:26pm -

The Detroit River circa 1910. "Michigan Central R.R. tunnel -- sinking the last tubular section. W.S. Kinnear, Chief Engineer, Butler Bros. Construction Co., contractors." 6½ x 8½ inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Boys at lower rightSo much to look at in this photo, but I can’t take my eyes off those three boys in the lower right, on the wooden pier. One lounges casually, one is caught in motion as he insouciantly leans forward, and the third boy appears to be yanking himself backwards. Whatever else is going on in the grown-up world of construction and engineering, these three young fellows are the focus of the photo for me. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Detroit Photos, DPC, Railroads)
Easy Payments: 1906
Detroit, Michigan, circa 1906. "Askin & Marine credit parlors." 8x10 inch dry plate ... have seen into the future to the forthcoming glory days of Detroit, its pride and wealth and on to the present collapse. It sure makes ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/13/2012 - 9:14pm -

Detroit, Michigan, circa 1906. "Askin & Marine credit parlors." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Gotta Give 'Em CreditI like the concept of a "credit parlor." "Come in. Have a seat. Care for a cup of tea? How much can we loan you?" And is that a newsgnome on the corner? Super signage"We furnish the home. We clothe the people." So noble! Gately's Peoples StoreMy family used to shop at Gately's Peoples Store in Tinley Park, Illinois, when I was a kid, until it closed in the 80s. Some Gately's photos from another store. A photo from the Roseland (Chicago) store remnants: And a closeup of that same logo on the building, on a souvenir plate from the '50s. The Sound of the PastI wonder how much different the sound, the timbre, the echo of city streets was before motor cars assaulted the auditory canals? Being "in the city" must have been a very different sensory experience. When the only sounds were the clop clop of horses and the clang of trolleys on those wide, empty streets. Perhaps the zzzzzt of the trolley electric wires overhead, too. And a cop whistle now and then. The swish of a woman's long dress as she whisked into a store. The jangle of the bell hanging on the door. When you could HEAR everything with a vividness that has been lost to time. It must have made the city seem larger, calmer, more majestic, more austere, more vivid. And, as they say, like "in the movies." Sarah FarlyAccording to the 1906 Detroit city directory, Sarah J. Farly (widow of Stephen M. Farly) was the proprietor of the Farly Tailor shop at 83-85 Michigan Avenue, on the southeast corner of Wayne Street (now Washington Boulevard). On the right side of the photo, Wayne runs away from the camera toward the Detroit River. View Larger Map Look out Detroit! Your future is coming.Little old Detroit had no idea what was coming in 1906. Can you imagine if someone then could have seen into the future to the forthcoming glory days of Detroit, its pride and wealth and on to the present collapse. It sure makes you wonder what is ahead for all of us, each city, each region of this big country. The exciting changes always seem to come from the inventors. It certainly is tempting to yearn for the quieter days of horse and buggy and the much slower pace. Thank you Shorpy for archiving the past. It is so comforting to visit even if we can't stay. (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC, Stores & Markets)
The Pontch: 1910
The Hotel Pontchartrain in Detroit, seen earlier today around 1907 in this post . Now it's circa ... went to hell in a handbasket, and now the whole state of Michigan is going down too. The difference a few years makes To me, the ... computers that sprang up between 1996 and 2004. Detroit, Seattle, Pearl Harbor My father worked at this hotel. Detroit was ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/11/2011 - 9:42pm -

The Hotel Pontchartrain in Detroit, seen earlier today around 1907 in this post. Now it's circa 1910-1915 and it has a few extra floors trimmed Second Empire style to look like a giant mansard roof. Not too many years later it was torn down to make way for a bank. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size. Monumental RespectEmbedding is beyond me but the monument remains: The Civil War dead getting a tinch more respect than below! That addition...is an architectural muffin top. Goodbye Motor CityIt's too bad Detroit went to hell in a handbasket, and now the whole state of Michigan is going down too. The difference a few years makesTo me, the main difference between this photo and the one taken in 1907 is the presence of so many more automobiles and a bit fewer pedestrians scattered throughout the scene in the later photo. Assuming a date of 1915 for this photo, this gives an insight to the rapid progress of automotive technology. It's probably not unlike the number of household computers that sprang up between 1996 and 2004. Detroit, Seattle, Pearl HarborMy father worked at this hotel. Detroit was at one time a beautiful city, a safe place to go downtown after dark. The first-run movies were shown downtown first then out to the neighborhoods. The burlesk shows were to the right of the hotel. Detroit's main street, U.S. 10, started at the Detroit River and ended in Seattle. Have pictures of my son and older daughter at the Seattle end. 67 years ago today I drove up to Bay City, Michigan, from Detroit for a Sunday drive with my future wife. We heard about Pearl Harbor on the drive back. Horses and carsActually the interesting thing about this picture is the street on the right side of the picture has only cars, but the street on left has at least 8 or 9 horse drawn carriages. The horses outnumber the cars on that street. Soldiers & SailorsThe Soldiers and Sailors Monument was dedicated in 1872 and sat in the same spot until 2002, at which time it was moved south a hundred feet or so for a park layout in the area. A copper box was discovered beneath the monument at that time, but alas, all the papers had been rotted away by seepage. A medallion was also discovered and it is now in the Detroit Historical Museum. MotownBelieve it or not, there are a few of us who are still managing to live, work and even recreate after dark in Detroit! The lights in this city aren't exactly out yet. Nice! You can see the edge of the roof of old City Hall in the right foreground and the still standing (and still beautiful) old Wayne County Courthouse in the background on the left. (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC)
Product Launch: 1905
... and shows the launching of the Detroit at the yard of the Michigan Yacht & Power Company, situated just south of Jefferson Avenue on ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/05/2014 - 12:12pm -

Circa 1905. "Launching of the Detroit (Detroit Yacht Club)." 8x10 inch glass negative by Lycurgus S. Glover, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. A ChampionIn August of 1905 the yacht Detroit won the Lipton Cup in San Diego. [Steeped in history! - Dave] This Detroit boat looks so modernJust I wanted to write. Very modern boat as almost 110 years old. Very streamlined. Happy DaysQ: What are the two happiest days of a sailing man's life? A: The day he buys his own boat and the day he sells it. The precise date of this photograph isJune 4, 1901, and shows the launching of the Detroit at the yard of the Michigan Yacht & Power Company, situated just south of Jefferson Avenue on the Detroit River just east of downtown. The boat had been commissioned by a Detroit syndicate headed by Alex McLeod, shipowner, former newspaper editor, founder of the Detroit Telephone Company, and Commodore of the Detroit Yacht Club. The vessel was intended to compete for the Canada's Cup races at Chicago, but failed to qualify, losing to another Detroit boat, the Cadillac. It was sold in Spring 1904 to a San Diego syndicate, sent west by rail, underwent some modifications, and, as already indicated here, quickly became one of the premier racing yachts on the Pacific coast, but for only a brief time, as her design and ownership raised questions among Southern California's racing elite and she was banished from racing by 1906. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Detroit Photos, DPC)
American Gothic: 1905
Detroit, Michigan, circa 1905. "Residence of W.C. McMillan." 8x10 inch dry plate glass ... service during the navigation season between Buffalo and Detroit, and Cleveland and Detroit. At the time of his death two years later ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/03/2012 - 4:06pm -

Detroit, Michigan, circa 1905. "Residence of W.C. McMillan." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. The AddamsesCharles Addams supposedly modeled the Addams Family Home after College Hall at The University of Pennsylvania. This one was tricky to findThe house was at the corner of East Jefferson and Russell, says the Detroit News ("the former home of U.S. Senator James McMillan, which had been built during the 1870's.") It eventually became the home of the University Club. In 1931 another University Club, now a YWCA, was built on the site. View Larger Map It's a Mickey Mouse MomentIsn't that the Applegate Mansion? (Think of F.W. Dixon) The Success/Failure of Black & WhiteWhat makes this house spooky - the epithet used by so many posters on this topic is the fact that it is in black & white. The look of the house is dark & foreboding and even the ivy can't soften it. Now imagine this house in colour. Dark red brick with the green ivy in contrast. The areas around the windows in either sandstone or terra cotta. The Victorians and Edwardians loved colour and paint technology was giving them an affordable rainbow of shades. Trim, like the railings around the porch in one colour, the sashes for the windows in a different one. The big oak door would be in contrast to the stone around it, and the whole thing would be topped with a slate roof. Suddenly it ceases to be sinister and becomes just another Victorian home, which if it was kept up would be no more sinister than a lot of newer buildings. Fire BreathingI wonder if Spot still lives under the stairs. Don't go in the tower, you fool!Ah, but who--or what--lives in the upper tower room? Erie guyWilliam (W.C.) McMillan, eldest son of three-term Republican U.S. Senator James McMillan of Michigan, was then the president and general manager of the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company, which provided daily service during the navigation season between Buffalo and Detroit, and Cleveland and Detroit. At the time of his death two years later ("at home" in February 1907), he was also president of several iron or steel companies and shipbuilding companies, and one of three co-owners of the Detroit Free Press. In 1902 he declined to be a candidate for election to the Senate vacancy created by his father's death. Update: A Marshall, Michigan, newspaper's report of his death gave his address as 452 Jefferson Ave. Based on turn-of-the-century economic segregation patterns, it's probably East, not West, Jefferson. 452 E. Jefferson (under the pre-1920 building numbering system) would be on the north side of the corner of E. Jefferson and Rivard St. (near the Palm Apartment site); 452 W. Jefferson would be between 10th Street and Rosa Parks Blvd, where a truck terminal is now located. The Adams FamilyRight? [You're close. It's "Addams." - Dave] Electricity?Did Detroit have power poles in 1905? [Yes. And telephone poles, too. - Dave] Dare you to go inGosh, when I was a kid there were a bunch of these vintage places about town all deserted and creepy. Naturally we all had to find a way in and explore. A few of these adventures ended at the police station but as we were not vandals we got off with a good scary official tongue lashing. Some places were left with everything still inside as if the people just one day vanished, never to return. It sure was interesting! 1313 Mockingbird LaneWith or without Halloween decorations this would be the scariest house on any block. ChillingI can't get enough of gothic architecture. So eloquent and emotional while still wholly austere. McMillan & DadWilliam C. McMillan was a son of of Michigan Sen. James McMillan, who was chairman of the Senate Park Improvement Commission of D.C., better known as the McMillan Commission. Sen. McMillan died in 1902, two years after the commission was formed. The "McMillan Plan" resulted in removal of many of the slums that surrounded the Capitol, replacing them with new monuments and government buildings that now form D.C.'s "monumental core," as well and the National Mall and Union Station. As for W.C. McMillan himself, he was general manager of the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Co. HousesI am referring to the 7th picture in the article that Cnik70 linked to in the Detroit News ("Where Detroit's elite met to eat," August 9, 1996) http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=155 - the one labeled "The James McMillan Mansion on Jefferson was an early home of the University Club." I am not referring to the picture he posted, which shows the same location today. The picture in the Detroit News shows a house that belonged to James McMillan, not to his son William C. McMillan. At first I thought that it was the same house, passed from father to son, but looking at the architecture closely, I say it's not. If you can figure out how to post that picture here (I'm sorry I can't), the others may see what I mean. Thanks! Housing styleFYI, there is nothing Gothic about this house. It is an Italianate villa, which is a type of Romanesque revival popular in the middle to late Victorian period. Notice the semi-circular arches in the windows, and the tall square tower, typical of the style. Gothic arches are pointed, and the Gothic revival would have some sort of spire, if anything, not a tower like this. The more extreme Gothic revival buildings even have 'superfluous excrescences' [I love that term, not my creation.] like gargoyles spires, cornices, etc., to dress it up. The Romanesque revival is, overall, simpler and cleaner, with more straight lines. The lines in Gothic revival tend to be more broken up. The tower is where you would lock up an insane or mentally handicapped relative, or perhaps a wayward, unmarried female relative who had managed to get herself pregnant. (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC)
Detroit Rubber Works: 1908
... from bicycle tires to auto tires, and Chicago to the Detroit, was the way to go. Thus, around the time of this photo, Morgan & ... ultimately shortened to Uniroyal in 1961. At some point Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. moved in next door to convert coal to gas. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/04/2021 - 10:41am -

The Detroit River circa 1908. "Morgan & Wright Rubber Works." The enterprise last glimpsed here. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. From Bicycles to Brownfields to "The Bus"Farsighted Fred Morgan and Rufus Wright recognized at the turn of the century that moving from bicycle tires to auto tires, and Chicago to the Detroit, was the way to go. Thus, around the time of this photo, Morgan & Wright Bicycle Tire Co. of Chicago became Morgan and Wright Rubber Works on East Jefferson Avenue and Meldrum in Detroit. Around 1912, Morgan & Wright became a division of the United States Tire Co., ultimately shortened to Uniroyal in 1961. At some point Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. moved in next door to convert coal to gas. Like most Detroit factories of its era, this building closed, and was then demolished, in the second half of the 20th Century. The City bought it to control its future. But by that point the site's contaminated soil was an environmental nightmare, scaring away many potential purchasers. A century after this photo, a new development team led by Detroit native and Pittsburgh Steeler Jerome “The Bus” Bettis obtained development rights to the site. A new commercial or industrial use is still elusive. For more: https://www.bridgedetroit.com/after-39-years-of-sitting-idle-part-of-det... Shades of UniroyalThe company moved from Chicago to Detroit in about 1905 to take advantage of the car industry needing tires. From the start, the plant employed 750 people and produced 350 tires each day. Around 1912, Morgan & Wright became a division of the United States Tire Co which later became a division of Uniroyal. The factory closed around 1980 and was demolished in 1985. The still empty property sits at 6600 Jefferson just west of the Belle Isle Bridge. (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC, Factories)
Detroit Deli: 1912
Detroit, Michigan, circa 1912. " Edelweiss Cafe , delicatessen room." 8x10 inch dry ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/04/2011 - 2:14pm -

Detroit, Michigan, circa 1912. "Edelweiss Cafe, delicatessen room." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Buy one new todayThere's a slicer like this in my local Italian eatery in LA. Tied UpIn my father's laundry store all the packages (or "bundles," as they were called) were tied with string. Dad could snap off the cord, when he was done, with one motion. I could never master it, I had to use a knife. Meticulously Clean"Brown paper packages wrapped up with string, these are a few of my favorite things." As a young teen, I worked a part-time job in a bakery where pies,cakes and cupcakes were placed in a box and tied four ways with sturdy twine (that was hung up overhead) so the box could be carried by the twine. It was not easy to do it correctly (and doing it wrong could end in disaster). Crusty breads, hard rolls or crunchy, chewy rye was placed in brown paper bags. There were no plastic bags in the entire store. No third hand requiredI recall visiting a bakery that had some kind of box-tying pantograph device to handle the string. Deli Cabinets & More!Seems that Wolf Sayer and Heller did more than make deli cabinets. Mr. Heller also had a keen eye for architecture-commissioning Frank Lloyd Wright to build Heller House. Spoiledwe are so overwhelmed with choices when we shop nowadays that the offerings seen here seem very sparse. I wonderThat cash register might well be about ten years old in the photo, you suppose? Maybe part of it is being electroplated here? Mysterious sticks and hooksOn the back wall there is a rack with sticks that have hooks on them. What is this for? It looks like the sticks can be taken off the rack. There are stops that keep the sticks from being pushed too far back. The hooks look like they have sharp points, too. I would love to eat here!It is so spotlessly clean. I love it! It was so interesting to go with my grandma to single-item stores: bakeries, butcher shops, greengrocers. The people were cordial and they always gave me samples or candy. They anticipated Grandma's needs and tucked in something special for me. It was a much simpler time, I miss it. Thanks to Shorpy I can always go back. Looks LikeBlood pudding on the lower shelf. One of my favorite things to have with eggs. Cutting Edge That slicer appears to be a Peerless, I think it is a model produced by Merkel, the inventor of the auto-slicer. Everything was driven by one hand crank, later retro-fitted with a small eletric motor. Amazing piece of engineering. (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC, Stores & Markets)
Bizarro Detroit: 1904
... one year: The Detroit hard at work . Ecorse, Michigan, 1904. "Great Lake Engineering Works. Steamer Detroit , Michigan Central Transfer, stern quarter." Or would that be Tiorted ? 8x10 ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/04/2017 - 9:14am -

        Fast-forward one year: The Detroit hard at work. Ecorse, Michigan, 1904. "Great Lake Engineering Works. Steamer Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, stern quarter." Or would that be Tiorted? 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. HatsThe observers display an excellent selection of headwear. Praise the engineer. . .. . . who first tested the seemingly crazy idea of sliding huge newly built ships into the water sideways. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Detroit Photos, DPC)
City of Cleveland: 1910
Detroit, Michigan, circa 1910. "Sidewheel steamer City of Cleveland . Off for the ... 1905" we find: Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co.,Detroit, Mich., W. C. McMillan, General Manager. ... Steamer City of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 4:26pm -

Detroit, Michigan, circa 1910. "Sidewheel steamer City of Cleveland. Off for the upper lakes." Detroit Publishing Company glass negative. View full size. Post-pyroThis must be the rebuilt version, after the fire. Looking good after the fireGoogled history and read that the steamer was launched in Jan '07 and almost completely destroyed by fire in May '07. Original build/superstructure must have been something grand. All Aboard!I can imagine the guy that broke the news to the people on the dock to form a single line. ColorlessI am always amazed at these pictures of an active crowded America at the beginning of the last century, there always seems to be a dearth of people of color present at public events. Were we "encouraged" to avoid large gatherings or were we just not tolerated by what was then mainstream America? What was our role in our country's many and varied activities? Crunched "Cleveland"After colliding with the Norwegian freighter Ravnefjell: Connecting The DotsRemember the Gothic mansion of W.C. McMillan that was shown here lately, well, from "Marine Vessels Navigating the Great Lakes in 1905" we find: Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co.,Detroit, Mich., W. C. McMillan, General Manager. ... Steamer City of Cleveland Captain, Archibald McLachlan Engineer, John Hall. W.C. would have been proudIn 1910 the City of Cleveland (v. 3) was the pride of the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co., the company run by W.C. McMillan (the owner of the Addams Family-type home posted three days ago). She was built twice - because, in 1907, when her construction was nearly finished, she burned to her steel framework. The History of Detroit (1912) describes her elegance this way: "five hundred staterooms, twenty private parlors with bath, hot and cold running water in each room; telephone in every stateroom, passenger elevator, fire place, convention hall. Venetian garden, luxurious dining room and costly furnishings." An inauspicious beginning and tragic endmarked the career of the City of Cleveland. Launched 5 January 1907 at the yard of the Detroit Ship Building Company at Wyandotte, she caught fire there while being fitted out for service on 13 May 1907 (see photo). She was, of course, built for the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company, of which William McMillan, discussed here recently, was President, but who died a month after the vessel's launching. Rebuilt, she entered service in May 1908. Renamed City of Cleveland III in 1912, she remained in service until she collided with the Norwegian freighter Ravnefjell in dense fog on Lake Huron off Harbor Beach, Michigan, on 25 June 1950. The freighter's bow pierced her cabins, killing five aboard the passenger vessel. The official Coast Guard report. Following the collision, the City of Cleveland III was laid up at Detroit for four years until she again caught fire on 20 October 1954. Most of her was scrapped at Sandwich, Ontario, 1954-1955, but her hull was towed to Buffalo to be converted to a crane barge, a metamorphosis that never occurred, and the hull was broken up there in 1956. Eminent American naval architect Frank Kirby designed the City of Cleveland. Name changeMore about the City of Cleveland here. Incendiarism Is SuspectedMansfield (Ohio) News, May 13, 1907. SPLENDID NEW VESSEL City of Cleveland, Under Construction in Detroit, Swept by Fire Early Today INTENDED FOR COMMISSION OF JUNE 30 It was to Have Been the Finest Side Wheel Steamer on Fresh Water. The Boat Will Be Rebuilt, but it Will Be Impossible to Get Her Ready for Service Before Next Season -- Incendiarism Is Suspected. Detroit, Mich., May 13. -- The magnificent new passenger steamer City of Cleveland, under construction at the plant of the Detroit Ship Building company, for the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation company, and designed to run between Detroit and Cleveland, was swept by fire early today and is a total loss except for her hull and machinery. How much they have been damaged cannot be determined until the hull is pumped out and a careful examination made. The loss, which falls on the Detroit Ship Building company, a branch of the American Ship Building company is about $700,000 and is fairly well covered by insurance. The fire broke out just before daylight in some mysterious manner. There are rumors afloat that an inceniary is suspected. The officials of the ship yard are at a loss to explain the fire, as there were two watchemn on the ship and another at the gate of the ship yard. The City of Cleveland was launched at Wyandotte January 5 and was to have been turned over to the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation company about June 30. She is 444 feet long and is designed to carry 4,500 passengers, with sleeping accomodations for 1,500. The interior wood work and fittings were practically completed and the machinery and boilers were installed. The flames had secured a good start before they were discovered and despite the efforts of two fire boats and all the shore apparatus which could work on the burning ship, swept away everything inflammable from the craft. Tons of water were poured into the hull which now lies at the Orleans dock partly submerged. The two watchmen on the steamer got ashore safely and no one was injured during the fire. The City of Cleveland was intended to be the finest side wheel steamer on fresh water and her interior wood work all of which is destroyed, was unusually beautiful and lavish. Here whole cost was intended to $1,250,000. The ship building company will rebuild the boat as rapidly as possible, it is announced, but it will be impossible to get her ready for service before next season. The Detroit and Cleveland Navigation company will continue the same service arrangements on the Cleveland route which prevailed last season. Well how about that?It sure is a sidewheel steamer! (Pictures with no comments seem lonely to me and since this picture had not a single one, I had to acknowledge its presence). Go "City of Cleveland"! Keep on sailin'! Ghost ShipOne of the ships managed by one of the Halloween house owners. Largest Side-Wheeler in the WorldPopular Mechanics, March 1907: The largest side-wheel steamer in the world, the "City of Cleveland", was launched at Detroit on January 5th. Her dimensions are: Lenght: 444 ft.; beam, 96 ft. 6 in.; and depth, 22 ft. There are seven decks with a passenger capacity of 5,000 and sleeping accomodations for 1,500. In addition, freight cargo equivalent to 110 carloads can be carried. Electric passenger elevators connect the upper and lower decks. There is a telephone in every stateroom which will have connection with the city service when in ports. A complete wireless system will afford land communication when sailing. A speed of 25 miles is expected from the 8,000-hp. engines. A unique feature is the bow rudder which can be seen in the illustration taken just before launching. The steamer will cost $1,250,000 and run between Detroit and Cleveland the coming summer. Board of Commerce excursion, June 10In a 1910 issue of the Michigan Manufacturer & Financial Record you can read all about the upcoming cruise sponsored by the Detroit Board of Commerce, the This was seventh annual trip for the organization. It was also the first trade group to go on a trip by airplane. ColorlessOne explanation, in this case: Detroit's population in 1910 was about 465,000 - with only 5,741 Black people. Buffalo (my city) had only 1,773 out of 423,715. Migration to the factory jobs of the North began shortly after this time. AmazingGrowing up as I have in a largely post-industrial suburban America, images like this fascinate me. I suppose people do travel from Detroit to Cleveland today, but I don't know why. You could probably make the drive in the time it takes to roll through the traffic in Detroit to the airport, park the car, get a ticket, go thru TSA, get on the plane, land, get your luggage, rent a car, and drive to their destination from the airport thru Cleveland traffic. Given the choice of the two, neither seems as fun or as novel as taking to the lake on the City of Cleveland. Seeing pictures of my home country thru the eyes of this website is almost like reading science fiction. The names of the locales are the same, but the details of these people's existence seem almost otherworldly. Going back a mere second in time seems a infinitely less traversable distance than that to the farthest conceivable galaxy. It is a true Lost World. My continuing thanks for posting the photography. Mea Culpa Bauhaus For a people convinced they were on the cusp of modernity, they had an ineffable sense of style. Nothing of value was produced without elegant embellishment that is so lacking today.With apologies to Gropius and Frank, I think there is an ephemeral value to frills. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Detroit Photos, DPC)
Just Up: 1905
Calumet, Michigan, circa 1905. "Just up, Hecla Shaft No. 2." Copper miners topside. 8x10 ... in the diet of Cornish miners. The copper country of Michigan's Upper Peninsula had an influx of Cornish miners in the 1860s ... UP is on the south shore of Lake Superior. It is part of Michigan, sometimes to the irritation of its inhabitants, who are known as ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/29/2012 - 6:13pm -

Calumet, Michigan, circa 1905. "Just up, Hecla Shaft No. 2." Copper miners topside. 8x10 inch dry glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Six Flags Over CalumetIt looks like the start/stop point of the Unhappy Log Flume. E ticket ride.That looks like one heck of a steep ride. Even if these guys averaged 150 pounds each, that would be over two tons of meat heading down that hole on every trip. Splash MountainShouldn't someone be playing chess? Back at the StationThe guy all the way to the left is saying, "Please keep your hands, feet and arms inside the car until the ride has come to a complete stop. Please exit the ride by using either stairway. Enjoy the rest of your day at Hecla World." These guys look pretty happyMore smiles here than in 90 percent of most old photos. Considering what they do for a living that's rather remarkable! Time to play hookyI love this photo so much that I am going to take the afternoon off work just to look at it. Thank heavens for self-employment! Shining FacesIf these cheerful guys were just coming up from their shift, deep copper mining must have been a lot cleaner than deep coal mining, even if not more safe. Two granddadsThis photo brings to mind my two grandfathers, both from Poland around the turn of the century. One became a coal miner in Pennsylvania doing this same kind of hazardous, back-breaking labor and had both legs broken in a mine explosion but did eventually return to work the same job. One worked in a copper foundry in Ct. and died at work on a horrendously torrid July afternoon in 1925. Like these men pictured, they never complained but did what they felt they had to do to support their families and become Americans. Their children met in N.Y.C. and the rest is history, but none of their grandchildren ever had to work as hard as they did. I suspect we are all beneficiaries of our ancestors willingness to give all they had for our better lives. Be thankful for the sacrifices made by your ancestors and give them a grateful thought occasionally. Obviously a management spyThe guy at the right of row 6 seems to be the only one missing the obligatory mine worker mustache. I willnever complain about working again and this was the best part of the day! Kilroy is thereLook at the guy peeking over the hat 2nd row from the top and far right seat. WHAT A RIDEThe man off to the side looks like Tom Edison and the lever next to him looks like the lever to start an old roller coaster, boy are those guys in for a ride. On a more serious note the miners are wearing oil lamps on their helmets, this picture is pre carbide lamp which was a heck of a lot brighter. Also that appears to be a speaking tube next to the standing gent, probably used to talk to the engine operator who could not see the mine car as it came up. Clever NicknameI'll bet that huge guy in the third row was known as Tiny. Big John"And now there's only one left down there to save." Middle row, third up from the bottom. 'StachedMustache, mustache, mustache! Your mustacheMust be this wide to go on this ride. Who's your daddyIt would be really difficult for family members coming down to the mine exit to find the correct husband, father or brother to pick up since nearly everyone there has such similar facial hair, clothing and accessories. Cans?What are they carrying in their cans or buckets? Is this an authorized lunch container or some device related to their work? [Those are lunch pails. -Dave] Eight years laterOn July 23rd, 1913 the miners at the Calumet and Hecla Mining Co. went on strike. On Christmas Eve of that year the striking miners and their families gathered on the second floor of the Italian Hall in Calumet to attend a party sponsored by the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Western Federation of Mineworkers. Somebody yelled "Fire!" In the ensuing panic, seventy-three people died, including fifty-nine children. There was no fire. They never found out who yelled "fire" but it was commonly believed that it was an anti-union provocateur who wanted to disrupt the party. The strike was not settled until April 1914. Lunch BucketI'll bet every one of those lunch pails has a Cornish Pasty in it. I can't help itI keep imagining the feller on the left has a voice like Walter Brennan. "Aww, get on with it an' take the pitcher already! We got work ta do here ya know!" I reckon it must beMovember! Clone WarsThe early years. Middle row, sixth from bottom, see me after your shift!We got us a wise guy here. Inside the Dinner PailWould likely be a pasty -- a staple in the U.P. Pasties have a flaky-type pie crust filled with a mixture of ground meat (usually beef) with carrots, potatoes, onion and rutabaga. They were wrapped in newspaper to keep them warm. If you ever visit the U.P. make sure to sample a pasty! Lunch Buckets, etc.The buckets are similar to the one I carried in the mines and still have. There is a tray that fits into the top of the larger bottom can. The miners carried their lunch (usually a "Pasty" meat pie) in the tray. The bottom held tea. The miners would take several nails and drive them into a timber or lagging board in a ring pattern, put a candle stub in the center, and sit the bucket atop the ring of nails to warm up their tea. I am betting the shift is getting ready to go below, not just coming up .... they are pretty clean. Even hard-rock mines result in dirty miners! Hoist signals were sent by electricity to the hoist room. Great photo! Skip (former miner and hoistman) Where's the Gipper?Calumet is where the great Notre Dame football star Ron, er, George Gipp was born and is buried. PastiesMost likely the lunch pails contain some pasties. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasty The pasty remains a very popular U.P. staple, though I'm sure the fellows in the photo enjoyed pasties too. U.P.?You need to explain what U.P. is to us non-Americans. [As well as non-Yoopers. - Dave] The PastyThe Pasty (pronounced with a short "a" like "pass" rather than like "paste") has an interesting history. It is the national dish of Cornwall, and a standard in the diet of Cornish miners. The copper country of Michigan's Upper Peninsula had an influx of Cornish miners in the 1860s followed by a small wave of Finnish miners. The Finns adopted the Pasty as their standard meal so that when a larger wave of Finnish migration arrived in the 1890s, they found pastys as the standard dish for their Finnish brethren. Last Train to FarkvilleFarked again! The UPThe UP is on the south shore of Lake Superior. It is part of Michigan, sometimes to the irritation of its inhabitants, who are known as Yoopers. There have been movements for statehood since the Peninsula became a mining and timber bonanza in the mid 1850's; this was not long after the local Ojibwa showed early explorers where the iron was. I remember tee shirts with "The State of Superior" on them in the 1960's! The Mackinac Bridge connects us with the rest of Michigan. The UP has Lake Michigan to the south and the big lake (Superior) to the north.The peninsula is about 300+ miles long, east and west with smaller peninsulas on both coasts that jut out into their respective Great Lake. The Keweenaw Peninsula, where this photo was taken, is on the Lake Superior side and it is about 100 miles to Copper Harbor on its northern most point from the main Peninsula. US-41 runs from Copper Harbor, Michigan to Miami, Florida. (The Gallery, DPC, Farked, Mining)
Ten Cents a Branch: 1916
... new customers in the early years. Horse Racing The Michigan Gaming Control Board website states that horse racing wasn't legal in Michigan until 1933. The first race held in Michigan was on September 2 at the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/30/2016 - 7:29pm -

Detroit circa 1916. "Dime Bank branch, Broadway & Grand Circus Park." Co-starring the Crescent Music Co. and a fine-looking carbon-arc streetlight. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Dog friendlyAm curious why two hydrants are placed so close together. Greater Detroit March and Two StepJust around the corner from the bank, great music was being composed by Prof. Joseph P. Leib of The Leib School of Music and Dramatic Arts. Pigeonhole cornerof the outside obtuse angle variety, but they can also be acute, and speaking of cute, how about those high water pants! Anent the fireplug placementI believe we have a girl hydrant and a boy hydrant, but they're devilishly difficult to sex. HydrantsVery curious of two hydrants on same corner. More curious is the water line coming out of one of them into the sidewalk. Water Line Being 1916 and all, the small water line was where your buggy driver could draw water for the horse while you were depositing dimes (or taking a violin lesson upstairs). Hydrant branch lineMy guess would be that it feeds a sprinkler system in the building. Can't be too carefulThe way buildings went up in flames back in those days, I suppose you couldn't have enough hydrants around. But perhaps one is hooked to city water and the other direct fed from the lake, hence the apparent tap coming off the right one? Fire Hydrant and Arc LightA present day peek courtesy of Google street view shows the Detroit Opera House has replaced the bank, but a fire hydrant and updated arc light have survived. Detroit has an incredible number of original street light fixtures, and some new reproductions that mimic the old, that may surprise many people with perceptions of that city. Happy New Year to the Shorpy gang and contributors. Dime bankingI'm ready to sign up and save, but I don't see the coin slot. 1900s Fire HydrantsFire hydrants have high and adjustable pressure and are separate from the domestic water supply. Pressure can be increased from the water department for large fires. Some cities like San Francisco have more than one fire hydrant supply system, I don't know about Detroit. I think the older two outlet Village hydrant, on the left may have been on an older main that could not supply the newer hydrant. I am surprised that it is the survivor. It is rare in a modern city to have a hydrant without a 5" outlet for the large capacity needed for truck ladder pipes, Snorkels, standpipes and sprinkler systems. The hydrant valve for the main supply line is located below the frost line four to six feet below ground. I do not think the mystery tubing has anything to do with the hydrant system, all pressure and volume checks are done from the hydrant outlets. Dime to danceThe jokes aren't too far off - the Dime Bank's gimmick was that you could open an account with just 10 cents. It helped get new customers in the early years. Horse RacingThe Michigan Gaming Control Board website states that horse racing wasn't legal in Michigan until 1933. The first race held in Michigan was on September 2 at the Detroit Fair Grounds. The presence then of a horse racing poster (see below) in the photo came as a surprise. The poster shows the race dates for the grand opening of the Devonshire Park Race Track in Windsor, Ontario, Canada in 1916. There was some controversy as to whether the track should have been built and added to the race schedule, but the objections to the track being created were much too late to make any difference (see article below from the Manitoba Free Press from September 30, 1916). The track was directly across the road from Kenilworth Park which was another horse racing track that opened in 1916. Along with the Windsor Jockey Club, all three tracks catered to Americans. Racing restrictions were quite heavy and limited each track to only seven consecutive days of racing twice a year (no racing on Sundays). The track was owned by Grant Hugh Browne a stockbroker and New York boxing promoter. (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC)
Jiffy Lube: 1904
Circa 1904. "Michigan Central Railroad. Oiling up before the start." 8x10 inch dry plate ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/17/2012 - 10:31pm -

Circa 1904. "Michigan Central Railroad. Oiling up before the start." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. That Other Dome...The rear dome is the steam dome, where the steam collects before it is piped into the cylinders. What's the pipe?What's the pipe just behind the big left driver? My first thought was sand, but you wouldn't sand, behind the wheel. Neither would you vent something wet, like steam, onto the wheel. Anybody know? Safety couplerNote that the coupler is resting on the pilot deck. It is swung out of the way so that it will not catch an object that on the track. Modern diesels have snow plows that deflect objects that might become lodged under the wheels. Enough with the pipes already!The two pipes coming from the sand dome are for SAND! One for forward and one for reverse. The lever from the cab to the dome is for turning on and off the flow of sand. Perhaps out of sight behind the trailing truck is a rail washer because leaving the grit on the rails after it's needed causes friction and unnecessary wear on the wheels of the rest of the train. The small pipe in front of the valve chest is for oil from the hydrostatic lubricator in the cab. What I don't see if a boiler check or a line from the injector to feed the water to the boiler. I don't see it on the color photo either. WowMore like this please! 4-4-2 Atlantic typeBuilt in 1902 for fast passenger service. A sister locomotive, Detroit Toledo & Ironton #45 (also built in 1902) survives at the Henry Ford Museum. Fifty years to go before the diesel engines outnumbered steam locos. Sand, yesMy guess would be sand, for reversing perhaps? Also since that rear pipe leads up to the same spot the pipe in front of the front drive wheel goes... TractionYep, those are sanders. You need them both forward and reverse. From the looks of the tires on those drivers, they were used plenty. (They're called "tires" even though they're metal.) Here's how they change them: http://www.sps700.org/gallery/0411drivers_part1.shtml As for the pipeThat pipe is a sand dispenser. Think of this way. If the wheels start slipping backward, the sand would be delivered to the right spot to regain traction. Also, when the train reverses direction, which they did in railroading to improve stopping. Remember the airbrakes took several seconds, up to a minute to get the rearmost car to brake. So you have the front of the train going backward as the rear of the train is still going forward. Kind of results in a lot of steel on steel as the couplers crash against each other. The other domeThat's the one for whipped cream. Sorry; I couldn't not get into this comment thread. Re: What's the pipe?Notice that there is also an identical pipe ahead of the other driver wheel. Obviously, you might need to sand the track for more traction whether you are pulling or pushing with the engine. Thus, you have sanding pipes on either side of the drive wheels. Mystery pipeConsidering that the pipe comes from the same location as the pipe that goes to the front driver, and considering that trains can go backward, it's a pretty safe bet that it too is a sand pipe. The sand delivered to the front wheel, when going forward, will still be on the rail by the time the rear wheel gets to it. Same when going in reverse. Sand PipeThat is, in fact, a sand pipr behind the rear driver. Note that it comes down from the sand box as does the other pipe in front of the front driver. The Pipe is a Sand PipeFollow the pipe upstream -- it's connected to the sand box, and was used to afford traction when the locomotive was backing up. What's the pipe?I think the sand pipe behind the wheel is used when going in reverse (??) Re: the pipeI think sand is probably the right answer, since the pipe would be in front of the wheel when the engine was in reverse. Note the very similar pipe in front of the other driver wheel. What's the pipe?I believe it was for sand...for backing up. Reverse gearI believe it's a sand pipe for going in the opposite direction. SanderAnonymous, your first thought was right. The pipe behind the rear driver is to deposit sand on the rails during backing moves. There's another sand pipe ahead of the front driver. Both pipes lead from the sand dome atop the boiler, and you can also see the control linkage that allowed the crew in the cab to apply sand when needed for traction. I think sand is the correct answer.An identical pipe runs down the side of the engine to just in front of the forward driver wheel, and both pipes originate from the same dome on top of the engine. Sand is the most likely explanation. My best guess as to why they would have pipes on both sides of the driver wheels would be to provide traction while the engine runs in reverse. Sand it is!The two diagonal pipes coming from the "sand box" (first dome behind the bell) carry sand to the drivers when needed. The engineer can operate a three-way valve for forward-off-reverse sand application. You can see small air lines to the sander valve which run under the jacket. Sand would be applied automatically on an emergency brake application. I am more curious about the lever arrangement to the sand box. The sand had to be perfectly dry to flow through the pipes. Was this lever used to break up clumps of sand in the box? One good question deserves another! Sand Gets in your Eyes, and Elsewhere.The pipe behind the rear driver IS for sand, when backing up. These high-wheeled engines were very slippery when starting and when the engine brake was applied. A sliding wheel, as opposed to a spinning wheel, will develop a flat spot very quickly, which can damage the rail each time it goes around. Without sand the Engineer might not be able to start a train at some locations, especially if the rail was wet or greasy. Modern Diesel locomotives still use sand applied in front of the leading wheels for traction. If too much sand is applied when not necessary, the locomotive will run out of sand and have none when it is really needed. Sand also blows back along the train, getting into parts where it is not desired and mixes with grease or oil, and, into the eyes of patrons on passenger trains without air conditioning, the windows being open. Some streetcars had sanders, the sand being in bins under the seats which folded up to fill the hoppers from within the car. What's the pipe x2A similar pipe hangs down in front of the other driver, right by the guy's left leg. Both seem to originate from the bell shaped thing on top. Backwards sandingYou would sand behind the driver if you needed traction when starting in reverse. Both pipes are coming from the sand dome. What's the pipethe pipe behind the left driving wheel is for sand, but when the loco is running backwards. if you look on the right had side just infornt of the mans leg you will see the same thing and that is for sanding going forwards. That other dome...That's the steam dome. It contains the opening to the main steam pipe and its purpose is to allow this opening to be kept well above the water level in the boiler. This arrangement acts as a simple steam separator and minimizes the risk that water will be carried over to the cylinders where it might cause a hydraulic lock - this is also known as priming. When starting a steam loco, before you start to move, you open the cylinder drain cocks to get any condensate out of the cylinders. As far as keeping the sand dry, that's one of the reasons for putting the sand dome where it is, boiler heat helps keep it dry. The sand is pushed through the sand pipes by compressed air, and in the example you can see the air connections and valves where they enter the dome. Sand was dried and stored in steam heated "sand houses" before being loaded to the locos. Nowadays, AC traction control has helped immensely, but sanding, and knowing when to sand is still needed. The PipeIt's GOT to be for sand. Note that both the "fore" and "aft" pipes go up to the same dome, which has a rather loose-looking lever connected to the cab by a rod (that is ALWAYS slightly bent in these pictures). So the "after" pipe is for those times when the engine must BACK UP on slick rails. Just makes you marvel, at driving wheels tall as a man, and the double-barrel compound cylinders (first the high pressure steam, than rather than wasting the residual pressure, let it work again in a low pressure cylinder). To the true locomotive experts out there - how does the sand get INTO the dome? The SandpiperSomething tells me the goddam pipe is for sand. Whipped cream would be nice, but...That second dome is the steam dome. As the water in the boiler boils, steam is withdrawn from the steam dome, which allows pickup of the steam from a point which is always above the water level. Sand DomeThanks. I found an explanation of the Sand Dome. That's about the last place I'd have looked for sand. Give Me a Brake!It is worth noting that the four wheels of the leading truck have brake shoes to assist in stopping the train, or just the locomotive when operating alone travelling to from it's train. If there is rain, grease, oil, grass or frost on the rail head, a steam locomotive can be VERY difficult to control, thats where the sand comes in to play. If the rail is 'bad', an Engineer will often apply sand just before the train stops so there will be sand beneath all the driving wheels for starting. It appears the front coupler is of a folding-up design and is lying on top of the pilot beam. The Engineer has poked the spout of his oiler into the hole provided for the purpose and is oiling the wrist pin within the crosshead on the front of the main rod that connects the crosshead with the crankpin on the rear driver. The crosshead and main rod convert the reciprical motion of the pistons within the cylinders to rotary motion at the wheel. The right crankpin usually leads the left by 90 degrees on a two-cylinder engine. There is a relief valve on the front of the steam cylinder to admit air when the engine is drifting with the throttle shut, otherwise there would be a vacuum or air pressure within as the pistons move constantly when the engine is in motion. The small curved pipe just visible in the steam above the valve chest carries valve oil from the lubricator in the cab and into the steam supply for lubrication of the piston valve and the piston below. At each end beneath the cylinder can be seen condensate drains which are opened from the cab with links and levers to drain water from condensed steam from the cylinders before it can accunmulate to a level to stop the piston in it's travel, damaging the cylinder heads or causing other mechanical damage. A QuestionDo any of you fellows know what that pipe behind the driving wheel might be for. Sand, perhaps? Whipped cream? Dome, De Dome DomeThe dome behind the sand dome is the steam dome, where the throttle valve is located to allow steam to enter the clyinders through internal piping in the boiler. The next open dome area is where the whistle and poppet valve (pressure relief valve) is to allow excess steam pressure out. Domes Galore.The front dome is for sand, as mentioned in several posts. The Engineer pulls a lever in the cab, the rod of which is seen, and this moves a plate beneath the sand in the sand dome until holes line up above the outlets to the pipes leading to the front or rear drivers. There is another handle in the cab which admits compressed air front or back to force sand down the pipes to the wheels, their control air pipes also visible at the base of the sand dome. There usually is a round recessed lid on top of the sand dome with a recessed hand hold, secured with a length of chain within the dome cavity, where sand is poured in on the shop track when servicing the locomotive between runs. Two little steps can be seen bolted on to the boiler side to access the sand dome, bell etc. The heat of the boiler keeps the sand dry and 'fluid' if rain does get in. Coal and water would be added to the tender at the same time, and the cab supplies such as oils for lubrication, grease for some bearings, and lamp oil for the various lamps on the engine. This engine does not yet appear to have a steam-operated electric dynamo nor an electric headlight. It may have an Acetylene headlight? The second dome along the boiler-top from the front is the Steam Dome. Within it's sleek casing is a heavy flat-topped dome on top of the boiler proper which houses the steam throttle valve above the water level in the boiler. The throttle valve is opened and closed thru a rod which passes thru a gland with packing against the boiler pressure to the Engineer's throttle handle in the cab. Moving his handle lifts and lowers the balanced throttle valve in the steam dome, admitting steam to the cylinders. On top of the steam dome proper there is a round heavy metal plate bolted down with a steam-tight fit which can be removed when the engine is cold to access the interior of the boiler and the throttle valve. The third dome from the front is called a 'pop dome' and on top of it can be seen pressure safety valves, 2 in this case. These valves, when both are open, MUST be able to pass more steam than the boiler and firebox can produce under all firing conditions. One safety valve opens, usually, 3 to 5 pounds sooner than the second. The vertical round cylinder just ahead of the cab roof, but behind the safety valves is the whistle. The bell ahead of the sand dome is air-operated on it's right side, the small air pipe visible. The left side of the bell has a rope so the bell can also be 'rung' by the fireman on the locomotive's left. Dome, de dome, domeNow that we have solved the sand dome mystery including the pipes, valves, and control linkage what is the pupose of the other dome beside or behind it? The Rules of AttractionIf anything at Shorpy attracts (pun intended) more attention than a pretty girl, it has to be a railroad engine! New RulesOr tterrace! D'Udder DomeThe rear dome is called the Steam Dome. It is the highest point of the boiler and is where the throttle valve is located. Taking the steam from here keeps water from going into the "Dry Pipe" and hence into the steam cylinders up front. Domes a plentyThe other dome behind the sand dome is the steam dome. It was where the steam was "gathered" prior to being sent to the cylinders. Most all horizontal boilers on trains and traction engines have steam domes. Vertical boilers typically don't need steam domes. Two domesMust mean it's a lady locomotive. The other dome The dome behind the sand dome is the "steam dome". That is where te steam is drawn from the boiler. If it was lower on the boiler there is more of a chance of picking up water instead of steam which would not be good. You can see the steps on the side of the boiler below the sand dome. They are there because this was somewhere that needed to be serviced (filled) often. ThrottledThe dome behind the sand dome is the steam dome which contains the throttle. Immediately behind that is the auxiliary steam dome which has the whistle, safety valves and most likely a dry pipe for the turret in the cab which supplies steam to the appliances. Bactrian LocomotiveThere are two domes because this is a Bactrian Locomotive, not a Dromedary locomotive! The other dome is known as the Steam Dome. Inside this dome is a pipe which collects the steam made by the boiler and is eventually sent to the pistons to power the locomotive. The dome puts the steam pipe as far away as possible from the boiling waters below so that only steam, not water, gets into the steam pipe. Water, being incompressible, will break the pistons or cylinder covers. The other domeThe other dome is the steam dome. What you actually see is just a cover. The throttle is located inside of the steam dome. There is also a Dry pipe to the turret located inside of the steam dome. The reason for the dome is to allow dry steam to exit the boiler. Percolator DomeNow, out of which pipe do you get the fresh-brewed coffee? I have no choice!I had to chime in on the discussion about all the "pipes", seeing as I am employed as a rail road "Pipefitter" Lol! 1. It is for sand 2. It's still used 3. Yes, it has to be bone dry because they still constantly clog. Snappy shoes!Hmmm.. that oiler is wearing what appears to be a sharp-looking pair of dress shoes. A little surprising considering the working environment! Alumni Did anyone notice this beauty was produced here in Schenectady NY? The General Electric Alco works, produced some of the finest and biggest locomotive engines ever to run the rails. Sadly, Alco is being demolished for condos, and only a few of these magnificent steamers still ply the rails. (The Gallery, DPC, Railroads)
A Lot of Cars: 1942
July 1942. "Detroit, Michigan. Looking down on a parking lot from the rear of the Fisher Building." ... [The Fisher Building is an office tower in downtown Detroit, not an auto body plant. - Dave] I just thought it was ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/30/2023 - 1:30pm -

July 1942. "Detroit, Michigan. Looking down on a parking lot from the rear of the Fisher Building." Photo by Arthur Siegel for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Nowa Lot more! All growed upInteresting to look at the size of the "slots" and the actual size of the vehicles parked in them. From when the auto body plant was built til the time of the photo, cars had sure undergone a growth spurt. Wonder how that lot made out in the mid-fifties when automobile took a really big jump in size. Perhaps most of all in the creations coming from this very place. [The Fisher Building is an office tower in downtown Detroit, not an auto body plant. - Dave] I just thought it was a factory -- my mistake. Is the building named for the same person that ran the design and manufacturing company? [Did you click on the link? The Fisher family financed the building with proceeds from the sale of Fisher Body to General Motors in the 1920s, after which it was known as the GM Fisher Body Division. - Dave] Kid friendlyThe tunnel under West Grand Boulevard, from "The Golden Tower of the Fisher Building" to GM headquarters, where you could see the Soap Box Derby winning cars on display in the lobby. Or the new models from the General Motors Five. Like so many other places in '50s Detroit: the Ford Rotunda, J.L. Hudson Co. downtown in December, the little trains at the Detroit Zoo, the Vernor's bottling plant at Woodward and Grand Boulevard, the model railroad layout in the basement of the Detroit Historical Society, the lobby of the Guardian Building, etc. There was no admission charge for many of these adventures, which fit the family budget nicely. My father was a shrewd family time investor. [Strictly speaking, the Ford Rotunda was in Dearborn. - Dave] A lot of carsIs that what it's called? Like a school of fish, or a pride of lions, or a murder of crows (my favorite). (The Gallery, Arthur Siegel, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Detroit Photos)
Detroit Publishing: The Sequel
Detroit, Michigan, circa 1902. "Detroit Photographic Company, southeast view." Our ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/13/2014 - 2:49pm -

Detroit, Michigan, circa 1902. "Detroit Photographic Company, southeast view." Our second look at the home of the Photochrom-process postcard. View full size. Ripe for colorizationWith all the false-color postcards they turned out, someone should do some retro-justice to this plate. Any takers for creating an over-obvious color job? PostcardsWas Detroit Publishing a competitor or as large a producer of postcards as the Curt Teich co. in Chicago? [At its peak in the early part of the century, Detroit Publishing was selling around 7 million postcards and prints a year. - Dave] (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC)
Field of Mars: 1890
... foreground is the only existing work of H.H. Richardson in Michigan. Richardson also built an armory in Detroit, but it is long gone. Today the fountain sits in a different location ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/26/2012 - 4:55pm -

Circa 1890s. "Campus Martius, Detroit." Down the street, a "moonlight tower" arc-lamp stanchion. Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size. Oh, boy!This is so beautiful. What a glimpse at the past! Dave, I'm from Brazil, and I'm a huge fan of your site. Thank you so much for sharing this amazing pictures! Best regards! EmissionsIf you want to know what it smelled like to live in those times, just visit Mackinac Island. Horses are the main transport there, and you begin to get a whiff of it a mile offshore, and it's a lot cleaner than the street in this photo. Austin TowersThis very tower could now be residing in Austin, TX, as 31 used towers were purchased and relocated there in 1894-95. 17 are now still in use and listed as historical sites by the State of Texas. re: The writing on the wellThe visible side says FOR THE PEOPLE FROM. The four sides say: TESTAMENTARY GIFT FOR THE PEOPLE FROM JOHN JUDSON BAGLEY A.D. MDCCCLXXXVII The writing on the wellWhat does is say on the steeple above the well in the front of the picture? Something about fortune? Or is it some latin phrase I can't decipher? Also, there is some really beautiful architecture in this picture. Sort of looks like a Sunday to me, with everyone dressed up in their best clothes. TowerI wonder what that tower on the left side of the street with the guy wires is for? Surely this was some time before any wireless transmissions were practical on such a scale. [It is, as noted in the caption, a carbon-arc lamp. - Dave] EmissionsThe sheer quantity of horse urine and manure is striking. Street HeatStreet car #497 looks like it has a chimney for a stove on the roof. #288 doesn't seem to have a chimney. Were some of these cars heated? [They both have the same chimney. - Dave] Progress schmogressIt's the loss of wonderfully articulated buildings like the old City Hall that make progress a dirty word. Grand details wherever you look. Campus MartiusThe Bagley fountain in the foreground is the only existing work of H.H. Richardson in Michigan. Richardson also built an armory in Detroit, but it is long gone. Today the fountain sits in a different location in Cadillac Square. All the buildings in this photo have been demolished except for the Fort Street Presbyterian Church (spire just left of the lighting tower) The Hammond building is the large structure to the left. It was one of Detroit's first skyscrapers. The Second Empire building on the right is the old city hall. it was demolished c. 1960 to build a underground parking garage. in the last 5 years a modern office building has been built on the site. Before the automobile ruledIt's interesting to see all the various offices for different types of transportation in Detroit...except for cars. Less than halfway through the decade, Henry Ford's quadricycle would emerge from his humble backyard workshop to change all that. Brand new building and new age lightingAccording to the information on the front of the building, it was completed in 1889. Brand new! In keeping with new innovations, the "moonlight tower" was evidently quite the fad for a while. I had never heard of such a thing, but see the attached clip. I'm surprised that everybody didn't go blind from staring at the devices! Department of SanitationNo wonder people thought that cars (when they came along) were "clean"! I'm not a youngster, to say the least. My father, who grew up in NYC, told me how awful the cities were in the summer. Horse waste was only part of the problem but a big one. The "better neighborhoods" always got cleaned up but the poorer sections were last on the street cleaner's list. Manure would dry up an blow around onto people, into houses and onto laundry. No wonder anyone who could afford it left the city in the summer months. Moonlight TowersAustin, Texas, went in with the moonlight tower fad and originally installed them in 1895. Growing up there, I was always told that we put them up because it was the rage in Paris. Then everyone tore theirs down, but we kept them. One of them, in Zilker Park, gets strung up like a Christmas tree every year. http://www.aroundaustin.com/2004/03/austin_moonligh.html Bagley Memorial FountainDetroit's first public drinking fountain was built in 1887 with money from the estate of John Judson Bagley. Recently refurbished and moved to Cadillac Square. Bagley was a New York tobacconist who came to Detroit in 1846. He helped organize the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Co. and the Republican Party, and served as Michigan's governor from 1872 to 1876. The four sides say: TESTAMENTARY GIFT FOR THE PEOPLE FROM JOHN JUDSON BAGLEY A.D. MDCCCLXXXVII AstonishedThank you Dave for that wonderful picture! Never knew anything about light masts like this one! It's definitely absolutely new experience to me! I personally was confused as I thought it looks like cell phone base station. Live long - study forever! Thank you once more! (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC, Horses, Streetcars)
Mint, Sage, Caraway and Thyme: 1942
July 1942. "Birmingham (near Detroit), Michigan. Herbs and kitchen utensils in a house in Birmingham." 4x5 inch ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/19/2023 - 8:38pm -

July 1942. "Birmingham (near Detroit), Michigan. Herbs and kitchen utensils in a house in Birmingham." 4x5 inch Kodachrome transparency by Arthur S. Siegel for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Point of orderI found myself wondering why the caption was in a different order than the bottles, but then I deduced that this was taken in Scarborough. Secret IngredientThe wad of chewed gum on the shelf is a nice touch. Secret IngredientI sure hope that is gum on the shelf!!! Well used toolsI like the patina of age and use on the various cooking utensils. The handles tell that these have been used often to make meals for whomever they belonged to, and their family. The small pan was probably used to melt butter or lard. Nice rackSomeone had to say it. "Nice rack" - ?No. Actually, no. Nobody had to say that. I see fiveI think there's a dab of spearmint visible, too. Still in useChange the handles of some of those utensils to red and white and you can find them in my kitchen. Metal and mintI love photos like this, which provide a glimpse of daily life in the past. Those are great utensils! Looks like they had all ready been around for quite a while, by then, but still had lots of use left in them. I watch secondhand stores for such things, and have several I use. I'd like to know how she used that mint. I'll bet it was from her garden! Utensil RingsThe four utensils on the right had an identical threaded metal ring screwed into each handle end to allow it to hang on a hook. The ring on the end of the small skillet was too big for the hook, and it appears a bit of force was used to make it fit. This was clearly a time before stainless steel. I like the detail of the rough plaster wall - I'd love to see the rest of the kitchen. Any related images? NostalgicI'm pretty certain some of those utensils are probably still in use by someone. Some of my favorite kitchen gadgets are those that belonged to my mom and grandmother in the '30s and '40s. They are still in great condition, whereas a lot of what I bought when I got married in 1969 only lasted a couple of years. Wabi, sabiPerfect examples of the Japanese qualities of wabi and sabi. The enjoyment of the slight imperfections in objects which are in everyday use, especially those which are hand-made, and of the honest wear which accumulates on such objects. Scarborough Fare?They must've run out of parsely and rosemary. These old implementsThey remind me of my grandmother's 'polenta' paddle, which I still use for stirring pasta. Polenta is basically corn meal mush. The paddle is a wooden device similar to the spatula-like thing third from left, but made of wood and about 2 inches wide by 1/4 inch thick. The one I have is over 100 years old, as my grandmother got it when she was first married in 1908. I got it when I moved into my first apartment in '73. Can't remember how many times I got my butt warmed with that paddle! (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Arthur Siegel, Kitchens etc.)
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