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Ice Cream Every Day: 1920
... in 1862. For 24 year he lived in New York city and in Cincinnati. Since 1886 he had identified himself with Washington. He purchased ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/07/2012 - 10:25pm -

Washington, D.C., 1920. "J.C.L. Ritter. Carry Ice Cream truck." A brand-new Walker Electric. View full size. National Photo Co. Collection glass negative. Walker ElectricInteresting truck here; it looks like it has holes to mount headlights but no headlights are mounted; solid disk wheels that imitate wooden spokes; padded backrest but no seat cushion. Very cool (no pun intended) shot of an early delivery vehicle. [Seems to have just been painted. - Dave] "Eat a plate of ice cream every day"And don't forget a glass of cake on the side. Albert CarryAlbert Carry, the owner of Carry's Ice Cream, was a notable Washington entrepreneur. According to his obituary ( Washington Post, Feb 16 1925) He was born in Haechinzen, Germany, in 1852 and came to the United States in 1862. For 24 year he lived in New York city and in Cincinnati. Since 1886 he had identified himself with Washington. He purchased the old Jueneman brewery and in 1889 sold the plant and organized the National Capitol Brewery Company, which he turned into the Carry Ice Cream Company. The past few years he has been active in banking and realty business in which he associated with him his two sons, Charles A. Carrey and Joseph G. Carrey He apparently switched from the brewery to ice cream business as a result of prohibition. His ice cream company was located at 1337 D street southeast. He lived a few blocks away at 135 Twelfth street southeast. In the 1960s the site of the brewery/ice cream plant was sold to Safeway and has been a grocery store since then. Much more about Albert Carry and family can be found at the Capitol Hill History Project. Heavy DutyCheck out how many leaves are in each axle spring, and the amount of compression at the bottom of each solid tire. I wouldn't expect such a small truck to be so heavy, but then this truck probably had quite a load of ice to keep things frozen. Hmm, and this is an electric truck maybe, judging by what might be huge battery boxes between the axles? Anonymous #2: I'd love a cup of hot prime rib to wash it all down. Refrigerated TrucksAccording to Wikipedia "It was not until the middle of the 20th century that refrigeration units were designed for installation on tractor-trailer rigs (trucks or lorries)." So I doubt this truck was refrigerated, maybe the box simply protected the fuel tank. [There is no fuel tank. It's an electric truck. Doesn't anyone read the captions? And it would be refrigerated with dry ice. - Dave] Contraption?My first impression was "wow, that's a contraption". The more I look at it, the more I am impressed with the workmanship and engineering evident in this vehicle. State of the art for that time. DSS Future TruckThis was a pretty forward thinking company, putting the telephone number on their trucks. Pity the same technology for making electric delivery trucks is not available today. If Ford, GM or Chrysler could manage that same task, they would rolling in so much money... Just a US mail delivery vehicle contract alone would make one of those companies a mint. [The big electric delivery trucks disappeared from the scene because gasoline and diesel trucks gave better value. Which is still the case today. - Dave] Great-GranddadMy grandmother (born in 1912) told me many stories about her engineering father, John Stubbe, who developed some electric cars. He later worked for the Locomobile company, which made electric buses for hotels and tourists. Not only were diesel and gas more efficient, but electric cars (not the trucks) were seen as something fit to drive by ladies, because they were safe and very slow and didn't go too far. That must not have sat too well with his wife, who was one of the first women drivers in Pittsburgh. Her touring car ran on gas. John Stubbe ended up leaving the electric car industry and worked on selling and maintaining gasoline vehicles on Baum Blvd in Pittsburgh. [The main appeal electric cars had for women was no transmission, hence no gearshifting. And no cranking. All of which required an unladylike amount of exertion. NYT article on Jay Leno's Baker Electric. - Dave] Batteries Not Included1918 Walker Electric Truck 3.5 ton chassis, Model P: Weight: 5,600 lbs Top Speed: 12 mph empty, 9 mph loaded Range: 40 - 50 miles per charge Price: $3,600 (batteries not included) Batteries: 44 cells Type: forward-control, open-enclosed cab 4x2 Serial No.: 1686 Wheelbase: 131 inches Engine: Westinghouse electric motor mounted in rear axle Transmission: none Rear Axle: Walker hollow axle with integral electric motor, spur type gear reduction, 15:59 ratio Front Axle: I-beam Springs: semi-elliptic leaf, front and rear Brakes: mechanical, external contracting on rear wheels Steering: left side wheel, Ross steering gear Wheels: Walker cast steel solid disc Tires: 36" x 5" front and dual rear Walker Electric Vehicle Co. built electric and gasoline-electric hybrid trucks from 1918 or earlier until at least 1942 in Chicago. The same marque may have been manufactured by the Automobile Maintenance Co. prior to this. A 1918 Model P 3.5-ton open cab version (serial number 1686) is on display at the Hays Antique Truck Museum at Woodland CA. The Walker 1 ton balance drive electric truck was used for local delivery service. The van is driven by an electric motor developing 3 1/2 h.p. with a range of around 50-60 miles on a single charge and could reach speeds of 12 mph. The only known working example, owned by Harrods Limited of Knightsbridge, London, still takes part in the annual historical commercial vehicle London-to-Brighton run. http://www.econogics.com/ev/evhistw.htm No hurryThundering along at 9 mph when loaded, I would think I would choose a faster mode of transport for ice cream, even with the dry ice as refrigeration. I doubt that they went very far. Anyone for ice cream soup? [Dry ice and the insulated refrigerator body would keep your ice cream cold all day. The same method still used by a lot of Good Humor vendors. - Dave] Experts . . .A minute and a half looking at an old pic (not seeing the caption) and everybody "knows" exactly what it is, how it worked (and when) and how everything was back in the day. Caption? . . . we doan need no stankin' caption. Foy Las Vegas I Scream, You ScreamI'm doing research for a novel for kids that takes place in Atlantic City in the 1930's. I need ice cream flavors of the 1930's. Any suggestions? Thanks! Love the pick of the Ritter Truck! [Search eBay for ice cream ads. - Dave] (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Natl Photo)
Garfield: 1906
Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1906. "Garfield statue." Our 20th president, cut down ... 1887 statue of President James Garfield still graces Cincinnati, but it's been moved to a much less majestic pedestal in Piatt Park. ... it was 130 years ago, but it was. (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, DPC) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/12/2012 - 3:09pm -

Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1906. "Garfield statue." Our 20th president, cut down by an assassin's bullet and put up on a pedestal. 8x10 glass negative. View full size. Impostor!Everyone knows Garfield has orange fur and a tail. A Short ReportWe were all required to do a report on a president in 4th grade. Somehow I got Garfield, and I remember being a bit disappointed when I realized there wasn't a whole lot to go on. My best friend got Franklin Pierce. At least he had crazy hair. ForsoothIs this a lasagne I see before me? From the makers of the OK Brush --... the Alright Gate. Brought downI prefer the "new" pedestal. It brings him down to the viewer's level, at least a bit. The other one looked like one of those "topsy turvy" cakes we see these days. It made him look like he was doing a pirouette. What a dragWhen my pants cuffs drag the ground like that, I usually get them shortened by an inch or so. Still StandingCharles Niehaus' 1887 statue of President James Garfield still graces Cincinnati, but it's been moved to a much less majestic pedestal in Piatt Park. Sadly, Garfield's name has since been besmirched by a cartoon cat! SorryCouldn't help myself. Auto repair shop on the rightGiven the year was 1906, I can't imagine they have been in business long. Took this in ClevelandThings have changed slightly in Garfield Place Nice rack!Just spotted these off to the side. Nice rack!Just spotted these off to the side. Perchance the automobile repair shop pried an elk from a grille? RumpledI wonder if our 20th president was really such a messy dresser (looks like he used his coat as a pillow every night) or if the artist was just showing off his mastery of stone wrinkles. [Or bronze wrinkles. -Dave] Hazy DayThe air is so thick it's a wonder they can breathe! Really brings home the effects of all the incinerators and smokestacks. Ah, the industrial age. Notice the hazy skyNotice the hazy sky permeating the town going up the road. Perhaps excessive methane gas pollution from horse droppings? [The "haze" is coal soot. - Dave] RemovalThe statue wasn't moved too far as it was in the middle of Eighth and Race Streets and in this photograph is facing Piatt Park/Garfield Place. It now faces its former location situated at the head of the park. GarfieldsThere is a James A. Garfield connection to the comic strip. Jim Davis patterned the cat's personality after his grandfather, James A. Garfield Davis, and chose his middle name for the character. It's probably a good connection, 'cause Garfield was one of the most brilliant and righteous presidents we've had -- albeit for a short period of time. Anything that gets folks to dig into the string of forgotten, bearded presidents in the Gilded Age is all right by me. Sorry just isn't enoughHe should be pirouetting with a plate of lasagna! WrinklesIf you look at photos of our pre-dry cleaning and pre-air conditioning presidents, you'll see they're often creased. They weren't as vain and coiffed as our politicians today. They'd go town to town to town and give speeches, traveling long distances by train. And there were no synthetic fibers. Hard to imagine just how different it was 130 years ago, but it was. (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, DPC)
Islesworth Gardens: 1906
... load up our old Buick, include the dog, and take off from Cincinnati for that glorious week on the Jersey Shore. We stayed in an old ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 12:32pm -

Continuing our trip to Atlantic City circa 1906. "Islesworth Gardens Hotel, Virginia Avenue." 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Just for a momentI thought the woman in the streetcar was texting a friend. Then I woke up! Great shot!I think the Trump Taj Mahal casino is there now. All GoneI'm about an hour's drive from Atlantic City, though not being a gambler, I don't go there often. With the advent of the casinos, locales such as this, evidently at the Boardwalk, are completely gone. I'll have to make a trip there with a camera and some of these old pictures to see the differences. Thanks for all the great pictures. The Streetcar!At first I was confused with the streetcar having its pole up in the wrong direction for a double track line but then I noticed that there is a crossover (a pair of switches in the street) allowing the car to "turn back" or "short turn" without having to go to the end of the route. The pole has been turned but the seats are still facing the wrong direction. The faded lettering on the sign on the roof also suggests that this car might not be going to the end of the line. InterestingThe only people I see around here using parasols are Asians. Remembering Atlantic City in the 1950sOur family vacationed in Atlantic City for many summers in the 1950s. We would load up our old Buick, include the dog, and take off from Cincinnati for that glorious week on the Jersey Shore. We stayed in an old converted mansion on North Carolina Avenue called the Manlor Guest House. Every morning was an open air breakfast on the Boardwalk, then to the beach and back to the Manlor to squirt off the sand in the backyard and go to dinner at Betty's Restaurant. The Manlor is long gone along with all the other old converted homes but those places had a charm that no Holiday Inn could replace. Look through the windowYoung lady in the window under the letter "N" of the streetcar looks like she just realized she has purchased the wrong ticket. TrumpedIf this is where the Trump Taj is now, I think it looked much better then! Her TownThe sidewalks are full of Mary Poppinses. The End of the Line or Back at 'Go'?The streetcar in the photo is interesting, having just arrived at this location on the track closest to the curb and the horse cabs. The car seatbacks are in position indicating the right end of the car was the front on arrival, the seat backs could be flipped over depending on car's direction. The outer arm rests are on the window ledges. The seats at the front and rear two side windows would have their backs to the window, the patrons facing the aisle. On cars with sanders the sand boxes would often be located under these lengthways seats which hinged up when filling with sand. However, the trolley pole has been moved around so the car will now travel right to left when it starts on it's next journey, the left end now the front. The car is short enough, altho' it has two 4-wheel trucks beneath, that the Motorman or Conductor could walk the trolley pole around with the trolley pole rope still able to hang over the end at either end with the trolley pole stand centered lengthways on the car roof. Without the trolley pole rope overhanging it would be difficult to centre the trolley pulley on the wire. A longer two-truck car would have to have a separate trolley pole at each end. There were also parameters governing the placement of the trolley pole stand on the car roof so that the pulley would track on the wire properly when the car beneath turned at a track switch at an intersection or went straight thru. Now, there are TWO tracks in the street, and this car will cross over to the far track to 'Run on the right' as it moves ahead on it's new journey. The 'crossover' in the street is visible by the man's head above the nearest horse cab and thru the cab behind. Thank You. Phones in RoomsThe Islesworth Gardens Hotel was popular with conventioneers (pharmacists, railroad ticket agents, elevator operators ...) 1908 Advertisement Impossible waistsThe women wearing corsets have those impossibly small wasp waists. I wonder about the young woman walking toward the camera. She appears to have a normal waist. The corset must have exacerbated the heat problem. Give me my smelling salts. And Gracious Sakes, I see a few women without their hats in public! City of the FutureIt looks like a futuristic city of dollhouses. They had some kind of super "green" vehicle that ran on hay and produced fertilizer instead of carbon monoxide... and even mass transit that ran on electricity! Wow, imagine if we could harness that kind of technology. No sunscreen requiredI but none of these people is thinking about sunscreen! Also, its a shame that we don't use parasols anymore. I count about 15 in this picture (if you count both sides of the street). Dress CodeNo shorts or tank-tops allowed! Good MannersNotice that the men use proper etiquette when walking with a female companion. The man walks on the street side, ladies to the inside. By the way, what is the covering on the roofs of the horse cabs? Is it some kind of treated cloth? In praise of ShorpyShorpy is my all time favorite web site ! It's like having a portal to the past. Shorpy lets us see in incredible detail what life was like decades ago. I tell everyone I know about this fantastic site. My problem with this site is that I could spend all day looking at the photos. Thank you for all of the work you do in making these Library of Congress photos look as good as they do. Fastest Way to Ocean CityThat interurban trolley on the right is from the Shore Fast Line connecting Atlantic City to Ocean City, New Jersey. It operated into the 1940s and was immortalized as the Short Line on the Monopoly game board. Car 6812West Jersey and Seashore Type Q semi-convertible, built by the J. G. Brill Co., Phila, 1904-05. Originally single ended, rebuilt as double ended car in 1908. Sold off in 1913-14 when new "Nearside" cars were delivered. The cars, incidentally, are numbered in the Pennsylvania Railroad fleet as the WJ&S was a PRR subsidiary. This is the kind of picturethat deserves the "even bigger" option, or the colorized version. Lovely, absolutely lovely in every detail. Exquisite photo. Speaking of Monopoly RR'sDid we ever find out why Darrow used the B&O railroad for his game? The Baltimore and Ohio never served Atlantic City; only the Shore Fast, Reading, Pennsylvania (later these would merge into the PRSL) and the Central RR of NJ (with it's its infamous Blue Comet) did. From Atlantic City to Ocean CityThe trolley advertises 2 ways to get to Ocean City: "SHORE FAST LINE ELECTRIC FLYERS VIA GREAT EGG HARBOR BAY" "ATLANTIC AVE. TROLLEY AND BOAT VIA LONGPORT" No. 6818 is a local Atlantic City car, maybe even a shuttle out to Atlantic Avenue. It does not have 3rd rail shoes, which Shore Fast Line cars needed, as they used a part of the West Jersey & Seashore RR to get across the meadows between West Atlantic City and Pleasantville, where the electrified railroad didn't use overhead wire. Shore Fast Line ran between Virginia Avenue and the Boardwalk, Atlantic City to 8th Street and the Boardwalk, Ocean City, both on barrier islands, via the Mainland. (The Gallery, Atlantic City, DPC, Streetcars, Travel & Vacation)
Sliders: 1910
Cincinnati circa 1910. "Chester Park -- toboggan slide on the lake." 8x10 inch ... was located at Spring Grove Avenue and Platt Avenue in Cincinnati's Winton Place area and was developed by George Stone in 1875." ... "Today, the site is the home of the Cincinnati Water Works. Ironically, the park was forced to close due to an ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/09/2012 - 6:18pm -

Cincinnati circa 1910. "Chester Park -- toboggan slide on the lake." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. According to SOAPHS(Southwest Ohio Amusement Park Historical Society) "The park was located at Spring Grove Avenue and Platt Avenue in Cincinnati's Winton Place area and was developed by George Stone in 1875." http://www.soaphs.com/chesterpark/index.htm "Today, the site is the home of the Cincinnati Water Works. Ironically, the park was forced to close due to an unpaid water bill." A very nice photo album of the park can be found here: http://chesterpark2.shutterfly.com/ Where the Guys AreLooks like everyone is having a good time but I see no girls like me. When I was a kid I would rather have been sliding than sitting in a rowboat trying to keep my long skirt and frilly high-neck blouse dry. Once a tomboy, always a tomboy. But apparently not in this time and place. The finished productFrom the album listed in one of the previous posts. Acme of EnjoymentOther postcards identify the monument to the right as "The Statue of Liberty." I wonder how slimy and slippery the planks of that submerged pedestrian bridge were by late summer. The boys stepping out at the left end seem a bit unsure of their footing. The Cincinnati Industrial Magazine, June, 1910. Chester Park's distinctive characteristic is its large number of these amusement features, and the completeness and up-to-date manner in which they are presented. It is safe to say that there are more ways in which to enjoy one's self at Chester Park than in any park in the country, and all of them are innocent and harmless and such as to appeal to a fun loving public. You are not supposed to be serious when you go to Chester Park. You wear your broadest smile and your most comfortable clothes, and even the latter you exchange for a bathing suit if so inclined to indulge in that acme of enjoyment, the bathing beach. TobogganDoes anyone else think that toboggan slide looks like the most fun ever? I would love to give that thing a whirl! Squirt PistolsThe lads at the foot of the slide look like they could have come directly out of any given British punk band of the 1976-78 era. Anarchy in the sluiceway! Same as it ever wasJust as when I was that age fifty or so years later, if someone's kid brother or the peewee of the group wanted to join in the fun, he always ended up with much of the heaving and hauling. Look at the little guy at the top of the up ramp. An Accident Waiting To HappenThe wet balance beams are waiting for someone to slip and fall onto the neighboring beam. Fingers and toes are waiting to be rip off in the rollers of the slide. Not to mention there is no adult supervision at the slide or a life guard stand to be seen. (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, DPC, Swimming)
Roeber's Cafe: 1908
... metal banner proclaiming “Moerlein’s Celebrated Cincinnati Lager Beer.” Being originally from Cincinnati, and having never heard of this brand, I did a Google search and ... (and its lighter companion Schoenling beer) are well-known Cincinnati brands and were my brews of choice when younger, particularly when ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/19/2012 - 2:12pm -

On the left, champion wrestler and vaudeville impresario Ernst Roeber (1861-1944) and his Manhattan saloon at 499 Sixth Avenue around Easter 1908. 8x10 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. Roeber (aka Ernest or Ernie) also operated a cafe in the Ridgewood section of Brooklyn. Moerlein'sAnd a closer look at this photograph shows the wrap-around metal banner proclaiming “Moerlein’s Celebrated Cincinnati Lager Beer.” Being originally from Cincinnati, and having never heard of this brand, I did a Google search and discovered that the Hudepohl Brewing Company now owns the Moerlein brand and apparently produces and sells it today. Hudepohl beer (and its lighter companion Schoenling beer) are well-known Cincinnati brands and were my brews of choice when younger, particularly when watching the Cincinnati Reds at old Crosley Field. Roeber Arrested!Thanks to the NY Times opening up their archive, there's an article that mentions the address in a brief article on Roeber being arrested for disorderly conduct at his cafe. The address is given as 499 Sixth Avenue, which is the number in the photo. [Thanks Wayne! I added that to the caption. - Dave] What an amazing photographThis is one of those photographs that just keep on giving. What wonderful detail!! Thanks for putting it on the site. Don Hall Yreka, CA Not So Subliminal Religious MessagesThis photo is rife with spiritual imagery. First there is the obvious star of David under the big "Ernst Roeber" sign. Less obvious is the fortune teller that dwells within Joe's Theatre. Finally, there's the newspaper headline, "Excommunication Of King Robert The Pious." [Maybe not all that spiritual. The star was the logo for the Ehret's Beer Hell Gate Brewery, at one time the largest in the country. George Ehret was from Germany, where the hexagram or Bierstern (beer star) is a symbol of the brewers' guild. - Dave] Robert the PiousActually The Excommunication Of King Robert the Pious is a painting, not a newspaper headline. [Seems to be a little of each. - Dave] WeirdSpeaking of spiritual imagery. What's with the ghostly figure on the right side? Was that person simply moving as the picture was taken? Cut rate vaudeville, beer,Cut rate vaudeville, beer, wine, whiskey, palmists, massage... It all looks pretty decadent to me! Ice, Coal, and WoodDid people really buy coal and wood at shops like this? It was for heating, right? Also I love the sign that reads "SIGN" Ice, Coal and Wood"Did people really buy coal and wood at shops like this?" I would imagine that the "shop" was really a company office where you would order deliveries of ice (for your ice box) wood (for cooking?) and coal (for heating). L'excommunication de Robert le Pieux (1875)This a painting by Jean-Paul Lauren (1838-1921), now at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Wikipedia article. Anyway... this is one of the greatest photos of this site! Moerlein BeerI'm related to Christian Moerlein, the brewer. Do you have any more images, like these, that include the Moerlein name? The Moerleins recently had a family reunion in Cincinnati, which my immediate family attended. I'm going to send this link to all of them, and we'll be ordering some of these prints very soon. Please let me know if you have any other Moerlein images. Thanks! [As far as I know, this is it. Cheers! - Dave] It was a dank and rainy day.Everybody is at home having dinner with their family and nobody is out drinkin', even the "Floppy Joes" are staying away today. The shoeshine boy has already thrown in the towel and has gone home, empty handed, to his mother. Roeber, in a mood as black as the day, ponders going next door and making a long distance telephone call to wish his mother a Happy Easter. Jingling his pocket change, he grumbles to Patty, his bartender, that it's gonna be a long night if they get more rain. Meanwhile the bouncer, Gill "The Butcher" Fendley, has just told a loitering tramp to hit the road, who having dealt with "The Butcher" before, does in a blur of motion. Yep, it's gonna be a long night. (The Gallery, Eateries & Bars, G.G. Bain, NYC)
Duquesne Incline: 1900
... a record time for the round trip between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. On Dec 2 1900 she was involved in a collision with the steamer ... inclines, but there were a few accidents on the ones in Cincinnati. Since the two cars counterbalanced each other, if the cables ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/02/2012 - 4:15pm -

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, circa 1900-1910. "Duquesne Incline Railway." Mount Washington and the Ohio River feature in this view, which includes the Point Bridge, a paint and varnish factory, a riverboat and the Graham Nut Company. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. View of downtown from the Duquesne InclineTaken just a week and a half ago. After posting the photo on my facebook page a friend referenced this post by Dave. Shorpy is one of my favorite sites!! InterestingI'm wondering what is the white material that was used for sheathing the upper floor of that industrial building on the left. Looks like fabric. Not there anymoreis the Lawrence paint building. It had stood abandoned for many years and was finally torn down 2 or 3 years ago. Also not there any more are the barren hillsides lining the shores of Pittsburgh's three rivers. I believe this is a direct result of the closure of all but a few steel mills and the pollution abatement efforts for those that remain. Hoppin' TomThe Tom Dodsworth was a 182', 500 ton steamer built in Pittsburgh in 1871. She was called the "Hoppin' Tom" after setting a record time for the round trip between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. On Dec 2 1900 she was involved in a collision with the steamer "Volunteer" near Swan Creek, Ohio resulting in the the sinking of 22 coal barges. Perhaps the photo was taken during repairs after the wreck. Dismantled circa 1924, her boilers were repurposed to construct road culverts in Pleasant County, W.Va. Reports of the Department of Commerce and Labor, 1909 March 24 (1907).—Steamer Tom Dodsworth, while ascending the Ohio River near Moundsville, W. Va., with an empty tow of coal boats and barges, broke her port wrist in crank, after cylinder head, bent piston rod close to piston head, and threw pitman crosshead and piston overboard. No other damage done, and no one hurt. Estimated damage, $500. Coal Age, Vol 7., 1915 The steamers "Thomas Dodsworth" and "F. M. Wallace," of the Monongahela River Consolidated Coal & Coke Co. cleared for Louisville Feb. 27 with tows of coal totaling about 1,200,000 bushels, also two freight barges each carrying 1400 tons of manufactured iron and steel. IronsidesI'm pretty sure that the white top floor is sheathed in sheet metal. Gone Green I'm amazed at the desert like conditions on the hillside. Maybe clear cutting to make it easier for development? Isn't this also referred to as a vernacular railway? Or is that part of someone's vernacular? [Maybe you're thinking of "funicular." - Dave] Car safetyWere these cars pretty safe as far as reliable brakes and/or safety brakes? Was there ever a incident of them failing, to anyone's knowledge? Lost opportunity I lived in Pittsburgh for nearly two years, and never made time to go up one of the inclines. And I was as close as that bridge. On weekends I'd unwind by driving around the city in my Civic, crossing back and forth on the bridges and checking out the odd little neighborhoods. Really cool picture, Kilroy. I'm pretty sure that those buildings up top weren't there in 1997. Especially that modern one at top right. I bet the great big empty expanses that lined the south shore of the Monongahela have been built up since then. Up the creek... without a paddlewheel. Maybe removed to replace the paddles. The antlers on the pilot house indicate that the Tom Dodsworth won a steamboat race. This is an Ohio River sternwheel tow boat, small towing knees can be seen on the bow. Probably used in the coal industry. Improvement!This is one of the few scenic photos on Shorpy where the view has markedly improved since it was taken. In fact, Pittsburgh is a much more beautiful city now, too. A lot of this is still thereIncluding the incline itself, and Lawrence paint & varnish. In fact I remember the lettering was readable the last time I paid any attention to it. The odd-shaped building (a grain elevator, maybe for the brewery?) is gone, but I think the Nuts building is still there, too. Of course this is one of the two inclines preserved in Pittsburgh, and it's a great trip. SafetyI don't know about incidents at the Pittsburgh inclines, but there were a few accidents on the ones in Cincinnati. Since the two cars counterbalanced each other, if the cables snapped then both cars would fall to the bottom. That happened on the Main Street Incline in Cincinnati, when one car reached the top the cable pulled out of the front of the car and it plummeted to the bottom, killing many patrons. Since the other car was already at the bottom it was mostly unscathed. That said, extra cables and other safety measure were installed, and they tended to operate very safely and quietly overall. The 19 inclinesHere are the locations of the 19 inclines of Pittsburgh. Click on them to see they names. Zoom to see the exact location of their tracks. Lawrence Paint BuildingThat beautiful building isn't there any longer? What a shame. Seems like it would be prime loft space nowadays with such a picturesque view. My first (and only) visit to the downtown area was in '95 and we took the incline. I was very impressed with all of Pittsburgh. +111Below is the same view from July of 2011. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Factories, Pittsburgh, Railroads)
Efficiency Kitchen: 1917
... we had in our kitchen was a Crosley "Shelvador" made in Cincinnati, and of course there were the highly popular Frigidaire machines. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/23/2012 - 3:39pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1917. "Woodward & Lothrop kitchen." The lady might be one Mrs. A. Tackmeyer, "domestic science expert" of the General Chemical Co., makers of Ryzon Baking Powder. Harris & Ewing Collection. View full size. So efficient, still in use to-dayThis basic rule of having an efficient kitchen is still being used today. This rule is called a triangle rule where the three main appliances (refrigerator, stove, and sink) are laid out. The three corners of the triangle must be determined in order to place appliances in each corner. The straight line of the triangle represent the person going back and forth the line. In this instance, on the left side of the triangle we have the electricifed refrigerator. The center point of the triangle we have the sink. Lastly, we have the stove on the right side of the triangle. I'd hate to see the "Inefficency Kitchen"!This is a set right out of a Fatty Arbuckle two-reeler. Here's how it goes: Fatty enters from the left, trips over the electric plug in the middle of the floor (?!), and this somehow sets the whole kitchen on fire. So Fatty calmly goes to the sink and draws a teacup full of water, drinks half of it, and pours the rest on the spreading blaze. When the fire doesn't go out, he looks into the camera, puzzled, and Mrs. Tackmeyer (the name is perfect) whacks him over the head with a rolling pin and shoves him out the door. Then, the camera cuts to a shot of the whole house burning down, and Fatty looking at it from a distance. Iris out. Okay, I've been watching some Arbuckle and Arbuckle-Keaton films lately, I admit it. They're amazingly funny, 85 years later. Not So FastFatty, this kitchen has an early automatic fire sprinkling system installed on the ceiling. Slopping around a wet mop..Might get very interesting. Ryzon Baking Book"An advertising Cookbook for Ryzon Baking Powder. The book covers 81 pages of recipes that cover breads, cakes, pastries, fillings & icings, puddings, candy, savory dishes and camp cooking; we have never seen a cookbook that covers camp cooking!!" There is one for sale at Amazon. Catering for TwoThe book on the bookshelf is "Catering For Two: Comfort and Economy for Small Households," first published in 1898 by Alice L. James. The table of contents: Dinners Company Luncheons Breakfast, Tea, and Luncheon Dishes Fancy Desserts Miscellaneous Recipes Helpful Suggestions Index Efficient...but safe?An outlet in the middle of a kitchen floor? Yikes! [This is a display in a department store. Probably not how you'd do it in a real kitchen. - Dave] Rock around the clock (or breakfast table)Just what every cook needs in the kitchen -- a rocking chair, for all that time spent watching for water to boil, or what? Actually, this is a fabulous shot depicting modernity in the WWI era. Notice the early refrigerator behind her, styled like an ice box, but with the cooling coils on top. And notice the electric plug in the middle of the floor, and think of the exposed knob and tube wiring that surely runs under the floorboards to it. The telephone (or perhaps intercom) on the far right is a high tech touch for the times -- sort of like having an internet terminal in the kitchen today. You've got a linoleum floor over the wood flooring for sanitary clean ups. And then you've got her "Amish" outfit. I guess the hat is to keep her hair out of the food, but is the scarf to have something else to drop into it? And what is with all that unused ceiling space? If you replaced the rocker with a step stool you could put cabinets up there and actually use it. It isn't very efficient to waste it. And finally, what is that object on the wall, over the sink and window? I can ID everything else in this room, including the nice dish towel that fell off the rack and is sitting in the corner. AmazingI am almost 70 years old and the Shorpy pictures continue to amaze and interest me. I did not realize that by 1917 they had nearly all-electric kitchens. There is an electric stove, electric coffee maker, some sort of electric appliance on the table (waffle iron?) and possibly a combination gas and electric refrigerator? My grandmother had a pie making cabinet almost identical to the one on the left of the picture. Hers had a metal flour bin with a glass inset to see the level of the flour. It had the metal slide-out counter top to roll out the pastry. Dave, keep these pictures coming...they bring back some good memories. [That's an electric fridge. Basically a standard icebox fitted with a compressor, which is how electrical refrigeration started out. - Dave] More FattyAnon. Tippler writes: "Then, the camera cuts to a shot of the whole house burning down, and Fatty looking at it from a distance. Iris out." Don't forget, Fatty would nonchalantly roll a cigarette one-handed while watching the blaze, and strike a match on a passing train. Ol' Rockin' ChairA rocking chair (or at least a comfy wood chair) was a standard item in many kitchens because there were many tasks that could be performed while sitting down, such as shelling a bushel of peas and stirring the angel cake batter 300 times. And, since this is a commercial display of an "ideal" kitchen, one of the ideals being expressed here is that the cook is a hired servant. This was still a middle class norm in 1917, hence the domestic service uniform worn by Mrs. Tackmeyer. A kitchen with a hired cook should have a comfortable chair, since the cook stays in the kitchen all day, and has nowhere else in the house to go sit down while the roast or cake is in the oven. The SummonerI believe the box on the wall above the sink was a call box of sorts. The kind you would find in the kitchens of very fancy apartments on West End Avenue. Pressing a doorbell type button or pulling down on a sash that hung from a wall would sound a buzzer, which would summon the maid or cook to whatever room corresponded to the number shown on the box. Early electricsThat's a lot of electrical appliances! Range, refrigerator, waffle iron, fan, coffeepot -- this kitchen channels the 1950s in watt-hour usage. Spot-on, Dave!Dave, that "refrigerator" with the compressor mounted on top of it is indeed an electrified icebox. Our upstate New York next-door neighbors continued to use a plain old icebox well into the 1940's, long after all-in-one electrical or gas-operated refrigerators, with all of their working parts integrated under a single metal shell. The one we had in our kitchen was a Crosley "Shelvador" made in Cincinnati, and of course there were the highly popular Frigidaire machines. Crosley was evidently the first manufacturer to install shelving on the inside of the door, hence the brand name. Also a WestinghouseThe fan is a brass bladed Westinghouse. Brass blades and cages were being discontinued because of the war effort (shell casings, etc.). Practical CookingThe range appears to be a Westinghouse Automatic Electric Range: also seen in previous Shorpy photos here and here. Hoosier cabinetsThe cabinet on the left is of the type popularized by Hoosier Manufacturing and several other companies, most of which were also in Indiana. We have a substantially larger version in our kitchen. Judging from the square ribbed jars on the door, this examples was made by Napanee. Hoosiers appeared about the turn of the century and were popular into the early 1930s, by which point they were being replaced by built-in cabinetry. They were great for this kind of display anyway because they had a whole array of storage helps, though this one doesn't seem to have a place for the huge flour bin/sifter which is one of the most characteristic components. (The round one on the right is for sugar.) SafetyI was lucky enough to have a friend in DC who invited me to a private house near the Capitol that is still (!) fully gas-lit and piped. On the evening we toured it, it was open and all lit up for a house tour for the Victorian Society; although entranced, I spent the evening in fear we'd blow up. Not only were there open gas flames everywhere blowing out of gaslight chandeliers (with no sconces!), but the assorted bric-a-brac (all original to the period, down to the boxes in the kitchen) began to resemble kindling more and more, the longer we stayed. There were gas pipes hanging down in the middle of the kitchen, easily opened, ready to be connected to the various and sundry appliances. The smell of gas was lightly pervasive. And yet, despite all that, it's lasted all these years with no incidents... (so: who knows about that electrical outlet? It would have made your average housewife be VERY careful when mopping!) Today's menu"Today's menu will be a pleasing one, interesting to every woman. Unfortunately, tomorrow's menu will taste like old socks and will bore you to tears." (The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Kitchens etc.)
Is the Caller There?
... wasn't. Telephone Operators My Mother retired from Cincinnati Bell Telephone after nearly 40 years. I find this site's photos ... NY Is the Caller There? Thank you Stella, Cincinnati Bell also had those weird hours. I can remember Mom working 3 to 11, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/07/2011 - 4:21pm -

Early 20th-century telephone switchboard in British-Mandate Palestine. View full size. American Colony Photo Department. Location not specified although sign in background lists police and ambulance numbers "in Jerusalem." OperatorsOh my god that must have been miserable ... I answer phones now and I would die if we had to sit that close! My Mother had to work at one of those but I never got to see it. I have even more respect for her which I didn't think was possible. David Kifer Tulsa Aeron 1.0The chairs don't look too comfy, do they? Of course they all seem to be sitting about six inches in front of the backs anyway. amazing~~amazing~~ OperatorsI was surprised to see men doing this.( No.s 20&21) I thought that they were all female operators back then. Rick Taylor Lecanto, Fl Men as OperatorsFrom 1878, men were employed as operators and within a year callers complained that they were rough toned and too brusque for most people's taste, so women quite quickly supplanted them and by about 1910 there were very very few men still used as operators. An added bonus for the employers was that women could be paid less and profits were thus higher for the Bell Systems of the time. Today we see this as unfair, yet it was an easy decision for employers at the time! Men as Operators and Telephone StrikesThis and the previous comment was by Patrick Frye III of Charlotte, North Carolina For more about the first decades of telephone work and the strikes of those years, go to: www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=119 A FASCINATING history! Telephone OperatorsWas this a call center? For what company? Probably for Ma Bell (AT&T).Probably for Ma Bell (AT&T). Call Center?If you read the caption you will see this is in British-Mandate Palestine (what later became Israel). Call Center?I don't think "call centers" like we know them existed in that day! I Did That JobYou won't believe it but this is exactly how it looked as late as 1978, I was 18 years old at the time, and I was a telephone operator in Baton Rouge, Louisiana then. The room we worked in was just like this, with just as many people and the chairs were only SLIGHTLY different than these. It was a facinating job!! Telephone ExchangeI worked on one similar to this in England in the 1950's and then for the BBC who had about 20 positions in their telephone exchange. Norma Taylor Tucson That supervisor is ready toThat supervisor is ready to crack the whip, isn't she. Cord BoardI worked on a cord board that looked just like this in Joplin, Missouri until 1980. Not only was it was this long, but there were 2 identical lines in the same room, one up each side. That job taught me more about multi-tasking than I could ever have learned anywhere else. What a fun job it turned out to be. It looks intimidating, but it really wasn't. Telephone OperatorsMy Mother retired from Cincinnati Bell Telephone after nearly 40 years. I find this site's photos excellent as well as the information contained in it. Does anyone out there know of other sites with photos of switchboard operators and related items? Unlike the earlier post from David Kifer I was able to go visit once in a while and remember the boards. The chairs were not comfortable (at least in the 50's and early 60's. The one thing I remember most is the women making making comments about the "Cute little boy" in their midst. Thank you all. Robert Federle New Iberia Louisiana TORTURE!Sitting there, facing a wall ... for what 8 hours a day? Any bathroom breaks allowed? When? And no seat pillows? We've got it made in 2007, don't we. IS THE CALLER THERE?I WORKED AT THE JOPLIN SWEST MA BELL IN 1952..JUST OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL...THEN AGAIN IN 1959-62 IN DOWNTOWN KANSAS CITY ..AGAIN FOR S'WESTERN BELL. MOST OF THE OPERATORS WERE A LOT OLDER THAN ME AND SCARED ME TO PIECES ..THE WAY THEY TALKED! NEW OPERATORS GOT THE WORST HOURS...SPLITS LIKE 8 TO 12 ..4 TO 8 OR 9 TO 12 ..6 TO 9. ALSO 1 TO 9 AND 2 TIL 10..SINCE I LIVED IN INDEPENDENCE, I HAD TO WALK DOWNTOWN TO THE BUS STATION LATE AT NIGHT.. BUT THE BUS DRIVERS WERE WONDERFUL..THEY LET NO ONE MESS AROUND WITH ME..WERE VERY NICE...THESE WERE THE DAYS OF 4 INCH HEELS, A-LINE DRESSES, WHIPPED CREAM MATERIAL, PANTSUITS AND BOUFFANT HAIR..IT WAS WONDERFUL...HAD TO QUIT TO GET MARRIED AND HAVE KIDS...I'M IN MY EARLY 70'S AND I'M STILL A NIGHT OWL AND I'D WORK 11 TO 7 NOW. I LOVED IT..ESPECIALLY TRACKING DOWN CREDITORS FOR THOSE CREDIT COMPANIES!!HAH STELLA [S] D. WISCONSIN .. U.S.A. SwitchboardTHANK YOU FOR THAT WONDERFUL RECOLLECTION! Operators and the old manual cord boards.Many nice memories of a great job from high school until my first child was born. I worked the split trick and as a night operator. Made many lifelong friends and I remember when the Western Electric men came to the office to add new lines and switchboards. They were all such gentlemen and all good looking. Several of the girls married a Western guy including myself. That was 50 years ago and I still cherish my 10 years with New York Tel. Upstate NY Is the Caller There?Thank you Stella, Cincinnati Bell also had those weird hours. I can remember Mom working 3 to 11, 2 to 10, 6 to 12, 11 to 7 and many other combinations. Some were 8 hours and others 6 hours. I think what I remember most was the smell of Ozone when you walked in the front door (once you buzzed in the outer door you went in to a locked foyer. There you picked up a phone and gave your employee I.D. and they would buzz you in that door. Then the Ozone smell would hit you. I can smell it now just talking about it. Mom was an Operator, My Aunt was in Repair Service and her Husband was a Switchman (downstairs where the switch gear was located. Relays would would be clicking and clattering). Thank you Stella for bringing more memories to light. Mom is now 82. When they closed the local office in Hamilton Ohio (automation and no need for the Operators) she was allowed to have the switchboard number plate and it also matched their house number. It is still mounted on the back porch wall. Thanks again and the best to you Stella. Robert Federle New Iberia, Louisiana Operator's StoolsBecause of the height, the stools (many with with wicker seats and backs) were uncomfortable to get on and off. Operators had to enter from the left, exit from the right. Some offices raised the floor to allow low chairs. The location of the switchboard in each building was known as "The Operating Room." Their lounge was "The Quiet Room." (Technology, The Gallery, Matson)
Sooty Cincy: 1905
Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1905. "Government Square." Convenient one-stop shopping ... the way streetcars usually do. The situation in Cincinnati was different because of a legal dispute between the phone company ... operation when these were one-wire only. I am NOT a Cincinnati expert, but, as I recall some of their street railways were WIDER in ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/29/2012 - 2:40pm -

Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1905. "Government Square." Convenient one-stop shopping for all your flyscreen and stained-glass needs. View full size. Love those signs!Another great view of a cluttered cityscape, but as usual, the signs are fascinating. The one at left for C.C. Riordan reminded me there are a number of Riordans in southwest Ohio, including the current Dayton city manager. It is pronounced "Reardan" in this area. I also like the reversed sign at left above for the Peters Arms and Sporting Goods Co. And, of course, the Nonpareil with rooms at 20 and 25 cents! Two Streetcar PolesLook at the streetcars - they've got two poles. Normally, that's only something you find on trolley buses because they run on rubber tires and can't use rails for the ground side of the power supply the way streetcars usually do. The situation in Cincinnati was different because of a legal dispute between the phone company and the streetcar company, where the phone company claimed that their lines were being damaged by an electrolytic reaction caused by the streetcars' ground return current was leaking from the tracks through the ground to the telephone equipment. The result was the street railway company had to string up a second wire to provide a dedicated return path to the trolley power substations to avoid the possibility of electrolytic damage to phone company equipment. And that's how Cinci streetcars ended up being equipped with dual poles. Wide Gauge and Seeing Double.Blind Motorman, indeed! He is getting ready to 'throw the switch' in front of the car with a long switch iron. Note the TWO trolley poles on the streetcars, one wire carried the current, the other returned the electricity to the power house after it had passed thru the car motors, heaters and electric lights.. Most streetcar, Interurban and electric railways used the rails as the return, with only one trolley pole or pantograph and one wire. The single-wire and track system of return could cause corrosion by electrolysis of water, sewer and gas pipes if the electricity migrated to them instead of the rails. This also affected telephone operation when these were one-wire only. I am NOT a Cincinnati expert, but, as I recall some of their street railways were WIDER in track gauge than the standard steam railway gauge of 4 feet 8 1/2 inches. (Same for Toronto, which still uses streetcars.) Thank You! Wonderful photo, AS ALWAYS! Government SquareThat's the old post office on the right. It was later replaced by a newer post office. I remember as a kid in the 40s and 50s how the candy and tobacco stands in the P. O. were run by blind guys, probably vets. Government Square eventually became the downtown hub for gas buses to the suburbs. They would pull into spaces in the center of 5th Street at a 45 degree angle to load and unload. I left Cincinnati in 1967 and never looked back. Great chili, bad baseball team. It was a better timeWhen no one thought twice about a blind person driving a streetcar. Mabley and CarewI worked for Mabley and Carew in the early to mid 60s in a building located on the NW corner of 5th and Vine streets. I believe the building I worked in was the replacement for the building shown. The buildings have been gone for a while now and the site where I worked has been replaced with a whole new series of stores and restaurants. The fountain in the middle of 5th Street is the Tyler Davidson Fountain. The buildings on the right of the fountain are gone and converted into a plaza for the fountain where it is currently located. Anyone who remembers the TV show "WKRP in Cincinnati" may remember the fountain from the opening of the show. The building across the street to the left of Mabley and Carew with the clock tower has also been replaced with the Carew Tower building, at 47 stories it is the tallest building on the Cincinnati Skyline. Its height will soon be eclipsed just slightly by the new American Financial building that is almost completed on 2nd Street. A Street Car Named PattersonNo, it just doesn't do. Perhaps I'll find inspiration in N'ahlenz. Maintenance of Wayunderway in Cincy on this day, or so it appears. The crew lower left perhaps neatly organized their piles of disrupted street bed and have loaded their tools up for the day, or in preparation to move farther down the way, more likely, for by the length of the shadows it's perhaps between 2pm and 3pm. Also, my guess is that the motorman of the trolley "Patterson" is throwing or has thrown the switch with that curious stick just where he has stopped his streetcar precisely short. How I would love to have seen the light bulbs on those signs alight at dusk. Long-lived PeeblesPeebles Department Store is still around. We have one here in Southern Maryland. Pretty good record for a department store in these perilous financial climes. One weird looking carIf you look toward the center of the photo at the corner of the building on the right, you can see what looks like a lone car parked on the road. It appears to have fenders in the front, but the back shows no tires, per se. [It's a steamroller. - Dave] (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, DPC, Streetcars)
Waterworks: 1906
Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1906. "New pumping plant on Ohio River." 8x10 inch dry ... Building This website has a nice description of the Cincinnati Water Works complex, including the reason the little Intake building ... and that's where the deep water was. Normal pool stage at Cincinnati is 26 feet on the gage." ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/12/2012 - 3:19pm -

Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1906. "New pumping plant on Ohio River." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Art is where you find itWhat craftsmanship and skill it took to design and construct that tile roof with the spiral courses that wind up the cone. Wow. And the angle is mirrored on the flatter roofing as well. I can't wait for more comments that may answer a multitude of questions I have about this place. Wonderful photograph! Reminds me of Christmas 1942... when under the tree I found a bright red metal case holding my first Erector set, complete with electric motor. What a great toy that was! OK, I give upWhat's the function of this bridge thing? The tracks seem to stop at the barricade, so what ran on the tracks? Knock Knock"Who's there? "Loco." "Loco who?" On the RiverThe was taken from the Kentucky side of the Ohio. The buildings are still there. Colorized postcard Intake BuildingThis website has a nice description of the Cincinnati Water Works complex, including the reason the little Intake building was on the Kentucky side. The website lists the bridge's function as "Maintenance Access," and also has many photos of what the site looks like today. More trees now, other than that mostly the same. "The complex consists of the pumping station on the Ohio side, an 85 foot deep shaft containing a huge steam pump, a tunnel beneath the river and the intake "castle." By the way, these coal fired steam pumps were in use until the 1960s and they are still there. They are some of the largest steam pumps ever construction. The Society of Industrial Archeology has visited and written up these pumps. It used to be possible to arrange for tours [to see the pumps] before 9-11 but no more; although the SIA did get in after 9-11. The intake was situated on the Kentucky side because the water works was built before the navigation locks and dams were put in. They had to have a nice deep spot where there was a good depth of water during all seasons and the channel ran along the Kentucky bank and that's where the deep water was. Normal pool stage at Cincinnati is 26 feet on the gage." http://www.historicbridges.org/kentucky/intake/index.htm Standing StrongStill there, although it must be nearly invisible from the road because of tree growth. The terra cotta must be impressive. View Larger Map Okay, next question.What is the large wooden structure off to the left? Two tracks descend from the TOP of the building to the river. Some sort of barge drop? Looks like an old ice house of sorts, but likely isn't. Coal storage? The Bridge Thingis for a hopper to coal the boiler inside. Red tile was the stylefrom one side then the other. [Terra cotta, they liked a lotta. - Dave] BridgeThe bridge isn't "standard" gauge but is instead about 5 foot between the rails. It was there to allow a special flat car to pull up at the siding (long since gone) and easily offload work equipment and supplies onto a small railcar which would carry the heavy items into that part of the plant. (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, DPC, Industry & Public Works, Railroads)
Watching the World Go By: 1938
... in use as a bus station. The shots of Union Station in Cincinnati from the same site are spectacular as well. (The Gallery, Ben ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/10/2007 - 1:22am -

Summer 1938. Passing the time outside the bus station in Marion, Ohio. 35mm nitrate negative by Ben Shahn, Farm Security Administration. View full size. Handpainted SignsMore beautiful hand painted signage and lettering. Imperfect and as distinctive as your handwriting. And if you zoom in, one of the bus lines had service to my hometown of Ft. Wayne. Too bad they tore down the old art deco Greyhound bus station here several years ago. http://www.pbase.com/image/38023103 re: Handpainted SignsThey tore down the old Greyhound bus station in my home town also. Those old buildings had such character and style, it's such a shame they have to destroy them. Greyhound StationLost a link in the last post. Here's a color postcard of our late Greyhound terminal. Evansville, INThe Greyhound bus station in my home town is still standing and in use. Evansville Greyhound StationLauren- Thanx for the link of the Evansville Greyhound depot. It's great to see that it's been so well maintained and still in use as a bus station. The shots of Union Station in Cincinnati from the same site are spectacular as well. (The Gallery, Ben Shahn)
Teeth Without Plates: 1905
Detroit, Michigan, circa 1905. "Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad office, Woodward & Jefferson ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/13/2013 - 3:35pm -

Detroit, Michigan, circa 1905. "Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad office, Woodward & Jefferson Aves." A number of familiar Shorpy standbys here: The newsie, the "painless dental parlor," ectoplasmic pedestrians and a cameo by Goebel's beer. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Which corner?Assuming the shot was taken in the afternoon, that would be the northeast corner of Woodward and Jefferson. The site is now occupied by the City-County building, subsequently renamed the Coleman A. Young building. The current structure was built in 1954. [Our view is of the odd-numbered addresses on both streets -- the northwest corner. - Dave] View Larger Map Can someone enlighten me? What on earth is/was Vitalized Air? Some sort of anaesthetic, I'm guessing since it's listing with "laughing gas". Chlorform perhaps? Also, I keep expecting the guy leaning against the post to whisper "Hey lady, wanna buy a watch?" and open his jacket to show them sewn into the lining... Goebel'sThis Reich will last a thousand beers! Little has changedBrakeless bikes, like the one in this great picture, are the 'modern' thing again now. They're called fixies these days. Teeth without plates?OMIGOD!! Does that mean some Dr. Painless was trying to do dental implants in 1905? I hope the bar downstairs had plenty of Canadian Club under their sign for those poor suckers. [I'd imagine that "teeth without plates" meant crowns and bridgework. - Dave] Modern DentistryAgain, Shorpy jumps the gun, Teeth Without Plates, America's first implants. A different edit of the shotMuch as I like the "King Leer" edit, I don't think it is a fair one. A different crop reveals something else entirely: All three people are looking at something down the street, although whatever it was, it was out of camera range (or ran into the store). McGough's Chop HouseHalf a spring chicken and a Goebel's cool lager would taste pretty good right now. Painless or notI don't find the picture of a naked molar comforting. King LeerNote the guy checking out the chick, although given her clothes coverage, he must have a discerning eye. Fountain pens at 20 pacesI'm curious about the oversize shotgun (punt gun?) seemingly suspended in midair near the Laughlin fountain pen sign. [It's advertising the Cassius M. Havens sporting goods store below. Or possibly the Painless Dentist. - Dave] Loooooooove this pictureTo me, this epitomizes every reason I visit Shorpy.... for the kind of minute details I see in these images. I loved everything in this one. I had grandparents born in the 1870s and can only wonder how they felt about the modern inventions just coming into their lives. A new assignmentI want to try to determine exactly when bikes started appearing with fenders attached. Goebel's -- the "Luxury Beer"Crazy wiresWhat's with the crazy wires that come out of the dentist office window- make a circuitous trip up to top floor then back down and into the sporting good store next door. Oh?This reminds me of my first bike which was too big for me. I finally grew a bit, as I'm sure he did. Love the expression on his face as he spots the photographer. All that's missing isUneeda Biscuit! Northwest CornerCirca 1920. (Wayne State University Virtual Library) Hello Operator, give me HeavenThat call box -- a direct line to the man upstairs? No Need for GasI'm laughing so hard reading all the signs that I might need some "Vitalized Air". The entire process is spelled out right in the windows: Teeth without plates are offered in the room just to the right where there are "Gold & Porcelain Crowns". Moving over to the gas sign we find "Extractions Without Pain" in one room and at the next stop is the grand finale: Of bikes and pensPer the amended "King Lear" I disagree that the kid is part of the scene and/or everyone is looking further to the right. The bike isn't brakeless: it has a 'coaster brake' inside the rear hub. A slight back peddle pedal activates it. And down here in Florida, anyway, those 'basic' bikes are called Coasters or Cruisers. The Laughlin Fountain Pens were manufactured in Detroit and seems to have had limited distribution around the country. For some reason, advertisements for them are being sold on eBay, but when I last check only two pens were for sale -- as quite expensive collector items. A brief biography of Mr Laughlin I found says: To Coast or NotIt's a little hard to tell but I think the kid's bike didn't have coaster brakes. For starters, they were only invented in 1898, and this fellow doesn't look like he's riding the latest thing. Second, I would think that the hub would be quite a bit fatter. But third, the one characteristic sign of a coaster brake is that that there is a little arm that comes out from the hub and is anchored to the arm of the frame, and I see no sign of this in the photo. All this......and a cigar store Indian! (The Gallery, Bicycles, Detroit Photos, DPC, Railroads)
Postcards Aplenty: 1910
Circa 1910. "Cincinnati Arcade. James K. Stewart's post card shop." 8x10 inch dry plate ... The printing plant of the late James K. Stewart of Cincinnati is being offered for sale by the widow and the executors of the ... give to have a BUNCH of those postcards! (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, DPC, Stores & Markets) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/12/2012 - 3:07pm -

Circa 1910. "Cincinnati Arcade. James K. Stewart's post card shop." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. You missed !From the looks of that floor in the foreground, I think I know where the spittoon was previously! [Those would be from the fountain. - Dave] DispenserI downloaded the full LOC tiff to get a better look at that beverage dispenser. I wonder if there was another for the spittoon-using clientele: "Have a Chaw with the Post Card Man." I'd say. A plethora of postcards indeed, my good man!It would have taken at least a couple of hours for me to choose one. Needle in a haystackGeez, where's Waldo?? BeadworkI wonder if the beadwork on the wall was for sale, too. It looks like a very nice piece. It looks "sort of" authentic and only slightly tacky (unlike the other "handicrafts"). You have ten minutesOkay, find all the postcards with images from Detroit Publishing that were previously shown on Shorpy. 1,2,3 -- Go! Social Networking circa 1910This would be the equivalent of today's internet cafe. Hallmark MomentI think today's equivalent would be a greeting card store. Occasionally, I find myself browsing through the funny ones. It's a good way to kill some time while my wife is searching for a birthday card with a meaningful message. I'll take one of each, pleaseI'm guessing there are about 2000 slots on the walls. I have to remember to slip a twenty in my pocket before I get in my time machine and visit this shop. More than just to send to a friendBesides the obvious way to tell a friend about where you were on vacation (or brag about it), postcards were also a reasonably priced souvenir or collectible, especially for young people. Even some adults collected postcards with a certain theme, such as waterfalls, monuments, or trains, and some collections numbered in the hundreds of cards. [This photo documents the peak of the picture-postcard craze of the early 20th century. Over half a billion postcards were mailed in America in 1907, when the U.S. population was only 88 million. Not to mention many more millions of cards that were collected but never mailed. - Dave] Buy it NowEvery last one of them are on eBay now. Do You Like Kipling?The "Do You Like Kipling?" postcard was in the Guinness Book as the most popular postcard of all time - it is from this era. Young Man to Lass: Do you like Kipling? Lass: I don't know, you naughty boy, I've never Kipled It's gotta be in there somewhere. 1910 Specialty Printer American Printer and Lithographer, 1917. Printing Plant to Be Sold. The printing plant of the late James K. Stewart of Cincinnati is being offered for sale by the widow and the executors of the estate. Mr. Stewart made a specialty of card, invitation and small job work in connection with his post-card and rubber-stamp business, and since his death it has been continued under the supervision of the widow, who is now desirous of disposing of it. I want that fountain!Also I just wonder which drawer had the "French" postcards hidden in it? Amazing Selection!!I am fascinated by this photo - probably because I have been collecting wonderful old postcards for years! Talk about a kid in a candy store!!!!! Wow!! Oh boyWhat I wouldn't give to have a BUNCH of those postcards! (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, DPC, Stores & Markets)
Mabley and Carew: 1907
Circa 1907. "Vine Street at Fifth, Cincinnati." A buzzing hive of commerce featuring a department store, hotel, ... Phillips, a very upscale jeweler is still going strong in Cincinnati, and Joe Carew, of Mabley & Carew, did quite well for himself. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/12/2012 - 3:03pm -

Circa 1907. "Vine Street at Fifth, Cincinnati." A buzzing hive of commerce featuring a department store, hotel, jeweler, "dancing academy" and ice wagon. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Massive pivot window sashesWindows on second floor of building to the right. Those upper-center pivoting sashes must be about six feet wide. Some of the project-out casements look large too. Wonder how such windows fared in really windy days? Love the fenestration technology/ styles used at the time. Diamonds and TowersRichter and Phillips, a very upscale jeweler is still going strong in Cincinnati, and Joe Carew, of Mabley & Carew, did quite well for himself. Until recently the Carew Tower, which replaced the store, was the tallest structure in the Queen City at 49 stories. It is a beautiful Art Deco style building. PerfectAll those windows on the top floor of the Mabley building and it is their stockroom for shoes, based on the size of the boxes you can see. Anyone know what the name "D. SINTON" on the building at the left refers to. [The "block names" surmounting the era's business-district buildings are the people who financed their construction. The Sinton Block, which included the Hotel Sinton, was put up by the industrialist David Sinton. - Dave] Every Kind of Hat For Every Needas long as you need a bowler. But I guess that isn't much different from baseball hats, today. Anti-Bovine ApparatusI guess in modern 1907 you still had the occasional stray cow wandering around in the city. A factory option when you purchased a new streetcar no doubt. On second thought, most of their close encounters of the cow kind probably happened when they reached the suburbs. [Also those pedestrians who wouldn't moo-ve. - Dave] From diamonds to drugsThis street has everything! DetailsIt appears that the operator of trolley #16 is adjusting the switch he has to pass through before proceeding on his route. I always wondered how that was done. The two pole system seems uncommon in most trolley photos. Our local transit company used to operate trolley buses with a dual pole system but when they ran streetcars they were single pole. Advantages to the dual wire system would probably include winter operations (unless the wires were coated with ice) but the downside would be that the cost of the system would increase as you'd need twice as much copper wire. WonderingThis was my family's hometown at the time of the picture -- I wonder if any of the dapper folks on the street are my relatives. We have a lot of street-level snapshots of this area from the 1910s - 1940s. The Hotel Sintonwas at 4th and Vine. Built 1907, demolished in 1967 - it was named after David Sinton. I lived in Cincinnati in the early 1960s and remember it as an empty hulk. Its claim to fame is that it was the site of the meeting which led to the Black Sox scandal of 1919. Double Trolley Poles and CowcatchersThe city of Cincinnati required the trolley company to use the two wire collection/return system. Normally, trolleys used just one pole with the current to run the cars picked up from the wire and returned to the power station through the rails. Cincinnati officials feared that the current in the rails would induce corrosion in underground utilities (water, gas and sewer lines) and demanded the use of two wires to supply and return the current. The cars switched to one pole at the city limits. The "cowcatcher" was a device to keep errant pedestrians from falling under the cars and being injured or killed by the underhung motors or the trolley's wheels. They were actually called "fenders". Some varieties automatically stopped the car if they hit an obstacle, providing the advantage of the car not derailing. GroundedA single wire system requires a connection to ground to complete the circuit between the car and power plant. While saving copper costs, the system could damage metal fixtures in the ground as currents flowed through them (electrolysis) and rainy days might rob current from the "hot" overhead wire and shunt it directly to earth before it could be used by the car. Ground loops played havoc with such systems. I read a story somewhere that when a single-wire system car got onto a section of track that had somehow lost its ground connection, a passenger stepping onto the car, completed the path to earth, and received a severe shock! I am sure that was rare. (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, DPC, Stores & Markets, Streetcars)
Fountain Service: 1974
... This photo reminds me a lot of Aglamesis Brothers here in Cincinnati. It's still in the same 1913 building, with most of the original ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/17/2014 - 11:04pm -

April 1974. Columbus, Indiana. "General view of soda fountain area -- Zaharako Bros. Ice Cream Parlor, 329 Washington Street. Family-run ice cream and confectionery business operating since 1900. This parlor was a major social center in Columbus for the first 50 years. Known for its elaborate interior and ice cream still made by the Zaharako family. Mexican onyx soda fountains purchased 1905; extra counter added 1949; store front modernized 1959." 5x7 negative by Jack E. Boucher, Historic American Buildings Survey. View full size. How rare is that?An organ in an ice cream parlor. Columbus, Indiana: a great place to visitHad lunch here in 1998. Went over to Columbus to see the 1952 Indy pole winner on display at Cummings Diesel, but for some reason it was somewhere else. The Cummings receptionist recommended Zaharako Brothers for lunch. What a delightful surprise. Then we discovered the great architecture the city is well known for. Columbus, Indiana is truly a well kept secret. I'm on a budget- so I'll just have the GOM sandwich, which is 40 cents. Incidentally, this restaurant still stands, although the GOM is now $5.99 Sundae DelightPlease tell me this soda fountain is still in business. What a wonderful place to sit and snack. Eye candy for sure! Pull up a seat and give me a treat! And still in operation todayZak's is an institution in Columbus, a local treasure. And it has not succumbed to modernization or obsolescence. http://www.zaharakos.com Great pricesWow, what a shock to see the date on this picture! There weren't very many such places still operating by that time. I do, however, know of one place, the Bluebird in Logan, Utah, that looks a lot like this and is still operating. Logan was the birthplace of John Gilbert, who was one of the most famous Hollywood actors of the silent era. One time, they screened several of his best films in the historic theater that had been recently remodeled. To see his films on the big screen, and then walk down the block and eat lunch at the Bluebird was like a trip back 80 years! 38 Years LaterThey still sell "Zingers" in my work place vending machine but Charlie Brown is not on the wrapper. Today I paid more than 10 times the going rate for a chicken salad sandwich. I wonder if Zaharako Bros. included chips and a pickle? UndiscoveredAll that is missing from this picture is Lana Turner! Parallel ParlorThe marble counter and over-the-top light fixtures seem to be a staple of historic soda fountains and ice cream parlors. This photo reminds me a lot of Aglamesis Brothers here in Cincinnati. It's still in the same 1913 building, with most of the original fixtures remaining, including the wonderful imported Portuguese marble counter, Tiffany lamps, tin ceiling, and tile floor. My goodness!A lot higher prices than we're used to seeing here. That's no mere "organ" in the background.The visible pipework behind the glass is that of a Welte Orchestrion---a roll-driven type of instrument popular at the turn of the 19th into the 20th centuries. There are Youtube videos of this very instrument, which was expertly and painstakingly restored just a few years ago by Mr Durward Center of Baltimore. The Orchestrion had percussion (drums, triangle) in addition to the pipes, and with the pipe voicing and roll arrangements, was intended to approximate a band or orchestral experience. When well regulated and tuned, the Welte instruments offer a very captivating and uplifting performance. A Long, Long Time AgoThe last fountain I can remember closed in 1961 in my town but I can still remember the smell of the place. The fountain was staffed by college-aged girls who, if you didn't have the price of a Coke or milkshake, would drop a toothpick in a glass of carbonated water and serve up a "pine float". Double takeWith a job researching period items for our theatrical productions, I zeroed in on the Menu signage before seeing the date on the photo - almost had a heart attack thinking those press and stick letter boards were way older then I thought. Amazing place that!!! Love this place!One of the best fountains I've seen on Shorpy. Looking at the menu, I could have eaten all my meals there in 1974. Egg creamsMMMMMMM egg creams. Gom sandwich?Saw "Gom" listed on the sandwch menu at the very right. That ring a bell to anyone? Green River on the drinks menu puts a smile on my face. I used to love that stuff when I was a kid... pretty sure they still make it but I haven't seen it anywhere in years. Zaharako's TodayThis is a current day shot from the front door looking in. GOM sandwichI found this, which I thought others might be interested in. Now, I am going to see if I can find a recipe! "This ice cream parlor has been around since 1900 and was recently restored to its original glory. The old-timers swear by this (GOM) sandwich, a Midwestern take on the sloppy Joe—a slightly sweeter version of loose meat (with a few degrees of heat factored in), served on grilled bread. Sit at the marble-top counter to watch the soda jerks and cut the grease with a bubbly Green River float. ($5.49, $5.99 with cheese)" http://www.in.gov/visitindiana/super46/sandwich/gom-sandwich (The Gallery, Eateries & Bars, HABS)
Planes, Trains: 1935
... Newark Station long ago to pick up Grandmother from Cincinnati, it was unbelievably exciting. Huge rumbles from overhead trains ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/27/2014 - 10:03am -

June 12, 1935. "Newark passenger station, Pennsylvania Railroad. Waiting room, sunlight and passengers. McKim, Mead & White, client." Waiting for someone to explain the plane. Large format negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size. McKim, Mead & WhiteThis question may merely be in consequence of my occasional transient befuddlement, but whose client is McKim, Mead & White? [The photographic firm of Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner. -tterrace] History of transportation"The interior of the main waiting room has medallions illustrating the history of transportation, from wagons to steamships to cars and airplanes, the eventual doom of the railroad age." Train by night, plane by dayIn 1935, the Pennsylvania Railroad, along with the Santa Fe Railroad out west, had a partnership with TWA. In the early days of commercial air travel, night flying was not yet viewed to be safe, so for a time the railroads would partner with airlines, to offer fastest transcontinental services by taking the trains overnight, and flying during the day. You would leave New York in the evening, and take an overnight train to Columbus, Ohio where you would board a plane to Wichita, Kansas. At Wichita, you would board the Santa Fe for an overnight trip to Clovis, New Mexico, where you would get on another plane to either L.A. or San Francisco. As Newark Penn Station opened in 1935, I expect that's why there's a plane on the wall. What's your sign?In addition to the medallions symbolizing the history of transportation on the walls, the hanging lanterns are surrounded with ornamental bands depicting astrological signs; not sure how that ties into the history of transportation. Excitement not shownAs a kid visiting Newark Station long ago to pick up Grandmother from Cincinnati, it was unbelievably exciting. Huge rumbles from overhead trains coming in, and when you were old enough you got to visit various platforms to be near trains. Those were real trains, with GG-1 locomotives and pullman cars and full service dining cars. Unintelligible public address announcements. It started to go downhill around 1960. Memories of homeAs a former Newark resident I remember this waiting room quite well. I would pass through there on my way to catch the PATH (Port Authority Trans Hudson) Trains to NYC. Outside the windows on the left there was usually a queue of taxis lined up. Behind the doors below the airplane was an exit that led to loading platforms for buses that went to places like Seaside and Asbury Park. I left Newark in 1976 but I suspect that the waiting room looks the same today as it did back in 1935. Times ChangeWhile the structure of the room remains the same, the ambience is somewhat diminished. The benches are usually populated with vagrants. I frequently notice that, as a result, those who are seated are spread out, as no one chooses to sit within five feet or so of the "regulars". It's a depressing room these days; at least on the weekends, when I pass through. If the situation is better on weekdays, I'd be happy to hear of it. Still crazy busy, after all these yearsYes, it does look substantially the same today, thanks to an extensive restoration in the 1980's. Newark Penn features four levels of interconnections: Cabs and buses at street level; Tracks 1-5 above, including NJ Transit, Amtrak Regional and Acela service; PATH trains ("The Tubes") at roof level; and a basement-level terminal for multiple light rail lines. As late as the 80's, this last level ran 1940's PCC trolleys... ten cents intra-city in those days. A few abandoned cars were found in a walled-off siding under the street when that siding was returned to service for new light rail service around 2002. Some ChangesIn front of the windows, where the three lone travelers sit, is now a high-tech snack bar. Incongruous with the lovely deco surroundings. It's not unusual to find sparrows, pigeons, or other flighted friends walking or fluttering about. To their credit, Newark's Finest do their best to keep the waiting room and platforms clear of homeless and panhandlers. Taxis still line up outside, but passengers departing need to walk more than a block from their designated "drop-off" area since 9/11. Progress... Opening the windowsAnyone know how this was done? I see the hinge apparatus but wondering how opening the high windows was achieved? Some funky cable cable system? Long poles? [There's a fitting with what looks like a crank hole near the base of each window. - Dave] Trains vs. PlanesI don't know why, but I still have to see the airport building or photograph thereof which rings a bell with me anywhere near as much as well-designed well-built train station. On an airport, the planes are the show, if at all. Maybe it has to do with much greater accessibility and, say, democratic "feel" of a train station? Or with their general location (middle of town vs. outskirts to boonies)? re McKim Mead & WhiteWell, to quote Katnip, "that sounds logical". About that planeSince Newark constructed an airport in 1928, there is a better than average chance that the reference is there. You know, take the train to the station and a cab or bus to the plane. Still done today. Not many trains to planes, even now. "Airway Limited"Transcontinental Air Transport (New York to Los Angeles (Glendale) in less than 51 hours, train-plane-train-plane) started in summer 1929; one-way fare was $338 including a lower berth each night on the train. By 1935 it was all over-- T&WA DC-2s were scheduled Newark to Glendale? Burbank? in less than 18 hours and the fare was $160. Train Time!I'm totally amazed that no one has noticed that it's time for the Chattanooga Choo Choo to head South ('bout a quarter to four). Transportation medallionsIf I recall correctly, there are twelve medallions total. Penn Station Newark is still a place at which you can start a cross-country train journey, and while Amtrak is not as elegant as Pullman cars nor as attractive as GG-1s, it's still comfortable and good food served in the dining cars. Medallion of "Electric Locomotive"Here's a shot of one of the medallions at the other end of the building. Let there be light!The original lighting fixtures after being cleaned and refurbished. MedallionsHere is a more modern view of the interior. Notice the other medallions. (The Gallery, Gottscho-Schleisner, Railroads)
Our Gang: 1908
"Game of craps. Cincinnati, Ohio. August 1908." Back in the good old days when kids made their ... "Come on, little Joe from Kokomo". (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, Kids, Lewis Hine) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/29/2012 - 2:39pm -

"Game of craps. Cincinnati, Ohio. August 1908." Back in the good old days when kids made their own low-tech fun. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. ConsigliereI get the feeling that the kid holding up the building is Tom Hagen to our fancy-pants shooter's Don Michael Corleone - protecting his interests from local cops, snoopy social reforming photographers, and kids who protest too much when a set of loaders gets swapped into the game. Those were the good old daysThose were the good old days when kids could take a break from their OSHA-nightmare work environments and gamble barefoot in the streets, smoking and cussing like sailors. On the plus side, at least they weren't fat. Tough Bunch This is a rough looking crew . The young man leaning against the building is one shifty looking guy. The shooter and the kid sitting on the window ledge are shoeless and something tells me that they didn't lose their footwear shooting craps. The oddity is the boy sitting on the sidewalk. He appears to be cleaner, is wearing a bow-tie and a reasonably new pair of boots. In their future is a World War and the Great Depression. It would be interesting to find out what happened to them. TeamsI'm guessing this game was Socks vs. Skins. Wow.Look at the look on that kid's face. He's not Fredo for sure. What were they playing for?I don't see any money anywhere, on the ground or in their hands. Was it just for fun? Also, I'd love to go back in time and give the poor kid with the bandaged toes a pair of shoes. CoalThe boy on the right is sitting on a coal chute. The kid looking straight into the camera is one tough cookie! Playing GamesThat chalked hopscotch layout -- very convenient if the local flatfoot strolls around the corner. [Maybe what our parents said was true -- hopscotch leads to craps! - Dave] A useful skillAs noted by Mr Mel, in ten years probably all of these boys would be doughboys and knowing how to shoot craps would be a useful skill in the barracks or in the trenches or below decks. One could pass the time and perhaps pick up a little cash for one's next leave. "Come on, little Joe from Kokomo". (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Steamboat Annie: 1909
... Louis, Mo., entertained recently the local carriage men of Cincinnati, Ohio, on his palatial boat, "Annie Russell." The prominent carriage ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/25/2014 - 11:34am -

The Mississippi River circa 1909. "Vicksburg waterfront." The sternwheelers Annie Russell and Alice B. Miller. Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Old Faithful Not just one but two Coca-Cola signs. Coca-Cola and VicksburgThe soft drink was first bottled in Vicksburg by Joseph Biedenharn, who owned a small candy store on Washington Street. He shipped it to the plantations in the Delta. So there has long been a close connection between Coca-Cola and the city. This is why I love Shorpy!These are the pics that keep me coming back day after day. It's like Where's Waldo for history buffs. Beautiful! Coke Bottle HomeThe first bottling of Coca-Cola occurred in Vicksburg, Mississippi, at the Biedenharn Candy Company in 1891. Its proprietor was Joseph A. Biedenharn. The original bottles were Biedenharn bottles, very different from the much later hobble-skirt design that is now so familiar. Not sure if the Vicksburg Bottling Works across from one of the Coca-cola signs was related or not. Um, BaconThat Bing way-back machine tells us that Hammond Packing Co. was indeed founded in a locale that came to be called Hammond, Indiana (how coincidental is that?); the company later established a plant in Omaha. No word on Vicksburg operations, alas. There is also the 1909 Supreme Court case of "Hammond Packing Co. vs. Arkansas," but I lost my way in my reading and understanding of the case after the third mention of a "claim of an irrepealable contract predicated upon a contract which is repealable." The thought of slow, idyllic days of floatin' on the Mississippi brought me back to "Annie" and "Alice," instead. SCANNINGfor a parallel universe-type person--maybe I want to trade places. Hammond PackingHammond Packing was the pioneer in refrigerated meat transport, and Hammond, Indiana, grew up around the company's transshipment facility. The business began operations in Detroit as Hammond, Standish and Co., and after the death of founder George Hammond -- who was my great-great-grandfather -- passed through a number of hands before being absorbed into the Armour interests around the time this photo was taken. Vicksburg was likely to have hosted a regional storage facility for the company. If one could only go back in timeVery poignant picture. Never thought I'd want to teleport myself back to such an industrial locale but the past is the past. You can almost see the breeze whipping over the river in the foreground. A Palace on WaterAlice B. Miller: Built 1904, Jacksonville, Indiana. Burned 1915, Vicksburg. Annie Russell: contemporaneous accounts refer to her as a handsome pleasure boat for the inland yachtsman. Built 1902, Dubuque, Iowa. Owned by Russell E. Gardner. The Carriage Monthly, September, 1904. Russell E. Gardner, president of the Banner Buggy Co., St. Louis, Mo., entertained recently the local carriage men of Cincinnati, Ohio, on his palatial boat, "Annie Russell." The prominent carriage builders of the city were invited to the boat, and were handsomely entertained. A trip was taken to the Queen City beach, where the party enjoyed a dip in the Ohio, and, on their return, a lunch was served. The "Annie Russell" is a palace on water, and is provided with everything that money can purchase. She is equipped with electric lights, bath, toilet rooms, electric fans and lounging rooms. Beautiful ImageThank you so much for displaying this scene. There is so much incredible detail of life back then, just fabulous image. Thank you. Coca-Cola BottlingBiedenharn Candy Company and Vicksburg Bottling Works where not related, although they both used the same blob-top bottle at one time. Washday on the MississipiWonder if they had the same washday -- Monday -- as you read about. Anyways, there's a lot of laundry draped over the upper stern rails of the Alice B. and there's bedding out to air over the doorways of some of the upper cabins. Annie R. is backing to slow and come to the bank of the levee, I think, there's no wake and the smoke is starting forward. Are the folks on the afterdeck the owners, or the captain's family? Also, the horses and wagons that are waiting might have supplies. Annie seems to be a passenger boat, no evidence of a lower cargo area at all, that I can see, and the upper deck, though clear, would have been awfully tough to load. What's inside?I would sure like to see a couple of inside photos and plans of the engine and boiler setup of those sternwheelers. Working WaterfrontsI love historic working waterfront pictures. You can see so many different examples of material culture and commercial-related activities. My favorite in this image is the wooden scow. They were so anonymous but conducted many 19th century activities from bulk cargo transport to ferrying. Clay StreetWe are looking up Clay Street at the First National Bank (now Trustmark Bank) building. Cars from far awayI find the two rail cars of interest. Both appear to be a long ways from home. The Dairy Land car is most likely from Wisconsin and has been on a mild products run. The Erie box is, again, fairly far from home. Neat to see them in this wonderful shot of Vicksburg. Related to Vicksburg PanoramaThis picture is clearly taken at the same time as a well-known panorama of the Vicksburg waterfront in 1910 that is in the National Archives. Was this picture originally a panorama by the same photographer. The shadows have moved between the two pictures and different steamboats have moved to the foreground. If there is another panorama, I would very much like to know about it. I grew up in Vicksburg and am writing a memoir of my father who would have arrive here for visits as a small boy. I would appreciate any help. These photo are true treasures. Thank to Shorpy for posting them. [The c.1910 panorama was taken by the Haines Photo Co. This one, by the Detroit Publishing Co., does not appear to be part of a panorama. To search for Vicksburg photos at the Library of Congress, use the search box at this link. - tterrace] (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Detroit Photos, DPC, Vicksburg)
Ford Motor Company: 1910
... There's still one of his Model T assembly plant here in Cincinnati, opened in 1915 and recently placed on the National Register of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/17/2014 - 10:05pm -

Circa 1910. "Ford Motor Co., Detroit, Michigan. Highland Park plant." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Something's missingGrassy area, no parking lot. And not one car.How can this be? I feel so let down. Albert Kahn's Old ShopThis is Albert Kahn's Old Shop of 1908-1909, the first of his many factory designs for Ford. It is perhaps the largest multi-story "daylight" factory ever built, and it employs Kahn's patented technique for reinforced concrete construction (the Kahn System). Kahn developed this system together with his engineer brother Julius; it was first employed in Building No. 10 for the Packard plant in Detroit in 1903. The immensely long Old Shop (800+ feet - we can see only about 1/3 of it here) would soon be joined by Kahn's design for Ford's "New Shop," which was built perpendicular to this building along the street at the right (Manchester Parkway) and is still standing today. Most of the Old Shop was demolished in the 1950s. Thank you, Dave, for this beautiful picture! The Clouded Crystal BallSon, a hundred years from now. Mr. Ford's factory over yonder will be a-making thousands of flying Model A's for your great grandbabies to drive. They'll be going to the old country on weekends the way we go to Saugatuck nowadays. I Can See Clearly NowSo that's what a factory looks like before the windows get dirty, painted over, broken, and boarded up. Wow! Kaaaaaahn!Albert Kahn designed many of Ford's early facilities, not only in Detroit but around the country. There's still one of his Model T assembly plant here in Cincinnati, opened in 1915 and recently placed on the National Register of Historic Places and restored as an office building. The design is quite a bit more sumptuous than the one pictured above, though being only a fraction of the size it was certainly easier to afford more embellishment. I wonder if the Highland Park factory used similarly dark red brick. I've noticed that many of these glass plate negatives dramatically underrepresent the darkness of red brick buildings. View Larger Map No Parking?I suspect that this is the "before" photo. The employees ride to work on the electric trolley car tracks out front. Then they make the automobiles to drive tomorrow, so that they will need a parking lot. One story is that Henry Ford thought that he had to pay his employees enough to buy his cars that he sold at a price low enough that they could afford. Otherwise, his mass production methods would just build up unsold inventory! Properly AttiredMens dress etiquette of the period was that you did not wear just a shirt sleeve in public, unless doing physical labor. Either you were in a jacket, with or without vest, or just a vest. Hats were optional, but the style of the day. Both are properly dressed. Dirt!So unusual to see the great Woodward Avenue as a dirt road! Woodward has the distinction of having the first mile of concrete paved road, completed in 1909 for the princely sum of $13,537, starting 6 blocks north of here at McNichols Road (6 Mile road) and running to 7 Mile Road. Had to have something to drive those new Fords on! Newly built ComplexThe Albert Kahn designed complex at the corner of Woodward and Manchester didn't start pumping out autos until the late summer/early fall of 1910 and it wasn't until 1913 that the automated assembly line shifted into gear. I'd bet that this photo was taken in june/july of 1910. Bonded RailsAt the extreme right side of the photo you can see the cables that provide a good electrical connection between two pieces of rail. The electricity to power a streetcar is typically 600 volts Direct Current, and the positive side is the trolley wire, with power collected through the trolley pole. The negative side is the track, and the power connection is made from the steel wheels to the rail. Where the two pieces of rail are bolted together, it is necessary to use a copper cable to ensure a good negative return to the substation. The last streetcar to run on Woodward Avenue was in April of 1956. The Ford River Rouge plant had thousands arrive and leave by streetcar at shift change - there was a special station with prepaid fares and multiple loading platforms. Here is an interesting fact from "River Rouge: Ford's industrial colossus", by Joseph Cabadas: "Filled with wanderlust, Henry went to Detroit in 1879 at age 16 and briefly worked at the Michigan Car Company, building streetcars." Ford assembly plant in Shadyside, PittsburghFollowing up on Jeffrey Jackucyk's comment, here is a drawing of an apparently Kahn-designed Ford assembly plant and showroom in Shadyside, Pittsburgh. The present-day structure was not in the best state of repair and has been most recently used as a party store selling paper and plastic items for birthday parties etc. The building is now being renovated (hopefully with some level of historical preservation) by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. I didn't know how to embed the Google Maps street view photo as Jeffrey Jackucyk accomplished, but typing in "Baum Blvd. and Morewood, Pittsburgh" in Google Maps will suffice. It is on the SE corner at 5000 Baum. The building was immediately adjacent to a railroad spur in a hollow/valley (~125 feet below the roof). From the rail siding, far below street level, an elevator lifted bins of parts to different floors. On the top floor, workers started by connecting the chassis and wheels. The assembly line then operated by gravity. Workers rolled the chassis down a ramp to the floor below, where other workers installed additional components and built out the car. On each floor, at each stage, workers added parts then rolled the car down another ramp. The finished car ended up in a parking area behind the building, at street level. There was even a well-appointed showroom on the first floor (which became the party store until recently), where customers came to kick the tires and buy the vehicles. My great-great-grandfatherMy great-great-grandfather did carpentry work in the construction of that Highland Park plant. Later, his son, his son, and his son (my dad) all worked for Ford's in various skilled trades. What is extremely cool is that I now live less than a mile from the building that was the Portland, Oregon Ford plant. I knew it was an Albert Kahn design the moment I laid eyes on it. And not one car? Not producing yet.Since this photo is dated 1910 it could be that no cars were in production there yet as that started in 1910. Although difficult to tell for sure it looks like the back end wasn't there. Although many may credit Albert Kahn for the building it was a cooperative effort, Kahn designing the 'shell' that went over the floor layouts directed by Edward Gray (check Wikipedia and other sources). My grandfather worked for him directly from their days together at Riverside Engine Company in Oil City, 1906 to 1909, when Ford hired Gray to be his Chief Engineer and Construction Engineer. Grandpa was his draftsman and stayed with Gray even after his days at Ford (Gray left Ford in 1914 to start his own construction work, developing 'Grayhaven' where Gar Wood eventually built is Detroit River mansion.) Reference, "My Forty Years With Ford" by Charles E. Sorensen, p 125-126 (Available to view on Google Books) Inside the addition c. 1913Maybe the only "family photo" of the interior, which Edward Gray, Ford's chief engineer, designed the inside of. Gray worked with Albert Kahn, doing much of the workflow design as Kahn designed the shell. Gray joined Ford Motor late 1909 and was key part of the design of the Highland Park Model T plant from that point to 1915, when he left Ford Motor. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Detroit Photos, DPC, Factories)
Miss Ohio: 1850
Cincinnati circa 1850s. "Unidentified woman, half length portrait, seated with ... consider this was taken 160 years ago. (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, Portraits) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/16/2016 - 6:29pm -

Cincinnati circa 1850s. "Unidentified woman, half length portrait, seated with arm on table." Sixth-plate daguerreotype by James Presley Ball. View full size. OhioI usually object to the stock response "she looks so modern" or "she looks very contemporary", etc. I usually disagree with those sentiments when they are expressed. But something about this young lady's attentive and engaging expression does look "modern" to me. I can see this girl as an avid time-traveler! And I want the chance to get to know her! Mom?Wow. She could be a relative of mine. She looks like me in all but the shape of her eyes. Even the arch of one eyebrow is consistent with mine. LindaPortrait of the young Linda Ronstadt. There's a theory that there are only so many facial types, that we see likenesses in people who can't possibly be related. I tend to think it's true, the longer I live. Don't you just love Daguerreotypes?When you get one with a clean image, the level of detail is astounding. You can almost sense the texture of the cloth covering the small table she's leaning on. The Unknown SitterI consider this the best of Ball's work with women. For the time, and even today, she's beautiful. And the fact she is unknown makes it strangely haunting, especially when you consider this was taken 160 years ago. (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, Portraits)
On the Mend: 1900
... the Yankee (second row far right) and what I think is the Cincinnati (back row center). Front row seated third from left and second row ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 11:13am -

New York circa 1900. "Group of patients, Brooklyn Navy Yard hospital." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. The Dry LookNot any greased-up or plastered down hair in this group. The hair styles look very close to what most men are wearing today. New York ObserverFellow in white at the top of the stairs. Represented vesselsSo far I've been able to make out the U.S.S. Newport, the New Orleans (front row seated rt. of center), and the Yankee (second row far right) and what I think is the Cincinnati (back row center). Front row seated third from left and second row fourth from right are sailors on which ships? [U.S.S. Vesuvius. - Dave] The Newport was a gunboat, the New Orleans was a cruiser, the Yankee was an auxiliary cruiser. 50 years before my time butThe blue uniforms are about the same with piping and 13 button pants. Several are probably boatswain mates because of their pipe lanyards. One may be a marine and another an officer. The guy in blue on the right gets the respect of everybody. And a couple may have have been in the Civil War. YensI suddenly have an overwhelming craving for Crackerjack. SpookedI was in the Brooklyn Navy Yard about 10 years ago as a software rep servicing a client. The place was a vast ghost town of many different and unusual decaying buildings, and apparently a haven for crime. They wouldn't let me walk around alone and I had to check my car from the window every hour or so. Some of the remaining buildings that were in passable shape were being used for small businesses. If the walls could talk that place would still have my ear. Looks like a ventriloquiston the right side of the photo! House DetectiveDarkman lurking under stairwell. Comic ReliefCheck out the ventriloquist act on the right. See also: Sick Bay 1900We saw at least a couple of these guys here. In particular, you can't miss the guy with the bandage around his head. 13 Button TrousersLooks like these guys were no more fastidious about doing up all the buttons than I was when I used to wear them. The ships USS New Orleans and USS Newport were involved in the recent conflict with Spain. Big Bluejacket on the rightThere was a guy on my ship who looked a lot like him. We called him the Abominable Seaman. Pasted In?It looks like the face of the young man in the white jacket, center second row, has been physically pasted in, note the distinct ring around the head. [That's a bandage. Next question! - Dave] Uniform VariationThe wide variety of uniforms and uniform items is notable. The three stripes at the end of the sleeve denote seaman first class, two denote second class. The shoulder watch mark on the seated SN - fifth from left in whites - reveals that he is assigned to the port watch. Those lanyards may be knife lanyards. Early versions of the dixie cup cover sometimes lacked sufficient stitching to stay in place - hence the floppy appearance. Cuff PipingThree rows of piping was standardized on the blue collar in 1876.. Cuff piping was used to identify rank until 1947. Three rows identified Petty Officers, along with their "Crow" Guy far rightis sitting on the next guy's knee! It's a real wonderHow they kept those flatboard hats on their heads! Checkout the guy in the center, that a real "old salt." Where is swee'pea?I yam what I yam, and that's all I yam. The HulkThe fellow standing on the far right looks like someone no one would want to mess with. Represented VesselsU.S.S. Vesuvius was a dynamite cruiser, a not very successful experiment. (The Gallery, DPC, Medicine, NYC)
The Apparatus: 1929
... that could pull in race results from all over and even a Cincinnati ball game at night when the cloud cover was good for a "skipping" AM ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/04/2013 - 10:21am -

UPDATE: See the front panel here. Summer 1929 or thereabouts in Washington, D.C. An impressive rack. Of what? Unlabeled Harris & Ewing glass negative, Part 1 of 2. View full size. A radio and so much moreFor any Shorpy-ites who complained that recent radio pictures didn't show wiring, this one does. And there's even a speaker in this photo, and it's connected to this seemingly powerful receiver and / or transmitter. Hi-fiTwo of the shelves have identical apparatus, so obviously it's stereophonic. (I don't really have to insert a smiley face here, do I?) Not stereophonic.My guess is the two sets of identical apparatus work in series. First set picks up weak signals and amplifies them, second set amplifies them even more. Or both sets amplify the same signals and then combine the signals through superheterodyne action. Believe this receiver would be connected to a pretty good-sized antenna/set of antennas, which would allow worldwide reception. CAGEThe first Electric Analog Grandfather's Clock? Being that it's Washington DC, it was probably classified: CLOCK, ANALOG, GRANDFATHER, ELECTRIC (CAGE) First Mobile PhoneIt's either the first mobile phone or the first microwave oven. Or not. It's not RFIt's an audio amplifier of some sort -- possibly for a PA system. This is because of the rack mounting. The reason I say it's not RF is that there is no evidence of tuning capacitors, plus the transformers are definitely audio finals. While not my era, I'd certainly love to hear from someone who knows about this equipment. Rack mounted CrosleysReceive WLW and WOWO. BacksideI think this is the backside of the equipment rack. I am betting that the next image (2 of 2) will show us the other side and give us more clues. Not radioThese appear to be audio (sound) amplifiers. I see tubes and wire-wound resistors- but no RF coils or tuning capacitors like radio equipment would have. My guess is it's part of a early PA system. Either a PA system or a two-way radio base stationHere's my guess: The whole rig is either a public address system, or something like a base station for a police radio system. The top device is probably a tunable radio receiver. I can see what looks like a tuning capacitor behind a couple of the tubes on the left. The three tubes on the light-colored chassis on the right are probably part of the power supply, while the five tubes on the left are the RF/IF/AF part of the radio. I'm not sure what the three biscuits are, under the tubes at the left - maybe covers over the back sides of rotary controls? The cylinder slung under the left side is probably a filter capacitor for the power supply - it is rather bigger than most radios would have used at that time. Maybe this is designed for a 25 Hz supply? That bright sheet-metal piece standing on end under the workbench is probably the shield for this device. The top device might also be a powered microphone mixer, to allow multiple microphones to drive the power amps. If the whole thing is a PA system, and this is a radio, this lets you play background music. If it's a mixer, it lets you use more than one microphone. If it's a base station, then this is probably a radio, and this is how you hear the mobile units calling in. The bottom two devices are either audio power amplifiers (PA system) or radio transmitters (base station). If they are power amps, they probably amplify the output of the radio for loudspeakers. If you need to cover a bigger area, add another amp to the rack (note the empty shelf). If they are power amps, the dark oblong boxes might be audio output transformers, but I'm not 100% sure on this. (If this was 30 years later, they might be spring reverb tanks, but I don't think those existed in 1929.) If they are radio transmitters, my guess is that they are fixed-frequency; at that time, those were easier to build, and are always much easier to use. They might even be just CW, for Morse code, but 1929 sounds a little late for that. If they are fixed-frequency, my guess is that they are on two different frequencies; you *could* use the same frequency into two different directional antennas, but that requires synchronization of the transmitters that I am not sure was reliable in 1929. I'm not sure what the dark oblong boxes do, if these are transmitters. There are three jacks (probably for 1/4" phone plugs) above the top device. I bet these are for headphones, a microphone, and maybe a push-to-talk switch. If it's a PA system, someone standing at the console can monitor the output, and the microphone and PTT let you cut out the music and make announcements. If it's a base station, then you listen to the mobile units on headphones, and use the microphone to transmit. There is a small terminal board under the bottom shelf. I am not real sure what this is for - it might be the antenna terminals for the radio on the top shelf, or maybe it's some control and switching lines for the whole rack, that can be used to tie more than one of these racks together. The AC power comes in at the bottom right and runs up the rack, with an outlet for each shelf. The outlet boxes and conduit look a lot like the stuff that is sold today as Wiremold(R) surface-mount conduit. The whole rack is not that much different than a "relay rack" you might use today to mount Ethernet jacks, switches, routers, etc; the main difference is that the shelves on modern racks usually bolt in rather than weld on. The power (if equipped) still tends to run up one side. Vacuum TubesAs a lad on Long Island I had a 5-tube Crosley superheterodyne receiver that could pull in race results from all over and even a Cincinnati ball game at night when the cloud cover was good for a "skipping" AM signal but these tubes have me awestruck. Quite obviousThis is the first dual line iPhone. With nifty techno-geek carrying case. Pots???Probably not a receiver as there is a shortage of tuning components on these chassis - the upper unit may be a mixer of some type (power supply on the right) - the three round shiny things may be pots or potentiometers (volume controls), there appear to be three input jacks just above the top unit and the two units on the lower shelves are likely two amplifiers that fed two separate speaker systems. The lower empty shelf looks ready to receive the third amplifier. This is obviously the forerunner of Muzak, to be used in a building with 3 elevators. Talkie equipmentI see speakers but no microphones, and nothing that looks like antenna leads. I'd suggest this is equipment for playing sound in a movie theater. Second suggestion, it's part of a studio's sound recording equipment. Server (of sorts)because it's in a 19-inch rack mount,verified by scaling up from the No. 6 dry cell (as opposed to less common 23-inch telco equipment racks). Rack System!The predecessor to today's rack systems used by those IT nerds out there...think about the heat radiating off this monster! Almost certainly audio equipmentThe "tuning capacitor" on the uppermost unit which KCGuy pointed out is a selenium rectifier - one of the first solid state devices in use. It's probably rectifying a bias voltage for the tubes. I'd discount the likelihood that this rack is radio equipment - at least, not the radio frequency part of it. The two identical large units have no connectors which would be used with radio frequency signals. The only outputs visible are screw post terminals, which would be consistent with audio frequency signals. The three jacks we can see on the top unit (from the back) are the standard quarter-inch phone plugs which were used for audio right through the 20th century - since they're up so high and are on the front of whatever this is, I'd guess they're test jacks or places to plug in headphones or speakers for testing or local monitoring. A firstThe first PA system for Congress? The Rest of the StoryClick here to see the front panel. The top unit is an American Bosch Magneto radio receiver. Early TelevisionThat big disc reminds me of early mechanical television. But it would need a fairly big electric motor behind it, as well as a neon glowlamp. Dual chassis were another hallmark of TV setups at the time. You needed separate receivers for audio and video. No tuning caps might mean a closed-circuit demo rig, not meant to pick up over-the-air signals. The same but differentWhen viewing the back of the rack (1 of 2) the bottom two units appear to be identical. However the front view (2 of 2) shows that these same two units have completely different front panels. Unfair! A little unfair Dave. We loyal Shorpy fans can only go by what is visible to us. Obviously the radio's components were inside a metal enclosure out of our view. What was visible were the audio amplifiers used to distribute the sound about the hospital so I think my conjecture it was part of a PA system was valid. [The radio components are right there in front of your nose on the top rack! American Bosch Magneto Model 28. -Dave] In my defense, the radio's RF coils and tuning components were not visible from the rear. Of course, had we seen the front view it would be obvious it was a radio. Dry cell?M2 commented on the "No. 6 dry cell". Is that what's slung underneath the radio - the thing I misidentified as a filter capacitor? I thought battery vs AC radios were sort of an "all or nothing" thing; either it ran totally on AC or totally on batteries. Maybe I am confused about that. If this rig needs more batteries, it might make sense that they go on the floor, and the terminals under the bottom shelf are for hooking them up. Or maybe the dry cell is the only battery in the rig, and it's there for something relatively low-current, like maybe biasing the microphones? (Technology, The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing)
Radio School: 1920
... - The Washington Post appears to share premises with the Cincinnati Enquirer. - Nice devilish gargoyle and tessellations at the top ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/04/2012 - 9:37pm -

Washington, D.C., 1920. "National Radio School, Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. Republic of Chop SueyCan anyone make out the flag flying under Old Glory on top of the Chinese & American restaurant? Doubling upTwo Chinese restaurants in one block! One of them a walkup. And either two cigar stores, or one cigar store and a distributor. Plus ca changeSo back then people paid to take "radio" classes like today they pay to take "computer" classes? You Street?I know that I Street in Washington is sometimes called "Eye Street," is "You Street" for U Street another common usage? Never heard of it before. Some nice details...- The guy cleaning windows on the 7th floor of the building on the far left. In all the Shorpy cityscapes I've looked at this is the first window cleaner. - Two guys in hats peeping over the roof parapet of the Radio School. - A man working in the Washington Post who is enjoying an open window. Looks like an editor from one of the 1930s newspaper films. The window he is sitting at has some nice architectural details and an unusual angled design. - The Washington Post appears to share premises with the Cincinnati Enquirer. - Nice devilish gargoyle and tessellations at the top of the Post building. Does it still exist? - The parked car on the far left seems to have the letters CHEW on the trunk. I wonder what that meant. ["Don't Stay Behind -- CHEW Peper (something) Leaf." Tobacco salesman's car at the cigar store. - Dave] Thanks, Shorpy for 15 minutes of interesting observation of another world. Look, up there!Who are the two men in hats on the roof of the Radio School building and what are they doing? The guys on the roofPretty sure these hats belong to Stan and Oliver. All goneThis row--even though some establishments sport Pennsylvania Avenue addresses--is actually on E Street, just east of 14th. The large building on the far left is the Willard Hotel. All the buildings here have been replaced a couple of times--currently the J.W. Marriott Hotel dominates this end of the block. Shorpy previously brought us a scene of a large crowd gathered to watch results from the big game at this same location in 1912. [Before Pershing Park was built out in the 1930s, this block (lower right in the Baist map) was fronted by Pennsylvania Avenue. E Street is just to the right. - Dave] View Larger Map Re: Look, up there!Why, it's Barney and Gomer making sure the streets are safe from organized crime! City of Chinese RestaurantsOne little known fact about 1920s Washington is that every other building back then housed a Chinese restaurant. Radio RepairI think a lot of the classes focused on how a radio worked and how to repair them. In one of the antique radio repair books I read, the author recalled his father's studies in one of these schools. He later went on to become a radio operator on board a ship for a while. If I remember right, the book was Fixing Up Nice Old Radios. [I think the focus was basically "getting into radio" from a technical and procedural standpoint, as Plus ca Change noted below. It was like the Web 15 years ago -- an emerging medium that was the Next Big Thing, and people wanted a foot in the door. This was just before the emergence of commercial radio as a mass entertainment medium, back when audio broadcasts were something geeky baseball fans listened to on headphone crystal sets, and the airwaves were thought of more in terms of wireless telegraphy and telephony, as a means of point-to-point communication, with an emphasis on maritime and military uses. - Dave] Horse Apples!Need I say more? National Radio Institute?I believe the National Radio School eventually become the National Radio Institute, who trained thousands of radio and television repairmen by correspondence until the 1990's. Washington Post ManNewspapers have more than just writers and editors. Plus, note that the window says "The Washington Post Business Office." Hence the man you can see in the window may be working in the circulation or advertising department, typing out bills, correcting invoices, or calculating how many papers are needed for that night's run based on subscription and street sales demand. Learn WirelessCanton Pagoda, 1343 E St. D. Loughran, 1347 Pa. Ave. Oriental Restaurant. 1347 Pa. Ave. Kronheim went into the liquor businessThe Milton S. Kronheim Company was a wine and spirits distributor in D.C. until going out of business in the late 1990s. Perhaps the clothing business is what they did during Prohibition, or else once Repeal came in 1933, they decided to go into the alcohol beverage business. +90Below is the identical view taken in April of 2010. One can still get Chinese food by walking through the doors facing Pennsylvania Avenue, but it's a bit longer walk - the food court in the Metro Shops complex on F Street (the next street north) is accessible through this frontage. (Technology, The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo)
A Marvelous Time Was Had by All
On the Scenic Railway at the Newsboys’ Picnic in Cincinnati, August 1908. A marvelous time was had by all. View full size. ... there. [It was taken there - at an amusement park in Cincinnati called Coney Island , on the banks of the Ohio River. - Dave] ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/02/2011 - 2:23pm -

On the Scenic Railway at the Newsboys’ Picnic in Cincinnati, August 1908. A marvelous time was had by all. View full size. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. Coney Island???I went to Coney Island when I was a kid. I think this picture was taken there. [It was taken there - at an amusement park in Cincinnati called Coney Island, on the banks of the Ohio River. - Dave] CoasterA quick check on the rollercoaster database www.rcdb.com shows the park to still be open. Only one coaster is operating now and it is steel. Only one coaster was listed for 1908 called Figure 8 after the track layout. Scenic Railroad was a generic name for early coasters. Not much description is give outside of the usual stats. http://www.rcdb.com/id2032.htm Still thrilling at ConeyConey Island is still alive and thrilling kids of all ages just east of Cincinnati, Ohio. Check out "classic rides" under attractions to see the "Python" steel coaster on their website... http://www.coneyislandpark.com/ Give Me a BrakeNotice the man that seems to be higher than everyone else in the center of the train. He is the brakeman. That was a feature of scenic railway type rides. (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, Kids, Lewis Hine, Sports)
Japanese Rolling Balls: 1910
Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1910. "Coney Island -- the midway." 8x10 inch dry plate ... and today it's a park. Coney Island of the West The Cincinnati Coney Island was originally an apple orchard until the farmer ... of the Riverbend Center Amphitheater, the home of the Cincinnati Pops. It's a pleasant old fashioned family amusement park. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/29/2012 - 2:43pm -

Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1910. "Coney Island -- the midway." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. InterestingI wonder if anyone has a clue about how many places were called "Coney Island" back in the day? If many, were they part of a larger enterprise. Delightful ladies, in their glorious hats, planning the day's activities over at the right side. Maybe a little earlier?From the clothes, etc., and comparing it to other images I've seen here at Shorpy, I'm wondering whether this image is from a little earlier than 1915, say maybe 1906 or so. Just a thought. [There were no 46-star flags until 1908. - Dave] Skee BallAn early version of the popular arcade game? ChapeauxI love the hats on the ladies to the right. Two Borrowed Terms"Coney Island" from New York, and "midway" from the Midway Plaisance at Chicago's Columbian Exhibition of 1893. It was the amusement area of that world's fair, and today it's a park. Coney Island of the WestThe Cincinnati Coney Island was originally an apple orchard until the farmer realized that he could make more money renting out the property for events. He built some facilities and called the place Ohio Grove. He sold the property in 1886 and the new owners renamed it "Ohio Grove, The Coney Island of the West." The next year they dropped the "Ohio Grove" and it became Coney Island. The park is still in existence although it was closed between 1971 and 1973 following the construction of King's Island. Part of the park was donated for the construction of the Riverbend Center Amphitheater, the home of the Cincinnati Pops. It's a pleasant old fashioned family amusement park. Bright LightsWhat a unique row of light poles on the left. I've never seen anything like them. (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, DPC)
City Gas: 1905
... as a seal -- the internal pressure was not that great. Cincinnati, a town which has creatively repurposed its older infrastructure, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/01/2019 - 11:14am -

Circa 1905. "Gas holder, Detroit City Gas Company." A familiar sight from the era of "city gas," when municipalities had their own gas plants in the days before long-distance transmission of natural gas. The telescoping sections rose or fell as "illuminating gas," which was made by heating coal, was put into or removed from the holder. 8x10 glass negative. View full size. Gas Holder Fun FactsAs my 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica states, "A gasworks should be sited with some care as it does not improve the neighborhood." Water was kept between the telescoping sections as a seal -- the internal pressure was not that great. Cincinnati, a town which has creatively repurposed its older infrastructure, has a gasworks park with creative "sculptures" made from the old apparatus. Oval GasGasometers are still a feature of some British city skylines, one of the most high-profile being in the background of the Oval cricket ground in South London. WiredI am mesmerized by those wires coming in from the upper right. I suppose they run behind the container and that it's only their shadow that continues perfectly across the front until diverted by the curve - but, as I study them, they play tricks on my brain jumping from foreground to background amongst the geometric shadows. [The wires run across the photo in front of the tank. - Dave] So THAT's what that thing was!There was a framework that looked like this to the west of I-435 in Kansas City on the river bluffs - I wondered for years what it was. Thanks for clearing up that mystery! Ka-BOOMGot a light. West coast gasWhen I was growing up out here in California these things were a familiar sight in just about any city of a goodly size, even suburban San Rafael just to the north of us in Marin County. There was an enormous one in San Francisco up through the mid-1960s, at the east end of the Marina District. Here it is at the right in a section of a slide I took from across the bay near Sausalito in early 1965. Gas Tank ParkNew York had dozens of these structures. Some of the most famous were the Elmhurst tanks. They were knocked down in the 1980s and now the site of Gas Tank Park. Near most of these structures were the gashouses which produced the illuminating gas -- sites often requiring remediation to remove the contaminant plumes of benzene and other aromatic hydrocarbons which dripped into the ground. Got gas?Hi tterrace. That tank is now the site of the upscale Marina Safeway. However, its memory lives on in the name of the sailboat marina right across the street: Gas House Cove. Worried ?Wonder if the people living next door ever worried about an explosion. That being said, I have never heard of one blowing up. Gas lines, yes. The neighbors most likely never had low pressure in their lines, at least. A while back I was looking at some of these in Europe and UK online; some gas holders overseas have been converted to condominiums or apartment buildings! "Gasometers"I live in London, and you will still see these structures all over England and particularly in the large cities. We call them "Gasometers," and they are still part of the national grid for gas distribution. Love em in London!These things seem to inspire the same fond feelings as water towers. So big and matter of fact and useful! The number 8 gasometer down the road from me in King's Cross, London, is being zhuzhed up as part of the regeneration of the area. Hopefully they'll keep it a little bit weird and rusty. http://www.bp-k.com/projects/Gasholder.html An Illuminating Subject.When I was young, not far from our home was a coking plant which had two huge gas holders of the type shown. They would slowly rise as gas was produced and fall as gas consumption exceeded supply. The adjacent gas works would emit an atomic cloud of steam as a coke oven was "pushed" and the glowing coke quenched by water before it was loaded into steel hopper cars. On occasion a wood-sided hopper was used, the coke not completely quenched, and the resulting fire caused by the wind of the train's motion would burn thru the car side and a glowing lava of coke pour out as the train moved down the track. Steel coke cars would sometimes glow in patches at night. I do not know if there are any gas holders of this design left. I would like to ride on top of one and watch it inch up by looking at the framework, and see it pause as the pressure inside had to increase to lift the next section. I tell younger people about them and they do not grasp the idea of the telescoping sections at all, how the pressure inside, although low, was enough to lift the tons of metal the tanks sections were made of. Other gas holders were circular and made with bricks, not rising nor falling. The whole coke plant and the gas holders are long gone, ugly to be sure, being replaced with even UGLIER slumplexes of high-density housing. LandmarksThose Elmurst, NY, Gas Tanks were a staple for many Long Island Expressway Commuters. Traffic reporters would announce, with almost every daily (weekday) morning drive heading to The Queens-Midtown Tunnel, that the major tie-ups would be in the vicinity of the gas tanks. Incidentally, the tanks themselves rose and fell according the volume of gas in them. They could have preserved itby turning it into a park, like we did here in Seattle. Same in St. LouisThere was at least one of these on highway 64/40 in St. Louis that I used to pass daily on my commute. It would rise and fall and I always wondered what it was. I'd heard it was for natural gas but I never really understood, but now I do. Great photo- thanks for posting! http://www.builtstlouis.net/industrial/gasometers.html Roll up the windows! We passed two of these tanks en route to Grand-ma's Brownstone in Brooklyn, NY. But the associated cracking plants and their gas flare towers sent the pervasive stench of rotten eggs drifting over the county for miles around. We all held our noses and made rude noises until shushed by the adults. Wow, popular topic! I just wanted to add that modern tanks act as flow buffers, just like water towers. Instead of just storing locally made gas, they store a 'back-up' quantity of product to handle periods of high demand, but are fed by massive pipelines from distant plants. (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC)
The Enormous Radio: 1941
... to me by a friend of my mother's, I used it to listen to Cincinnati police broadcasts (I think it was on 1760 kHz). Fight the Boots! ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/18/2012 - 6:48am -

January 1941. "Steelworker and family. Aliquippa, Pennsylvania." Medium format negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Legs and LeggingsNice legs on Mom, but what's with the ski boots on Junior? Loved that radioMy grandparents had this exact radio and it worked well into the 1980s when I inherited it. And we seenattily attired Billy with the most patched pants in history and those "four bucklers," as we used to call them; he seems to have acquired the skills to buckle up only one. Those Can't BeWas there such a thing as Dollar Store plastic flowers in 1941? Even in black and white they're hideous looking. Ah, the daysYup, that kid could have been me with my parents -- only our radio was one of those old Zenith monsters. It had four "bands" you could tune in on. One was the AM broadcast frequencies; the other three were short wave and ham bands. Many an hour was spent laying in front of the monster imagining what was going on as Superman, Gene Autry, and the Green Hornet came forth from the speaker. Baby Needs A New Pair Of ShoesNice radio, dad. Now spend some coin to get your son some clothes. And get your wife a new pair of pantyhose while you're at it. Billy wasn't really backward But his coveralls were if that one hip pocket and lack of a fly are any clues. We called those boots "arctics" in Central Pennsylvania. My collectionAbout 40 years ago I dated a girl whose father owned a TV and radio repair shop. He still worked on these old console radios for some older clients, and when the old couple decided to get a newfangled transistor radios, they had to do something with the old radio. He and I went on many a mission to retrieve these old radios, and he would repair them and give them to me, since I was dating his daughter. I had many sets like this, some old round tube televisions, and one Zenith TV had a remote control with an umbilical cord. It attached to the tuning knob, and had a long cable that rotated in a sheath which was attached to a knob on the other end of the cable, which you held and rotated to change the channels. This is a photo of a radio, but I got so immersed in my past that I eluded to televisions also. When I moved, I had to sell all my sets for pennies on the dollar. They did take up a lot of room, and provided plenty of heat in the winter. Nice Philco I misidentified the Philco, but I've got it right this time. It's a model 37-10X. Model 37-10X has automatic tuning and "magnetic tuning" (automatic frequency control to automatically center the tuning on a station and prevent drift). Philcos were again America's best selling radios in 1937. Enormous RadioThis is actually a Philco model 37-10X, which is not quite as enormous as a 116X. There are a number of differences between the two, but you can tell them apart easily just by counting the knobs: A 116X has six knobs whereas the one pictured has only four. edit: or five. [So far, not one person has remarked on the pop-culture reference here. - Dave] "Inner Sanctum"Anytime I see any kind of reference to radio in the '40s it jogs my memory about the "creaking door" opening to the "Inner Sanctum" mystery show. The show was scary to me as a little kid, but I couldn't resist listening to it and other radio shows including "The Shadow." That radiois sitting in my dining room. It covered broadcast and shortwave, and when I was about 10, when it was given to me by a friend of my mother's, I used it to listen to Cincinnati police broadcasts (I think it was on 1760 kHz). Fight the Boots!I remember putting bread bags over my shoes to make it easier to pull those rubber boots on. I don't see the telltale socks on this kid. 1941In January of that year, Franklin Roosevelt spoke on the radio to the American people emphasizing the "Four Freedoms." In December, 2400 American servicemen died in the attack at Pearl Harbor. The average annual wage was $1,750, gas was 12 cents a gallon, average rent was $32 per month and a new car was about $850. Money was not to be wasted, the motto was "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." Able-bodied men were being shipped off to war, the movie "Citizen Kane" was released, as was "Dumbo" for the kids. The warmest element in this thoughtful, provocative photo is the unconditional, loving admiration between mother and son. Enormously bad radioCourtesy of Wikipedia: a short story by John Cheever in 1947 recounts a hapless couple whose lives were ruined by a radio in an ugly, dark cabinet. It's a Twilight Zone sort of story. Scared us sillyWe have a similar radio up at my grandparents cabin in the Poconos - it took so long to warm up that the grandkids would forget it was on until it thundered to life and scared the bejeesus out of us all. It actually belongs to my mom, but the thought of shipping it across the country and then finding a spot for it...needless to say it's still in Pennsylvania. NostalgiaScooby: Do you realize how expensive "nylons" were during the war years? She was fortunate to have ANY...pantyhose didn't come into existence until around 1964 either. And the adorable boy isn't dressed badly - just that his pants are squished into his "galoshes" I love this photo. I inherited a similar radio from my parents. It was the only piece of "furniture" they had when they got married in 1935. I wouldn't give it up for anything - and it still works. (The Gallery, John Vachon, Kids)
Chester Park: 1906
Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1906. "Lake and clubhouse, Chester Park." 8x10 inch dry ... Dave] Today Beautiful, thank you. I live in this Cincinnati neighborhood -- now called Spring Grove Village -- and there is no ... In my research on the early history of bicycling in Cincinnati I've come across a number of references to Chester Park. To the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/05/2012 - 4:22pm -

Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1906. "Lake and clubhouse, Chester Park." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. High wire actI wonder how the wagon-wheel looking thing figured in all this. What a great day for walk!Life is being on the wire; everything else is just waiting No longer thereSome interesting details about the park and its history: "The park was in Winton Place on the north side of Spring Grove Avenue near Mitchell Avenue, opposite the Winton Place railroad station." View Larger Map Twirling sparklersCould the "wagon wheel" have been a fireworks set-piece? Clearly, it can be lowered to the water level, and raised to just below the wire. If lances were installed on the angled sticks, it would probably rotate slowly, shooting fountains of sparks up and over the highwire artist. Lots o'LightsThere is a spotlight on the upper balcony. Probably to shine on the evening performance of the high wire act? And most of the telephone poles have globe lights that can be raised and lowered via pulleys. Maybe they were lowered at dusk to be lighted (gas lamps, you know) and then raised above the heads of the spectators to help light their way along the boardwalk after dark. [Those globes hanging from the poles are carbon-arc (electric) lamps. - Dave] Artistic licenseI wonder they somebody (photographer) drew over that one cable that crosses the frame. If he was trying to hide it, well, the pure black shows up more than if it were left alone. Or was that a physical crack in the plate? [The negative is broken in two. Which is why the ropes don't quite line up. - Dave] TodayBeautiful, thank you. I live in this Cincinnati neighborhood -- now called Spring Grove Village -- and there is no trace left of Chester Park. Chester Park VelodromeIn my research on the early history of bicycling in Cincinnati I've come across a number of references to Chester Park. To the outside of the rail track was a quarter-mile cinder sprinting track and outside of that was a third-mile cement bicycle track. Races were held here throughout the summer months and even at night. A famous contest in the 1890s called the Poorman Road Race began in Hamilton Ohio and finished at the track. The clubhouse you see housed bicycle rooms, shower facilities, and athlete changing rooms. (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, DPC, Railroads)
So Inclined: 1904
Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1904. "Inclined plane." Five "Cincinnati incline" railway elevators served the growing hillside suburbs above ... of the Bellevue House, a resort that burned in 1901. Cincinnati had a total of five inclined railways, which were unusual because ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/12/2012 - 3:25pm -

Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1904. "Inclined plane." Five "Cincinnati incline" railway elevators served the growing hillside suburbs above the smoky basin below. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Cincy InclinesTwo nice pages here and here. Oh, I don't think so!Think I'd rather walk!! Bellevue InclineThis is the Bellevue Incline running over Clifton Avenue. The angled stone support seen in the photo is still visible right out on Clifton as you go down the hill. The ruins at the top are of the old Bellevue House, a beer garden at the end of Ohio Avenue. Today Bellevue Park is at the top of the hill. When I was a student at UC if you found the break in the chain link fence around the park you could walk right out to the edge of the cliff seen at the top of the photo, and the views of the Ohio and Mill Creek valleys were incredible. Just don't fall! View Larger Map Bellevue HouseThis is the Bellevue Incline, built in 1876 and closed in 1926. The ruins at the top of the hill are the remains of the Bellevue House, a resort that burned in 1901. Cincinnati had a total of five inclined railways, which were unusual because all but one (the Price Hill Incline) were designed to accommodate streetcars as well as wagons and foot passengers. Cincy StreetcarsAnother interesting detail: Note the twin trolley poles on the streetcars. This was unique to Cincinnati (and one or two other systems), as most streetcars used the overhead wire for 600VDC positive and the rail for the return. In Cincy's case, they decided to string an extra wire (concerns about galvanization caused by current running through the ground rails or some such, if memory serves.) (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, DPC, Railroads)
The Young Moderns: 1952
... patio level. Reminds me of my aunt & uncle's yard in Cincinnati near Ault Park. Mom doesn't seem to have touched her wine, nor ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/21/2013 - 8:40pm -

Alfresco dining on the patio circa 1952 in this unlabeled Kodachrome. Do I hear Brubeck on the hi-fi? Third in the "Linda" series of 35mm slides. View full size. Comparing wristwatchesI was looking at the watch on the woman's wrist in the Lil Boomer photo and was wondering if it was the same watch as on the wrist of the woman on the right in this photo. Difficult to tell. https://www.shorpy.com/node/14453 Mid-century masters of good livingSlay me now -- this is gorgeous. Atomic wire end tables, Dansk salad bowl (on its own wire stand "for tossing" beautifully patinaed!!) The hand-painted earthenware, paired with silverware, a silver salver and condiment set; and to top it off, crystal wine glasses. It's a casual meal though, given that the Heinz ketchup bottle is actually on the table. What a setting. Love it! [Also note the wine bottles and caddy on the end table at right. -Dave] ProofThat there was color back in the black and white 1950s. Style notesThe roman brick on the house suggests a modern design, long and low, possibly with overhanging eaves. I hope we get to see it later in the "Linda" series. Also, the couple across the table illustrates that, unless you're on the same bowling team, it has never been a good idea for spouses to dress alike. Upscale crowdWine, suit & tie for an outdoor meal, real silverware, nice china instead of paper plates, well groomed all around, jazz would seem more likely than pop music. Give it about four more years and they'll be talking about how perfectly dreadful that Elvis guy is. MissingI had assumed that the photographer is the husband of the woman in the light green dress and that the young wine drinker in the plaid shirt is the unattached guest invited to dinner. By the way, I do appreciate the individual components listed by Deborah, but I’m not as enthusiastic about how it all comes together. I find the wineglasses especially clunky and under-sized. But then the US was not a heavy-duty wine-drinking nation back in the fifties. A+ for effort, though. [Those "wineglasses" are goblets. - Dave] That Red Plaid ShirtI had one just like it a few years after this photo was taken. It scared away most girls and all but the toughest dogs. Slay me now, indeed!Slay me now -- this is gorgeous. Atomic wire end tables... Absolutely! I was two years old then, but - even if my assessments are too rosy and not really true - I see these folks and envy their confidence, the lives they would have in the coming decade (1957 Chevy Nomads!!!), technological devleopments like stereo and color TV. And let me pretend the gent on the close end of the table was an amateur radio operator and was about to buy an E.F. Johnson single sideband transmitter and Viking Desktop Kilowatt!!! In Good HandsI believe the gentleman in the suit and tie is trying to sell them insurance. Missing persons.I see that there are two empty places -- one might be the photographer, so who is the odd one out? If it were two couples hosting a visitor, fine, but is it two women or a man and a woman who are away from the table? I'm guessing the man of the house has his back to us, his wife was sitting to his left, serving the wine and taking the photo, and the other missing person could be the woman on the right's husband, or the wife of the newly arrived guest who still has his travel suit on. [There are six people in this photo -- three men and three women, with one Missing Person. - Dave] Won't hurt a bitIs that a vaccination scar on her left arm? Dress codeI'm nostalgic for the days when men wore coats and ties even for informal gatherings. I've been doing it lately myself; I'm trying to start a revolution. It's not working. All that happens is that I get assailed with sarcastic comments. Comments from people who are wearing their pajamas in public, or who look like an unmade bed. RelationshipsI think we have in-laws and newlyweds. Red shirt guy is unmarried brother-in-law. Home is probably that of the photographer; unless he was a particularly obsessive camera-bug, he wouldn't have lugged the Leica along to a casual dinner party, but just went inside to grab it for the shot. Wine: What it is, how to use itThese people were not just on a patio but on the cusp of a trend. Ad from 1953. Click to embiggen. Three Couples and a SalesmanI am guessing that the "photographer is the husband of one of the two ladies on the right side of the table, probably the woman in the green dress. The woman hidden behind her is either her daughter or the husband or sister of the fellow in the red shirt. As someone mentioned earlier the odd man out in the suit and tie is probably a salesman, most likely selling insurance. Within ReachIt's a testament to the enduring power of midcentury style, or at least its resurgence in popularity, that very little in this 60-year-old photograph would be out of place in a contemporary design magazine--although the young man with the buzz cut is missing de rigueur wispy facial hair. The lowly Heinz bottle has earned its place as a kind of Platonic ideal. Another yarn.The missing person is a professor--of physics maybe?--who is taking the shot. The woman in the green dress is his wife. The man in the suit is a visiting foreign professor, escaped from Hungary maybe? The other four at the table are graduate students and their wives/fiancee's. The brick work and the maple/beech woods say this is a new modern subdivision in East Lansing Michigan. The professor and his wife were originally from New York City, he got his PhD at Columbia, and they continue to vacation on Cape Cod every summer. It all makes sense. Family tree and other thoughts, WatsonIt is funny that we're all trying to figure this group out. These are part of the "Linda Kodachromes" (So only Dave knows for sure) But I'm going to have at it anyway. Look back again at the little girl's birthday. She's related in looks particularly to the older woman in the green dress and the younger woman in blue denim. So I think that's mother and daughter/granddaughter (little baby girl). I think the woman in the green dress is the wife/mother of the house. She's also on the lounge in the picture with the baby (re: watch on wrist). The father would then be (age-wise) the man in the suit. Dinnertime in the summer, he'd be coming home from his city job just in time for an evening meal outside. I think his older son has his back to us (hair color, hairline, size). The other woman hidden from our view may be a mother-in-law or married to the son. I see a touch of lighter hair and it's frizzier. The two at the end may be siblings or friends, but not married (he's not wearing a ring, she's young) plus they have the same nose as the lady in green. The table setting speaks to some depth, time and money in the household. Modern artistic dishes, real silver from the '30s (family pieces or wedding gifts?) and the goblets are older as well. Two bottles of wine with dinner, which for some reason I keep thinking is fish. Perhaps the whites been drunk already and the red is a dessert wine. The whole setting speaks to an established style infused with modern. Now to the photographer. This person's place is the only one with a glass of water. Suggesting someone too young to drink. The photo also suggests someone who is not adept at photography at all. No one is ready for this shot, all are turned away. It's definitely a quick snap. Also, he/she is not that tall. One more thing: This is a rooftop "patio," a found space. It's up at least atop a first story (above a garage at the back of the building. See tree height). It's quite tight (table angle, position of photographer). The building's windows & "roman" brick style suggest an urban/city home environment. That's all I got. Will we ever know? Patio space, sunken rec room and trees down the hillMy guess is that it isn't rooftop space but a small patio against the back of the house in a small suburban backyard. The edge of the cement/concrete "floor" beyond the wine bottles has a few sprigs of grass and a sandy space between the concrete and the top of a retaining wall. On the retaining wall is a railing; but there is a break in the railing between Dad and The Daughter in Blue. Perhaps a walk-through to the yard or steps down to the yard? There's another sandy space in the yard beyond the railing then there seems to be a break off to a darker area. My guess is there's an embankment or depression or wooded hillside where the trees are rooted below the level of the patio. That might explain why they give the appearance of the patio being higher than it is. The trees are actually lower. Oh, and the windows are probably to a rec room or basement that is also lower than the patio level. Reminds me of my aunt & uncle's yard in Cincinnati near Ault Park. Mom doesn't seem to have touched her wine, nor has her bench mate to her right. And I found the juxtaposition of ketchup on the table with wine, silverware and decent china to be less than de rigueur. Ah, well. (Linda Kodachromes)
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