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Icecapade: 1921
... within two years. In 1915, while motoring from Pittsburgh headed for Washington, his car caught fire near Greensburg, Pa. and ... the Lincoln highway and other routes from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and return more than 100 times. Wikipedia Penrose's ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/11/2020 - 11:00am -

January 1921. Washington, D.C. "Penrose car, accident." Beside Senator Boies Penrose's car, casualties here include a mailbox, emergency call box and a lamppost. The tree survives with a dented trunk. View full size. Sharp rideI used to work in automotive and the last company that I worked for, before heading into my new field, was in automotive glass. Check out the windshield on this car. It was plate glass; no safety glass but just plain old window glass. Can you imagine what would happen to your face if you went through such an accident? Even in this photo, it looks as though the front glass just broke up on impact. Still very dangerous. Man --They sure don't make trees like they used to. Time to upgrade.If Senator Penrose insists on driving on the sidewalk, maybe he should look at the FWD from an earlier photo. Fatal crash?I noticed that this crash was not listed on his Wikipedia entry, so I added it and cited this photo as a reference. I also noticed that he died in 1921. If this photo is circa 1920, perhaps this crash was fatal. [This crash had nothing to do with his death, which came from pneumonia after a year or so of declining health. - Dave] It's a wonderful lifeGeorge Bailey, you been drinking? Got Mail?That has to be the biggest mailbox in town. He must have been admiring it when he crashed into it Early ExcuseI understand the USPS is still using this crash as an excuse for undelivered mail. OuchYou can see, quite clearly, that car windshields did not have safety glass in those days. Was it the Senator's head that broke the windshield? Accident ProneCan't find any info on this specific crash but Penrose had a history of automotive mishaps. Washington Post, Aug 22, 1917 Penrose in Peril When Auto Blazes Senator and Friends Leap from Car to Escape Death. Senator Boies Penrose returned to Washington from Philadelphia yesterday after a perilous experience near Baltimore, when the senator and two friends were compelled to leap from a blazing automobile. The car is believed to have taken fire from a lighted cigar which had been tossed from a passing car and which lodged in the top, which was down. IN an instant the car was ablaze in the rear and directly over the gasoline tank. The senator and his friends escaped injury owing to prompt action by the chauffeur, who brought into play and extinguisher and put out the blaze. The body of the car was badly scorched and the top entirely destroyed. This is he second experience of this kind Senator Penrose has encountered within two years. In 1915, while motoring from Pittsburgh headed for Washington, his car caught fire near Greensburg, Pa. and became a total wreck, the senator and his party having a narrow escape from the flames. A feature of the campaign of 1914 in Pennsylvania, when Senator Penrose was a candidate for reelection to the Senate, was his large red touring car, which became well known throughout the state, as it took him into nearly every country. The senator is considered the most enthusiastic motorist in the Senate. In the last three years he has crossed Pennsylvania along the Lincoln highway and other routes from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and return more than 100 times. WikipediaPenrose's Wikipedia page has already been updated to add a link to this picture and note the possibility that the crash may have been related to his death the following year. [The senator's death came from pneumonia after years of declining health. - Dave] Text messagingIs it possible the Senator was text messaging with the window open that caused him to have the accident and while awaiting EMS caught pneumonia ? Winton SixAccording to the following delightful story in Boies Penrose, Symbol of an Era, by Robert Douglas Bowden (1937), Penrose's auto was a Winton Six painted "screaming red." The senator's driver was one Walter Mancer. Colorize this Winton Six, please!Shorpyite stanton_square's post, with the embedded book preview on the life of Boies Penrose, details on page 209 that the color of Mr. Penrose's touring car was "screaming red" with a bright red leather upholstery. Could someone please colorize this photo to show the bent automobile in all its red glory, and post it to Shorpy for all to see. When I zoomed-in to the radiator emblem on the wrecked auto, it does seem to be a Winton Six medallion. Attached below is a photo of a Winton Six radiator emblem that I found on the internet. Multiple dangersIt's not just the lack of seat belts and the non-safety glass (though those alone were good enough to kill). The steering column in those days was essentially a harpoon, and any head-on collision was likely to spear the driver. Red WreckA red Winton Six for Fellow Oakie. Re: Sharp RideIn 1923 when my mother was 3, she was in a car accident in the D.C. area that put her through the windshield. The left side of her face was cut from temple to lip. It must have been pretty bad because she said the hospital doctors weren't going to do any repairs. However one doctor took on the task and saved her life. This photo has answered questions I have had for so long. Quote"I believe in the division of labor. You send us to Congress; we pass laws under which you make money...and out of your profits, you further contribute to our campaign funds to send us back again to pass more laws to enable you to make more money." -- Senator Boies Penrose (R-Pa.), 1896, citing the relationship between his politics and big business. An honest politician! Not Necessarily RedThe circa 1920 Winton shown in the photograph is not necessarily painted red. Page 209 of Bowden's book is mentioning events from 1913 or 1914. The car Senator Penrose purchased back then was red. This car, built around 1920, is not the same one as described in the book. Both cars are Winton Sixes. Senator:"Ugh, thanks God I am not some James Dean." (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Natl Photo)
Factory Town: 1908
... odour to it. Batter up! What a terrific photo of a Pittsburgh steel mill. Even in the early 1980s mill neighborhoods looked like ... train with my uncle to his night job in the railyards in Pittsburgh. We would pass through Braddock. It was a great adventure for an 8 ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 10:47am -

Braddock, Pennsylvania, circa 1908. "Edgar Thomson Works, Carnegie Steel Co." Part of a ginormous seven-section panorama of smoke-belching, throbbing industry. 8x10 dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Can anyone identifyThe large U-shaped items in front of the little brick building on the left? They look like giant horseshoe magnets, could they be cradles for the molten steel pouring vats (retorts?)? Quite a number of them around. Game of scrubLooks like maybe two games going of the old game of scrub which was baseball played with smaller numbers of players. We played it everyday on the playground at school during recess and lunch breaks. LidsThe two smokestacks in the middle left of the picture have "flappers" on top of them -- like you might see on a tractor or bulldozer exhaust. I've never seen one on a large smokestack before, although these seem to be equipped with pull-down wires. Now I knowI always wondered where they made the letter U. Will we get a chanceto see the full panoramic picture on Shorpy? [Behold! - Dave] Thank you, Dave !! The AlternativeYes, thriving active factory towns can be a bit ugly. But when the factories shut down they get even uglier. The PastJobs. WashdayI bet the laundry has a nice anthracite odour to it. Batter up!What a terrific photo of a Pittsburgh steel mill. Even in the early 1980s mill neighborhoods looked like this, except for the trolley and the lack of business. I always enjoy finding baseball games in Shorpy photos; this one looks like it was played at noon. Vantage point todayIronically, it seems to have been taken from what is today "Grand View Golf Club." View Vantage Point on Braddock Steel Mill in a larger map Hardy folks.A ball game in progress and some of the houses have open windows, even tho there's what looks like snow on the ground. Could it be ashes from the furnaces? PanoramaClick here for a quick and dirty pano of these. Hover over the left side of the image to get a menu to download the full size image. [Most impressive! Click image below for full size. Once it downloads, click a second time. - Dave] Mill stands The U shaped objects in the lower left are mill stands. Two face each other and hold work rolls, which shape the steel into its final form. There are a lot of pieces missing which would make up a mill stand. Empty Land NowWhile trees obstruct the current street view in google maps, you can clearly see, from a top down perspective, the location of these pictures in Braddock, PA. Amazing that most of the land is now barren although a steel mill still exists within a much smaller footprint. Even the wonderful steel bridge is now defunct. Pano 2I stitched the three right-side images using Panorama Factory: The warping is due to artifacts of the stitching. There wasn't enough overlap to stitch the left image. Passing ThroughMy aunt and uncle lived in a house much like these in a Dawson, small town down the tracks from here. Had an indoor one-holer in the basement, the only water was a pump at the kitchen sink. The main line of the B&O went right through the middle of town and about 50 feet from their house. In the 1940s we would often stay there between our moves for my dad's construction jobs and I would ride the train with my uncle to his night job in the railyards in Pittsburgh. We would pass through Braddock. It was a great adventure for an 8 year old. U CluesHaving worked at a sister plant of this (Homestead District Works) at a summer job while in college in 1965, I believe the U shaped items may be ingot molds. The molten steel was poured in the top, and as soon as the metal solidified (still red hot) the mold was pulled off by a crane by grabbing the "ears" near the top of the mold. I suspect that the horizontal piece at the bottom of the mold was simply a device to steady two adjacent molds while they were moved about the mill by a locomotive. By the 1960's the ingot molds stood on their own and there no longer was a horizontal piece at the bottom. This is an amazing photo, taken about 4 to 5 miles from where I was raised. Many Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane, Shorpy! This Coke is for YouI hate to disappoint Anonymous Tipster, but there isn't a sniff of anthracite odour on laundry or anything else in this picture. I grew up near here in the heady aroma of metallurgical coke. That's coke made from the beautiful bituminous coal that underlay most of western Pennsylvania. The railroad cars with the slatted sides on the nearest track look like open-top cattle cars, but they are empty coke cars. At this time, the best of the best coking coal came from nearby Connellsville. When asked how we could stand the constant smoky smell, natives would say: "Smells like money to me." My dad grew up in BraddockMy dad grew up in Braddock in the 1920's. I remember a lot of his stories about how poor everyone was, but that the neighborhood helped each other. It's interesting to see the photo of this era. Thanks, Shorpy (The Gallery, DPC, Factories, Railroads)
Wilmerding, O Wilmerding: 1905
... Brake Co. picture was taken from! The viaduct that the Pittsburgh Railways streetcar line once ran on. You can see one of the B&O ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 12:31pm -

Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, circa 1905. "Plant of the Westinghouse Air Brake Co." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Three Cheers for "Wilmerding"Thanks to Jano and Dave for recognizing that America is hardly bereft of good manufacturing jobs today, in spite of the rough economy! We should indeed celebrate those hard working blue collar workers. And shame on GMH for calling Wilmerding an "ugly" name! Without doing any research I am sure the town was named in great honor of a founder or "first father" of the town. And I'm sure those who carry the family name Wilmerding today are quite proud of it and are pleased to know there is a town named "for them". Wilmerding sounds like it was probably was carried across the pond with European immigrants... good, strong, old-school Germanic stock. It reminds me of the many Germanic names I heard as a boy visiting Cincinnati with my family. So three cheers for Wilmerding! Don't know whyBut the word embiggen pleases me no end. It has a nice Saxon ring to it, perhaps. Wilmerding is rather nice, as well, but it doesn't activate the pleasure centers in quite the same fashion. Wabtec CorpAs noted in the previous post, the factory is still there. Westinghouse Air Brake has morphed into something called Wabtec. View Larger Map Beauty is in the Ear of the Beholder?How can such a beautiful little town have such an ugly sounding name? (No offense to any persons who might bear that name and frequent Shorpy.) I wonder if life there was as beautiful as we imagine it 100 years later? If I could time travel, Wilmerding certainly seems a worthy place to visit. Beautiful buildingsThis would make a great jigsaw puzzle. Someone CaredSomeone cared enough to preserve these adorable houses. Current viewIs there a current - "today"- view of this same vantage point? The detail these old cameras captured is quite amazing. Good Paying JobsWhen the US had men and women working hard at good paying manufacturing jobs, people could afford to live like decent human beings. Today, the US hardly builds anything anymore, ergo poverty, ignorance, crime, dissolution of the family, and eventually the disintegration of society. All so a relative few offshore robber barons can get fabulously rich draining the accumulated wealth of the US. Very nice. ["Hardly builds anything anymore"? The United States is still the world's largest manufacturer. China, with four times the population, is a close second. The factory in our photo still exists, btw. The average person in the United States today enjoys living conditions vastly better than those of most people in 1905. The $15 trillion economy of the United States is, by far, still the world's largest. - Dave] Wilmerdinglooks like a bustling little community. Love that this photo was taken during the height of activity. Schloss WestinghouseDo you have any photos of the front side of the George Westinghouse Castle (that big pile with the clock tower)? [Click to embiggen. - Dave] It's MondayThe traditional laundry day. Every clothsline you can see is loaded! Re: Good Paying JobsThanks, Dave. I appreciate your succinct response regarding the manufacturing status and standard of living in the U.S. The woeful lack of understanding of basic economics and industrial history is evident in so many conversations I have, and not exclusively with those younger than my 50 years. When commenting on this site, I am more inclined to (attempts at) humor but I am also tremendously moved by the images of industrial settings that affirm how far we have come in terms of working conditions, yet the celebrate ingenuity, creativity, drive and work ethic of our forebears. I wish more people would look around to see that kind of vision and vigor today, and stop damning industry, whether soft or heavy, as a whole for the sins of a relative few. And, sorry to disagree with another commenter but "Wilmerding" has a certain ring to it! Marguerite Avenue & Frank St Clock TowerPresent day view of the clock tower on the far right of the photo. Amazing. View Larger Map Now we know!Now we know where the previouse Westinghouse Air Brake Co. picture was taken from! The viaduct that the Pittsburgh Railways streetcar line once ran on. You can see one of the B&O gondola cars and part of the WABCO house car in this photo as well. It kind of looks like a company town with all the townhouse style housing. And by-the-way I like the sound of "Wilmerding" after pouring poring through so many ancient air brake catalogs, parts lists and manuals. "Wilmerding" the name known around the world! Wilmerding, the VideoExploringI Love this picture - makes me wish I could go back and wander the streets exploring! Such a pretty looking city, even if it's an industrial one! Air Brake AvenueThat first row of houses in the distance is on Air Brake Avenue. Pretty girls all in a rowAs seen in the video, pretty girls worked for Westinghouse, and doing mechanical work. I thought they would be doing clerical chores. The soundtrack is very imaginative. I hear the squeal of Westinghouse air brakes and steel wheels on rails. Not to be overlookedWe would be remiss not to take note of the early beginnings of the "traveling American carnival" as seen in the photo center. The traveling carnival as we know it was but 12 years young in 1905 when there were 46 recorded traveling carnivals. These early shows traveled mostly by rail in unmarked box cars. Visible by the railroad tracks is the merry-go-round or "flying jenny" which was the heart of all carnivals at the time. It is possibly a Gustav Dentzel Philadelphia Toboggan Co. "Philadelphia Style Carousel" made in Germantown, PA. The side curtains are yet down but one set of wooden horses can be seen under the one rolled flap. There are at least visible four show tents set up on the street following the outline of the town square. The James E. Strates Shows is the only remaining railroad carnival today with all others traveling by truck. Wilmerding, and Wabco vs. WabtecWhen George Westinghouse wanted to relocate his factories to a new, larger site in the mid-1880s, he purchased land in the area of a new Pennsylvania Railroad "flagstop" that had already been named "Wilmerding" for Joanna Wilmerding Bruce Negley, the wife of one of the original landowners (I believe her mother's maiden name was Wilmerding). I doubt whether much thought was given to how it sounded, provided it sounded distinctive. Westinghouse Air Brake has not "morphed into something called Wabtec". WABCO was simply the initials of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, but this trademark was retained by American Standard when WAB became independent again in 1990; to avoid paying a license fee to AmStand, the company's name was changed slightly, to Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation, abbreviated Wabtec. The company's headquarters is still located in Wilmerding, although some of the manufacturing has been moved to other sites (in the USA, not overseas). Wikmerding is still a "bustling little place", and a very pretty one; it has not changed hugely from the way it is shown in the photo, and visitors are welcomed at the "Castle", where they can visit the Westinghouse Valley Museum, and get a guided tour of the building also. Check www.wilmerdingrenewed.org/ for details. You Can Be Sure if It's WestinghouseIt's amazing how quickly America has forgotten the importance of some of its most illustrious inventors and corporate manufacturing titans. Men like George Westinghouse affected so much of our life and times -- his air brakes began powerfully slowing and stopping trains as early as the end of the 1860s in an era when the famed "Golden Spike" was driven at Promontory Summit. Brand new passenger cars shipped over the Union and Central Pacific railroads the following month came fitted with the latest Westinghouse Air Brakes. The Golden Spike alone was equal to the Wright Brothers' flight in terms of how it amazed the general public and sparked revolutions in transportation and commerce. The there's George Westinghouse the electric systems entrepreneur. We can thank him and his technicians (and lawyers, like it or not) for securing many patents on extremely strong and fast electrical motors so that fantastic wonders like high-rise "skyscrapers" fitted with elevators (powered by Westinghouse cable-winding motors!) could be put up in cities all across North America if not the world. Westinghouse motors also powered a wide array of electric streetcars, locomotives and simpler small things like electric cooling fans and bedside alarm clocks. How about we all join hands and summon the spirits of James Burke ("Connections") and maybe even ol' George Westinghouse? 3 Cheers for ShorpyA wonderful photograph and oh so much you could muse about. But just as wonderful is the many informative comments with added media as well as the casual reflections. I'm so glad I stumbled across this gem of a photo blog. Thank you Dave. My family history in WilmerdingMy Grandfather William Pugsley was the groundskeeper/gardener for the WABCO. He emigrated from England in 1903 and was hired by the company. In an enlarged photo you can see the house and greenhouse the family was given for their use. It is on the lower side of the hill just above the viaduct crossing to the town which went by the factory and over the railroad . There were eventually 8 children and their families who enjoyed reunions at this house. William was active in local politics as well and lived in the house until his death in 1954. When we children arrived at the reunion the first thing we did was climb the hill to the summit. the hill, Maple avenue, and all the development was removed for a freeway in the 70's I believe .Many happy memories of Wilmerding. Depression-Era WilmerdingMy mother was born and raised in Wilmerding. One of her girlhood memories of the Depression was out-of-work men going door to door looking for odd jobs to earn a few pennies for a meal. She recalled that her mother never turned anyone away; there was always a plate of food for anyone who asked. She said her parents were very frugal, and because of that they never went hungry and still had enough to share. Mother also recalled that government officials came to the high school to recruit graduating seniors into various government jobs that would support the war effort. Graduating in June 1944, mother signed up, and three weeks later was whisked away by train to Washington D.C. where she was placed as a secretary in the Pentagon. A Prized PossessionWilmerding is a fascinating town with an amazing history. The country's first planned community it did not take long to become a turn of the century hub for the railroad. I am the proud owner of the first photo of the town taken by the Wilmerding Development Company before a person or car or animal had stepped on its street. (The Gallery, DPC, Factories, Railroads)
Homestead Steel Works: 1910
... permitting communications beyond line-of-sight from Pittsburgh (and other big steel towns). The idea was quickly disproven. A ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/28/2012 - 4:34pm -

Homestead, Pennsylvania, circa 1910. "Homestead Steel Works, Carnegie Steel Co." Lots of interesting details in this humongous panorama made from four 8x10 inch glass negatives. Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Ladies and GentlemenWe now introduce you to Pennsylvania's newest subdivision "Homestead Hills" with a breathtaking view of the steelworks and other related industries, no smoking please. Once a mighty millAnd now nothing more than a shopping mall. Twelve of the old brick smokestacks have been preserved though. It's a very different viewfrom my window today, but some of the stacks still remain and Edgar Thompson burns bright and sends up smoke signals from down the way. Glad to be able to look back, but my lungs and eyes are happy we've moved on. And YES! This is one for the wallI'll be ordering my copy soon. I believe that's East 10th streetThe houses haven't changed much. And I think that's just swell. Give me a weekto decipher all that is going on in this huge image. From the grocery wagon, and the guy reading the newspaper on his front porch, to the brave souls on the factory's shed roof, applying some sort of paint or sealant to it. I wonder if anything from this image is left after 102 years? A hundred years from HomesteadMy uncle was born in Homestead in 1907 and was buried on what would have been his 101st birthday. Thank you for posting this wonderful picture of his old home town, pictures of which I had never seen before. Simply amazing to see Homestead as it appeared when my uncle was barely 3 years old. The State of the Artin 1910 theorized that heavy smoke from steel plants might have caused refraction of longwave radio signals along the earth's surface, permitting communications beyond line-of-sight from Pittsburgh (and other big steel towns). The idea was quickly disproven. A perfect summer dayto hang the laundry on the clothesline and take a ride on an open air "toastrack" trolley car (far right). And then there is the imageof home town America -- back in the day. I wonder which office was Uncle Chuck's?One of my mother's ancestors was married to Charles Schwab (no connection with the present day C. Schwab) who, at age 35, became the president of Carnegie Steel in 1897. In 1901 he was involved in the sale of Carnegie to a bunch of NYC moneymen including J.P. Morgan, and in turn Schwab became the president of U.S. Steel, the corporation formed from the sale. Later he headed Bethlehem Steel. Worth at one time $500 million to $800 million in today's dollars, dear old Uncle Chuck managed to die broke, his Bethlehem Steel stock value tanking in the Great Depression. In the 1980s when BethSteel was sold to avoid bankrupcy, 19 heirs each pocketed $40 million. I've been meaning to ask my Mom if she was one of them. N, HO, or O?This would make an AWESOME model railroad! Stacks!I stopped counting at 290. Model TrainsI think this would make a really cool blueprint for a model train set! It would take years to build of course. Wonder what that person behind that shade in the near left house was doing? Still remainingThe octagon based water tank in the middle upper portion of the photo remains as well as the small building just to the left of the tank. Remaining at least in foot print is the large building to the right of the water tank though it has been largely modified. Fireless engineTo the right of the crooked telephone pole can be seen a fireless steam engine working the plant. These where common industrial engines, being charged from a stationary boiler. Wouldn't want the smoke and cinders of a conventional engine to dirty the place up. Re: Fireless EngineIt wasn't a question of dirtying up things with smoke and cinders of course, although that was why they were frequently used around food production factories. The other benefit is that it doesn't produce sparks or cinders that could ignite flammable materials, for example coke which was used in the steel making process. Much still remainsIf you stroll on over to Google street maps and browse the area between Ravine Street and Munn Street on Homestead's east end, you'll find many buildings clearly recognizable from the far right corner of this fantastic panorama. Model train set, huh?Check this out! http://www.tacoma-trains.com/bobspage.htm Re Model Train set, huh?And his wife wonders why the lawn never gets mowed. Modern Day GPSBased on the photo here are the modern day coordinates: 40.404657,-79.917816 - Smoke Stacks (not photographed in the original photo as it is to far west) now the mall area 40.412869,-79.896812 - Water Tower 40.414367,-79.897579 - Steel bridge seen in background crossing river to right 40.407933,-79.901839 - Approximately where the photo must have been taken from based on houses, distance to mill, distance to water tower, and distance to river. 40.412545,-79.899542 - Where the over-head framework for loading steel use to be. There is zero trace of anything ever having been here now. 40.408946,-79.90495 - Where the RR use to curve into / towards town. Now 8th Avenue. Homestead 1910My gt, gt aunty, Bridget Monaghan, after leaving Ireland, and living for a while in the English iron/steel towns of Tow Law, and Consett, both in Co Durham, moved to Homestead. She married a Mr Mulvihille and appears on the US census in 1910 as Bridget Mulvihill, a boarding housekeeper at 449 Fifth Avenue, Homestead, Allegheny Co. Pennsylvania, her boarders were Irish steel workers. Margaret Byington's book, Homestead, Households of a Milltown (1909) can be viewed at https://archive.org/details/pittsburghsurvey04kelluoft It contains some interesting photos and text (Panoramas, DPC, Factories, Railroads)
Aliquippa: 1941
... 10 years, but I doubt it's changed much. The city of Pittsburgh, on the other hand, isn't the pollution-filled abandoned hole it was ... home I grew up in Aliquippa. When I saw you posting the Pittsburgh and Beaver Falls photos I wondered if you would get to the ones Jack ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/05/2012 - 6:06pm -

January 1941. "Street in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania." Medium format safety negative by Jack Delano. Office of War Information. View full size. Times Have ChangedAliquippa is the location of the long-closed Jones and Laughlin Steel Company -- presumably seen in the background. On a day off in 1987 I drove through the town and was taken by the sad state of affairs with many vacant homes, large trees growing along the elevated craneways in the steelyard and the once-proud Carnegie Library closed. Ups and DownsThose hills have to be great for sleds and torture for drivers. Reminds me of "The Deer Hunter"The streets in these industrial sooty towns in Pennsylvania are very reminiscent of the neighborhoods depicted in that unforgettable movie. I have not been to "Pennsy" since the middle of WW2, but assume it must be more modern and hopefully a lot less dreary today. Anyone? Anyone? Thank you Shorpy for posting these pictures, they are eye-openers for sure. ReptilianWhat kind of siding is on that darkish building? I've never seen it before. [Looks like asphalt or asbestos shingles. - Dave] Pennsyl...eh, whateverStill depressing. Less drearyI'm a Pennsylvania native, and my state never looked that dreary to me. Then again, I came from the ridge-and-valley part of the state, where agriculture and lumber were the top industries, so I never saw these old coal and steel towns. AliquippaAliquippa is still pretty dreary and abandoned. I haven't been there for about 5 or 10 years, but I doubt it's changed much. The city of Pittsburgh, on the other hand, isn't the pollution-filled abandoned hole it was in the 70s and 80s. I grew up there in the 80s, and saw it go through the transformation from a depressed, dirty, abandoned town to a gorgeous city with a great arts center. Older than Yoda, you should certainly go visit if you can and see the gorgeous city it's become! And yeah, the hills are pretty terrifying. On snow days, we used to go sled riding down some huge hills with pretty steep inclines (I lived in a neighborhood with little traffic.) Good times! Beautiful ShotSay what you may, but this shot catches the quiet dignity of people capturing the best of what they have. Clean with apparently well maintained homes, they took what they had and tried to elevate it to a better level. Bless them. Very evocative photoWhat an interesting picture! It almost looks like the person walking down the street is from a more recent time (no fedora, plus his jacket looks like an olive-drab military jacket that people have been wearing for the last 30 or 40 years). It could be Robert De Niro after he just got back from 'Nam! Truth and BeautyJack Delano was one of the great unsung heroes of photography in the 1930s and '40s. His compositions were impeccable and his images seduced you into the "there" that was there. This is not a depressing photograph. Home sweet homeI grew up in Aliquippa. When I saw you posting the Pittsburgh and Beaver Falls photos I wondered if you would get to the ones Jack Delano took in Aliquippa. (Aliquippa is a short distance down the Ohio river from Beaver Falls and almost directly across the river from Ambridge, which you've shown in earlier pictures.) I'm pretty sure this is somewhere on Superior Avenue on the hill above downtown. The houses in the middle distance are a neighborhood called Logstown. Regarding the earlier comment, that is indeed the Jones & Laughlin mill, which closed in about 1986. But Aliquippa never had a Carnegie library. B.F. Jones Memorial Library is on Franklin Avenue and still very much open. This view probably looks much the same today except that the mill is completely gone, nothing but dirt. Dreary is as Dreary SeesSay what you will about the so-called dreariness of these photos of the old steel mill towns along the PA rivers, you'll never see the likes of them again in this country again. Where will we get our steel if we ever need it now? My Pastor was born and raised in Aliquippa and still follows his instincts back to his old home during the Holidays. Good for him! [We'd get our steel here. The United States is the world's No. 3 producer. The industry has shifted from Pennsylvania to the Great Lakes states. - Dave] Henry Mancini, Aliquippa nativeIn January 1941 Henry Mancini was just months away from graduating from Aliquippa High School (his dad worked in the steel mills there)--and he eventually went on to the Juilliard School and then quite a musical career. Potential Hot Rods!Look at all that potential Hot Rod Material. Yeah with 350 or 454 Chevy High Performance with 350 Turbo Automatic. Lowered and customized, nice paint job, 21 inch wheels. If only we can go back into time and bring them forward before rust got to them. Winter is dreary everywhereI lived in a nearby town, Beaver, for a couple of years. This scene probably wouldn't look very different today. The landscape is always dreary on those gray winter days, no matter where you live. Rough sleddingSledding was great until the ash trucks spread ashes all over our sledding streets. But then Dad could drive all the way home. AliquippaI live a few miles from where this picture was taken. Aside from the belching steel mill in the background that used the Ohio River as a sewer, it's still pretty much the same. Streets in my HometownThis is my home town where I was born and raised. Winters looked like this then and now. This street no longer existsThis street is Irons Hill Road (Iron Street) in the Logstown area of Aliquippa. People in the area will know the area as the "Baker Street" area. If you look at Google Maps, this street ran up a hill above Baker street. The buildings on the street in this picture were basically abandoned by the early 1980's and they were torn down. The only homes left in the area today are below on Baker Street. The demolition really began when the Highway (route 51) was widened into a four-lane highway in the 1960s. Lots of hard-working, first generation European immigrants, many blacks who moved from the South, and other hard working people lived in this neighborhood and worked in the massive Jones & Laughlin Steel mill you can see in the distance. My mother grew up in this neighborhood in the 30s and 40s (and lived on Iron Street). She described it as a safe place where doors were unlocked and people looked out for each other and their children. When we drove through in the 1980s and she saw what it looked like, she was so sad! Great picture of a past time and place! (The Gallery, Factories, Jack Delano)
Duluth Incline Railway: 1905
... of the company can be found here . Funiculars Pittsburgh has two funicular railways that are in operation and heavily used. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/03/2018 - 2:20pm -

Circa 1905. "Minnesota Point from Incline Railway, Duluth." Our third look this week at the Zenith City. Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size. Gravity: Duluth's frienemyBeautiful photo and great choice, Dave. Would there happen to be any side shots of the car? Too much to hope for, I suppose. [Fraid not. - Dave] UpdateWe need an update of these wonderful pictures to see how things have changed. Does the Incline Railway still exist? If not, when did it stop operations. Great shot. Is Detroit Publishing Co. still around or have they been absorbed by someone else? DuluthLike many good movies these pictures sent me googling to learn what I could about this place.. Duluth I had never heard of.. more millionaires per capita than any other city in the world. Largest Finnish population outside of Finland.. a port larger than New York.. the place has quite a history. Like so many American cities it has suffered a precipitous decline due to the decline of our manufacturing base, suburbanization, etc. Nowhere but ShorpyOnce again, Shorpy makes me gasp. Nowhere else would I see such a spectacularly unexpected viewpoint from such an out-of-the-way time and place. The full view has something dreamlike in its details: the figures on the bridge near the railway car, the angles and brilliant white of the house on the right, the rough slabs of rock and the conic rooftop beyond them, the blurred buildings and shipping in the distance... I am almost lost for words (but not quite, as you see). You look familiar.Two people wearing hats peering over the top of the funicular. On the right between the poles. Same as the Radio School building. Something fishy here. Superior Street to Skyline DriveA Duluth Public Library page has two photos and some commentary. It dates the railway from 1891 to 1939. The "Incline" ran uphill from Superior Street at 7th Avenue W. to Skyline Drive. Two sets of tracks were elevated on concrete footings. The cars were pulled by a steam engine at the top. Hi Def imageThanks to the HiDef image - What I thought was birds on a pile of wood in front of the house at the right side of the Railway turned out to be a man either holding a long stick or resting his hand on a rail while a woman and child are exploring the slope near the rocks. The two persons between the crooked poles just about to walk under the railway now, because of the hats, look like ladies on thier way to ride to rail instead of a couple of men out for a stroll. Thank you for the pictures and the opportunity for us to get acquainted with our history and heritage. Duluth SkyrideThere are some other photos that show two cars, and trolley wire over both tracks, and very narrow stations between the tracks. Click to enlarge. so apparently the incline's operation changed over time. Possibly this was before or after the big 1901 fire that destroyed the summit pavilion and sent the flaming car flying down the incline. Another photo from the Duluth Transit site, showing trolley wire on both tracks: The old postcard posted recently shows the single-car operation, with the station platforms bridging the counterbalance car track. One wonders why the trolley wire, since the cable was apparently driven by the head house. In some photos, the poles are down. I suspect the trolley wire just ran the car lighting. The right side of the tracksCan't help but note that the dwellings on the right seem in a tad bit better condition than those on the left. The house in the right foreground, in particular, seems to have a fresh coat of paint and seems to be in much better repair than its counterpart immediately across the tracks. Could also be because it's newer construction, though. Also take note of the utility poles. This was before the advent of the chainsaw, when trees were felled by sturdy men with axes. The poles all sport the telltale wedge-shaped tips made by the blade of an axe. I love this site! Superior ViewWhat I like so much about this picture is the sense of distance. The Incline Railway sets the tone, of course, with its straight lines heading away down the hill. The foreground, with the geometrical black and white shadowing, and the car with the figures, are in clear focus. Look down the line to the docks in the middle distance and you can see the distance haze, with the muted greys. Further off, past the spit of land, the far shore is barely visible at all. Wonderful. CounterbalanceA funicular usually has two passenger cars, cabled together - one goes up when the other goes down. This one just has a dummy car on the left, low enough to fit under the pedestrian bridges. Double the wait times, half the capacity. Detroit PublishingThe company went into receivership around the late 1920s and never recovered. An excellent history of the company can be found here. FunicularsPittsburgh has two funicular railways that are in operation and heavily used. The other well-known funicular is Angel's Flight in downtown Los Angeles, which has been out of service for several years but may reopen at some point. Look What I SawRegarding the comment on the utility poles not having flatly sawn ends (as if by a chainsaw): human-powered saws have existed for hundreds of years. These particular poles were shaped with pointed ends (probably by an ax) so that they would shed snow and rain and therefore not deteriorate as quickly. [There were of course also the circular and band saws found in sawmills powered by water, steam or electricity. - Dave] Side View hereSide view of the incline car from AmityCreek.com Lone sailorIn the midst of all this, see the lone sailboat out in the harbour? If he only knew he'd been caught on camera and seen by us. 7th Avenue West InclineAfter the 1901 powerhouse fire and resulting crash, the incline railway was rebuilt with only one car between 1902 and 1911. More here. Grandma's House!From 1915 to 1960 the white house to the right belonged to my grandmother Clara Oleson Landstrom Magnuson. She was from Sweden and had three boys who all grew up in Duluth. The house is still there, but in horrible shape. My houseThe white house was my home from 1961 to 1972. My 5 children were born there and went to Emerson school; now it's apartments. We were married at St. Peter's church, now closed. Do not live in Duluth anymore but still make a trip up there to visit family. (The Gallery, DPC, Duluth, Railroads)
Rear Window: 1938
July 1938. "Slums in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the ... From the looks of this, it was probably taken somewhere in Pittsburgh Hill district. Handy gadget I like the multi-arm clothes ... seem to be missing a few treads. Useta live… in Pittsburgh. Funny thing is that although there's a Hill District alright, in ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/03/2012 - 1:29pm -

July 1938. "Slums in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Get away from that hole!The boys seem to be milling about waiting for their friend Vinny to come out of the hole in the ground; what is that, a foundation for an old outhouse, now a garbage heap? The HillFrom the looks of this, it was probably taken somewhere in Pittsburgh Hill district. Handy gadgetI like the multi-arm clothes dryer -- energy efficient I'd say. Room With a ViewLooks like a meal on the table in the second floor window on the right. The two boys in clean denim overalls and white shirts look like twins. The other two, both in rumpled, soiled clothes, have their breakfast "to go" as it appears they have baguettes or rolls to nosh on. They must all be good jumpers to have managed to get past the missing steps without serious injuries. I'm guessing they have probably just seen a rat scamper by and slip down into that hole. A childhood friend of mine lived in a similar neighborhood in Connecticut and yes, even Ct. had such places. [But it was the West Side that had rumbled clothes. -Dave] Okay smarty pants, I corrected it. First step is a doozyThe stairs seem to be missing a few treads. Useta live…in Pittsburgh. Funny thing is that although there's a Hill District alright, in Pittsburgh, EVERYwhere is the hill district! I Say It's Derry MaineAny fan of Stephen King can see that this is the start of a classic King tale. Four young boys, 2 well dressed and 2 somewhat unkempt, and a hole in the ground are all the master needs to spin a tale. Surely they just heard a low rumbling sound just after they saw an alien creature disappear down the hole. Wasn't this the alley where Jim Kelly was last seen during a rare December tornado in New England? There is another rumor that if one goes down the hole he goes back in time to a year before Abraham Lincoln's assassination. (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Kids, Pittsburgh)
Angels Alfresco: 1910
... grandmother had stories... She was in nurse's training (Pittsburgh Passavant Hospital) in the '20s and told us some of her stories ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/05/2012 - 1:12pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1910. "Portrait of nurses on lawn." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size. Armed and DangerousThe two "nurses" on the left have sizeable steel scissors holstered in their waistbands. That would send me home to recuperate. Evil AngelsThey all look like they can't wait to get their hands on a patient. And I don't mean in a healing sort of way. Given some of those "smiles"/snarls...I'd be VERY motivated to get well quickly... :) The photographer's instructions:Look away from the camera, and think of sour lemons. Frost McFrostyI wouldn't want any one among them to change my bedpan... Her Eyes Are TellingThe leftmost nurse's eyes tell me that she either has a thing going with the photographer or she plans to soon have a thing going with the photographer. I wonder how it worked out? Comfortable Shoes and Comfortable Uniforms...were definitely not the order of the day!! Also, love the hats on the ladies on the balcony with tons of fake fruit on them. Happy bunch.The photographer must have said something not to their liking. Like a really bad joke. That one lady on the far right/middle row is giving a look that could kill. One of the weirder photos I've seen on the site. what do we think of matron?oh go on....just a little smile? UniformsI miss uniforms in the hospital. Uniforms made the nurses easily identifiable from the orderlies or doctors. Today everyone is in scrubs. Whether you are a veterinary tech, dental hygienist or brain surgeon you're in scrubs. The nurses, I believe, were far more professional than they are in scrubs today. Even this stern bunch prove my point. Boxing NursesLooks like the hospital's Nurses Boxing Team to me. Momma said..if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all. Nice uniforms. Garfield Memorial HospitalThis is on the lawn of Garfield Memorial Hospital, which was demolished in 1960, to be replaced by an elementary school and high-rise apartments. Florence NightingmareI guess the pretty girls got to be teachers or something. Oh so DIRTY!By the looks on their faces, I bet they are loath to be in such fresh, clean and starched uniforms only to be told to sit on the dirt and grass. How unsanitary! QuestionIs this is what we're gonna get when National Health Care comes in? More professional nowIn 1910, in fact up until the fifties, nurses were basically handmaidens to doctors. Nurses made beds, changed bedpans, and did all of the other dirty work in the hospital. Few had college degrees; you became a nurse after working for room and board in a training hospital for several years. The status of nurses was very low. Now, almost every nurse has a college degree. Nurses actually do most of the procedures (after receiving orders from the doctors), and with standing orders, advanced practice nurses can operate pretty independently doing things that only doctors used to do. Scrubs are a lot more practical than those stupid uniforms. Nurses are a lot more professional now, and have a lot higher status than back then. By the way, the outcomes are a lot better now. I'd much rather be someone in scrubs helping you get better than an "angel" in a uniform watching you die. Too many matronsPerhaps these young nurses look so herded and pressed because they've just been subjected to the humiliations of a graduation luncheon with the pack of grand socialites looking down from the verandah in the background. I worked in not-for-profit for many years (arts, not medicine), and the staff in photos taken at trustee events usually had the same slightly hunted expressions. As for their glorious and impractical uniforms, the earliest female nurses were usually nuns. Early nursing uniforms reflected this, and professional nurses were expected to live like nuns when they weren't knocking themselves out in the wards. These women had a right to feel proud of their achievements, but their expressions might reflect the price as much as the reward of their status. The nice one at the backThe nice one at the back (right side) looks positively terrified. I understand perfectly. I am too. My grandmother had stories...She was in nurse's training (Pittsburgh Passavant Hospital) in the '20s and told us some of her stories about that experience (at least one that I probably can't post :-) The comments about nurses training being something akin to entering the military are right on the mark. Photographer a relativeThe photographer George Harris was married to my father's first cousin, and thus was my first cousin once removed by marriage. He was jolly story-telling devoted Rotarian, born in Dowlas, Wales in 1872, and was my parent's favorite house guest. He was also the photographer of 5 presidents, not retiring until Truman was in office, although he lived until 1964. His tales of Washington politics were legendary in my family, and sadly I was not home for most of his visits, thus missing some juicy political tales. Can you hear me know?There is a woman on the balcony that looks as if she is on her cell phone. Ready, set, go!"Okay, everybody look in a different direction!" (at least two are looking in two different directions at the same time). Oh DearThe last one on the right in front looks like Dennis Quaid Rescue missionI'm going back in time to save the poor thing in the back row far right. I bet the one in front of her is packing a meat cleaver. AncestryHey, Gene Hackman's granny is in that pic! As for the rest, I sure hope morphine was in plentiful supply for the patients. Comfortable shoesI'm wearing a pair of shoes almost identical to those right now, and they're actually very comfortable and give a lot of support. I shudder to think of the grass stains on those snowy white aprons. I hope somebody gave the laundress a tip that day. For reference. Location is Garfield Hospital.Nurses are seated in front of Garfield Hospital main building with entrance on Florida Ave. NW between 10th and 11th Streets. (The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Medicine)
Underground Railroad: 1942
November 1942. "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (vicinity). Montour No. 4 mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Co. Mine car operating off a trolley cable." Medium-format ... up the word "Collier" I was amazed. I live in a suburb of Pittsburgh, in a state ripe with coal mining history and continued industry. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 10:53am -

November 1942. "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (vicinity). Montour No. 4 mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Co. Mine car operating off a trolley cable." Medium-format nitrate negative by John Collier for the Office of War Information. View full size. Dress for the job you want.This boy gets bonus style points for wearing a necktie in a coal mine. Don't lean backI hope that trolley wire is a safe low voltage, as it's just the right height to brush against or even use as a handrail. Clean Cut GuyWWII has been on for almost a year. The mines must have been considered essential work places and that would bring with it deferment from the draft. I just get the feeling he's management and not labor. AptonymicalThe photographer has a perfect last name for this job. I wonder how many mine shoots he was assigned to. What Dad was talking about...Now I know. Office GuyMaybe he's in administration or perhaps a safety inspector - when it's time to go into the "field" he opens the trunk, retrieves a helmet and steps into his coveralls. I would schedule my visits to the job site toward the end of the day so I could go straight home and into the shower. [Or maybe he's the guy who drove the train. - Dave] Aptonymical? Yes!I read your comment because I was intrigued by the word "aptonymical". Though I haven't found a real definition for that term, I sense its meaning and when I looked up the word "Collier" I was amazed. I live in a suburb of Pittsburgh, in a state ripe with coal mining history and continued industry. Nearby is Collier Township, yet I never looked up the word! Thanks for pointing out the photographer's name. Simply amazing. (The Gallery, John Collier, Mining, Pittsburgh, Railroads)
Dormitory: 1911
... the three portraits are (top-bottom) Owen Wilson, Pittsburgh Pirates; John J. McGraw, NY Giants; and Arthur Devlin, NY Giants. ... Robert Ewing, Philadelphia Phillies; George Gibson, Pittsburgh Pirates; Frank L. Chance, Chicago Cubs; and Tony Smith, Brooklyn ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/15/2008 - 9:44am -

"Young man in dormitory room." More baseball cards. Our cadet/orderly/cook has calendars for 1910 and 1911 on the wall, and a crest for the Quartermaster Corps on the bed. Thanks to Kurt for suggesting this photo. View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative, Library of Congress. The Middle ShelfIt looks as though the middle shelf of his desk has more of the postcards that he's papered his wall with. Based on the size of his pocket watch (on the next lower shelf) those shelves aren't very wide. There looks to be more Baseball cards on the shelf above. I'm not sure if that's a toothbrush below the tooth powder cans. Somehow the size of the head looks to be too large - as large as his pocket watch. Note the whisk broom on his table; just the thing for brushing off a uniform. There are so many details about this picture that make you want to know more.National Photo suggests the Washington D.C. area; the decoration suggests permanent residence; the fact that it's not a large barracks room but rather just two beds in a small room suggests either a junior officer or an NCO (which his apparent age would argue against) but his clothing suggests something lower. Even the emblem of the Quartermasters Department (before 1912) on the bed doesn't tell us bis branch of the Army. Wouldn't equipment such as this, issued by the Department be marked in a obvious way to prevent theft? Tiny FridgeThat shiny object next to his elbow resembles a tiny refridgerator. the guy looks like a medical intern/student. [Back in the olden days, they called it a mirror. - Dave] Baseball cards!It's too early for the Babe, but there could be a Ty Cobb rookie card on that wall. Either way I'd give my left arm for those cards! This is an amazing photo.This is an amazing photo. Can anyone identify any of the players on any the baseball cards? This picture belongs in the collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown! Mosquito nettingWhen was the last time you slept with netting on your bed? This was a time when we still had outbreaks of Malaria and yellow fever in this country. Kittens of Doom?The postcard in the top row, seventh over looks like it could be a Harry W. Frees picture of the "Kittens of Doom." Being pulled in a cart by what looks to me like a chicken? I am probably way off. Cool picture though, we plastered our dorm room walls with tons of stuff too. Almost 90 years later... QM CorpsThe crest on the bed appears to be the insignia of the Quartermaster Corps: sword and key on a wheel, topped with an eagle. GI bed. Hey JudeDoes this fellow remind you of Jude Law the actor? Great picture at many levels. Sugar DaddySeen on the wall: I like this town. I think I'll buy it for you. Too funny! PinupsThe thing that struck me immediately was the modesty of our cadet's pictures of ladies. And yet, there they are, up on the wall for him to sigh over. Collegiate SlobEvidently his RA never told him where the laundry room was. What, was he picking watermelons? Playing baseball? Back in the olden days, they called it a mirror. - Dave You're crackin' me up, man. If You're a Man, Smile!What's on the wall. Click the image to zoom, then click a second time to expand. Toothbrush/powderThe toothbrush looks rather well worn. Interesting containers for the toothpaste and powder. And if you don't smile?Guess our friend is not-so-manly. This IS an awesome post, Dave. Are those records in the middle shelf of his desk? I can't decide if that's what it is or just some papers/books. [On the wall: "If you're a man, smile! If you're a dog, wag your tail." - Dave] Dorm GuyI think the mosquito net is interesting. Tropical climes maybe. Like everybody else, I would really like that baseball card collection. Card IDThird card to the right of his left ear is 1909-1911 Chicago White Sox Doc White. From upper right, two down, four over is Frank Chance, Chicago Cubs, published by American Tobacco Company 1909-1911. TyThat's Ty Cobb leaning on the can by the pole at the right. Christy MathewsonA 1911 Christy Mathewson card is in the row above the whisk broom, 5th card from the right. Cards Cont'dMost of the cards to the left of this fellow are T 205 gold border cards, published by the American Tobacco Company in 1911. The complete 208 card set can be seen here -- http://www.vintagecardtraders.com/virtual/t205/t205.html The one leaning on the can is not Ty Cobb but Albert Bridwell, NY Giants -- I can ID most of the gold border cards. Starting below the post card with the dogs, to the left of the calendar, the three portraits are (top-bottom) Owen Wilson, Pittsburgh Pirates; John J. McGraw, NY Giants; and Arthur Devlin, NY Giants. Directly to the right, the four cards are (L-R) Larry Doyle, NY Giants; G. C. Ferguson, Boston Rustlers; Frank L. Chance, Chicago Cubs; and William A. Foxen, Chicago Cubs. Farther right, three cards vertically (top-bottom) Arthur Fletcher, NY Giants; Charles E. "Gabby" Street, Washington Senators; the bottom one I have not been able to ID. The five in full view to the right of the 'Ty Cobb' can (L-R) Christy Mathewson, NY Giants; Robert Ewing, Philadelphia Phillies; George Gibson, Pittsburgh Pirates; Frank L. Chance, Chicago Cubs; and Tony Smith, Brooklyn Superbas. That is all. Someone else do the rest! This is a dorm room for sure...Girls on the wall, sports figures and not a book to be seen. Gems"I love my wife, no more kids" "I like this town, I'll buy it for you." "We had a rompin' good time." Positive ID?OK, I think I got the one T 205 I couldn't before (bottom card in the vertical set of three farthest right). I believe it is Thomas J. Needham, Chicago Cubs. Other possibilities are Harry McIntyre, Chicago Cubs, or Ed Konetchy, St. Louis Cardinals. CardsThe cards behind his head look like mostly t206 white border. I see Josh Devore, Hal Chase, Red Ames, Ed Foster, Doc White, Christy Mathewson, Heinie Berger... Burning Down the HouseIt just occurred to me that this fellow looks like David Byrne of Talking Heads. i am entrancedThis is truly a fine and complex room. It radiates the personality of the occupant. Though he doesn't smile, his relaxed pose shows a humor that comes through in his eyes. The hands are clean and held in a "just ask me" clasp of slight composure. The ladies on the wall compete with the ballplayers. As was a sign of the times. Influenza was out and about, as were malaria and encephalitis. Mosquito nets were a necessity everywhere. My only big question is: Can you tell me about the 3rd large postcard or picture on the left?' It looks like Coronado Island of San Diego. I am sure I am wrong. Thanks for the excellent work on this Dave. It gave me introspection for my day of calamity (so far). (The Gallery, Natl Photo, Sports)
Coal Fleet: 1910
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, circa 1910. "A coal fleet." 8x10 inch dry plate glass ... On the right, hiding behind the bridge, is the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad building, which is now ironically for our purposes, the home of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation! (And an amazing, stunning ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/08/2012 - 2:30pm -

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, circa 1910. "A coal fleet." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. P&LRROn the right, hiding behind the bridge, is the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad building, which is now ironically for our purposes, the home of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation! (And an amazing, stunning restaurant, The Grand Concourse.) PS- The first large break in the "high rises" there on the left: my apartment is in a building that stands there now. I'm sitting *right there*, right now, waving at Shorpy readers 100 years in the future :) VestigesLooks like a fairly sunny day in smoky ol' 1910 Pittsburgh! The Wabash Bridge in the foreground is gone, but its foundations remain. You can see one below. I pass it every day on the Parkway East (I-376). About a city block's worth of the row of lower buildings above the left bank on Fort Pitt Blvd. remain as well, between the Wabash Bridge and the next bridge, which is the still-remaining and most beautiful Smithfield Street Bridge. View Larger Map PipesAdding to the wonder is the collection of small-diameter steel pipes connected to the central barge, fanning out to all the coal barges. They must do something. [Steam heat? - Dave] Barges & TowboatsWith a few modifications, this scene could have been created just yesterday. Large groups of barges secured together by a network of mooring lines and pushed by towboats with specially designed bow knees are a fixture on today's Midwestern rivers. What's "different" about this scene is that the coal barges are all small wooden boats, and the towboats -- including "James Moren" (or maybe McRen) -- with the prominent "RC" logo, look almost like passenger excursion boats more than tugs. However, the RC logo (explained on some of the barges where it's spelled out, "River Coal") and the pushing knees on the bow of James Moren, give away the true function of these craft. The size of the towboats and the existence of the smaller, houseboat-like craft in the middle and edge of the barge group may be related to the need for overnight accommodations for large numbers of line handlers in that period compared to today. For instance, breaking down the raft of barges to pass through a lock must have resulted in lots of yelling and running around. I think T26, with a prominent stack, was probably equipped with steam power and could have functioned as a tug. Some of the others might have been nonpowered accommodation barges. Duquesne UniversityIsn't that DU on The Bluff with its main building's bell tower visible between the bridge's cables just to the right of the far riverbank's support upright? I spent two years as a freshman and sophomore there beginning September 1946 after which I left my hometown to see the world. (See my page on Facebook, please.) Mount Washington is on this side of the Monongahela River, with a church visible, I believe, on the hilltop. Few barges and paddlewheels and steel mill smokestacks remain today and some new office buildings rise high but the scene has a familiarity after many years. If I still lived there I might recall the names of buildings and streets in the photo. I particularly like the white-trimmed firehouse on the far side. Many thanks, Shorpy. En routeAl that coal was most likely destined to go into the furnaces of Pittsburgh's steel mills. What are the central steam barges?Each of these fleet of coal barges has a small barge lashed in the center which appears to contain a boiler. At least they have a stack. The boilers are stoked by coal stored on the front of the barge. Any ideas about what these were used for? Certainly not propulsion. Interesting to see that each fleet of barges also has living quarters lashed to it. This would make the whole construction self-sufficient for long trips. Certainly propulsionNote the size of the stack on the central barge, compared to the stove stacks on the living-quarters barges near the river bank. Cap'n Jack can correct me if I'm wrong, but the one in the middle doesn't contribute all that much to forward progress. It's used mostly for steering. The rig is necessary because steam engines aren't all that powerful for their size, and because paddlewheelers don't steer as easily as screw-drive vessels. These old-fashioned assemblies of barges ("tows") are rigid blocks. A modern tow is much longer and narrower in proportion, and is flexible, rigged with steel-wire cables so that the front is steerable, to make it around bends. The boat pushing it is at least ten times more powerful than the most muscular one in this scene. All that waits on big, powerful Diesels turning deep screws against big rudders, all of which is thirty or forty years in the future of this picture. Central Steam BargesAlthough the season is not evident (it might be winter given the amount of steam smoke from buildings in the picture), I believe the barges were use to supply steam through hoses to loosen frozen coal piles for unloading. I think lake freighters also carried "donkey boilers" for this purpose. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Pittsburgh, Railroads)
Seven Up: 1942
... my current and former homes in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, Maine, and Providence, and anything by Marion Post Wolcott. And ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/26/2022 - 1:25pm -

        Happy Valentine's Day from Shorpy, who made his very first post 15 years ago today, back in 2007. John Vachon shot eight exposures of this fellow in Grand Island, Nebraska, in May 1942, and none of them has a caption, so you'll just have to use your imagination. View full size. Time Flies and then gets blurry ...Only 15 years! Feels like at least 20 plus to me. I found the site early on, finally signed up a few years later and have enjoyed almost every post. Dicey InspirationThat the big dice begat the idea for Giant Jenga is unlikely but the dice would be easier to tote. Curiouser and curiouserMany years ago, as a neophyte blogger, I Googled something like, "best blogs to read" ... and a shortish list popped up that purported to comprise the absolutely essential blogs of the day. Besides Shorpy, I remember only two others: The Everywhereist, and one whose name I'd rather not mention. The only one I have visited more than once is Shorpy; I took one look and was hooked, and yes, it is essential to me. Much appreciation, Dave, for the knowledge and hours of enjoyment you have added to my life with this great work. As for today's photo, I don't know from giant dice games but our mystery man does have a fistful of folding money. Maybe he's betting his shadow that with the right combination, the door will open. Mr. Vachon must have had some extra time on his hands. Open open openThe early combination lock. Thanks Dave for the past 15! You think those dice are bigYou ought to see his windshield. Baby needs a new pair of shoes!Love may be a crapshoot, but Shorpy is a sure thing. For me it's been 13 years 29 weeks at the Shorpy table. Virtual MonopolyHe's trying to get to "Park Place" in a game of Virtual Monopoly? Hang OnYou ever think that maybe the dice are normal size, and the man being shown is actually only about a foot tall? Some government experiment gone awry in Nebraska, The "Grand Island Project" or something akin? Okay, maybe not. My proposed captionsSweets Bayne of Grand Island, Nebraska says he wants the cops to catch him playing craps. Sweets Bayne of Grand Island, Nebraska ordered loaded dice; didn't read the fine print. Sweets Bayne of Grand Island, Nebraska has to stand on his money when it's his turn to roll. A few years too early, but . . . Our mystery man looks like Richard Widmark as the horrible Tommy Udo in "Kiss of Death" (1947). Happy Anniversary and ThanksYou can't imagine (or maybe you can) how much I enjoy Shorpy. It's my first stop every morning, and I especially enjoy visits to my current and former homes in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, Maine, and Providence, and anything by Marion Post Wolcott. And along the way, I have learned a lot of history, geography, and photography. Teneha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair!The old Houston, East and West Texas rail line ran through Shelby County, Texas and the tiny hamlets of Teneha, Timpson, Bobo, and Blair were all stops along the line. The conductors' alliterative calls announcing the train's stops were picked up by craps shooters the same way "eighter from Decatur, the county seat of Wise" was a popular Texas-based craps call when rolling an 8. According to lore, the craps call was diffused widely during WWII and Tex Ritter, son of nearby Panola County, had a hit song that mentioned the conductors' call. Happy Birthday, Shorpy ... I just checked my profile and found I've been coming to this site 14 years, 17 weeks. That's a lot. Thanks Dave, Tterrace and team. Goober Pea Lucky Us!¡Felicidades! Happy Anniversary! And many thanks for all these years of wonderfully curated, engrossing photos. Dice memoriesI spent nearly 40 years teaching elementary PE and I used oversized, homemade dice exactly like these regularly in all sorts of games and activities. The eight foot 4x4 i chopped up way back when was a super investment. I sure miss being around those kids. They kept me young. And a slightly belated Happy Anniversary to Shorpy and the whole crew that makes it such an interesting and essential daily stop for me. Here's to 15 more! Shorpy was built on more than a roll of the dice.As my father used to say while shooting dice, "Papa needs a new pair of shoes!" Adding my thanks to Dave for setting up and running Shorpy. Without Dave’s wit, knowledge, and wisdom, it would be just another “vintage photos” site. To those who have ever said or done something dumb and felt the slash of Dave’s quirt of wrath, stand proud. You have earned the right to wear Shorpy’s bloodied but unbowed, golden badge of honor. Combining all elements, Shorpy is an outstanding site that keeps people coming back for more. Thanks very much Dave, colleagues and contributors and Happy Birthday Shorpy! [Aw shucks. Also: The "role" of the dice is to roll. - Dave] Ha! Ya got me Dave - putting on my golden badge. Role/roll now corrected. FloatingMy first thought was "Guys and Dolls" ... Happy anniversary!Wishing you happines and joy from running shorpy. Best regards. Javier Happy belated anniversary!I look forward, every evening, to the Shorpy post! For me, going on 7 years. Essentially, a time machine to look back at interesting times. I’ve learned so much from Shorpy in these 7 years. Thank you Dave for a wonderful daily stop for all of us! Shorpy's tenthTo celebrate Shorpy’s fifteenth birthday, I went back to the post that celebrated the tenth birthday. I invite you all to go visit and read the comments from back then. Amidst all the nostalgia of revisiting half a decade ago, I must confess to a feeling of sadness at reading the names of commenters who no longer appear. Hooked on ShorpyI don't know if I have been a fan of the Shorpy site for 15 years but I have sure been a fan for a long time. Best Wishes to both the administrators and the other fans of Shorpy. I hope you have, at least, another 15 years of success. Always a day lateAnd $1.36 short (inflation adjusted). Happy Birthday Shorpy, Ken, Dave, tterrace and all of us! Shorpy remains sui generis! Thanks CommishBobI hope it's OK to say a thank you to CommishBob for what he posted to this thread. His post touched me, and I just want to thank you Commish for devoting your career to the youngsters. They no doubt loved you. Thanks for the Memories ... :)Dave, Thanks for all the wonderful pics you have enlightened us with over these 15 years ... And then there's your wit too. HAHA. (The Gallery, Bizarre, John Vachon, Slender Man)
Frosted Foods: 1952
... Minute Maid for a 'cool' $40 million. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Dec 1, 1954 Frozen Strawberries. So THAT'S why ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/15/2013 - 8:07pm -

1952. "Grocery store display of frozen foods." Kodachrome by Charlotte Brooks or Arthur Rothstein for the Look magazine article "How Hot Are the Freezer Food Plans?" View full size. Photographer, locale and purpose unknown?Just speculating here, but the purpose of this photo may have been a "proof of performance" the grocer may have needed to submit to vendors of how well-placed their products are in his case. Or, it could have been taken by a vendor's rack-jobber (delivery man) to show how he placed the products in this one grocer's freezer. Or, it could have been taken by either a vendor or the grocer to show HOW to pack the case. My dad, the best amateur photographer in his office with the equipment to support it, was frequently sent out to grocery stores and the company thrift stores to shoot displays of Dolly Madison Cakes and the breads of the old Interstate Bakeries Corp. I've found dozens of pictures just like this in his old archives. Except they were shot in the cakes & breads aisle, not the frozen foods section. [The purpose of the photo was to illustrate an article in Look magazine. - Dave] Just a Guess!I could be totally wrong, but I am guessing the location might be somewhere in the NY-NJ area. It looks like the emblem on the refrigeration case says: Hill Refrigeration, Newark, NJ. There still is a Hill Refrigeration Co. on Pennington Avenue in Trenton, NJ. Of course, these cases could be shipped anywhere, but many businesses buy fixtures locally to save on freight costs. Snow CropBought by Minute Maid for a 'cool' $40 million. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Dec 1, 1954 Frozen Strawberries.So THAT'S why someone invented Strawberry Smoothies -- about the only way to properly handle the mess of mushy strawberries once you tried to defrost them and use them. And while everyone knows who Birds Eye is, I don't recall ever seeing "Snow Crop" brand frozen vegitables. What a differenceI was born in 1954 and started a family very late. So, today at 58, I get to tell my 9- and 10-year-old sons stories about the "Good Old Days." The boys find it difficult to believe me when I tell them that my mother was able to feed our entire family of five on about $20 a week! Today, we spend over a thousand dollars a month to feed our family of five. Granted, people earned a lot less back in those days, but somehow things seemed an awful lot simpler. Yaaaaaah! Birdseye! Run for your life!*Ahem* In the mid-1960s, Mom would occasionally buy Birdseye frozen mixed vegetables in some sort of creamy sauce. At that age, I wasn't big on vegetables, much less mixed vegetables, and even much less with cream sauce. Nearly half a century later, I still refuse to buy Birdseye. Inverted Lima BeansThe graphic showig a huge pot of lima beans has been installed upside-down. Perhaps it's not an error. I know I'd want to dump them out too! Frosted foodsbecame frozen foods after people started asking what flavor the frosting was. Until the frozen food era lima beans were not commonly eaten outside the southern US (where they were called butterbeans). Teddy Snowcrop needs him a stiff drink!Teddy was the Snowcrop mascot, a cartoon polar bear with a smarmy smile featured in their TV ads. What I am wondering is whether the presence of those frozen Brussels sprouts (hideously malodorous when cooked) is inhibiting the sale of important stuff like cocktail mix and grenadine syrup? BittersIs that a bottle of Angostura Bitters we see peeking out next to the grenadine? The bottle looks almost exactly the same as it does today, (and maybe even as it has since 1824). My choiceOf all these foods pictured, the one my eyes keep returning to, longingly, is the succulent prime rib roast with roasted potatoes and onions, just below and right of the grenadine, but they could keep their lima beans. One knows that one is getting old when their strongest craving is for a boneless, butter-tender prime rib. I really need to get out more. Keeping the logoDespite many corporate ownership changes, today's Birdseye logo is pretty much the same as it had been in 1950. The name has nothing to do with a bird's eye, the logo notwithstanding. It comes from the company founder, Clarence Birdseye. Budget ConsciousI know my mom would have taken the two boxes of Birdseye Cut Green Beans for 39 cents instead of the Snow Crop Cut Green Beans at 24 cents a box. The nine cents saved went along way: a loaf of bread was probably about 15 cents. Snow CropI remember Snow Crop orange juice growing up in in north Jersey back in the early 60s. Maybe it was a regional brand. After seeing the name I remember they used to advertise something called "Snow Crop Orange Samoa" whatever that was, probably a blend. Kale! I was surprised to see kale. The way people go on about it today, you would think it was some newly discovered exotic vegetable. Expensive!Multiply the prices here by ten and compare to what frozen food costs today. Looks like about 150-200% of current prices. A clue from the kale?Long before it became trendy elsewhere, kale was a staple vegetable among the Portuguese population in the New England states. Combined with the fact that the manufacturer of the refrigeration unit - a bulky item likely to be sourced semi-locally if possible - is in New Jersey, and the prior comment about Snow Crop being seen in Northeastern stores, I wouldn't be surprised if this photo is from a supermarket in New England. [Hill refrigeration units have been sold nationally for many years. -Dave] Lima beans, kale, Brussels sproutsWell I'm from the Midwest and have never ever seen frozen kale or any other braising green beyond spinach, but I remember the frozen boxes of limas and sprouts, both of which my father loved and I hated. Oh the dinner-table set-to's we'd have over those two (and stewed tomatoes). He usually won. Whatever happened to wax beans? I can't remember ever seeing them in the frozen vegetable section. Of course today, the frozen veg section is about one tenth the size of the frozen pizza, potato, pre-breaded and deep-fried what-have-you, and upscaled TV dinner microwave section. No, make that one twentieth. Somewhere, at some point the supermarket went horribly horribly wrong. Snow Crop juicesI wish they still made juice combinations like the ones on the right side of the picture: orange & grapefruit juice. Mmmmm. Kool-AidThere's a display of the original 5 cent package of Kool-Aid, that you could dump in the palm of your hand and lick it up, if you didn't mind the sourness. Kale is popular in the south, but I doubt that frozen kale would be. Frozen orange juice was a big improvement over the canned Donald Duck orange juice. I'm the guyWho keeps the lima bean market afloat. I seem to be a minority. Please, nooooooooooooooooo.......yellow wax beans! A tool of the Anti-Christ if there ever was one. And limas a close 2nd. Altho THESE limas are even more unappetizing-looking because the florescent lights have bleached out the inks of the display. Food pics + offset printing inks + florescent lights = bad,bad looking food display over time. Another guy!I also like Lima beans. As well as all of the veggies shown here, and more. In fact, I believe beets are the only vegetables I do not like. Not-so-frostySomeone has left a package of frozen raspberries on top of the cooler, to the right of the Kool-Aid. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Stores & Markets)
Wabash Station: 1905
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, circa 1905. "Wabash Station." 8x10 inch dry plate ... Station, the Nixon Theater and the Keenan Building were Pittsburgh's three Beaux Arts jewels of the early 20th century. A massive ... wasted opportunity of the Great Fire of 1845: A third of Pittsburgh was in ashes, but without a central plan, the chaotic rebuilding ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/03/2012 - 1:45pm -

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, circa 1905. "Wabash Station." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. After the FireThe Wabash Station, the Nixon Theater and the Keenan Building were Pittsburgh's three Beaux Arts jewels of the early 20th century. A massive fire gutted the Wabash in 1946. With damage estimated at $8 million, the city was faced with a major problem: the building was too expensive to restore and too centrally located to just ignore. City leaders reflected on the wasted opportunity of the Great Fire of 1845: A third of Pittsburgh was in ashes, but without a central plan, the chaotic rebuilding created a jumbled warren of cheap houses and dirty industrial buildings. Determined to boldly address the lack of greenspace and beautify the city, a coalition developed the Pittsburgh Renaissance Plan encompassing a 36 acre park at the Point and 23 acres of modern, state of the art office buildings. The structure was demolished in 1954. We lost an architectural jewel but got an incredibly beautiful park on the most valuable land in the entire city. Wabash No MoreUnfortunately, this magnificent structure was demolished in 1954. In its place today, the Gateway Center. Definitely not a step up. ShameI cannot understand one thing: here, where I live, in Europe, we had nightmare of World Wars. Many cities was completely destroyed, including my capital, Warsaw. You Americans, had this luck, to avoid war operations over your cities. Nevertheless, lots of glorious buildings was demolished in the name of progress. Crying shame. Not Always UnfortunateWhile it is fine to mourn the loss of classic buildings, we should also remember that it is not always wanton destruction. As ossewa pointed out, the Wabash Station was severely damaged by fire. It could not be restored economically. Would the city of Pittsburgh have been better off leaving it as a "modern ruin" and potentially a magnet for derelicts and squatters or were they better off to demolish it (as they did) and rather than trying to replicate it build something in the (then) modern style? It's true that many buildings are torn down for the sake of modernity, but it is also the case that sometimes the destruction is necessary. (The Gallery, DPC, Pittsburgh, Railroads)
Leg Factory: 1916
... raw materials for making wooden legs at what might be the Pittsburgh workshops of J.E. Hanger Artificial Limb Co. National Photo Company ... had branches in Atlanta, London, Paris, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and St. Louis. Mr. Hanger turned his personal tragedy into an ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/01/2016 - 12:43pm -

Circa 1916. "Section of lumber curing department." The raw materials for making wooden legs at what might be the Pittsburgh workshops of J.E. Hanger Artificial Limb Co. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. Workplace ...safety?Given the unguarded belts and motor drives, grinders, and other assorted hazards, this workplace looks like a good place to LOSE a limb. Then we have the issue of dust collection and respiratory hazards. At least there are plenty of windows for passive ventilation, weather permitting. And there on the far left in the back, a fire extinguisher hangs on the wall. Faded FineryI'd love to know what this room was like before the peg-leggers moved in. Just look at that ceiling. And is that a remnant of ornamental moulding on the far-left window? "Arrrrgg!""'Tis a fine peg-leg they be makin' here!" At least judging by the one on the table. It looks like there are more anatomical ones hanging in the back. I guess it depends on how much you want to spend. A room with stories to tellWindows that let in light and can be opened for fresh air, yet limit the pleasures of a view of the world outside. Perfectly symbolic for a room in which artifical legs are made. And who works in this room with the horrible views, dangerous machinery and beautiful ceiling? Perhaps a large, rough working man with a beautiful voice. And he sings only when he's working, his voice barely audible above the roar of the machines. Naturally he loves a sweet young woman from afar, and someday she will hear his voice and ... My, oh my, I do love Shorpy! It's better than an old novel! A hinge at the kneeFrom the Hanger website: In 1861, James Edward Hanger became the first amputee of the Civil War. He returned to his hometown in Virginia where he set his mind to walking again. When a satisfactory prosthetic solution was not available, he fashioned an artificial leg for himself -- a device constructed of whittled barrel staves with a hinge at the knee. It worked so well, the state legislature commissioned him to manufacture the “Hanger Limb” for other wounded Civil War veterans. Mr. Hanger patented his prosthetic device and his business thrived. He continued to develop revolutionary products, helping veterans and other amputees regain mobility. By 1919, the J.E. Hanger Company had branches in Atlanta, London, Paris, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and St. Louis. Mr. Hanger turned his personal tragedy into an invaluable service to mankind. His ingenuity and desire to help other wounded veterans set an unmatched standard for nearly 150 years, touching an untold number of lives. Casualties of War 200,000 Artificial Limbs Ordered by the Allies From American Firm Piitsburgh, Pa., Oct 3. - Fifteen million dollars' worth of artificial legs and arms for crippled soldiers will be made by the J.E. Hanger Artificial Limb Company to fill orders awarded by the English and French governments. The concern, which has branch offices in St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta plans to ship 250 legs and arms each month till the immense order is complete. The first shipment from the Pittsburgh factory will be tomorrow. Discussing the order, Mr. Hanger said: "Two hundred and fifty legs a month is all our factories can make now, running double turn. We will be in shape in a few months to turn out 1,200 to 1,500 a month. We are getting out the limbs in the rough, and they will be finished and fitted in factories in London and Paris." The English and French nations have asked American manufacturers to bid on contracts for 200,000 artificial legs for soldiers. Such a legs sells for about $75. Washington Post, Oct 4, 1915 The Belted WorldWhat a great picture! To see a woodshop with the complete belting setup is a treat. That was how they did it in them days. Machine shops and wood shops were all belted. No breaker boxes, no extension cords, and primarily, all natural light. This seems to be more than just a section of the wood curing department. Looks like all pieces were cut and roughed out here then sent elsewhere to sand and finish. Bison BeltsThe belt drive technology shown in this shop was a major factor in the near extinction of the American Bison. Commercial hunters slaughtered thousands daily taking only the hides. Those were shipped east to be made into leather drive belts for factories. Granted, some hides were exported to Europe and some were made into lap robes and Army winter overcoats. Most ended up driving the American Industrial Revolution. By the time this picture was taken, there were probably fewer than 1000 buffalo left. Fortunately, other belt materials were developed. A good ideaThe shop floor seen here, and others like it in countless Shorpy photos, demonstrates why the development of the simple shop-vac was a huge step forward. I believe our ancestors lived in a world of dust and debris. One day the mental light bulb came on and some ingenious person thought "We've got to clean up this mess!" Those bench vises are the sturdiest I've seen. VaultDon't know why I thought of this, but I did. Can you imagine the day this photo was taken that the door was shut on this workplace and left untouched till today? It would be breathtaking to walk in and see the room just as it was left. I actually read a good story not too long ago about a toy company (Smith Miller) that was shut like that. http://www.smith-miller.com/about/ Willow woodI used to be in the back rooms of the prosthetic shops, whittling away at these wood blanks. Many of those old companies still running today (Hanger included) got their start from the inconceivable number of limbless veterans from the Civil War. I see stacks of AK (above knee) and BK (below knee) and knee blanks. Someone's working on an AK with a single axis knee in the center of the bench; must have a hip joint with leather belt. Those ankles with the recess for the bumper are still available and widely used. I fabricated these for many a war vet. The machines have changed very little and those benches and vises look very familiar. A few still wear wooden sockets, which are are heavier than modern fiberglass and carbon fiber reinforced plastics. But if well made, they don't weigh too much more. I do miss "getting into the zone," working with all that wood and machinery. I kept all my fingers! Recycled steering wheelsAs a carpenter and woodworker, I was enthralled by this shop. Then I noticed a clever and ingenious bit of recycling: they fit old automobile steering wheels on the threaded shafts of those four big bench clamps - much smoother and easier than the common sliding pins they replaced! (The Gallery, Natl Photo, Pittsburgh, WWI)
Up the Incline: 1905
... Am familiar with Mt. Washington incline in Pittsburgh, but the Cincinnati incline was truly bizarre but wonderful to ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/29/2012 - 2:40pm -

Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1905. "Up the hill by trolley." On one of the city's famous incline railways. Detroit Publishing Company glass negative. View full size. Cinci RiderSpot the freeloader riding on the wheelset below the horse's head. Whoa BessieIt would not be cool to have a horse freak out on that thing. Great backlightingI love the silhouettes of the people. looks like a lot of women about and about with their "going out" hats on. Great Photo!Really shows just how clever this incline railway was. I wonder what it added to the cost of a trolley ride? GHFWGThat building beyond the incline has to be the Edward Gorey Home for Wayward Girls. Bessie Should be FineFortunately the inclines were very quiet, with a steam engine at the top to drive it. Since the weight of the descending platform counterbalanced the ascending one, it didn't even have to be particularly powerful. That's an old McMicken Hall on the right, one of the University of Cincinnati's first buildings. While this is about a mile from campus, and that building is gone, I believe UC still owns that property. Clifton Avenue is on the left, and the pier in the hillside remains. It even still has one of those steel straps. The iron trolley pole to the right of the pier remains today too. What do you thinkthese kids are doing? I don't knowif I like the center of gravity on that sucker. Re: Whoa BessieIt would not be cool to have a horse freak out on that thing. That was my first thought too. My wife had a horse who would get onto the trolley even if it was on fire - if it had already done the hill the old fashioned way. Bellevue InclineThis is the Bellevue incline, which passes over the Clifton Avenue Price Hill InclineAt first I had a bit of trouble determining which of Cincinnati's inclines I was looking at. The hill in the background was the confusing part. When I realized that the view is looking north at the Price Hill incline it all became clear. The background hill has not resembled that hill since before I was born in 1944. Back in the 1930's when they built Union Terminal, the large train terminal they needed a lot of flat ground to accommodate the multitude of tracks for the station and fright trains. To get the fill material to level this large area they stole the top of the hill visible in the background of this picture and transported it to the area where the track system was laid. This "thievery" resulted in the hill being stripped of foliage as well as the fill material and it just had a bare knob of rock and thus became known as bald knob. Back in the 50s the name was quite appropriate. The top of the knob is now occupied by WXIX-TV's transmitter and TV tower and also a Time-Warner cable head end as well as some industrial park buildings. The knob characteristic is somewhat diminished now. Packed ~N~ Stacked This is one cool contraption, but for some reason it makes me laugh, He He! I guess it reminds me of some sort of Dr. Seuss thing on stilts! But that old building on the right has to be one of the creepiest I have ever seen. UC Medical CollegeYes, the UC Medical college was located in the building next to the incline. This is right up from McMicken in what used to be referred to as the Mohawk area. Supposedly, medical students liked to frighten passengers on the incline by waving body parts in the windows as they the incline escalated past. Keep in mind that at this time the City of Cincinnati was blanketed in black coal smoke (you can even see the haze in some of these old photos) and the inclines provided a nice respite from the grimy and smoggy conditions of the city. At the top of each incline was a tavern (in this case it was the Highland House) and they all served alcohol. Except for Price Hill's hilltop tavern. Alcohol-free, it was referred to as "Buttermilk Hill." Bellevue InclineThis is indeed the Bellevue Incline, but it doesn't pass over Clifton Avenue -- you might be confusing Clifton with Ravine. It began at the end of Elm Street on McMicken. The brewery district was right under the incline. Tunnels were dug into the hillside to keep the lager cool. This was part of a tour that I used to give for Architreks. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohhamilt/picsinclines.html Cincinnati & Clifton Inclined Plane RailroadHere you can see where was the "Cincinnati & Clifton Inclined Plane Railroad" also called "Bellevue Incline"... I draw it in red, you can see it was passing over the actual W Clifton Avenue. I don't know the old name of this way. http://www.funimag.com/temp/Bellevue.jpg To OhioThe incline went only as far as Ohio Avenue. It did not cross Clifton. Bellevue Incline History 1876-1926 From Cincinnati History of the Inclines, compiled by Bob O'Brien. Officially, the Bellevue Incline was the Cincinnati & Clifton Inclined Plane Railroad, which was built at the head of Elm Street at McMicken Avenue in 1876 and went to Ohio Avenue. The ornate Bellevue House beckoned the city dwellers and visitors to ascend the incline and see the view from the vantage of the veranda. It lasted until 1926. Just bought a great postcardpostmarked 1906 showing this incline. Never heard of this unique form of transportation. Am familiar with Mt. Washington incline in Pittsburgh, but the Cincinnati incline was truly bizarre but wonderful to see~~fascinating! I enjoyed all the comments. Kids being kidsI think the kids at the lower left are playing hide & seek, or something similar. Just being kids. (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, DPC, Railroads, Streetcars)
Heart of Gold: 1942
November 1942. "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (vicinity). Montour No. 4 mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Company. Coal miner at end of the day's work." Medium-format ... fulfilled folks. (The Gallery, John Collier, Mining, Pittsburgh) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 11:10am -

November 1942. "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (vicinity). Montour No. 4 mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Company. Coal miner at end of the day's work." Medium-format negative by Johh Collier for the Office of War Information. View full size. The WhistleThe whistle is for safety. If a miner got hurt, he would use his whistle to inform his neighboring miners (remember that it was very dark in a mine). Or if a cave-in happened, the whistling could locate a trapped miner. Because of the bad occurences associated with a whistle in a mine, it was considered bad luck to actually whistle (carry a tune while you're bored or working, per se) in a mine. Alternatively, miners believed whistling in a shaft would drive away ore or potentially cause shaft collapse. I suppose it's similar to theater folk not saying Macbeth in the theater. Happy ChappieI want to believe that this fellow is as happy as he appears to be. Thank you for this great photo, Dave. Dare I say it?This fella sure looks like good ole Shorpy Higginbotham, some 32 years later, and a bit north, eh? The only outlier is the big grin. GratefulHe has such a great smile, and sparkling eyes, yet his job and appearance show that his work was far harder than most of us have ever known. Makes me realize that we should be grateful for what we have. TweetAny old miners know what he might have used the whistle for? Wartime MinerHe had the benefit of a strong union, United Mine Workers (UMW). He also may have been exempt from the draft and logging plenty of overtime. He had ridden out the Depression and he wasn't getting shot at. Why shouldn't he be smiling? NGEAnyone else thinks he looks like the nicest guy ever? GladMaybe he was glad to be doing his war duty in a Pennsylvania coal mine instead of some other dangerous place. Montour Mine #4There's a ton of information on Montour mine #4 here. Ageless If that's Shorpy Higginbotham after decades of mining, then mining certainly agrees with him! Scholars of Shorpy Higginbotham know that Shorpy had met his fate in 1928. I do agree with other Shorpy commenters who think that the guy in this picture is a very pleasant person. His eyes tell us that he isn't stupid-friendly, but rather just friendly. Am I the only oneWho caught the Neil Young reference in 0.2 seconds? But yeah, I agree with what's been said here - he looks like a great guy, and I hope he lived a long, happy life. Step in time, step in time...I think I've seen this guy in a popular Disney movie holding a scraggly broom while dancing on a London rooftop with a bunch of similar looking guys. Great SmileHe looks like a cross between Andy Williams and Ray Bolger. He's smiling because he IS happy.Everrybody that's ever known a miner knows that regardless how hard and dangerous the work, the miner LOVED his job. I've heard countless stories from my dad, who once was a miner and stories about both of my 'grandpaps' who were miners and they loved mining. They quit only when they retired, the mine worked out and closed, or they died. Unlike folks in todays "careers", folks like miners, steelworkers and railroaders were/are much more in tune with their jobs, co-workers and neighbors. Coal patch town life, union brotherhood, and the Church family provided all of the culture that folks desired. A pay envelope with enough money to feed his family and have a couple dollars left over for a whiskey or a few beers after work was all a miner needed. Having experienced a college education with a white collar career and a simple job as a railroader, I can faithfully say that those who work dirty jobs for a living are happier, more fulfilled folks. (The Gallery, John Collier, Mining, Pittsburgh)
Non-Smoking Rooms: 1909
... Toledo Blade is not only still around, it now controls the Pittsburgh Post Gazette as well (Watch out Cleveland: you're surrounded!) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/04/2022 - 4:56pm -

Toledo circa 1909. "Hotel Secor, Jefferson Avenue and Superior Street." At exactly 2:37. Seen here earlier a minute later, at 2:38. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative. View full size. Secor to none... until it got a new neighbor; and then of a sudden it became second to that. Other items of note in the past 11 years: -- It's still there. -- as is the building two blocks down -- In the blocks between them, the spot occupied by the towered building - it was Milner's Dept Store in 1909, later Sears - saw the Hotel SeaGate disappear (if the SeaGate helped put older Toledan hotels out of business, it looks like they had the last laugh) -- The Toledo Blade is not only still around, it now controls the Pittsburgh Post Gazette as well (Watch out Cleveland: you're surrounded!) Menu prices are in centsThe new Hotel Secor was featured in the May 1909 issue of The Brickbuilder. Below is the original floorplan and four photographs of main areas on the first floor. By 1919 the Secor was managed by brothers L. C. and A. L Wallick, who had managed the Hotel Wallick in New York City since 1910, formerly the Cadillac Hotel. Apparently, they used the same menu for both hotels. The 1919 prices are in cents. I also found documentation several wealthy Toledo families, like the Libbey glass family, maintained suites at the Secor after they sold their homes for one reason or another. Click to embiggen. Answering my own questionI wondered if the photos of the Hotel Secor in The Brickbuilder were taken on the same day as the photos Dave posted. The answer is no. There are no canvas awnings on the ground and third-floor windows in The Brickbuilder. Floor PlansThank you Doug Floor Plan for the building plans from The Brickbuilder! I love looking at these things, and I see that the basement extended out under the sidewalk quite a way (right side and bottom), and the the entire bakery was out there. I also see an "Oyster Pantry" and wonder what that was, if it was for shucking oysters, or does "oyster" refer to something else? I also see the the room plans are unusual in that every room has at least a toilet and sink, but only every other room received a bathtub! Nobody left dirty, however, there is a lonely bathtub at the end of the right corridor for everybody else! Three enginesIn the basement plan, I see three engines in the engine room. What would they need three engines for? I imagine this hotel generated its own electricity. [You imagine correctly -- details of the Secor's power plant are here. - Dave] Buckeye BrewingThe second oldest business in Toledo, The Buckeye Brewing Company began operations in 1838 near Front and Consaul Streets on the city's east side. Buckeye was founded just one year after the city of Toledo itself, and was one of the oldest breweries in American history. During Prohibition, Buckeye switched its production to bottling soft drinks like ginger ale, root beer and cider, as well as utilising its cold storage facilities. Brave ClaimsThis must have been the era of brave claims, of dubious provability. Fire Proof is boldly stated on the rooftop. At around the same time a large ship was being planned that would make a claim to be 'Unsinkable'. The building wouldn't burnBut the insides of buildings could and did burn. Sometimes with horrific loss of life, because "fireproof" was an excuse to skimp on exit stairs, fire escapes and sprinkler systems. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, DPC, Streetcars, Toledo)
Ambridge Alley: 1938
... a great place to grow up. Ambridge I grew up in the Pittsburgh area. It never dawned on me that the town of Ambridge took its name ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/14/2008 - 5:16pm -

July 1938. Another view of "housing conditions in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, home of the American Bridge Company." View full size. Photo by Arthur Rothstein. While I guess the point here is the decrepit nature of the neighborhood, it looks to have been a great place to grow up. Like something from a Neil Simon play. Twins?I wonder if the girls on the right are twins--they look to be. Everyone looks clean and tidy, very little trash about. I agree--a nice neighborhood. Ambridge AlleyAre we looking at the backs of these apartments? [The front. - Dave] AmbridgeThe appeal of this place is the closeness. The neighbors all know each other and rub elbows every day. My childhood neighborhood wasn't quite as crowded as this but we all knew each other well, while we don't today. I miss it. PhiladelphiaWith the exception of the front steps, my house had 4 steps, this looks just like the street I grew up on. the actual street was wide enough for cars to park on one side of the street, the second floor had two bedrooms and a bath, the first floor had a living room, dining room and a kitchen, the basement ran the length of the house, it was a great place to grow up. AmbridgeI grew up in the Pittsburgh area. It never dawned on me that the town of Ambridge took its name from the American Bridge Company that was located there. Great old photo. AmbridgeMy dad grew up in Ambridge; my grandparents lived there until they died a few years ago. I've spent lots of time tehre. But I can't for the life of me figure out where in Ambridge this photo was taken. Most of the town looks nothing like this, but is single-family homes of various sizes (nearly all modest), including the early 18th Century Harmonist community. Next time I'm back there I'll roam around and look for this alley for sure. I wouldn't be surprised if it were still there--urban renewal pretty much left Ambridge unscathed. Ambridge Shipyard The American Bridge Company (a division of United States Steel) built a number of LST ships for the US Navy during WW II, including the LST- 847. The above photo shows the constructor's plaque that was mounted on the wall of the officer's dining area in the LST-847. The LST-847 slides down the launching ways and into the Ohio River at the American Bridge Co., Ambridge, PA on Dec. 17, 1944. (National Archives Photo) Mike_G MGM musicalsThis reminds me of scenes from many of those old musicals, where someone is walking down the street and begins to sing, and all the people looking out the windows chime in with harmony and choruses...and everyone dances in step. Back alley, I thinkI also think this is a back alley and you are seeing back doors on these row houses. Reason 1: No mailboxes. Reason 2: Who hangs their laundry out in FRONT of their home? Reason 3: This is late enough for motor vehicles, yet only a horse, bicycle, or person could walk down that street. Seems evidence that the street is on the other sides of the buildings and this is just meant as an walkway. [This is the front. The back is here. And how's that Edsel? - Dave] The StreetWhile 1938 is late enough for cars, there's no indication of when the buildings were built. Dare I say it, since this was obviously a working class area and probably developed at the same time as American Bridge set up operations - probably as company housing - there may have been a feeling when it was being built that there was no need for wider streets; that the people living in the area wouldn't have carriages or horses (let alone those new-fangled horseless carriages) so why waste the space when you could build more row housing. I would imagine that if this are were ever redeveloped the old buildings would be torn down and new streets would be laid out to modern standards. [The tenement district of Ambridge was razed in the early 1950s as part of a slum clearance project. - Dave] Front or Back?The back is here. Ambridge AlleyMy mother grew up in this neighborhood she affectionately calls First Street, on Marshall Alley ... She said it was the best place ever growing up, even though everyone was pretty poor. They have a First Street Reunion every year to this day and have a dinner gathering. She always talks about her friends during that time and how everyone looked out for everyone else. Good "old" AmbridgeI've spent a lot of time in my adult life mucking about in Ambridge, and the poor old place is just another dying Rust Belt town now, and just breaks your heart to walk about and see the vacant buildings that line the streets. It's nice to see Ambridge folks in happier times. 1949 to 56I was 2 when my family moved to 201 Marshall Alley. My Grandparents and my uncle and his family lived in "The Alley" for 7 years. Yes, everyone hung their laundry from the second story window, both in front and back. We had to carry the washed laundry from the cellar to the second floor bedroom. Marshall Alley was condemned in the mid fifties but many of us stayed to the last before finding other places to live. We did not qualify for the "new" Economy Village that had been built for lower income families. My family scraped together enough money to put a down payment on a house up on Glenwwod Drive. Lots of great memories from The Alley. Front to backThe homes on the right is the back and on the left is the front side. There were three rows of homes like these, the front ones facing First Street and all three stretching form Maplewood to Merchant street. The other side of First street was lined with businesses on the first floor, and homes upstairs. More comments herehttps://www.shorpy.com/node/15453 (The Gallery, Ambridge, Arthur Rothstein)
Ice Cream Every Day: 1920
... 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 ... selling and maintaining gasoline vehicles on Baum Blvd in Pittsburgh. [The main appeal electric cars had for women was no ... 
 
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)
Diamond Bank: 1909
July 1909. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "Diamond Bank and Wabash Terminal." 8x10 inch dry ... me of the old song, "There's a pawn shop, on a corner, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." Blue Tag Tobies Blue Tag Tobies are cheap ... as a Jimmy John's and a Wendy's. (The Gallery, DPC, Pittsburgh, Railroads, Streetcars) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/01/2012 - 1:38pm -

July 1909. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "Diamond Bank and Wabash Terminal." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Diamond is foreverThis building is still there, but almost everything around it has changed. I'll take a walk over there today and snap a picture. Store Directory Blue Tag Tobies Dimling Bros. German Kitchen Diamond National Bank Doctor Faulkner Genuine Rye Kingsbacher Bros. Diamonds & Watches Monroe Lumber Prudential Skinner Engine Co. Engines and Boilers. W.H. & L. Huck Wabash Freight Station Wallace Optical Co. Genuine RyeAre we talking bread or whiskey here? ChangeI am always amazed at the great technological change that took place in the early part of the last century. This picture taken in Pittsburg in 1909 shows the streets are full of horse drawn vehicles. Yet in the picture of Forbes Field taken in 1912, shown earlier, we see the automobiles lined up outside the stadium. What a drastic change in just three years. [There are also quite a few cars in this photo. - Dave] Liberty AvenueNot much has changed for the Diamond Building and the one to the right of it. However, that beautiful domed building has been replaced by modern glass skyscrapers. View Larger Map 1909 Is More InterestingThe 1909 view is much more interesting and visually pleasing, horse apples notwithstanding. tbvintage did a good job of capturing almost the same 1909 picture view on Google Maps in today's world. Not narrow mindedI'd definitely buy my ER from the THING Co. I always wish the field of view was a little wider. [It's the XYZ Clothing Co. - Dave] re. Surprisingly modernWell I don't like to contradict, but I don't think many late 1950s beatniks were wandering around in knickers. The jacket and cap works nicely, though. Ashes by nowThe Wabash Terminal was demolished in the 1950s. It burned in 1946 and was pretty much left in ruins till the site was cleared to make way for the Gateway Center complex. Surprisingly modernThis guy seems to be dressed surprisingly modern for the time. He looks like he could be a late 1950s beatnik instead of someone wandering around in 1909. Kingsbacher Brothersreminds me of the old song, "There's a pawn shop, on a corner, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." Blue Tag TobiesBlue Tag Tobies are cheap cigars. It's not the name of a store. Toby was slang for tobacco. I think there was a cigar manufacturing company called Blue Tag, but Google tells me the Gov't required tobacco to be identified by grade with a blue tag as kind of a "seal of approval." It would make a great name for a musical group. GatewayI work at Gateway Center, and was just waiting for a bus at this intersection (Fifth and Liberty) yesterday afternoon. Wish I could step back in time into this world. Working in the Wabash building rather than Gateway IV seems infinitely more appealing. The buildings to Diamond Bank's left are still there too - reincarnated as a Jimmy John's and a Wendy's. (The Gallery, DPC, Pittsburgh, Railroads, Streetcars)
King Bag, Queen Rag: 1941
... Niagara River just below the Falls. Soon after, he built Pittsburgh's Sixth Street Bridge (1859). The Cincinnati bridge that now bears ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/03/2022 - 4:34pm -

Spring 1941. "View under Roebling Suspension Bridge of Cincinnati from Kentucky side of the Ohio River. Waterfront showing numerous business houses: King Bag Company, Queen City Rag & Paper Company and others." 4x5 inch acetate negative for the FSA. View full size. Gee?? No: G&EThat would be the Cincinnati Gas and Electric building, on the left (view cut off by the bridge). It's still around. The building to the right, the Cincinnati and Suburban Bell Telphone Building, isn't (replaced by a formidable mass named Atrium Two). If fate could only save one of these, I think it made the right choice. Roebling before and afterIt is impossible to overestimate the importance of John A. Roebling in the history of American bridge building and civil engineering. Suspension bridges were his specialty. Before the Cincinnati project, he completed the first railway suspension bridge (1855), across the Niagara River just below the Falls. Soon after, he built Pittsburgh's Sixth Street Bridge (1859). The Cincinnati bridge that now bears his name took eleven years to complete (1867) due to work stopping during the Civil War. Finally came the most celebrated bridge ever built, the Brooklyn Bridge over New York's East River. Roebling deserves credit for the design, though he died (of tetanus caused by an accident at the site) six months before construction began. His son, Washington Roebling (who had worked on the Cincinnati bridge), finished the project. More green, less gritHere is the view today. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Cincinnati Photos)
Queen and Commoner: 1906
... the passage of taller boats to further upstream ports like Pittsburgh under some river conditions. Hinged stacks could address the issue, ... would somehow limit the growth and economic viability of Pittsburgh, so the state championed the case against the bridge that was 50 ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/29/2012 - 2:43pm -

The Ohio River circa 1906. "Coney Island Co. sidewheeler Island Queen at Cincinnati." Let her not blind us to the more modest charms of the Guiding Star. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Riggers and allPoor forlorn rowboats! There, I mentioned them so they wouldn't be left out too. House on the HillAcross the river, on the middle right is a fantastic gothic mansion on top of the hill. Anyone know what that is? I hope it still exists. The Ohio and the Licking This photo was made near the present day Great American Ballpark from the Ohio side looking south over the river toward Kentucky. The river in the background going under the bridge is the Licking, which runs between Covington and Newport. Women and Children FirstEven if we assume there are two more lifeboats on the starboard side, they're gonna fill up fast. "Guiding Star""Come over and visit us anytime in our humble boat. Please be careful when walking the plank." Folding StacksI wonder how long and how many crew it took to lower/raise those stacks to get under a low bridge. [I doubt if there were any "low bridges" across the Ohio. - Dave] too few life boats!And I thought that the Titanic didn't have enough life boats! Low clearanceThere may not have been low bridges, but there were low hanging wires. The Island Queen hit one that knocked down her stacks in 1914. The Guiding Star is most likely a wharf boat for a steamer of the same name. Guiding Star was another excursion boat making trips to Coney Island amusement park. Re: Folding StacksPerhaps there were no "low bridges" across the Ohio River but there were certainly times of high water. A prior Shorpy post: Steam Under the Bridge: 1906, shows the sidewheeler City of Cincinnati having to fold its stacks in order to pass under a Cincinnati bridge during a period of high water. The Island Queen appears to have similar hinges and rigging to enable lowering its stacks. Church SteepleThe church to the left of the bridge is the Salem Methodist Church. It had the highest steeple in Newport, KY. The Church is still standing and is known as The Stained Glass Theater and is used for community theater productions. However, the steeple was demolished by a tornado in 1986. View Larger Map Gaurd dog!Watch out for the little doggy when approaching the Guiding Star. House on the HillThe "House on the Hill" is actually two houses. The front one is the Graziani House. http://www.nkyviews.com/kenton/kenton1941.htm Its still there but with the fourth/fifth story tower visible in the photo has been removed. View Larger Map The one in the back is the Shinkle Mansion, on the other side of Second St. from the Graziani. http://www.nkyviews.com/kenton/kenton666.htm It was later donated to the Salvation Army for use as a hospital, and was demolished in 1920; replaced by a newer hospital building. http://www.nkyviews.com/kenton/pdf/bricking_shinkle.pdf A regal beauty indeedWow! What a mighty Queen! And moving at a fair clip, judging by the wake, and the spray at the bow. I always find it disturbing, though, when a ship's flags, and smoke, are blowing in the direction of travel, as they are here. More on stack heightsAlthough clearance under the later Cincinnati bridges at normal Ohio River water levels may not have been a problem, quite a brouhaha developed further upstream over clearance issues in 1847. The town of Wheeling Virginia (it didn't end up being in West Virginia until the 1863 split) built a suspension bridge to carry the National/Cumberland Road across the Ohio that impeded the passage of taller boats to further upstream ports like Pittsburgh under some river conditions. Hinged stacks could address the issue, but the steamboat operators (who favored high stacks for their boiler draft efficiency and ash/cinder/smoke dispersion benefits) didn't think they should have to bear extra equipment/crew/maintenance costs so bridge developers could save money by skimping on clearance height. Add in the desire of the community to avoid the negative infrastructure/condemnation process impact of higher and necessarily longer approach ramps through already developed areas and you had the makings of a lawsuit. The steamboat operators were apparently able to convince the state of Pennsylvania that their having to fold their stacks would somehow limit the growth and economic viability of Pittsburgh, so the state championed the case against the bridge that was 50 miles downriver in another state. None other than E. M. Stanton (namesake of a certain serial Shorpy poster) represented the state of Pennsylvania in a landmark lawsuit against the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company, but even in losing produced a still important interpretation of the Commerce Clause of the U.S Constitution and clearly demonstrated the need for something like the Interstate Commerce Act, which Congress got around to enacting a quarter of a century later. Someone even wrote a book on the case. At one point, even Mother Nature appeared to weigh into the battle, and on the side of Pittsburgh by taking out the six year old bridge with a storm in 1854. It was rebuilt and survives to this day through laudable preservation efforts. Dave's crafted photo of the Island Queen is one of the clearest I've see in terms of stack hinge and folding mechanism detail. Bridges and MansionsRiverboat interests were so strong in Cincinnati that all the bridges were built high enough so the smokestacks wouldn't need to be lowered, at least until certain high water or flood stages anyway. The Island Queen was used to take patrons between the Cincinnati Riverfront and the Coney Island amusement park that remains today upstream on the Ohio River in the city's California neighborhood. In 1905 the 12 year old steamboat "Saint Joseph" from Mississippi was refitted and renamed the "Island Queen" that we see here. It was destroyed by fire in 1922. There's dozens of great photos of the old gal and her successors at: http://wiki.cincinnatilibrary.org/index.php/Island_Queen It didn't end wellMy boyfriend's great grandfather, Fred Dickow, was the chief engineer on the Island Queen when it blew up while in port in Pittsburgh, PA. It's said that he lit a welding torch to repair a loose stanchion near some oil tanks causing a spark to ignite an explosion. He was a veteran engineer who had worked for the company for 30 years. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19470911&id=sFsbAAAAIBAJ&... MemoriesGrowing up in the Cincinnati area in the late 30s and 40s, I rode the Island Queen to Coney Island Park many times. I had no idea that there was more than one Island Queen, but it appears that they all seem to have been side wheelers, not the more common stern wheelers. In my case, I was much more excited about riding the "Queen" than attending Coney Island. I remember watching the Island Queen approaching the Cincinnati public landing, coming downstream from Coney. I think the steam calliope could be heard all over town! The side wheels would slowly stop, then reverse until she had stopped some what below the landing, then one side wheel would slowly reverse direction and she would slowly turn in place 180 degrees. Then she would move ahead and slowly maneuver to the landing. Beautiful! Once on board I would go to the lower deck to watch the fascinating machinery. There was a huge (at least it seemed huge to me) wood walking beam on each side that connected the engines to the paddle wheels, and they were painted white, trimmed in red, polished, adorned with several large red stars. If I remember correctly, there was an annual race against the Delta Queen. It was very sad to hear of her demise in Pittsburgh. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Cincinnati Photos, DPC)
Webb and Mother
John Wilson Webb, in Pittsburgh, weighs 120 lbs at 34 months. April 17, 1909. From the George ... carry heavier loads than us. (Curiosities, G.G. Bain, Pittsburgh) ... 
 
Posted by Ken - 09/11/2011 - 11:33am -

John Wilson Webb, in Pittsburgh, weighs 120 lbs at 34 months. April 17, 1909. From the George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. Feh.I see three or four of these kids every day now. You got THAT right! Three orYou got THAT right! Three or four at LEAST! Weight-Lifting MommaMan, Mom's gotta have a strong back--my 3 year old weighs less than thirty pounds and even she gets heavy after awhile. I can't imagine lugging this little bouncing baby boy around. uncommon?I am assuming that the kids size was fairly uncommon at that time? Unfortunately, this day and age you see this all too often. fast foodI didn't think McDonalds was around back then. How strange. The Kid.The kid is two and he could be a bouncer in a bar! A.) He has his mother'sA.) He has his mother's chin. B.) In the picture on the right he looks like he was considering the possibility of eating the camera man! Luckily I think you could outrun him. Mom's Chin"A.) He has his mother's chin." Yeah, both of them! Not an easy pathHe probably had something called Prader-Willi Syndrome, it's a condition that makes kids get very big (there isn't a mechanism in their brain chemistry that tells them they are full, and they are just large people because of the syndrome, built with a very square heavy build and a large head), they are often developmentally delayed, and aggressive or violent. It isn't easy being the parent of a Prader-Willi kid, my heart goes out to the mom...particularly since it wouldn't have been recognized as a specific chromosomal abnormality at that point. 120 lbs?Wow, she held him when he was 120 lbs. Oh my... I guess back then, they all were so used to carry heavier loads than us. (Curiosities, G.G. Bain, Pittsburgh)
An Uphill Climb: 1941
January 1941. "Street in the mill district in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." Medium format acetate negative by Jack Delano for ... this picture Charles Dickens recorded his impression of Pittsburgh in his "American Notes" as "Hell with the lid off". In an ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/05/2019 - 2:39pm -

January 1941. "Street in the mill district in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." Medium format acetate negative by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. A Bit of ClassIn what looks like an otherwise dreary, polluted, hardscrable existence. Kudos to the hard-working people who lived and toiled in Company and Factory Towns. Forget Buying that Workout Machine!Could you imagine walking up that hill every day? I'll bet she's got calves you could bust concrete on! And she probably has asthma to boot, because of all that smog! Handrail?I don't see a handrail. Wood wouldn't last three winters and a metal one would be rendered useless in the freezing cold. Tough place to eke out life. [Au contraire. - Dave] About a century before this pictureCharles Dickens recorded his impression of Pittsburgh in his "American Notes" as "Hell with the lid off". In an industrial city, smoke was a sign of prosperity and therefore good; but even in olden times, smoke could be too much of a good thing. Important safety tip. Do NOT miss that sharp, sudden right hand turn at the bottom. Today, we would spin that as an "infinity street". Old placesIt is interesting that in photos like these and in so many others from even earlier times, things look old and worn - the buildings, the walls. It's almost like they were built old, that they were never new or nice. "Hell with the lid off"That quote is often attributed to Charles Dickens (he visited Pittsburg, no "h" yet, in 1842), but it actually came from Boston area biographer James Parton in 1868. "Hell with the Lid Off" is also the title of a book about the intense rivalry between the Steelers and the Oakland Raiders in the 1970s. Hell!In my copy of Dickens's "American Notes" the section on Pittsburgh is titled "Hell with the Lid off." I suppose an editor must have liked Mr. Parton's phrase enough to borrow it. This would account for a false attribution. I'll need to consult my edition but IIRC, the editor also added the "h" to Pittsburgh. (The Gallery, Dogs, Factories, Jack Delano, Pittsburgh)
The Alvin: 1905
Pittsburgh circa 1905. "Alvin Theatre." Coming soon: Eva Tanguay, "The Sambo ... and the "Bridal Eve" painted curtain in the theatre. "Pittsburgh in stages: two hundred years of theater" By Lynne Conner Seats ... is the same view from July of 2016. (The Gallery, DPC, Pittsburgh) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/08/2012 - 7:11pm -

Pittsburgh circa 1905. "Alvin Theatre." Coming soon: Eva Tanguay, "The Sambo Girl." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. "America's Prettiest Theatre"Apparently, even the dressing rooms were well-appointed. The conservatory on the main floor featured a fountain that sprayed "Lily of the Nile" perfume. While all the public areas were well-appointed and luxurious (a diamond collection, reputedly worth $100,000, owned by Charles L, Davis, the Alvin's owner), a special lounge for ladies was especially so. It featured a white grand piano, white upholstered furnishings, and white satin pillows. Davis, himself, handed out silver spoons and photos of the male stars to unattended ladies at the ladies' matinees. Below are photos of the "Green room" at the Alvin, and the "Bridal Eve" painted curtain in the theatre. "Pittsburgh in stages: two hundred years of theater" By Lynne Conner Seats all of 12Careful walking in as you may hit not one but both sidewalls. The adjacent buildings are like a Play-Doh machine squeezing out the Alvin. Lady Gaga circa 1905Slate did a story on Eva Tanguay a couple years ago, calling her the first rock star. From the article, her costuming sounds intriguing and yet familiar in 2011. She was a clothes horse, famous for her lavish wardrobe budget, whose details she leaked to the press. Her performances were fashion shows as much as concerts; in the course of a 30-minute vaudeville appearance, she would change outfits 10 times. The costumes, which Tanaguy claimed to have designed herself, were avant-garde and architectural: hats that rose several feet above her head, constructed from ribbons, bells, leaves, ostrich plumes; gowns made of feathers, beads, dollar bills, seashells, coral. A particular cause célèbre was Tanguay's "$40 dress"—a garment fashioned from 4,000 pennies. (It weighed 45 pounds.) When "Salome-mania" swept vaudeville in 1908, Tanguay made sure that her Dance of the Seven Veils was the raciest, her dress the skimpiest. "I can fit the entire costume in my closed fist," she told reporters. http://www.slate.com/id/2236658/ Common floor plan for theatres of the dayThe ill-fated Iroquois Theatre in Chicago was built on the same principle, with a narrow storefront and an L-shaped extension curling around the adjacent building. Still There, Sort OfThe building next door under construction is what would eventually become the Gayety Theater and still stands. The Alvin Theater was located at 119 6th Street. Interestingly, the current building at that location has retained the distinctive type of sign above the sidewalk (it is unclear whether the same structure exists under a more modern facade). View Larger Map Make way for EvaOr rather, stay out of Eva's way. The eccentric music hall performer (1879-1947), whose fans included Aleister Crowley, once was fined for shoving a stagehand down a flight of stairs. Her signature song was "(They Say I'm Crazy but) I Don't Care": http://www.archive.org/details/EvaTanguay. Other hits included "That's Why They Call Me Tabasco" and "I'd Like to be an Animal in the Zoo." The last was featured in "The Sambo Girl," so the lucky patrons of the Alvin Theatre got to hear it. She is said to haunt the Cohoes Music Hall near Albany, New York. GloriousIt looks like it would specialize in "short subjects." Fit as a fiddleThis building is now a fitness center. The imposing stone structure next to it is a hotel, the Renaissance. There's still a theater next to the hotel now, the Byham, a small, ornately decorated venue with frescoes on the ceiling. Highly recommended. Alt-AlvinThe Alvin's roof collapsed in 1940 and the building was either remodeled or rebuilt as the J. P. Harris Theatre, eventually renamed the Gateway Theatre. In 1980 it was remodeled as a health club. It was bigger than it lookedBuilt in 1891 at 119 6th Street, the Alvin seated 2000 and had a stage that was 48 feet deep. Sometime in the late 30s, the auditorium roof partially collapsed. The theatre was rebuilt on a plan by famous atmospheric designer John Eberson and reopened in 1941 as the 2100-seat J. P. Harris Theatre. It was renamed the Gateway in 1961 and operated until 1980. The building is still there, most recently housing the City Club. The building still under construction at left in the pic contained two theatres on its completion. It's now the Renaissance Hotel and still houses the Byham Theatre. What's your bid?For the 1905 issue of Scientific American in the Barbershop window, mint condition. Commercial HotelWhat sort of "commerce" might be conducted at the Commercial Hotel (on the right)? +111Below is the same view from July of 2016. (The Gallery, DPC, Pittsburgh)
Wood Street: 1910
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, circa 1910. "Wood Street from Liberty Avenue." 8x10 ... Wood. Wagons in the Trolley Tracks The gauge of Pittsburgh's trolley system was (and still is) 5 feet 2½ inches. Trolley ... a reason for abandonment or conversion to buses. All of Pittsburgh's downtown street trackage was abandoned in the mid-1980s when the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/02/2012 - 7:41pm -

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, circa 1910. "Wood Street from Liberty Avenue." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Rooftop reveilleWhy is there a cornet (or bugle) atop that building on the right? "Hamilton Music" From the street level sign, I'm guessing the store is closely related to the bugle rooftop weathervane. History Channel's American Pickers would just love to find that in some dusty Pennsylvania barn! BuglePerhaps because of it being a music store of some sort, look down where it says, "Hamilton Pianos." The view hasn't changed too muchView Larger Map It's actually fairly the same these days. Riding the RailsCheck out how many horse-drawn vehicles have their wheels set at exactly the right gauge to ride the streetcar rails (or flangeways). The rails were by far the smoothest part of the street, and outside of the central business district were often part of the only paved area. This photo has just about the perfect angle to illustrate this "riding the rails" habit that the streetcar companies found so irritating. Ex-Post FactoidI used to work in the Post Building, before we moved our office over to Penn Avenue. It's still there, as is the Granite Building (which is magnificent) on the same side just before the next intersection. The triangular building is now a subway station. The whole next block has been replaced, between Sixth and Oliver on Wood. Wagons in the Trolley TracksThe gauge of Pittsburgh's trolley system was (and still is) 5 feet 2½ inches. Trolley companies were often required to pave the area of their tracks as part of the operating franchise arrangements with the cities and towns where they operated. It was an onerous responsibility and when they began losing money it was often a reason for abandonment or conversion to buses. All of Pittsburgh's downtown street trackage was abandoned in the mid-1980s when the subway was completed. The system once had more than 600 miles of tracks in and around the city. It's too bad more of the system wasn't saved as the tracks would once again be the smoothest part of some of our deplorably paved streets. (The Gallery, DPC, Pittsburgh, Streetcars)
The Scenic Route: 1941
June 1941. "Railroad. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for ... was taken from the Bloomfield Bridge looking west to Pittsburgh and Penn station. The tall smokestack in the upper center exists today and was the boiler house for Pittsburgh Brewing Company (Iron City Beer). The church on the ridge to the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/03/2020 - 11:41am -

June 1941. "Railroad. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. From the Bloomfield BridgeThis picture was taken from the Bloomfield Bridge looking west to Pittsburgh and Penn station. The tall smokestack in the upper center exists today and was the boiler house for Pittsburgh Brewing Company (Iron City Beer). The church on the ridge to the upper right is now the Church Brew Works Brewery. Only three of the tracks remain. The East Busway now occupies the area where the tracks are to the left. The passenger cars in the picture are being stored and staged for trains at Penn Station. Where are the locomotives?I have scoured this photo looking for a locomotive but I do not see one. Hope there are no passengers in those railcars! Looks RealThis actual photo looks like it could be a diorama for a model train layout. If that was the case they did a really great job of "simulating" the smoke and haze in the distance. Choo-choocough, cough! Except for the smoke----it looks like a REALLY model train set Scenic!What a great scene! Coal pollution aside, this really makes me want to lay some track ... Train SetWith all the coal smoke, a black and grey model train set would look really neat. Not Exactly a View of ParadiseIt looks to me like those trains are heading out to collect more of the damned! (The Gallery, Factories, John Vachon, Pittsburgh, Railroads)
Sixth Street Bridge: 1910
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, circa 1910. "Sixth Street Bridge over Allegheny ... Mr. Rick Seeback does a lot of these TV specials for old Pittsburgh that were once here but now are gone!! Coraopolis ... day ('60s, '70s, '80s) (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Pittsburgh, Railroads, Streetcars) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/02/2018 - 7:31am -

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, circa 1910. "Sixth Street Bridge over Allegheny River." In 1927 this span was moved 12 miles to a crossing over the Ohio River, where it spent the remainder of its long life as the Coraopolis Bridge. View full size. Water MatterIt looks as though Patterson Coal Co. had their own portapotty with a gravity flush. Can anyone say typhoid? This old bridgeThis bridge was replaced by one that opened in 1928 and subsequently became the Roberto Clemente Bridge. The bridge pictured didn't meet War Department standards for clearance. In 1927 it was floated 12 miles downstream to a crossing over the Ohio River and reassembled as the Coraopolis Bridge. After decades of increasing decrepitude, it was replaced in 1995 by a boring truss span. PRRThe train tracks in the foreground are probably those of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It looks like an old "NC" 4 wheel bobber cabin car {caboose} at the right of the photo. These were declared unsafe and illegal for mainline use by the ICC, and many were stretched into a 2 truck version. My grandmother might have walked on this bridge.She lived in McKeesport, PA, born in 1899, my mom was born in McKeesport in 1938. The DemolitionThe first two minutes of this well done video show the bridge in its heyday and its ultimate demolition. Very neat stuff, even for someone who has never been there -- me. Cops for coalIf memory serves, then the Patterson Coal and Supply building on the river would now be the River Rescue building. There was a Bruce Willis movie shot there called "Striking Distance." The picture would be taken from the spot where PNC Park now sits. The river looks wider now than it does in the pic. Tags Patterson Coal & Supply Second Pool Coal Co. T. Calnan The Laader Zatek Patterson CoalAlthough the Patterson Coal building is in the same place as the current River Rescue, it's a different building---among other things, the new one is square, and I seem to recall it having some kind of artificial-material siding on it, though I can't get a picture of it at the moment. Clemente Bridge 2010Here's a recent snap of almost the same scene. The Demolition ClipMr. Rick Seeback does a lot of these TV specials for old Pittsburgh that were once here but now are gone!! Coraopolis "Cory" BridgeI remember that bridge. My buddies and Me, we used to fish down there, anat. Neville Island Backchannel. Hippy Beach. Q: "Hey, yinz cetchin inny catfish dahn air below da dam, anat?" A: "Naw, nuttin but a coupla rock bass, coupla rock bass!" Yeah, good times in the Burgh, back in the day ('60s, '70s, '80s) (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Pittsburgh, Railroads, Streetcars)
The Rubber Store: 1908
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, circa 1908. "Liberty Avenue at Seventh Avenue, ... was named for Thomas J. Keenan, principal owner of the Pittsburgh Press. Keenan kept the dome as his luxurious penthouse. Rumors that he entertained a whole generation of Pittsburgh women there gave the building a scandalous reputation. The dome ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/02/2021 - 1:53pm -

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, circa 1908. "Liberty Avenue at Seventh Avenue, looking west." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. The Rubber StoreI mean, I chuckled for a sec but rememembering this was 1908, assume it meant galoshes, boots and maybe hipwaders for the sporting types. Not, um ... you know. [Also hot water bottles, trusses, irrigation bulbs, rubber gloves, etc. - Dave] +103Below is the same view from July of 2011. About that domed building...I used to work one block south of this scene. From my office on the 23rd floor, I looked out at the Keenan Building. When completed in 1907, the building was the tallest in the city. Its dome was originally gilded, but is now dark red. The building was named for Thomas J. Keenan, principal owner of the Pittsburgh Press. Keenan kept the dome as his luxurious penthouse. Rumors that he entertained a whole generation of Pittsburgh women there gave the building a scandalous reputation. The dome has been used for storage for many years. Help Me OutI keep falling into the images produced by 8x10 Glass Negatives. On another topic, recalling a Monty Python scene in the short attached to 'The Meaning Of Life' - a Very Big Corporation executive asks the Board "Did someone say people aren't wearing enough hats?" (The Gallery, DPC, Pittsburgh, Stores & Markets, Streetcars)
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