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- Not an electric
- Now there's something you don't see every day
- Mission accomplished
- There's Gold In Them There Sawdust Now.
- Look out
- Where should I park, dear?
- Beehive Burners
- Wake up, little Susie
- 8 Gardiner Way
- Tough Life?
- Limericks
- NSFW
- Maybe they're lost?
- No more tailboarding
- Ask the boy who owned one
- The car
- Usually wigwam shaped.
- It works!
- One of 149?
- Wondering
- Re: All black
- A Country Song Comes to Mind
- ... Other Rooms
- If you don't like my driving
- White Sands
- Tried so hard
- Anaglyph of Susie
- Back step Firefighters
- E-4 Before integration of DCFD
- Free Viewing
Photos submitted by Shorpy members.
Colorized photos submitted by members.
Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.
© 2019 SHORPY INC.
[REV 25-NOV-2014]
Vintage photos of:
Fill the Flag: 1918
Detroit, 1918. "Cadillac Square and Real Estate Exchange from City Hall." Also a view of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument with World War I patriotic signage as the backdrop. Now playing at the corner movie palace: the "cinemelodrama" Cheating the Public. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative. View full size.
Inflation
"Mr Waitt?" "Yes, Mr. Bond?" "We need to increase our cigar prices to 11c." "You realise that means changing the big sign?" "OK, forget it..."
Gratiot Streetcar
The streetcar at the bottom left of the photo is headed for Gratiot Avenue, a major artery from the centre of the city to the northeast. By 1956 Gratiot and Woodward were the last two remaining car lines when the system closed down. Streetcars run again today along Woodward Avenue's Q Line. Pronunciation note: The locals all pronounce Gratiot as "Gra-shit" without batting an eye.
A city in decline
This type of architecture is probably a thing of the past, unfortunately. Below is a picture from Historic Detroit that shows the demolition of this great building, one floor at a time.
Cadillac Square Today
Here's the approximate view today, but from ground level. The Real Estate Exchange was demolished in 1976 to make room for a proposed mall. The remaining tall white building is the Cadillac Tower, the REE's similar, taller neighbor, built a few years after the 1918 photo.
Cheating the Public.
Fox Film 1918, another lost Silent.
Too bad because it looks quite exciting.
["Thrilling food riots"! - Dave]
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