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New York Giants: 1900
New York, 1900. "St. Paul and Park Row buildings, two tallest buildings in the ... Row & St. Paul 1908 This postcard from a New York City friend, was sent to my grandparents in August of 1908. May have ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/19/2012 - 11:38pm -

New York, 1900. "St. Paul and Park Row buildings, two tallest buildings in the world." Note the campaign banner at the bottom of the photo, shot from the Woodbridge building. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing. View full size. Tiny Sample HatsWhen we emptied out my parents' house of 54 years worth of stuff saved, I found two small miniature oval hat boxes in perfect condition from Knox Hats. Each contained a finely detailed sample of one of their products and I saved them because they were so unique. After seeing this picture today I put "Tiny Knox Hats" in the search space and came up with pages of info, several of which were people selling salesmens' samples of same. I had no idea these are collectible and now I have to find the ones I brought home which were not shown on the "vintage collectibles" auctions. My father always wore a hat and he had many including Knox, Adams, Dobbs, Stetsons, Danbury, Russian fur, Panamas, etc. and I donated them all to a thrift store. Now I wish I had them. We get too soon old and too late smart. Man on LedgeIf you look at the building (the one with all the window shutters open) to the right of the Knox the Hatter building, you will see a man standing on a ledge on the floor just below the roof. There is a large oil or water tank to his right. I don't think he was a window washer. Could he have been a sign painter who was about to paint a message on the large black rectangle on the side of the building right in back of him? To say that he is perched precariously would be an understatement. DPOC TCCThey'd probably just turn themselves into an acronym today I would say the photo is circa September 26, 1896. [McKinley ran with Roosevelt in 1900, not 1896. Also, the Woodbridge Building was erected in 1897. - tterrace] Whoops, I stand corrected. This was for his 2nd term campaign. The extract I posted from the New York Times (deleted by Shorpy, I guess) was in preparation for his 1st term. Hat HistoryKnox the Hatter was clearly a mover and shaker in Old New York. Read all about it here and here. Knox the HatterDuring my commuting days I remember seeing a Knox Hats shop on 8th Ave across the street from the Port Authority. They had a beautiful neon sign and it stood out from the other grimy storefronts along the street. Armeny & Marion PensIn the early 1870's Armeny & Marion Co. made extension pens under their own name, but they soon began to make these along with gold filled caps for stylographic pens and gold bands to supply other pen makers. Armeny & Marion Co. was a very early investor in Lewis Waterman's Ideal Pen co. Armeny & Marion Co Skyscrapers in search of a paradigmIt's interesting to see that these structures are, despite their giant size, still following the model of the storefronts and brownstones at the bottom of the frame -- embellished street-front facades, with the rear and sides very plain or totally unadorned, resulting in two or three completely different architectural treatments for the same building. Note the blank-faced section of the St. Paul facing us, fronted with a zillion bricks, enclosing the ventilation and elevator or stair shafts. It looks like an urban grain elevator. (For the street-front sides, see this view.) Where's the water?The first thing I noticed are the missing water towers. I see a few, but if you look out onto NYC rooftops today all you'll see are the water towers, looking like fat, rusty spaceships. Park Row & St. Paul 1908This postcard from a New York City friend, was sent to my grandparents in August of 1908. May have answered my questionI think I may have found the reason why the aforementioned man is perched on the ledge of the building with all the shutters open. I started looking more closely and discovered that there is another man two floors below and slightly to the left that seems to be on a scaffold. It looks as though he is painting the shutters. If you look in back of the first man higher up, you can see a bucket. It looks as if these two were painters. This would also explain why all the shutters were thrown open the way they were: they had just been painted and were in the process of drying. Bldgs and streets?Can someone please post a current view, and ID the tallest spires and the streets that are visible? Is that the old Post Office to the right of the 2 skyscrapers? Is view to west or northwest? (The Gallery, DPC, NYC)
Co-op Gas: 1941
... war had never taken place. I only know of co-ops in New York City I thought co-ops were member owned apartments in the Big Apple. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/13/2020 - 8:31pm -

August 1941. "Cooperative gas station in Minneapolis, Minnesota." Medium format acetate negative by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Co-Op Doo-WopThis photo has a very 1950s look to it. I suppose life, fashion, architecture and design in particular, took a break during the '40s while all efforts focused on WWII. Sometimes I wonder how different the 1950s would have been if the war had never taken place. I only know of co-ops in New York CityI thought co-ops were member owned apartments in the Big Apple. Well, they are. I didn't know about other co-op ventures, like this service station. By the way, if you look by the left shoulder of the attendant, you'll see Walker Mufflers for sale. I did a search on Walker exhaust and muffler systems, and by golly, they are still in business. The things you find out here -- Neon TowerI'd love to see a night photo of this Moderne gas station, since the tower has lots of neon tubing on it. There is some neon around the overhang as well. Canada has lots of Co-op gas stations, particularly on the Prairies and in the West. Here is a list of Co-op stations on Vancouver Island, with the Canadian term "gas bar" used. Fill it Up?Just think, most people under 40 or so have never had a person come out and fill up their tank at the gas station.* I remember the first time I had to do it myself. It was down south in 1976. We ended up with self-serve up north where I lived a few years later. [*Unless you live in New Jersey or Oregon. - Dave] TiresI remember when they came spiral-wrapped in brown paper. August 1941Four more months that pile of tires will be just a memory. All the rubber for the war effort among a host of other sacrifices by Americans and their families. Co-OpedThere was a Co-Op gas station in my home town in central Ohio in the 1950s and '60s. It was part of the Farm Bureau agricultural supplies center, which was run as a cooperative with local farmers. CO-OP ragtopWow! All the way from Virginia in a 1941 Buick convertible (rag top). Probably not many convertibles in Minneapolis due to the short top down season and long northern winters. Pre-war good times. Red River Co-opThe full name of the Co-op gas stations and supermarkets in Manitoba is Red River Co-op. Photos below are of Winnipeg, my hometown. The Virginian brideA plausible candidate for the driver of the car in the Minneapolis gas station in August 1941 with Virginia plates is photographer Post Wolcott. Before the war and rationing FSA photographers drove more than they hopped trains. We know Marion Post had wed Leon Oliver Wolcott by August because her colleague John Vachon reported the news to his wife Penny in a June 27, 1941 letter. Her groom was a deputy director of a section of the Department of Agriculture, and in her 1965 oral history she explained that her marriage came with two children and a farm. Her Smithsonian bio places the farm in Virginia. Before August 1941 was over, her car had reached grain elevators in Minot, North Dakota, dude ranchers in Birney, Montana and a farm family in Laredo, and main street in Sheridan, Wyoming. Massachusetts has a local option Attendant required to fill tank in the next town over. Yeah, it's weird. Since only the folks who live there are inexperienced at filling their own tanks. The rest of us come from places where we're trusted to manage on our own. It's a "safety" thing, I guess, like the stickers requiring you to turn off your cellphone while filling, which seem to have disappeared. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Gas Stations, M.P. Wolcott, Minneapolis-St. Paul)
Pittsburgh: 1941
... This image is as fantastic to me as something from the new Star Trek movie - and I mean that as a compliment. So inclined My ... has a hula lamp. Honore Sharrer Yesterday's New York Times carried the obituary of Honore Sharrer, "a noted American artist of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/22/2018 - 11:03am -

January 1941. "Long stairway in mill district of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." Medium-format nitrate negative by Jack Delano for the FSA. View full size. HauntingSad but yet beautiful photograph. You can hear the ice crunching under the woman's steps on the long stairway. Would love to see a picture today to see what remains. When the mills closedI moved to Pittsburgh (Ambridge) in 1980 and the sky was yellow. By 1984 when I left the sky was blue...most of the mills had closed. This scene could be anywhere in the Pittsburgh area and is really representative of what it was like. Except for the vintage car, I've been in this scene. I don't understand why I'm coughing......maybe it's the pollen??? Less smoggy, still cloudyWell, the hills are still there! The mills, not so much. The smell of moneyLooks downright Dickensian. There is a pulp mill out in the bay near where I live. For decades it belched a foul smelling brew of toxins from the stacks until the owners were forced to install scrubbers to clean up the exhaust. Now you'd hardly know it was there. When someone would complain to my friend's dad, who worked there for decades, he would reply, "That's the smell of money." City StepsA few years ago Bob Regan documented these stairways in a book called "The Steps of Pittsburgh." There are some 700 stairways all over the city. From the publisher's website: Many of Pittsburgh's steps are legal streets, and all of them reflect the city's unique topography and history. Together, these 712 sets of steps provide a vital link in the city's transportation system as well as unusual challenges for pedestrians, joggers, the bike police, and especially pizza delivery. . . . San Franciscans like to boast about their steps and consider them a top tourist attraction, but they "only" have 350 sets. Cincinnatians do the same, but claim a mere 400. Neither have steps that are legal streets. Pittsburgh is clearly King of the Steps and a place beloved by the self-propelled. Whether you're an active step trekker or an armchair climber, The Steps of Pittsburgh should be on your to-do list! Every year there's an event called the Step Trek that takes participants all over the steps on the South Side Slopes. It's pretty cool and great exercise! Thanks for the beautiful photograph. Led ZeppelinI was raised in a small, very industrial Connecticut town in the 1940's which had a similar wooden staircase from Main Street over the railroad tracks. When we had to attend church, it was necessary to ascend these many, many stairs, after which we were faced with a steep, almost straight up hill, to get to the level of tiers on which our church stood. It was so steep, the concrete was scored about every inch to give better footing and in icy, snowy weather, it was a real challenge. I used to think of it as a stairway to Heaven, and then the title above came out with their hit song. I thought of it first. The town was Seymour, for all you doubting Thomases. The church was St. Augustine's. Good day. Smoke ControlPittsburgh passed strict (for the time) environmental laws a year later, in 1941. What they called "smoke control" back then was delayed until after the war, but went into effect in 1946 and cleaned up the city's air well before the steel industry went south. Smoke Gets in Your EyesMy dad visited cousins in Pittsburgh around the same time this photo was taken. He spoke of sitting on the front porch and watching soot settle on the railing. Hell with its hat offI saw that caption on a picture of a Pittsburgh populated by stacks belching smoke in the bad old industrial days. My daughter is studying ballet there now. It's a different place, really an beautiful city. Not hard to find reminders of those days, though -- soot-blackened buildings and decrepit factory sites. Bisbee, ArizonaAnother vertical metallurgical town where stairways take the place of streets. Three shirt townThey used to call Pittsburgh a three shirt town. You'd wear one in the morning until the sweat and soot mixture was turning your collar gray, then change into another at lunch, and then into a third at dinnertime. I Had No IdeaI had no idea that Pittsburgh was a city of steps. You learn something every day. Thanks for posting this beautiful picture. Photos of some of the city's steps here (http://www.frontiernet.net/~rochballparks2/towns/pgh_steps.htm) for those as ignorant as I of the wonders of Pittsburgh! Epic PicThis is an epic capture. Its like a frame from some Academy Award bait movie. This image is as fantastic to me as something from the new Star Trek movie - and I mean that as a compliment. So inclinedMy son delivers appliances in Pittsburgh, a challenge in that city. And watching a cable guy run a new wire is like having a front row seat a Cirque du Soleil. One of our roofers lives on one of these "stairway streets". He says that there are 214 stair steps to reach his front door and that the number one rule in his household is that you never enter or leave empty-handed. Those Steps...........look like a heart attack waiting to happen. I'm surprised someone didn't rig up some type of trolley to get from one end to the other (both ways). Dig Sixteen TonsAngular staircase, belching factory, grim lack of scenery: Makes me think of the bleak urban intro to Joe Versus the Volcano. Gotta hope someone in one of those houses has a hula lamp. Honore SharrerYesterday's New York Times carried the obituary of Honore Sharrer, "a noted American artist of the 1940s and afterward whose bold, witty, incisive paintings documented the daily experiences of ordinary working people. Known for their jewel-like colors and painstaking attention to detail, her paintings were purposely flat, hyperrealistic and strongly narrative in their depiction of everyday life." It doesn't have anything to do with this particular photograph, but I found this part of the obituary to be of interest to Shorpyites: Ms. Sharrer’s masterwork, critics widely agree, is her painting “Tribute to the American Working People.” A five-image polyptych that recalls a medieval or Renaissance altarpiece, it is more than two yards long and a yard high and took five years to paint. Its central figure, a factory worker, is flanked by smaller scenes of ordinary people at a picnic, in a parlor, on a farm and in a schoolroom. Completed in 1951, the painting was unveiled that year at Ms. Sharrer’s first solo exhibition, at the Knoedler Galleries in New York. Reviewing the exhibition in The New York Times, Stuart Preston called “Tribute” “a notable contemporary American painting” and “a bold, frank and fine achievement.” “Tribute,” which is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution, was the subject of an exhibition there in 2007 devoted exclusively to it. Titled “Anatomy of a Painting: Honoré Sharrer’s ‘Tribute to the American Working People,’ ” the exhibition featured much of Ms. Sharrer’s source material, including Farm Security Administration photographs from the late 1930s. Hats off to Jack Delano and all the FSA photographers. "Paper Streets"I live in this neighborhood. The term we use is "paper streets" because on the city map, they look like any other street, but that's only on paper. My girlfriend has called me in tears when her Garmin couldn't get her home because it wanted her car to take staircases. These sets of steps also all have street signs like any other city roadways. Paper Alley"Paper streets" are common here in Pittsburgh and the suburbs, but most common are "paper alleys." There is one directly across the street from me that runs up the side, then in back of all of the houses. It's now covered in grass and woods (and I imagine it has been this way for at least 90 years). My parents used to fight the boro to let them take ownership of the "property," however they have not budged in 35 years. Funny how the local gov't doesn't want to take care of it, and after my parents stopped, the neighbor does on the other side. Love Pittsburgh!I have lived in Pittsburgh all 23 years of my life. I would never live anywhere else. It's sad we can't get this smoke-ridden image out of the minds of people. This is nothing like the city today. Pittsburgh is a beautiful, growing city that is leading the way in green technology. After the steel industry collapse, the city plummeted into debt. Now, we are a shining example. Anyways, that misconception will be shattered with the hosting of the G-20 Summit here in September! Pay attention to the news around that time. Anyways, this is still a great image. You cannot deny this city's history, and the steel industry was vital to the US, especially during WWII. Pittsburgh has always been a pivotal cornerstone in American (and world) history. Does anybody know where this mill is located? Warhol-landThis is the Pittsburgh that artist Andy Warhol was born into in 1928. When this picture was made, a 12-year-old Warhol was living with his family in a house on a soot-covered hillside in a neighborhood just like this. It's Tullymet StreetThese steps connect Sylvan Avenue and Chance Way in the city's Hazelwood neighborhood. The old wooden steps have been replaced with concrete. The house sitting just out of the frame is gone along with most of the homes on Sylvan. [Thanks for the answer to a longstanding question! - Dave] First Three homes are still thereIt looks as if the first 3 homes in the middle of the picture are still there. So cool to finally know where this photo was taken! many thanks to sinking_ship for solving that mystery! This is still one of the most beat up areas in the 'burghWhen I return via Allegheny County airport in W. Mifflin, we always pass thru this area on our way to Oakland. It's pretty sad now but still very recognizable from this photo. My foreign born wife immediately recognized the neighborhood just from the lay of the land. Back in the early 70s I worked the last in-city blast furnaces at Jones & Laughlin steel just down the road towards Oakland. Very glad I had the chance to touch the history before it was gone. Been thereI lived in the third house in from 1953/1960. Glad my house is still there. First Two HomesSince the photo of first three homes still standing was submitted, the third one in is now gone also...along with pretty much everything in the 1940 photo... (The Gallery, Factories, Jack Delano, Pittsburgh)
Flushing New York: 1943
March 1943. "New York, New York. Department of Sanitation street flushing sprinkler truck." One ... IS ____ TO FUND. _____ __ COMING! It says OUR CITY, YOURS & MINE. KEEP IT CLEAN. The Other Half I wonder ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/07/2013 - 12:33pm -

March 1943. "New York, New York. Department of Sanitation street flushing sprinkler truck." One in a series of photos taken by John Vachon for the Office of War Information documenting trucks in the Northeast. View full size. Double FlushingIt would be even better if the truck were in Flushing, as the headline could be Flushing Flushing New York. Olde Buck's other half___ FAT PENSION IS ____ TO FUND. _____ __ COMING! It saysOUR CITY, YOURS & MINE. KEEP IT CLEAN. The Other HalfI wonder what the words are on the right rear door? OUR --- YOURS --- KEEP IT --- I can only guess that the last word is CLEAN. 1933 Autocar Model UT450 1933 Autocar Model UTs were delivered to NYC. See here. Three S'sSnow plow, Suicide door and Semaphore signal. The monster front bumper is typical for snow plow mounting and is used by many city works trucks to this day. The suicide door in this case was an easy answer to deal with cab access. The semaphore turn signal, to the rear of the drivers door window mimicked arm signals and had a lever mounted in the cab most likely connected with a cable. re: 1933 AutocarIt's amazing how little trucks have changed over the years compared to cars. This 80-year-old vehicle would not look completely out of place if you'd see it performing similar duties in a big city today. A good design lasts foreverThe interesting thing is that the design of those street flushing trucks has barely changed since the 1940's. They are still a heavy truck frame with a large water tank in the back and a second smaller motor that runs a pump behind the rear axle (the reason for those large "barn doors" on the back of the tank). The nozzles that spray the water are identical to the ones you would find on a brand new street flusher today. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, NYC)
World Trade Center: 1976
1976. "World Trade Center, New York. Exterior view with Brooklyn Bridge. Minoru Yamasaki, architect." 4x5 inch ... was on that day. It's burned into my memory. New York City Visit in 1986 Ten years later I took this Shorpy photo at the same ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/11/2021 - 12:44pm -

1976. "World Trade Center, New York. Exterior view with Brooklyn Bridge. Minoru Yamasaki, architect." 4x5 inch color transparency, Balthazar Korab Studio. View full size. I admit... that I used to highly dislike the World Trade Center buildings as a very young one. I thought even back then that they were bland and so boring. But they grew into me as I got older. I began to appreciate Mr. Yamasaki's work. I wanted to visit them when I ever got to see NYC back in the 90's. And when in 2007 when first visiting NYC with my hubbie and friends they had the idea to go see the site of the destruction. I totally hated the idea of that kind of tourism. I just stayed at the hotel. I remember the exact time and place I was on that day. It's burned into my memory. New York City Visit in 1986Ten years later I took this Shorpy photo at the same location. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Balthazar Korab, Boats & Bridges, NYC)
Old Orleans: 1890
New Orleans circa 1880s-1890s. "Street in the French Quarter." Take care not to ... far into the house. - Dave] Prior to moving to New York City Nikola Tesla spent some time in New Orleans considering a career in ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/16/2014 - 11:49am -

New Orleans circa 1880s-1890s. "Street in the French Quarter." Take care not to trip on the guttersnipes. 5x7 glass negative by William Henry Jackson. Attribution based on Catalogue of the W.H. Jackson Views (1898). View full size. Gravity-defying porchI'm still trying to figure out how that thin delicate cantilever thing manages to stay up all while taking the load of the porch columns , railings, and roof above. RE: Gravity-defying porchI agree. There appears to be a metal support of some kind on the farside under the porch but the same is missing on the nearside. [The porch is cantilevered on five metal beams that could extend far into the house. - Dave] Prior to moving to New York CityNikola Tesla spent some time in New Orleans considering a career in architecture. When Marie Laveux took a stroll, just as an urchin pointed a stick at a raingutter, he thought of alternating current. And the rest is history. I'll Have You Know!The proper title for those lads is "sidewalk hydrologists." (The Gallery, DPC, Kids, New Orleans, W.H. Jackson)
Nashua: 1908
1908. "Main Street -- Nashua, New Hampshire." At right, offices of the Nashua Telegraph and Fletcher's ... but WalletHub just named Nashua, New Hampshire, the safest city in America. The other nine in the top ten are Columbia, Maryland; South ... Island; Portland, Maine; Casper, Wyoming; Yonkers, New York; Burlington, Vermont; and Scottsdale, Arizona. According to the same ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/20/2023 - 3:43pm -

1908. "Main Street -- Nashua, New Hampshire." At right, offices of the Nashua Telegraph and Fletcher's Optical Parlors. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. 1908 and 2017 PigeonsJust try to tell me pigeons aren't trash birds! Safe spaceMaybe you heard this already but WalletHub just named Nashua, New Hampshire, the safest city in America. The other nine in the top ten are Columbia, Maryland; South Burlington, Vermont; Gilbert, Arizona; Warwick, Rhode Island; Portland, Maine; Casper, Wyoming; Yonkers, New York; Burlington, Vermont; and Scottsdale, Arizona. According to the same study, South Burlington, Vermont (the third safest city), "also tied with Cleveland and Cincinnati, Salem, Oregon, Washington, D.C. and Seattle for the most hate crimes per capita." Uh oh. Maybe move to Burlington, Vermont -- less than three miles away and coming in at ninth on the safest city list. Or just stay put and take your chances. CLOUDS!I don't know if it was luck or some type of different exposure process, but it's rare to see a sky with clouds in these old photos. The cameras couldn't pick up the subtle shades and usually the skies appear completely white even though at the time they may have been overcast or partly cloudy. Because now you can bank onlineWorking left-to-right: JennyPennifer's comment caused me to pay special attention to the police officer walking his beat, just to the left of the wagon parked at the curb. He's dressed like a London Bobby. The four-story building with the curved front is, regrettably, gone. This likely happened when Main Street was straightened, and a newer bridge was built across the Nashua River. The Romanesque church at the end of the street is on the other side of the river. The building at right, which became a bank in jrpollo's update, is now luxury condos, called The Mint. Not to criticize too much, but my first efficiency apartment had more kitchen space. I guess the residents are expected to eat out. A number of nearby restaurants have expanded their al fresco option to include both the sidewalk and the parallel parking spaces in front of their restaurant. Straight and trueI lived in Nashua for 12 wonderful years and lived in the North End right off of Concord. This image did raise a question about the curved building a block from the river crossing. Any straightening alluded to earlier would have taken place much earlier in the 19th century... The Sanborn Insurance maps of 1912 indicate that Main Street and the bridge were already where they are today. But the curved building, identified as the Howard Block gracefully curved to widen the main street from the width of the bridge (I am guessing). Main Street really is three lanes wide in each direction... feels like an avenue in Manhattan. I am also grateful that the Library of Congress has these Sanborn maps...! Terrific detail about buildings and their particular use. Here is the link to that image: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3744nm.g3744nm_g053631912/?sp=32&r=0.517,0... Different process = CLOUDS!Eary photographic processes were primarily sensitive to only blue light. Numerous newer processes throughout the late 19th century added increases sensitivity into the greens and yellows resulting in what we now call orthochromatic materials. It wasn't until around 1906 that a truly panchromatic emulsion with full sensitivity to red was developed. This took several decades to become dominant. It wasn't until the panchromatic films and plates became available that we begin to see photos that can render skies anything other than nearly blank white. Orthochromatic materials remained in use for quite a while largely because you could develop them under a red safelight. Panchromatic materials required total darkness. [Here and here, some clouds from 1864! - Dave] Light grey/white clouds against a blue sky require a panchromatic emulsion, otherwise the clouds and sky reproduce nearly the same light grey. Only when the clouds are all grey and dark grey (think: storm clouds) will they reproduce on earlier orthchromatic or pure blue sensitive emulsions. Tea TimeThe Grand Union Tea Company delivery wagon in the Nashua photo made me curious. My local New Hampshire grocery store used to be a Grand Union. I found a brief history of the company here: https://oldmainartifacts.wordpress.com/2013/10/07/grand-union-tea-compan... (The Gallery, DPC, Small Towns, Stores & Markets)
Vacation Wagon: 1964
... my father, was driving Volkswagen Beetles. (He later had a new Ford Mustang 1964 1/2 , with a 289 ci V8 and a four speed box, rally pack ... we got in our in our '53 Chevy coupe and went from New York City to the SF Bay Area, mostly along US 40. Entertainment consisted of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/31/2022 - 1:09am -

        Our annual salute to the start of vacation road-trip season, first posted here 15 years ago. Everyone buckled in? Let's go! "Great Falls, Montana. Return after 3 weeks Vacation. June 27, 1964." This Kodachrome of a 1960 Chevrolet Parkwood station wagon is from a box of slides found on eBay. View full size. family trips in those carsI also spent some hot days in a car like that on the way to the grandparents. My mother flattened the second seat, put a mattress on the floor and loaded three of us and the stuff in on top of it, us and the stuff equally loose and not tied down. We whined and fought and slept our way to Cape Cod from southern NJ. My father always "had to work" (they were her parents), so she did the drive alone, I think maybe 12 or 16 hours? Seemed like forever. NostalgicThese people still had a bright future ahead of them, full of great hopes for the days to come. They hadn't gone to the Moon yet, and to them, by 2007 we'd have personal helicopters and robots would run everything. The possibility of the President being indicted for a crime was unthinkable. My job as a web designer hadn't even been invented yet. The lawn looks like it's literally astroturf. Were the colors really like that, or is it an effect of the kodachrome? Holy cow! We had a 59 chevyHoly cow! We had a 59 chevy stationwagon back in the day. Does this bring back memories. We would drive to Florida from Virginia a two day trip usually in the heat of the summer to visit grandparents. Five children two parents no ac. Damn! [This is a 1960 Chevrolet. - Dave] DeflectorsDoes anybody know/remember what the deflectors left and right of the rear window were for? These may have been an aftermarket item. It is amazing how well the colors in this slide are preserved after almost 50 years. It looks like Kodachrome all right, including the telltale blue cast in the shadows The Astroturf look......to my eye, seems to come from the little flowers (or toadstools?) that are in the lawn. At the smaller image size, they look like specular reflections, making it seem like the grass is shiny. [The white flowers are clover. - Dave] 1964As I remember it, this was less than a year after the assassination of JFK, there were race riots in the south and we (I was 14) were all starting to question attitudes towards women, blacks, hispanics, homosexuals and the culture we had grown up with. One of the more minor cultural things was the importance of your front lawn. 50 years?I was born in 1964, and trust me, it hasn't been 50 years since then, yet.... ;) Re:DeflectorsThe deflectors on either side of the rear window were intended to blow air across the rear window to prevent snow from accumulating. A similar deflector is often fitted along the roof on station wagons from the 60s on. I think they were usually a factory or dealer option in later years, but I really don't know specifically about this model or when they might have first been used. OK, 40 years.Sorry, I was too vexed on the year of manufacture of the car. I remember that someone in our street had the sedan version of this Chevy. Like any 8 year old, I was fascinated by the winged tail and the panorama windshield. You didn't see many of these in Europe around 1960; everbody, including my father, was driving Volkswagen Beetles. (He later had a new Ford Mustang 1964 1/2 , with a 289 ci V8 and a four speed box, rally pack and (optional) front discs, which I found very impressive at the time. A real gas guzzler by European standards. Family TrucksterThis is probably what Clark Griswold's dad took the family on vacation in. It's a 1960 Chevy, and I'm guessing it's a Kingswood model. The Brookwood was the more stripped down model and I think the "full dresser" was called a Nomad. This one isn't completely chromed-out and it has the small, dog-dish hubcaps so I'm thinking it's the middle of the line model. I think the rear air deflectors also helped keep exhaust gas from entering the rear passenger compartment when the vehicle was moving with the tailgate window was lowered. Though it doesn't look like there's room for anybody in the third row of seats for this trip. With the window up they also helped keep the rear glass clear of snow and dust. These are Parents of the Year......in my book. Can you imagine going across country now without all of the luxuries and Wendy's and portable DVD players and Nintendo and cell phones and credit cards? These parents did it all the HARD way...and I'll bet they made a lot of memories that summer! My jaw droppedOnce again the red stationwagon family blows me away. The color composition here is perfect. Chevy ParkwoodThis is a 1960 Chevrolet Parkwood. Parkwoods and Kingswoods both use Bel Air trim (mid-level). The Kingswood, a nine-passenger wagon, has the third-row rear-facing seat, and two steps on the rear bumper (one on each end just outside of where the tailgate would come down). Less obvious is that all Kingswoods have power tailgate windows, an option on the other Chevrolet wagons. I still drive a '59 ChevyI recommend owning one. In 2000 We took the ultimate road trip with mine from near the Canadian border in Washington State through the desert to Las Vegas and back up through California and Oregon. There really is nothing like seeing the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet. Cruising the Strip in Vegas was a blast. We might as well have been driving a space ship with the reactions we got. Sadly, these Chevrolets were mostly scrapped and very few survive. 60 ChevySadly, the third row seat had not been invented as of yet and the deflectors were used to deflect air into the rear of the stationwagon at slower speeds. I may not be an expert but I'm old enough to have ridden and slept in the back section of a folded down stationwagon. We didn't know about SUV's yet. Chevy WagonChevy's Parkwood and Kingswood wagons could both be had with a third-row seat. And back then, for the record - wagons WERE the "SUVs" of the day! [According to the 1960 Chevrolet sales brochure, only the Kingswood was available with third-row seating. The International Travelall and Chevy Suburban Carryall were two of the SUVs of the day. - Dave] The luggage rackis something you don't see anymore. It hung on the wall of the garage when not in use. Once my dad, who was in a big hurry, didn't secure the tarp on top properly... We played car games, like Alphabet, Road Bingo, and License Plates, read books, colored,sang songs and squabbled. You took your chances with local restaurants. We hadn't got used to entertainment on demand, so we didn't miss it. And to Dave Faris: It's the film. I once assured my daughter that colors when I was a kid were the same as today. "The Fifties," she said, in her narrator's voice, "were an oddly-hued decade." Slide ConversionHow does one convert slides to digital photos? Any website links or advice? [You'd use a film scanner. I used a Nikon 4000 ED for this one. - Dave] Family TrucksterWe had a green Ford station wagon, not nearly as nice as this, and with our family of six, it was a masochistic experience to take family vacations. Every summer we said that's it, we will never do this again, until the following summer when we did it again. The best part was arriving home again, but I will say that NOT having DVD's and high tech electronic gadgets forced the kids to look out the window and they gained incredible geographic knowledge from seeing the U.S. I could truthfully call these annual trips "purgatory on wheels." Road TripMost all of my long-distance car trips were connected with moving as my father was in the USAF. In August 1954, after being in the UK 2½ years, we got in our in our '53 Chevy coupe and went from New York City to the SF Bay Area, mostly along US 40. Entertainment consisted of looking at the scenery and checking off the towns on the free roadmaps that the service stations provided in each state. Iy being the pre-Interstate era, one did go thru many towns back then! (Excepting on the PA Turnpike) Burma-Shave signs relieved the boredom in the rural areas. We had a car radio (AM only, of course), but for some reason I can only recall it being used while crossing the salt flats west of Salt Lake City. Westward HoIn 1951 our family, my wife, son and daughter, living in Detroit, started taking trips to Cheney, Washington, to visit my WW2 buddy. All on old state highways, no air conditioner, 4½ hours to get through Chicago and the kids loved it. Took these trips out west to the 1970s. We still go west to see my buddy and my daughter in Seattle and we enjoy crossing Nebraska on old U.S. 30. It is a treat to be off of I-80. Nostalgia Ain't What it Used to BeDon't look at this picture and pine for the old days. Change the car to a green Olds Vista Cruiser and that's us in 1969. Back then, dads bought a new station wagon to kick off the summer vacation. Dads don't buy an SUV today for that reason. Without repeating some of the horrors already mentioned below, there was the additional joy of Mom sending back a Coca Cola bottle for one of her sons to use in lieu of a loo. If the girls had to go, we had to pull over. Not so with the boys. Watching mom backhand-fling a Coke bottle out her window, filled with fluid far different that what was originally intended, and seeing it bounce and spill along the shoulder as we whizzed along at 75 mph (pun intended), that's about the fondest vacation memory at least from the car perspective. Today with the daughter hooked up to a video iPod and the sons enjoying their PSP, it's a pleasure to drive for distances. Back then, we didn't play License Plates. We played Punch Buggy and Slug Bug, etc. Fistfight games. Let's go!I loved car trips, and I never had DVD players and Nintendo. I watched the scenery and kept a travel diary. those were some of the greatest times of my life. Road TrripWe had to make do with pillows & blankets. A mattress would have made it actually comfortable. I don't know if Dad didn't have the imagination for that, or just not the money. I suspect the latter. We'd sing sometimes. It was 12 hours from north Georgia near the North Carolina line to south Georgia, near the Florida line, where my grandmother lived. I see the moon; the moon sees me. The moon sees the one that I want to see ... Thanks for the memoriesMy folks had the four-door sedan version of this car, in sky blue & white. My mom used to have a station wagon, don't remember what kind, but it was memorable for its pushbutton transmission on the dash instead of a gearshift! However my favorite "finned" car was our family's Buick Invicta. Now that was a car! Third Row SeatsFords had third-row seats in 1955. I'm pretty sure Chevy had them by 1958 at least. Chevy didn't offer woodgrain sides until '65. Sunday ridesWe had that same car, only in light blue. No seat belts or infant seats for us! We'd put my baby sister in one of those deathtrap baby seats that hooked over the front seat and off we went! What a picture!This picture takes me back almost 40 years to the road trips our family did during summer holidays when I was a little boy. It feels like I myself am stretching my legs after coming home. The colours, the moment -- one of my favorite pictures in Shorpy. My Favorite Car was a 1960 Chevrolet Impala 2-dr hardtop. Bluish gray with white segment on the side, red and white interior. The first car my wife and I bought. Paid $1750 for it used in 1962. We made some wonderful trips in that car. Re: Family TrucksterJust saw this item on TV yesterday about a real family named Griswold that had their station wagon modded to look like the Family Truckster from National Lampoon's Vacation movie for their trip to Disney World. http://tinyurl.com/plo5kub See the USA in Your ChevroletFor our family, it was a 1962 Buick Invicta wagon. Huge car designed for doing massive mileage on the interstates and that's what we did -- six or seven hundred miles a day from Indiana to the Rockies for our annual vacation. Procedure for Accessing the Cargo AreaWe had one of these when I was a kid as well. Ours was a silver gray color. See the chrome disk on the trunk door? Upon arriving at destination, here's what you had to do: 1) Put trunk key in center slot (separate keys for ignition and trunk back then) 2) Open flap (as seen in photo) 3) Rotate flap several times till rear window is fully down 4) Reach in and grab handle to drop tailgate Simple, huh? Looking at old red carsmakes my elbows hurt! Seemed like some of those old single stage paints, reds in particular, had to be waxed every two weeks to keep them looking decent. The widespread adoption of clearcoat finishes in the late 80's to mid 90's freed modern kids from the dreaded frequent waxing chore, thereby giving them the leisure time to start the video gaming revolution... As Long AsThis isn't really the "End of the Road"! That's a scary title for all the Shorpy Faithful. 3 Adults + 7 Children =1000 mile round trip to see grandma. We kids didn't mind a bit. Seat belts?I don't think you heard "Everybody all buckled up?" all that much in '64. I'm not sure of the exact dates, but if you had seatbelts back then, you bought them at a discount store or an auto parts store like Western Auto or J. C. Whitney, and they were lap belts only. Three point seat belts didn't come along for several more years, if I recall correctly, and it wasn't until the government mandated new cars with ignition interlocks in the 1970's that "real men" started to actually use them. Back then, we used to spend our vacations camping, so the car was packed to the gills, including the center of the back seat. My sister and I each got little cubbyholes next to the doors, with just room enough to sit for the trip to northern Wisconsin. My dad drove a two tone green '55 Oldsmobile Delta 88. I saw a picture of that car a few months ago, and as soon as I did, I started remembering a surprising amount of detail about the car's details. It was handed down to me when I went off to college in '64. Seat beltsbobdog19006 is correct in that seat belts were not standard equipment in 1960. However, they had been available as a dealer-installed option since the 50s. By 1966, they were standard in all Chevys, and by 1968, they were federally mandated. I spent many a happy hour on family roadtrips in our '68 Ford wagon, nestled in the narrow gap between the second row and the rear-facing third-row seat, no seat belt, of course. Neither did my siblings in the third row. Service StickersI remember those stickers that service stations or car dealers put on the inside edge of the driver's door when you got your car serviced. This Chevrolet has two. Our road trip rigWe had a '76 Chevy Beauville van, a ho-hum light brown rather than red, which made up for the lack of chrome spears with its cavernous interior: two bucket seats in front for Mom and Dad, two bench seats, and a homemade plywood bed. Strangely, all that space wasn't enough to prevent sibling quarrels. The best story of this van was the return trip of its maiden voyage, when my uncle, who owned a small niche-market manufacturing firm, talked my dad into towing a piece of equipment from South Texas to a parking lot near Chicago, where we would deliver it to his customer from Wisconsin. We quickly got used to being asked at every single hotel, gas station, and rest stop, exactly what was the three-wheeled contraption with the hydraulically-actuated vertical roller-chain conveyor with teeth. The looks on everyone's faces when my dad told them it was a grave-digging machine: Priceless! Curtains?Every August for years we travelled from Birmingham to Cincinnati for a week of visiting my parents' relatives. Before our last such trip in '69, we went through a black-and-white '57 Plymouth Savoy, a metallic-beige '63 Ford Country Sedan wagon (the one without wood on the sides) and a '67 Olds VistaCruiser. I'd love to have that VistaCruiser back today. Ours was burgundy red and my dad put red stripe Tiger Paw tires on it. Imagine a 442 station wagon. As for Shorpy's '60 Chevy wagon, I only just noticed the homemade or aftermarket side curtains, with vertical stripes of brown, gold and red to compliment the bright red car. Thanks, Dave, for showing us this photo again... and including all the original comments, too. Great to relive all the great summer vacation stories with everyone! Re: deflectorsIn the days before the rear window wiper on a station wagon, some folks put these on and the deflected air current would help to clean off that window to a degree. Not having either, within a mile that rear hatch would be almost impossible to see through. Been there, done that and got the tee-shirt. This does bring back memoriesWe had a similar station wagon, but it was salmon (or was it mauve, or ecru?) colored with a white top (I think). It had a 460 a/c (four windows down while traveling sixty miles per hour, some times 560 with the rear tailgate window down). I remember taking a trip from Mississippi to Six Flags over Texas on U.S. Highway 82 (two lane most of the way) in Summer, 1964. The back seats were folded down, and the four of us kids had pillows, blankets, books, and board games to pass the time. It was replaced soon after with a 1965 Ford Country Squire Wagon with a/c, and fake wood paneling on the side. Instead of a rear facing bench seat, it had two small seats on either side that faced each each other. Memories of summer tripsWe also lived in Montana back then, and our family truckster in the 1960s was a 1963 Rambler Classic station wagon. (Yes, I suffered greatly for it among my friends.) That's what I learned to drive, and we ranged all over the western US and Canada in it. Before that, however, we traveled in a 1949 Studebaker Land Cruiser 4-door sedan, which my dad (both inventive and frugal) had outfitted with a set of three back seats that, when covered with the mattress from our roll-away bed, filled the back seat and trunk area with a very passable sleeping unit. That's where I spent most of my time on our travels. At other times, I would climb over the front seatback into the front bench seat between my parents. That's where I was on August 5, 1962, when we were preparing to leave Crescent City, CA, and heard on the radio that Marilyn Monroe had died. Deflector's actual purposeWas to break the "vacuum" the "wall" that was the rear of that wagon created which would suck exhaust into the car if that rear window was open even a little bit. The fresh air, the snowless/cleaner rear window were merely bonuses... Buckle up?A 1960 Chevy wagon probably didn't have seat belts unless the owner installed them. The kids in the back were pretty much free range as long as they didn't make too much noise. Lots of people piled the stuff on the roof and put a mattress in the back for the kids. It was a great way to go and most of us survived. [Seat belts were optional on all 1960 Chevrolets. - Dave] Car playgroundMy folks had a Ford wagon of that era. No seatbelts. Folks put a mattress in the back. Became our playground on long trips. We had no desire to "sit" in a seat. Miss station wagonsI miss station wagons. I prefer them to the SUVs that replaced them. I also miss the bold bright colors that cars use to come in. No SquattingLooking at all the stuff already loaded, I'm surprised the back of this wagon isn't dragging on the ground. In fact it's sitting pretty level. I wonder if dad had overload springs installed? We've had one built for you.To BillyB: Station wagon suspensions were designed with the idea that they would have to haul some combination of eight people and their luggage, so they did OK when loaded down. They *were* softer than contemporary pickup trucks, so the back end of the station wagon wouldn't bounce all over if there were only one or two people in it. Especially at the time of this photo, gas was 25 cents a gallon and would be that price forever, so the factory didn't mind spending a little extra weight on a beefier suspension. Also, most of the really heavy luggage went on the roof rack, which was fairly close to being in the middle of the wheelbase. The back-back, behind the rear seat, tended to contain lighter things, like blankets, pillows, the picnic basket, and - as the trip progressed - bags of souvenirs. If Dad wanted to use the inside rear-view mirror, you couldn't stack stuff much higher than the seats, anyway. Source: I rode in the back of a '79 Oldsmobile wagon every summer from '79 to '87. I think the longest trip we took in it was from Kansas City to Washington, DC and back. WagonsWe had a 1956 Ford wagon, then '61 Mercury wagon, finally a (I think) 1964 Ford wagon. I remember one year with the Mercury, my mom ran low on gas. We were up in the mountains in a resort town. To get to the gas station, she had to reverse up hills, turn around for the downhills, turn around again for going up the next hill. What a ride. Another time, 1965, we were in a typhoon in the current wagon. There were eleven of us in it. Another wild ride driving on a road along the bay. Waves washing over us, my mom hugging the middle of the road (there was an island we could not get across). Wagons were great. The 283 V-8with its 170 gross horsepower is not going to have much highway passing reserve with all that weight. Cross-flags over the V on the tailgate would have indicated one of several 348's which would have given more than enough reserve. That car is 58 years old but properly equipped could have kept pace with most cars on the road today in equal comfort. A 58 year old car in 1960 by comparison was barely even recognizable as such it was so rudimentary by comparison to the 1960 version in its looks and capabilities. The same comparisons held true in all other realms of life comparing 1960 to 1902--homes, conveniences, dress, you name it. Virtually any of those later areas are not that significantly different from their 1960 versions. Those deflectors... were supposed to keep dust off the back window Nikon CoolscanI am having a problem with mine. Can you recommend a place that can repair them. [There aren't any. Try buying them used on eBay. - Dave] 283 V8Although I agree that a 348 engine would have been a better choice for this station wagon. The 170hp 283 was the base V8 engine with just a single two barrel carburetor. The next option up was also a 283 but with a four barrel which the above wagon may have had, which would have given it a little more passing power. Koolscan softwareDave. What software program do you use with your 4000? As it seems the program that came with it is only works for Microsoft VISTA. [I use the NikonScan software that came with the scanner, on a Windows 10 workstation. To install the software on a modern operating system, you have to disable Driver Signature Enforcement. And it's Coolscan, with a C. - Dave] (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Kodachromes 1, Travel & Vacation)
Herald Square: 1908
New York circa 1908. "Herald Square." Panorama composed of two 8x10 inch glass ... the ultimate Shorpy photo, almost too much to fathom. The city of Vancouver, B.C., had a population of 70,000 in 1907; today the greater ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/02/2020 - 2:40pm -

New York circa 1908. "Herald Square." Panorama composed of two 8x10 inch glass negatives, digitally merged, showing Broadway at 34th Street. Landmarks include the the New York Herald newspaper building (with its clockwork blacksmith bell-ringers and electrified owls), Sixth Avenue elevated tracks, New York Times building and Hotel Astor. Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. James Gordon Bennett MonumentThe New York Herald Building was built in 1893 and demolished in 1921. The statue of Minerva, the clock and two owls were saved and are now part of a monument to James Gordon Bennett. The Mighty HippodromeThe largest theatre in the world at the time, the Hippodrome, can be seen far down the tracks on the right. Hotel Normandie"Absolutely Fireproof" Made of 100% Asbestos. Wow!Just WOW! An amazing photoThe details are unbelievable. Hours can be spent just studying this photo and I likely will. "Electrified" owlsSo what did Herald's "electrified" owls do? Light up or move? And what is the tall skinny building just left of the Hotel Astor? [The owls' eyes lit up at night. The skinny building is the New York Times. - Dave] Can you find?A head without a hat. I couldn't. Too much... This one is giving me data overload! So much to see in the image! It must be a warm Spring or Summer day because I see a lot of men sporting skimmers (flat topped straw hats) and the women are wearing blouses with shorter sleeves and fancy hats. Toward the lower left of the photo we see a cab (horse drawn type) with the driver, in his top hat, waiting patiently. I suspect that I can see a slight smile on his face. Perhaps there is a pretty girl in his field of view. Then, there are the two members of the constabulary conversing together, in the lower center of the picture. maybe they are talking about going over to the Lunch wagon on the far right to grab a bite to eat. What, I ask, is the "House of Hits"? That phrase seems to me to right out of the early '60s Motown, not 1910 New York. Then there is the Hotel Normandie - Absolutely Fireproof! It seems that Otard Brandy is still available, even today! I find it a bit hard to believe, but there seems to be a casino in Midtown Manhattan. I can't forget Lucio's Pearls. They defy detection! and right above them we have "Paul Jones Pure Rye - Remember the bottle!" There is so much more to take in, in this photograph. [In answer to your questions: Jos. W. Stern ("The House of Hits") was a music publisher. The Casino was a theater at 39th and Broadway. - Dave] 80 minutes apartThe glass plates making up the panorama, exposed at 12:04 and 1:24 p.m. Click to enlarge. Still Where The Action Is!I So LOVE this photo! I would give almost anything to be able to go back to this very spot for a few days to shop, sightsee and experience life during this time. The buildings are lovely, the clothing elegant, the cabs very dapper. I will be studying this one for a long while. Thank you Dave posting this one and for such a wonderful merger of pics. Herald SquareThat answered my question about why the two clocks had different times. [There's only one clock here. The dial on the right is a wind rose. - Dave] FoxyThat Fox Real Estate branding would stand the test of time by today's standards, what a classic. Although the fox better watch out for that self-stropping razor up above. DaredevilWho are those people on the elevated tracks in the distance? And what are they doing? One looks like a kid on a bicycle, dropping something on the people below. [That's a man standing with his hand on the railing. - Dave] Jaywalkers everywhereI have no idea how I could safely drive that street without flattening a well dressed pedestrian or two. The most I can see vaguely in the way of traffic safety is a sign on a lamppost warning about slow moving vehicles. Not even a bollard in sight. Streetcars or cable carsAre those streetcars or cable cars? The center slot between the rails could hold either the electrical source for streetcars (the "conduit" type) or the moving cable for cable cars. I don't seem to see any trolleys on the cars or overhead trolley wires. [New York's streetcars drew their power from an underground electrical supply. - Dave] All those peopleDidn't anyone work? This must be the ultimate Shorpy photo, almost too much to fathom. The city of Vancouver, B.C., had a population of 70,000 in 1907; today the greater Vancouver area is 2.25 million, which most Canadians think of as an unlivable population. Credit where credit is due.Don Y's post was just fabulous. Thank you Dave and thank you Don Y !!!! Herald Square ParkNice 2007 article in the New York Times about the statue of Minerva and her bell ringers, "Stuff" and "Guff" (or "Gog" and Magog"), seen here atop the Herald Building. The Herald Building was demolished in 1923, the statue stored, and then in 1939-40 permanently installed back in Herald Square Park. Present day Herald Square Park as well as the adjacent Greeley Square Park are gores--that is, triangular. Several New York City parks are gores. But, in front of the Herald Building, is the statue that of Horace Greeley, publisher of the rival Tribune? The horseless hansomThere is a very interesting cab (?) with a driver up behind in the middle right. Can anyone ID it? [It's an electric hansom cab. - Dave] Hussy!The forearms of the young woman in the lower left are entirely exposed. What was the world coming to? No point in directing the traffic,may as well stand in the middle of the road and have a chat instead. An amazing photo with superb detail. Excellent piece of stitching. Macy'sLet's not forget Macy's Department store right there on the corner. I used to walk through that very spot almost everyday, and to be honest, it hasn't really changed all that much. Right Hand DriveAnyone know when American autos converted to left hand drive. [The transition was a gradual one, with right- and left-hand-drive autos sharing the roads for many years. - Dave] We may never knowWhat is so fascinating about the carriage with the umbrella? The driver of the Packard, the second wagon and the nearby pedestrians all appear to engrossed. I have visions of a patent medicine barker making an unscheduled pitch, or perhaps a local celebrity on his or her way from the Hippodrome. That Packard, BTW, is one gorgeous automobile. The menace of lunch wagonsIn the center right sits "Lunch Wagon No.9" - precursor to today's bustling midtown street food scene. Wish I knew what was on the menu. Here is a 1907 letter to the New York Times complaining about this very lunch wagon for being obstructive. A letter the day before in the Times complained about a food wagon at Union Square that had wheels but hadn't moved in years. This one looks like it could be the same deal. A couple of years later, there were Suffragette Food Wagons that offered a free side of feminism along with "Suffragette Sandwiches" - shades of Govinda's, a Hare Krishna food cart that has recently disappeared. WatchYour Step!There is an open access panel in the roadway right where the tracks cross. Interestingly enough, it does not seem to be visible in the left hand of two images, but is quite clear in the right hand one and in the composite photo. There is one hatless headand it is in a very prominent position in the square. It belongs to the fine statue of William Dodge (now in Bryant Park) in front of the Herald. Outstanding photograph and merge! Nobody remembers Rogers Peet anymoreOf course, few people remembered them when they were still open. I got one of my first suits on sale there, but I think that store was uptown from here on 42d Street. It was full of what seemed to be very old people. Metropolitan opera houseAlso visible is the original Metropolitan opera house at Bway and 39th... (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Railroads, Streetcars)
Selznick Pictures: 1920
... Emporium opened Jan 9, 1911. An image of the original New York establishment of William Hepner's hair and skin salon was previously seen ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 11:59pm -

January 1920. Washington, D.C. "Selznick front, Thirteenth Street N.W." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. Hepner's Hair EmporiumWilliam Hepner: "the acknowledged leader in the Art of Hair Dressing in America." The Washington salons of Hepner's Hair Emporium opened Jan 9, 1911. An image of the original New York establishment of William Hepner's hair and skin salon was previously seen in this 1912 Shorpy Photo. Advertisement, Washington Post, Nov 5, 1913 New York       Washington       Atlantic City Special Display of the Latest Coiffeur Effects by William Hepner We are now showing in our windows a special display of the very latest coiffeurs, by William Hepner, the acknowledged leader in the Art of Hair Dressing in America. Every woman in Washington who keeps abreast of Fashion should see these new coiffeurs. Highest Quality Hair Goods All our hair goods are made from the finest quality of human hair, personally selected. Our experts make up the most attractive pieces, under the most sanitary conditions. Our great stock makes it possible for us to exactly match any shade of hair. We Offer Ideal Service in Scalp Treatment, Shampooing, Hair Dressing, Massage and Manicuring Here in our luxurious parlor, daft and cheerful workers, trained in our New York establishment, are ready to serve you. Special service in your own home when desired. Toupees made to order and fitted by experts. Hepner's Hair Emporium 525 13th St. 2 Doors Below F Select Pictures CorpSelect Pictures Corporation was not a happy place. It was created after future Paramount boss Adolph Zukor quietly bought half of Lewis Selznick's silent film company. Zukor apparently insisted on the title change, because he didn't want Selznick's name included. Zukor, however, cared more about his other film companies than for any Selznick, and in the production glut of 1923 let Select Pictures and Selznick go bankrupt. But Lewis's two college-age sons (Myron and David O.) learned. David of course would become a mogul to rival Zukor, while Myron, as talent agent, would avenge Zukor's treatment of their father. If you could run the interior shots of this business in the LOC's archive, it might be possible to tell if one of the workers was an 18-year-old David O. [I doubt any actual Selznicks worked here. - Dave] Who you gonna call?There seems to be a trans-dimensional portal forming around those two centre buildings. Tragedy awaitsThe actress Olive Thomas was soon to marry Mary Pickfords brother; and while on a trip to Paris with him died under mysterious circumstances. He was implicated in her death for a short time, but the truth of what happened has never been fully explained. Julius Garfinkle and Co. (Washingson~Paris)The company was established in 1905 and, by the 1930s, was the most fashionable ladies' store in Washington. The store was still in existence in the 1970s. They were located on the SE corner of F and 13th NW Streets. Quite a few dresses and accessories with the store label show up on EBay. Garfinkle's demiseI've always thought that the reason the store eventually went under is to be explained in an incident from my childhood. Once -- I must have been 2 or 3 -- my mother took me with her when she went shopping there. One of the salesladies commented on what a handsome grandson she had. My mother never set foot in the place again. Julius GarfinckelThe most interesting thing to me in this picture is the spelling of "Julius Garfinkle." At some time during his life, the great Washington retailer changed the spelling of his name from Garfinkle to Garfinckel. The store was always known as Garfinckel's during my lifetime. The flagship downtown store moved from 13th and F to the northwest corner of 14th and F in 1929. The building now houses offices and street-level retail. I give up.At first, I merely thought it was something wrong with the film. Then, I looked at the picture full size and realized that they were on display in not just one, but both of Garfinkle windows. They look like a bunch of haunted handkerchiefs that have come to life, and are saying "Boo" to all passing pedestrians. [Mold on the emulsion is responsible for the clothing display's alarming appearance. - Dave] Daft WorkersIn the Hepner's ad below it states "Here in our luxurious parlor, daft and cheerful workers" -- I believe the word should have been deft, not daft. Can you imagine a customer requesting one of Hepner's most daft workers to work on her hair? Garfinkle'sMy mother worked at Garfinkle's in the 1930s, and I remember her shopping there many times while I was growing up near DC. I'd have to wait around endlessly while she tried on dresses, but at least we ate lunch at the Hot Shoppe on 14th St, and went to the matinee at the Capitol or the Trans-Lux. Select PicturesThis was, according to news items in the old Washington Star, a booking and exhibitor relations office for the various movie theaters in the mid-Atlantic region. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Movies, Natl Photo)
Radio City: 1932
... "International Music Hall, Radio City, Rockefeller Center, New York. House with curtain down, from main orchestra." Large-format acetate ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/25/2018 - 3:30pm -

December 7, 1932. "International Music Hall, Radio City, Rockefeller Center, New York. House with curtain down, from main orchestra." Large-format acetate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size. Radio City Music HallFrom this past Thanksgiving, to see the Rockettes' Christmas show. (It was my wife's idea, honest.) Dueling Organs?I've heard of Dueling Banjos, and dueling pianos, but dueling organs? Are there actually two full four-manual, 100+ stop organs in that hall, or one big one that can be played by two tandem organists? Ghosts! Appears to be haunted by several ghosts. Almost lostRadio City was almost lost to bankruptcy in the late 1970s. Thank goodness it was rescued. It's a gem. And the most comfortable theater I've ever been in. Air Conditioning of RCI remember when RC opened. Our friend and neighbor, Jack Lantry, was the engineer to get the contract to air condition Radio City. It was one of the first to be done on a large scale. The fresh air was compressed, then expanded and finally cooled by water. Ghosts?Theaters don't have Ghosts, they have Phantoms. Two ConsolesThe Radio City Wurlitzer organ consists of 58 ranks of pipes and a wide assortment of percussion instruments (drums, bells, etc. including a 9' grand piano) all installed above and behind the stage. Because of a relatively new computer relay (brain) now in place, it can be played from either of the two independent consoles or simultaneously by 2 organists. It is worth noting that S.L. "Roxy" Rothafel intended the organ to be built by Kimball Organ Co., but Kimball was not the #1 theatre organ builder. Others argued that RC couldn't do with anything less than the best. So, it was built by Wurlitzer according to a Kimball design. (The Gallery, Gottscho-Schleisner, Music, NYC)
Magic Kingdom: 1931
December 15, 1931. New York. "River House, 52nd Street and East River. View of power house." 5x7 ... was reputed to be the most expensive real estate in the city. Stacks The power plant is Con Ed Waterside; the smokier stack ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/31/2012 - 6:34pm -

December 15, 1931. New York. "River House, 52nd Street and East River. View of power house." 5x7 safety negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size. What do we see here?OK, perusing this vista I spy the Williamsburg Bridge, through the mist at the left, and further down the Manhattan Bridge. The tower on the far left is at Remsen and Court streets in Brooklyn (I think). The other three spires in the center are (l to r) the American International Building (a gorgeous Art Deco giant), then what's now called 40 Wall St, originally the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building, and then the magnificent Woolworth Building. Don't know what the square topped one is, but the one that seems little by comparison, just to the left of the Woolworth, is the Singer Building. I believe that the Singer was (before the destruction of the World Trade Center) the tallest building ever demolished. The big plant in the foreground is Big Alice, the Con Ed power plant, isn't it? Can't see a single living thing, not a human or a seagull, but the barges by the water with railroad cars are interesting. Once more on Beekman Place.Here we are again, the buildings in the foreground are 1 Beekman Place on the left and 2 Beekman Place on the right. The smokestacks are at the Consolidated Edison site that ran from 35th to 41st Street between First Avenue and the East River. The structures as well as the smokestacks were leveled a few years ago. The area was supposed to be turned into luxury condos and office towers but the project faced delays from neighborhood opposition and the downturn in the economy. Beekman PlaceAll I can think of is "Auntie Mame"! She lived at this trendy address. Auntie Mame was a lucky lady! SmogI wonder how much worse or better is the smog today in this area? [The air back then was full of coal soot. New York today, like most big cities, is a much less smoky place than it was 80 years ago. - Dave] Bank of New YorkThe flat-topped building is the 50-story Bank of New York, built by the Irving Trust Co. in 1929-31. Its address, 1 Wall Street at Broadway, was reputed to be the most expensive real estate in the city. StacksThe power plant is Con Ed Waterside; the smokier stack beyond is a New York Steam plant. Big Allis is/was on the east side of the river, in Queens. The pic only spans 32 degrees edge to edge, so if this is full frame he used a 12-inch lens. He used a more normal lens for the other pic from River House. (The Gallery, Gottscho-Schleisner, NYC)
Home of the Brave: 1949
New York, 1949. This Kodachrome slide of Broadway at Times Square arrived by postal ... so much to see, captured on a bright sunny day in New York City to distinguish it from the more typical drab black and white photos we ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/05/2018 - 3:42pm -

New York, 1949. This Kodachrome slide of Broadway at Times Square arrived by postal mail a few weeks ago from Shorpy member RalphCS, who snagged it at a yard sale. Good work and thanks! There are a few more to come. View full size. Neato!I could look at this all day! The New York I RememberI used to live at 72nd Street Central Park West and walk to this area on weekends. It's great to see a photograph from that time. I had no camera of my own, but borrowed my mother's. CheersLondon 2.0 Face on the Camel signHard to tell from this angle, almost looks like a Mexican sombrero maybe? [The infamous "Urban Sombrero"! - Dave] A Plethora of DetailsSuch a wonderfully colorful photo with so much to see, captured on a bright sunny day in New York City to distinguish it from the more typical drab black and white photos we typically see of it in this era. "Every hour 3490 people buy at Bond" -- their numbers may be down somewhat these days, and I wonder whatever happened to Mr. and Mrs. Statue. I was always fascinated by how theaters used to be able to construct such colorful electric signage on a movie-by-movie basis in those days. Let's stop in at the Mayflower Coffee Shop and try their doughnuts. Kudos to the photographer for capturing the Camel sign blowing a smoke ring. We see the ubiquitous DeSoto taxicabs of that era in New York City as well. [Plus a Packard. - Dave] Wow!Amazing photo! How can I buy a print? [I've added it to Print Gallery. - Dave] Camel FedoraA better view of the sign. Click to enlarge. [Not quite the same sign, is it? The Kodachrome version shows the brim turned down. - Dave] Different stylesMen wear clothing and women wear apparel? Zooming in, it looks like the female statue is a bit cold. She definitely needs more apparel, or is it clothing? Neon and BulbsThe movie "Home of the Brave" cost $375,000 to make in 1949. Today it would cost at least that much just to create the elaborate signage that accompanied it at Times Square. ... and "The Home of the Brave"I hope one of those other Kodachromes shows the marquee of the theater just beyond the Victoria, because I can't for the life of me make out what it's advertising and I am dying of curiosity. "Strangers" on a SignNext to the Victoria: Jennifer Jones and John Garfield in "We Were Strangers." I was able to tweak the image just enough to make out the names, then a quick visit to the IMDB to find out what movie they were in together. The Barkleys of BroadwayAlthough this was the only film that Astaire and Rogers made together in color, it was their last film together, and their first after ten years apart. The song “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” by George and Ira Gershwin, was also used in the 1937 film “Shall We Dance,” in which Astaire sang it to Rogers, as in “The Barkleys of Broadway.” The dance duet for the 1949 film was ballroom, not tap, and is well worth watching for its elegance, vigor, and moments of restraint. He was 50 at the time, she 38. Color!!!I love these shots from RalphCS. Thanks, man! Somewhat illogically, I suppose, when I view so many B&W photos at Shorpy, I begin to sense that much of history was drab and graceless — mostly blah. Thanks for the magical antidote Ralph! Most will never knowAfter spending a long time gazing at all the fascinating sights in both of these nostalgic Times Square pictures from RalphCS, it is impossible to choose a favorite. There is so much going on in both of them and if one were to focus in on each pictured person's current activity, one can get caught up in their imagination, i.e., the young man with the long cardboard box hailing the taxi (what is in the box, where is he taking it, etc.). Each person pictured has their own mission, errand or destination just as is still going on everywhere today, like watching an ant farm with all the inhabitants completing their tasks, all intent on their own personal pursuit. One can write an entire book just observing the characters in both pictures and envisioning their purpose at this hour on this day 68 years ago. The mystery is in knowing that everyone alive is doing likewise somewhere on earth at this hour today and may also unknowingly be having their photo frozen in time, oblivious to the fact that their particular moment of activity may be stored away in obscurity for almost 70 years and then suddenly be revealed on computers or TV screens for everyone to see and question. Most of the people in these pictures are probably long-gone and will never know that on April 5th in the year 2018, they were being studied and scrutinized in detail anywhere in the world by countless viewers of Shorpy's wondrous website. Do this, don't do that --To Greg B's point about the elaborate signs - it may have been the studios that were paying for those. 1949 was the tail end of it, but Hollywood used to operate under the "studio system", where movie studios would also own a relatively large chain of theaters. The studio probably had more money than an individual theater, so they could more easily produce fancy signs. Something that probably helped was that under the studio system, studios would sign contracts with actors for several movies. Once they figured out who their top few leading men and ladies would be, they could re-use the letters for those names for several movies if they wanted to. I also understand that until maybe the 1970s, it wasn't common for movies to be released all across the US at the same time. They'd get an initial release in, say, New York and LA, and then expand to smaller cities over time. Spending money on fancy signs in New York might have helped the studios to convince independent theater operators in smaller cities to book the film - "it sold 5,000 tickets a day in New York!" Finally, for electric signs like this, it wouldn't have been difficult for the sign company to stock a few copies of the alphabet, with bulbs installed and ready to go. Then, when they got an order, they could paint a backing board, hang the letters on it, and wire them together relatively quickly. This would have worked better for standard-ish typefaces, like on the "Home of the Brave" sign, and not as well on custom ones, like the curved letters for "Barkleys of Broadway". In another sign of the times, 1949 seems pretty early to me for a "seven-segment" clock display (on the Bond store). Apparently somebody didn't care for the open-topped "4" that most LED and LCD seven-segment displays now have, and installed one more segment to get a pointy-topped 4. June 10, 1949Based on all of the visible movie marquees on this wonderful pair of Times Square photos, they were taken on or around June 10, 1949. (High-speed film may have been needed to catch a theatre actually showing "Night unto Night." It was savaged by critics. In an era in which even bad reviews tended to be understated, the New York Times review on June 11 ended with this dig: "Having waited so long to expose 'Night unto Night' to the light of day, the Warners might better have left it at the bottom of the well, for some things are best forgotten.") Feel the heatThose hot days in NYC. You can just feel the car exhaust bouncing off the pavement. Nice to see the top of the Empire State Building sans radio tower. [Look again. - Dave] Bond Sign Waterfall turned off hereThe bond sign had a 50,000-gallon waterfall 27 feet high and 120 feet long behind the large "BOND" logo which was apparently turned off when this photo was taken. Drat! (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Movies, NYC)
Little Italy: 1900
Little Italy circa 1900. "Mulberry Street, New York." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/09/2020 - 6:49pm -

Little Italy circa 1900. "Mulberry Street, New York." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Where are the people?What strikes me is the absence of people in the current view of the street. In 1900 the street is packed with people and life. In the 2009 view it's mostly a parking lot with a few people walking about. Another Shorpy MasterpieceSo much detail, a History major could write a PhD thesis on this photo alone. Who can help but think..."Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Madonna mia!Facce di povera gente, facce da bandito e facce da guappo. Penso che molti italiani dovrebbero guardare meglio la loro storia. Bellissima fotografia, magnificent photo, thank you. TintedDetroit Publishing also had a Photochrom (colored) version of this scene. Click to enlarge. Will Someone Please Invent....the New York Pizza? 84 MulberryLooking north. The next cross street is Canal. Fascinating glimpse into the pastSo many little details. Wonder why so many people are looking at the camera? Did he attract that much attention or maybe call out to the crowd? 201 CanalCorner building with the dark bands of ad copy. Just WowAt 86 Mulberry (here partly obscured by an awning) was my great-great grandfather's pharmacy. Thank you. A million detailsThere's even a young fellow holding a glass of beer in the middle of the street. ShorpyThis photo is the reason I am a member of the Shorpy family. A person can spend hours looking at the details of life in the early part of the century. Chinatown adjunctWas down there this weekend. Basically all Chinese now, but still a lot of small Italian specialty shops for cheese, cured meat, etc. The old "Mustache Petes" are all long gone. Beneke Bros. -- the best choice for your pedals.The New York Times said of Beneke Bros. Shoes: "They carry an immense stock of varied styles, and claim they can fit any man whose pedals are not abnormal in shape, and for misshapen feet they make to order anything that a Knight of St. Crispin can accomplish by art or ingenuity." "Jersey Shore"Those fools on MTV wouldn't last five seconds in this crowd. Signor MalzoneThe Banca Malzone was founded by Fausto Domenico Malzone. He was a banker, travel agent, wine seller as well as the Artistic Director of The Italian American Theatre club which was also at 88 Mulberry Street. Don Malzone was a respected member of the community. Alas for the departed shutters!The same buildings, but now they look like mere tenements. Amazing to thinkthat today every person here would have a cellphone. Thanks for this fascinating picture. Christmas PilgrimageMy wife's family is originally from New York and part of the holiday ritual is a trip to Mulberry Street each Christmas Eve to procure the goodies for a proper Holiday meal. Alleva Dairy, one of the oldest stores in the city, is the first stop. Next door is a great pasta shop. There's a wonderful pork store near that, but the last three years we've been there the line is about 50 people long, so we skip it. Back to Mulberry and three blocks down is the last stop, Caffe Roma on Mulberry and Broome, for fresh pastries and desserts. Our surgical strikes into the city get us in at 9 a.m. and back home to central NJ by noon. The throngs of people from the 1900 pictures is very alarming. I'm glad all of those folks weren't in the street Christmas Eve morning! Thanks for sharing this image. Where are the people today?They are all inside, at computers looking at pictures of what their streets used to look like with people on them. I Wish!How I wish I could have been born that long ago. Times were much simpler and to be born here would be great seeing that I am half Italian. What a scene!The throng of people! One has to wonder about sickness in such a crowd of people. How easily it must have been to spread disease and so little medicines to help. Not a good time to live in that respect but I'm sure everyone was thankful they were there and not in the repressive country where they came from. My grandparents were German immigrants and one French grandmother, so I'm sure they were there in the city somewhere at least for awhile. Most of them migrated to Ohio and Kansas not liking city life and having farming backgrounds. This is an incredible picture! 111 years and everyone here dead and hopfully not haunting the street. ;D The person who stated his great-great grandpa's pharmacy was on this street must be excited to see this! I know I would be! (The Gallery, DPC, NYC)
New York Public Library: 1915
The New York Public Library as seen from the intersection of East 42nd Street and Fifth ... are several of his photos, including "Main Street, Morgan City, Louisiana" (1935) and a 1929 postcard shot from the same vantage. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/07/2011 - 8:10pm -

The New York Public Library as seen from the intersection of East 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. July 14, 1915. Copyright Office Collection. View full size. my favorite hiding placeThis is my favorite spot to go to on the weekends. The designs on the inside are amazing, not to mention the quiet. Postcard viewI have a postcard view that seems to have been based on this photo. Walker Evans on postcardsThe Feb '09 issue of Antiques magazine has an article on Walker Evans, "America in 3 by 5." His collection of more than 9,000 cards are the basis for the recent MOMA exhibit "Walker Evans and the Picture Postcard." Included in the article are several of his photos, including "Main Street, Morgan City, Louisiana" (1935) and a 1929 postcard shot from the same vantage. Evans, quoted in a 1962 interview, said "The picture postcard is a folk document ... honest and direct little pictures." Antiques points out that the production of the cards wasn't so direct. While the photos may have come from largely anonymous local photographers, the business was multinational. Black-and-white photos, prior to WWI, anyway, were sent to Germany where color was added by engravers who'd never been near the scene, adding "florid sunsets and blue skies with great puffy clouds," but leaving the subjects somewhat understated. The article is worth seeking out, both for the reflection on picture postcards, as well as some background on a great American documentary photographer. Steve Miller Someplace near the crossroads of America Missing sculpture elementsA photo of the opening day of the Library on May 23 1911 shows that none of the six sculpture elements of the metope above the entrance had yet been placed. In a later photo one can notice that one element had been placed on the extreme right of the metope. What is strange is that on the above photo, who supposedly has been taken in 1915, no sculpture element at all appears on the metope. What has happened? Any idea welcome. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, NYC)
Dead End: 1905
Circa 1905. "The close of a career in New York." Photo by Byron. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing ... a dead horse This was a common sight in any big city at the time. Just because this horse is on the street waiting to be picked ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/09/2018 - 5:26pm -

Circa 1905. "The close of a career in New York." Photo by Byron. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Not ready for a poke.You really want to wait a day or so, until the legs on top are lifted skyward, before poking the horse with a stick. Grew up in cattle country, and had the chance to do so as a kid. Great photo, this one, for showing what life was like. Also enjoyed the Little Italy 1900 view posted today (or was that yesterday?). Urban ArchaeologyWho'll be the first to figure out what street this is? The smellI would not last very long in the olden days. Gag. Future GlueFascinating photo. Apparently this was a very common sight. NYC had men with wagons in place to pick up carcasses and bring them to rendering plants, many of which were located next to Dead Horse Bay in Brooklyn. I hear that bones are still occasionally found! Nowadayshe'd be plastered with tickets. For Jack FinneyIf I could dedicate a photograph from this site, I'd dedicate this one to Jack Finney, author of "The Third Level," "I Love Galesburg in the Springtime" and the novel "Time and Again," among dozens of stories all focused on the notion that any normal, healthy, sane person would want to flee the oppression of modern life and escape to the healthier and more beautiful world of 1905. Which, in Finney's mind, apparently consisted entirely of men in straw boaters, women in leg-o'-mutton sleeves, and band concerts in the park on summer evenings. There are no dead half-starved horses in Finney's world, no ragged children, no shaved heads to get rid of the lice (note the extremely short haircuts on a couple of these kids), no mud. That's why I love this site: it's like getting a glimpse into the past, unfiltered by the wishful thinking of modern filmmakers or fictionalists. Google Street ViewBefore too many people post Google Street Views of 527 West 125th Street (the address noted in the excellent comment below), two observations. 1. 527 West 125th Street is the address of the dairy (photo below), not of the rundown stable whose entrance is shown in the dead-horse photo. Dairy and stable not necessarily same street address! 2. Please DO NOT make a screen grab of a Google Street View and then upload the screen grab here or elsewhere. If you want to show a Google Street View in the comments box, all you need to do is copy and paste the Google "embed" code, which is super-easy. Thank you and good day. Stop right there boyo!Don't you dare poke that animal with that stick. McDermott-Bunger DairyThe McDermott-Bunger sign is a clue. The company built a new dairy at 527 West 125th Street in 1903 (NY Times), so the delivery stable was probably not too far away. Beginning in the 1860s, factories producing lumber, paint, beer, dye and other materials cropped up on the far western end of Manhattan Valley, around what is now West 125th Street, with its direct connections to the rail line along the Hudson River and the ferry. While I am loath to beat a dead horse, I speculate this photo was shot in that area. In the movies from that eraI always wondered why even really poor people were always clean and had good teeth. Also thought it was strange that there were never any dead horses in the streets--except the ones shot in gun battles. West Side DairyThere was another McDermott-Bunger facility at 525-27 West 38th Street. I think the older boy cares.Though horse death was a regular part of life in the dairy delivery business I'm sure people did get attached to some of the animals. When the time came a horse had to be gotten out of the property and out to the street where the carcus could be picked up. I'm thinking the boy with shoes and a hat works in the stable and has been tasked with waiting for the pickup. I'm also thinking he is not too happy with the task nor what has happened to one of his charges. It's entertainment for the kids and it's a responsibility for him. His affect says, "Aw crap, this sucks." "Mind your horse for you, Mister?"The kid in the flat cap looks a bit guilty to me. The Knackers TruckGetting a dead horse up off the street was hard work. Here is a photo of one being winched into what looks like an early Daimler municipal knacker's truck somewhere in Germany. Another note re: Jack FinneyAnother note re: Jack Finney and his wonderful book, "Time and Again", as posted by Cactus Wren. I've read it at least three times over the years, and it would be a book that I'd want to have with me to read once again, if marooned on a desert island. We tripped the light fantastic on the sidewalks of New YorkWell, a few of us, anyways. Others, not so much. Dave, some of the photos you find astonish me. They have changed me. This is one of the saddest ever. Looks LikeThe Yellow Kids of Hogan's Alley Look at the old facesThese kids had such old looking faces...this was the most depressing photo yet...interesting, but depressing! I could have lived the rest of my lifewithout seeing this photo. Why oh why did I click on this email this morning? Ok, I'm a woman who loves animals, babies, children etc. I'm no member of Peta and I eat meat but this picture is heartbreaking. To see a magnificent animal like the horse lying in a ditch looking starved and unkempt just makes me want to cry. I wish I could go back to that time and whip that owner for abusing that horse the way he did. This just makes me even more thankful for our modern ASPCA. I hope this horse is in horse heaven now galloping over the hills and valleys of heaven and eating all the oats he desires. Please don't reply about all the other misfortunate beings that existed then. I'm not really interested. Any architectural historians out there?The clapboard house next to the dairy looks considerably older than the brick structures elsewhere on the street. Any clues as to its potential age? It looks fairly rattletrap when this photo was taken. Is this a Saturday or in the summertime - or are all these boys playing truant? And I bet none of them wash their hands before eating. You can do better, DaveJesus, man - don't we see enough death and violence in modern media? You can actually select the pics you post, right? [Boo-hooey. - Dave] For Cactus WrenNot to get in an argument with you, but I recently read "Time and Again," a work of FICTION, which was written in 1970. I didn't get the idea from reading it that 1882 was such a fabulous and glorious time to live in. In fact, there's a part in the book where the main character Simon Morley is riding in a taxi and discussing with the driver the poverty he and his family live with constantly. If people really want to know how the "Other Half" lived, they ought to read Jacob Reis. Look at their facesI see an obvious resigned sadness in each little boy's face over the demise of the equine as though, even at their tender ages, they accept the sorrowful but inevitable finality of death. Even the kid that has spotted the photographer wears an undermask of mourning. (Yeah, I am one of those morose drinkers who cries in my beer). The poor horse was a good animal, he didn't deserve this. He served his master well, worked his carcass off and this is how it all ends up. Where is the justice? Great Photo Dave!Not sure what everyone's gripe is about you posting this photo. As a history buff, I am thankful that such photos are available to view. They give us a peek into history, and the way things were. A great photoSure it's depressing, but it's as real as the pictures of death taken by Mathew Brady during the Civil War. When I was a kid in New York, circa 1944 to 1948, there were still a number of horses drawing vendors' carts. Vegetables, rags, and a knife sharpener were the ones I remember. I also remember a traditional organ grinder with a monkey, and guys building skyscrapers tossing red hot rivets through the air. This way to the Egress.The comments regarding the "depressing" subject remind me of a comment left at the Children's Museum at a certain major Canadian institution when I worked there. "You should only put up pictures of pretty things like flowers and butterflies instead of the Satanic things you have" (which were, amongst other things, costumes from other countries and an inflatable igloo). I, for one, am glad that no punches are pulled, here. Life isn't always flowers and butterflies. Cost of HorsepowerThe fate of horses worked to death, and elimination of their droppings from the street, were big reasons why automobiles were looked on as a great advancement. By comparison, automotive smoke and oil drips seem minor. On PhotographersAn eloquent, honest, even wrenching photo. And it has inspired a range of emotions. This is what the best photography does - beyond the merely documentary. Thanks for unearthing and posting this. Thanks, DavePut me in the category of readers who appreciate photos like these. The great thing about so many of these historical photos is that they show the dirty fingernails and the sweat-soaked clothes of past times, not just picture-postcard views of town and country. When thousands of horses pulled thousands of carts, wagons, and carriages through cities every day of the week, some horses obviously died. Let's not be so meek and prim that we complain about seeing photos that depict everyday reality. If you're too fragile to view these photos, maybe the problem is with you, rather than the truth portrayed in the photos. And Shefindsu, what makes you think any cruelty was involved in this horse's death? The horse doesn't look "starved and unkempt" to me. He just looks dead. Geez, people, get a grip. Losing the rose-tinted glassesI've been enjoying the photographs on Shorpy.com for over the year now. During that time, I noticed a certain tendency of some commentators to shake heads at our present while nostalgically looking at pictures of men and women of the past century. I hope this photo will serve as a sharp reminder of how primitive and brutal life could be in a average Western metropolis, barely a century ago. Mind you, I don't think present times are anywhere close to utopia. But comparing the place I live in today with the way it was a hundred years ago... I'd say I'm better off then my grand-grandparents. Blogging a dead horseThis was a common sight in any big city at the time. Just because this horse is on the street waiting to be picked up does not necessarily mean that the animal died from abuse. I wrote an article last year about the history of carriage horses in New York, and in the course of my research I found numerous pictures just like this (and none of the horses in the pictures looked "healthy," probably because they were, you know, dead). Freak accidents, disease, and simple wear and tear from years of pulling carriages on the city streets are just a few of the things that could send a horse to an early grave. Although it may seem sad, horses in this era were still considered a means to an end, and their usefulness was determined by how much they could work. I'm sure that there were owners that mourned the death of a cherished animal, but truthfully people around the turn of the century were generally a bit more realistic about the inevitability of death than we are today. Horses still need disposalI worked for the National Park Service for many years and we had mounted patrol rangers who rode the back country trails. I vividly remember the card we kept in the Rolodex file for a "dead horse removal" service. Never had to call on them, thank god. Our horses were loved and cared for like no others (a small army of volunteers assisted in feeding and currying) but they were still animals that might fall victim to sickness or injury. Yes, not 125thGreetings -- just discovered this fantastic site. Amazing stuff. Kudos to webmaster Dave. Adding to what's probably already been confirmed, a friend on 126th Street notes that while the photo of the dairy (comments, 1/21, 9:06) is definitely West 125th (Manhattan Ave, as it was called around the time that pic was taken), the picture of the dead horse does not look like West 125th. There is no place on West 125th that has that kind of perspective, straight to the vanishing point. It could possibly be East 125th, or, much more likely, someplace well downtown from there. Thanks for this pictureA sad photograph, but an interesting one that shows something about history that we don't ordinarily think about much. That's what I like about this site: old photographs show us the forgotten details. For me the most telling thing is that the kids are more interested in the camera than they are in the horse. It's not that the kids are particularly inhumane, but for them a dead horse isn't all that unusual. A camera is. And is that so bad, for children to focus on the new? I'm sad for the horse, but let's not forget the kids. They're vibrant, alive, interested in new things around them and in each other, even in the face of death and their own poverty. There's hope here. The kidsI agree that this is a sad picture, but alas, it is real life. The horse does not look that well fed, but perhaps it is because it was ill, not starved. What I really find interesting is how many kids are just sort of running around on their own - no supervision, no shoes, and that one little guy on the sidewalk by himself looks no more than 3 or 4. That's Life (& Death)I am new to this site but must comment on this picture. I grew up in Brooklyn in the 1950s. There was a livery stable on Dean Street where peddlers stored their wagons and boarded their horses. Occasionally a horse would die and wind up in the street just like this. The owner of the stable would cover it with a blanket (presumably to keep the flies off) until the Department of Sanitation (around the block on Pacific Street) could pick it up. I remember one instance where we kids watched as the dead horse was winched onto a flatbed truck and hauled away. Horses (even the most loved and well-cared for) die, as do all living things eventually. The horse in the photo may well have been 25 to 30 years old. Possible Location ...I have been spent a little while trying to solve the puzzle of where the location of this picture was and I may have found it. Not only was the McDermott-Bunger Dairy located at 527 West 125th Street in NYC, but they also had an additional location at 525-531 West 38th Street in NYC. I have found several references to this, including one in a November 1902 issue of the Jefferson County Journal (of Adams, NY.) Unfortunately, when I looked at the location on Google maps, I found an open space that is an overpass for one of the entrance/exit ramps to the Lincoln Tunnel. Additionally, there are no old buildings that are identifiable on the block. (The Gallery, Bizarre, DPC, Horses, Kids, NYC)
New York Public Market: 1948
March 22, 1948. The New York City Public Market at First Avenue and East 73rd Street (?), an example of the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/31/2012 - 2:34pm -

March 22, 1948. The New York City Public Market at First Avenue and East 73rd Street (?), an example of the food market in transition. A typical 19th-century market would have many separate vendors in an open-air space like a town square. By the early 1900s the open-air space had given way to separate vendors under a large shed roof with no walls, often near the train station. Here in 1948 the space is enclosed, but still with separate vendors (greengrocer, butcher, dry goods, fishmonger etc.). After the introduction of centralized distribution and self-service for the various product categories, the individual vendors fade from the scene and the market has a new name: "super-market," now spelled without the hyphen. View full size. 5x7 safety negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. Another Timeless PictureThe only indications that this photo was not taken yesterday are the food prices. Farmers' markets are one of those rare things that simply haven't changed much over the last 60 years. Even the scales look the same. [True, although the men selling the produce are not the people who grew it. It's more of an old-style grocery as opposed to a self-service market, i.e. supermarket. - Dave] VintageIf the 1948 photo is *vintage* and I'm pre-1948 what does that make me? Was it really that long ago? My Grandmama took me to a few of these markets in the 40's and 50's. They slowly moved out into the suburbs, year by year, until you couldn't find them in the city anymore, and had to travel out into the 'country-side' the find them. Fortunately, we moved out to Queens along with them and were able to continue to purchase fresh produce. (The Gallery, Gottscho-Schleisner, NYC, Stores & Markets)
City Gas: 1905
... the bay near Sausalito in early 1965. Gas Tank Park New York had dozens of these structures. Some of the most famous were the Elmhurst ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/01/2019 - 11:14am -

Circa 1905. "Gas holder, Detroit City Gas Company." A familiar sight from the era of "city gas," when municipalities had their own gas plants in the days before long-distance transmission of natural gas. The telescoping sections rose or fell as "illuminating gas," which was made by heating coal, was put into or removed from the holder. 8x10 glass negative. View full size. Gas Holder Fun FactsAs my 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica states, "A gasworks should be sited with some care as it does not improve the neighborhood." Water was kept between the telescoping sections as a seal -- the internal pressure was not that great. Cincinnati, a town which has creatively repurposed its older infrastructure, has a gasworks park with creative "sculptures" made from the old apparatus. Oval GasGasometers are still a feature of some British city skylines, one of the most high-profile being in the background of the Oval cricket ground in South London. WiredI am mesmerized by those wires coming in from the upper right. I suppose they run behind the container and that it's only their shadow that continues perfectly across the front until diverted by the curve - but, as I study them, they play tricks on my brain jumping from foreground to background amongst the geometric shadows. [The wires run across the photo in front of the tank. - Dave] So THAT's what that thing was!There was a framework that looked like this to the west of I-435 in Kansas City on the river bluffs - I wondered for years what it was. Thanks for clearing up that mystery! Ka-BOOMGot a light. West coast gasWhen I was growing up out here in California these things were a familiar sight in just about any city of a goodly size, even suburban San Rafael just to the north of us in Marin County. There was an enormous one in San Francisco up through the mid-1960s, at the east end of the Marina District. Here it is at the right in a section of a slide I took from across the bay near Sausalito in early 1965. Gas Tank ParkNew York had dozens of these structures. Some of the most famous were the Elmhurst tanks. They were knocked down in the 1980s and now the site of Gas Tank Park. Near most of these structures were the gashouses which produced the illuminating gas -- sites often requiring remediation to remove the contaminant plumes of benzene and other aromatic hydrocarbons which dripped into the ground. Got gas?Hi tterrace. That tank is now the site of the upscale Marina Safeway. However, its memory lives on in the name of the sailboat marina right across the street: Gas House Cove. Worried ?Wonder if the people living next door ever worried about an explosion. That being said, I have never heard of one blowing up. Gas lines, yes. The neighbors most likely never had low pressure in their lines, at least. A while back I was looking at some of these in Europe and UK online; some gas holders overseas have been converted to condominiums or apartment buildings! "Gasometers"I live in London, and you will still see these structures all over England and particularly in the large cities. We call them "Gasometers," and they are still part of the national grid for gas distribution. Love em in London!These things seem to inspire the same fond feelings as water towers. So big and matter of fact and useful! The number 8 gasometer down the road from me in King's Cross, London, is being zhuzhed up as part of the regeneration of the area. Hopefully they'll keep it a little bit weird and rusty. http://www.bp-k.com/projects/Gasholder.html An Illuminating Subject.When I was young, not far from our home was a coking plant which had two huge gas holders of the type shown. They would slowly rise as gas was produced and fall as gas consumption exceeded supply. The adjacent gas works would emit an atomic cloud of steam as a coke oven was "pushed" and the glowing coke quenched by water before it was loaded into steel hopper cars. On occasion a wood-sided hopper was used, the coke not completely quenched, and the resulting fire caused by the wind of the train's motion would burn thru the car side and a glowing lava of coke pour out as the train moved down the track. Steel coke cars would sometimes glow in patches at night. I do not know if there are any gas holders of this design left. I would like to ride on top of one and watch it inch up by looking at the framework, and see it pause as the pressure inside had to increase to lift the next section. I tell younger people about them and they do not grasp the idea of the telescoping sections at all, how the pressure inside, although low, was enough to lift the tons of metal the tanks sections were made of. Other gas holders were circular and made with bricks, not rising nor falling. The whole coke plant and the gas holders are long gone, ugly to be sure, being replaced with even UGLIER slumplexes of high-density housing. LandmarksThose Elmurst, NY, Gas Tanks were a staple for many Long Island Expressway Commuters. Traffic reporters would announce, with almost every daily (weekday) morning drive heading to The Queens-Midtown Tunnel, that the major tie-ups would be in the vicinity of the gas tanks. Incidentally, the tanks themselves rose and fell according the volume of gas in them. They could have preserved itby turning it into a park, like we did here in Seattle. Same in St. LouisThere was at least one of these on highway 64/40 in St. Louis that I used to pass daily on my commute. It would rise and fall and I always wondered what it was. I'd heard it was for natural gas but I never really understood, but now I do. Great photo- thanks for posting! http://www.builtstlouis.net/industrial/gasometers.html Roll up the windows! We passed two of these tanks en route to Grand-ma's Brownstone in Brooklyn, NY. But the associated cracking plants and their gas flare towers sent the pervasive stench of rotten eggs drifting over the county for miles around. We all held our noses and made rude noises until shushed by the adults. Wow, popular topic! I just wanted to add that modern tanks act as flow buffers, just like water towers. Instead of just storing locally made gas, they store a 'back-up' quantity of product to handle periods of high demand, but are fed by massive pipelines from distant plants. (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC)
Hansom Fillies: 1900
The latest stop on our circa 1900 walking tour of New York: "Cab stand at Madison Square." Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/18/2012 - 3:31pm -

The latest stop on our circa 1900 walking tour of New York: "Cab stand at Madison Square." Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size. Bold FilliesOh those bold fillies, showing their ankles. Again, wonderful detail. Some things never change. Shorpy does it againAnother awesome picture Dave. I love the way the two girls are ignoring the sly look of the cab driver. In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking but now, God knows, anything goes. How many beads do you get for flashing the ankles ? The more things change...Yes, indeed -- over the years, the ladies always get our attention, even with all those layers. Near the FlatironAlso note the sign in the far background promoting The Steel Pier in Atlantic City. I really like any of the pix that show signage (and ladies' fashions and personal good looks, for that matter) from back in turn of the century Manhattan. Window undressingWe have not lost the sun, so I wonder why we did away with the awnings that seem to have been common when this wonderful photo was taken. Did AC render them useless? Main SqueezeLook at those waistlines! How were the ladies able to walk without grimacing? Wasp-waistedOne can only imagine the agony of getting into the tight corsets that produced those very slim waistlines when hourglass figures were fashionable at the turn of the century, GiGiThis wonderful picture could be Paris and we might expect to see Leslie Caron at any moment! Be still my heart!Dearest Dude Dave, Every so often I think you've put my dear NYC on the back burner for too long -- and then four of the best you've ever posted, all in a row. God Bless You. Aid to AnachronismPics like this one often make me imagine the same scene a hundred years earlier, and somehow these photos makes it easier: same scene, only ladies and gents in different dress, slightly different tack on the horses and design of the carriages, and the buildings lower -- but with the aid of a pic like this I can imagine more easily what reality really looked like circa 1800. The girls aren't ignoring them,they're concentrating on breathing. Those have to be the most cinched-in waists I've ever seen. Great Title!Yes indeed, those fillies are certainly handsome! Horses nice too. [They're also "Hansom." Get it? - Dave] Got itThe rigs are Hansom cabriolets, or "cabs" for short. Named for their designer, the architect Joseph Hansom. O Pioneers!With one daring and coquettish swish of their skirts, the ladies sashay fashionably into the new century. You go, girls! New York WomenEven 110 years later, these two women are instantly recognizable as New Yorkers. You would have no problem finding that same expression of hostile aloofness on the streets of Manhattan today. I imagine that just out of the frame to the left are a couple of Irish nannies taking care of the children of these two. Great picLove this picture. Makes me wish I could paint and reproduce it. So much human interest -- two beautiful girls passing by completely oblivious of the admiring look of the cab driver This picture has been "done" many times in later eras but it is even more intriguing because of the era. I love the swish of the girls' skirts. They are hurrying and too busy to notice the cabbie's glance. Joie de VivreA really nice image. It feels "alive." 110 Years LaterUsing Google Maps, I found the location of the photo. We're looking south along 5th Avenue where Broadway crosses at Madison Square Park. In the photo the park is on the left and you can just see the Flatiron through the trees. I couldn't move the vantage point any closer to the photographer's position since the Google vans don't drive on the sidewalks. View Larger Map Sex and the City 100 years priorCarrie Bradshaw and Charlotte 100 years earlier? Lovely photo! (The Gallery, DPC, Horses, NYC)
New York Giant: 1908
New York circa 1908. "The Singer Building." Shortly after its completion. 8x10 inch ... the right side. So it goes In the 70s, the New York city fathers saw the error of their ways and replaced this striking, beautiful ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/06/2013 - 10:03am -

New York circa 1908. "The Singer Building." Shortly after its completion. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Man on a LedgeI love looking at these big building and finding a man on a ledge cleaning windows. This time it looks to be the 7th floor at the right side. So it goesIn the 70s, the New York city fathers saw the error of their ways and replaced this striking, beautiful building with a brown Modernist rectangle. Howard Roark would be pleased, at least. (Trivia: the Singer Building was at the time the tallest building ever demolished.) Obligatory rooftop laddersTwo, at least, on the ornate setback deck. Still hold the recordIt still holds the dubious record as the tallest building ever intentionally demolished (I presume there's no need to explain the "intentionally" part). As unfortunate as its demolition may be in retrospect, it was not at all surprising at the time. The floors in the tower section were very small in terms of square footage, wholly inadequate for 1960's-style offices. Today the obvious solution would be to convert the Singer Building into very expensive apartments. Forty-five years ago, however, the idea of living in lower Manhattan would have struck almost everyone as strange to the point of absurdity. You *worked* in the area, and at night it was a ghost town. Things most definitely have changed. Happy MealBentwood chairs, specifically the Vienna Cafe chair #14 was produced for "mass consumption" beginning in 1859. According to Carroll M Gantz' Design Chronicles, there were more than 50 million Vienna Cafe chairs produced by 1859 and the company had 52 European factories by 1900. So, it might be safe to say that in 1908 this type of dining chair was fairly typical. Looks like this family is prepared for a happy meal quite unlike the happy meals of today! (The Gallery, DPC, NYC)
Gotham Underground: 1904
New York circa 1904. "City Hall subway station." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/01/2012 - 5:36pm -

New York circa 1904. "City Hall subway station." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. 104 years laterThe New York Transit Museum periodically conducts tours of the City Hall station, which hasn't been used for passenger service since 1945, but still survives at the end of the 6 line. Here's a photo from the tour conducted in 2008: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcgaw/2211045640/ City Hall IRTThis stop was last used in 1945. A history of it here. There were plans to reopen it as a museum but so far they have not materialized. Below, the abandoned station as it looks now. Click for more info. Seeing the stationIt's not that hard to see the station without waiting for a Transit Museum tour. Trains on the 6 line use the loop through City Hall station to change directions. When downtown 6's stop at Brooklyn Bridge station, the last/first stop on the line, the conductors announce "last stop" but generally don't check to see if anyone's still onboard. If you ride in the last couple of cars you usually won't be bothered and can ride through the loop and see the station. I did this several years ago and quite frankly was underwhelmed with City Hall station. Wow!Anonymous, I have a new desktop picture! Remarkably BeautifulThe station is just remarkably beautiful. The amount of artisanal inspiration, design and impeccable craftsmanship is extraordinary. It looks like a turn-of-the century University Library. I'd like to live in it! "The Darkness"Jackie Estacado, protagonist of the video game "The Darkness" (a demon-possessed mafia hitman, I kid you not), has a major shootout in this tunnel. Very cool, but not as cool as the real thing. Underground EconomyOh, that color picture is gorgeous. If they can't come up with the scratch for a museum, they could lease spots for upscale kiosks. Two good reasons for closing the stationConventional rail car axles have no differential gearing to accommodate the longer distance the wheels on the outside of a curve have to travel compared to the shorter distance on the inside of the curve. Consequently travel on any curve involves a deal of skidding and steel-on-steel screeching. With brakes applied as the train came to a stop in the enclosed station, the effect must have made quite an impression. There would have been wider gaps for passengers to mind as they crossed from the curved platform onto the floor of a straight car. This is only my speculation on a couple of considerations that may have led the IRT to close the station. Their reasons may have differed altogether. It is a beautiful daylight station. City Hall Before the Start of ServiceI think the top photo was taken in early 1904, before the IRT line went into service, which occurred on October 27, 1904. The exquisite tilework for the station had been completed but the electric light fixtures had not yet been installed (although the wiring was in), the third power rail had not been installed yet and there was obviously more cosmetic work to be done, as suggested by the ladder and other work materials on the platform. The bottom photo is a beautiful shot. (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Railroads)
Longacre Square: 1904
New York circa 1904. "Longacre Square." Soon to be renamed Times Square after the ... women we see in some of these "downtown" pics, in any U.S. city. Also, I don't know that much about how many people had their own ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/01/2012 - 5:35pm -

New York circa 1904. "Longacre Square." Soon to be renamed Times Square after the recently completed New York Times tower seen here. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. 106 Years Ago…Or thereabouts. It is utterly amazing to see a photo of Times Square from this era. To think of how far we have evolved as a nation is evident in this photograph. This area of NYC is a place where my great-grandfather worked and lived a portion of his life. I cannot help but think how the world will be when my future great-grandson (or granddaughter) ventures out into the world 106 years from now. Guys and DollsI'm sure others have noted/ commented how few women we see in some of these "downtown" pics, in any U.S. city. Also, I don't know that much about how many people had their own horse and carriage for transportation. For example, the guys on the far right, both wearing hats, both sitting "up front" - what's the deal? Driver and passenger? Coworkers in a company vehicle? Two guys commuting together? Extraordinary photo!It's hard to believe that people once lived there in apartments with flowers in the window and, probably, clothes drying on a line in the back. This may well be the most remarkable glimpse I have seen of my hometown's past. Thank you Dave! Pre MouseWow! Times Square looked great before Disney took it over. Oh, to explore this scene in person..This image comes alive like few have, you can almost hear the clippity-clop of the horses' hooves. Makes me wish I had a time machine and could spend a day or two exploring those streets. Thank again Shorpy! Cohan & Packard1904 was the year of George M. Cohan's big hit, "Little Johnny Jones," which opened at the Liberty Theatre on 42nd Street (somewhere to the right of this picture) in November 1904. The run didn't last long, but "Little Johnny Jones" was successfully revived in 1905 at the New York Theatre, apparently the one we see here with Cohan's name in lights. So should this picture be dated 1905, or was something else by the great Cohan also showing? On another front, I thought surely 1904 was early for a full-scale Packard dealership. Wrong! Packard went big time in October 1902. New York's FinestPolice protection seems abundant. I seem to count six policemen in this photo. And, oh, the glorious, glorious signs, including George M. Cohan at the New York Theater. Center StageAnd right in the middle of all this urban confusion is the newly minted Flatiron Building. Can you imagine the impression this building must have made at the time. It looks, from this angle, like it could lean over at any moment! Great Photo! [Another tourist lost in Manhattan. As noted in the caption, the tall building is the New York Times tower. The Flatiron building is 20 blocks away. - Dave] Re: Center StageCould I sell you a map, sir? Or perhaps a bridge. Getting in on the ground floorI've scanned the photo carefully--am I right? The Packard dealership has a wide field for growth--no autos on the street. And what was the history of the building it occupies? I'm vaguely thinking a church. IntriguingWait, you mean there's a building under all those billboards? Understandable MistakeOne might be forgiven for mistaking the Times Building for the Flatiron. They both occupy a similar triangular-shaped block created by the angular intersection of Broadway with (in the case of the Times Building) 7th Ave. and (in the case of the Flatiron Bldg.) 5th Ave. But the top half of the two buildings are quite different. Very difficult to determine whether any of the buildings in this photograph are still in existence today. Today everything is plastered with electronic billboarding. As in "everything". The Times Building is still there (I believe), but is today vacant and serves only as an easel for a number of extremely large, electronic billboards that completely cover the once-grand exterior of the building. The New Year's Eve ball descends from its roof top, but it has really ceased being a "building" in the true sense of the word. The functioning NY Times Building is today a new skyscraper over on 8th Avenue. Packardoccupied the showroom at 1540 B'way from November 1904 to June 1907. Can't find any info on previous tenants. 1540 B'way is now occupied by the Bertelsmann Building. Just four years laterMontague Roberts would be pulling away in the Thomas Flyer automobile right in front of the Times building to begin the NY-Paris Race. 1540 BroadwayIt seems I took a photo at a similar angle back in 2000 (as, I'm sure, did a few million other people) that includes the Packard dealership's address of 1540 Broadway. A little snooping indicated that this address now contains the Bertelsmann Building and the Virgin Megastore - which I think may be closed now. In my crappy little photo can be seen across the top of the Virgin sign the partial "LSMANN BUILDING" sign at far left. More About the Times TowerYes, there really is still a building under the electronic signs. It recently added a new tenant on the bottom floors (the ones with visible windows): Walgreen's new flagship store. (In the early days of the Times Square renewal project, this had been the home of a Warner Brothers store that had some fun items that combined WB characters and Times Square references.) Sadly, however, if you stripped off the signage, you would not see the grand old facade of the Times Tower. At an intermediate stage in the building's evolution it became the Allied Chemical Building, and the decorative stone and terracotta were stripped away and replaced with a bland white "modern" facing. The present hodgepodge of signage is actually preferable. The AIA New York Chapter's Urban Center gallery once had a great show with all kinds of serious and whimsical proposals for how the Times Tower might be restored or adaptively reused. I seem to recall that one included a roller coaster! It's too bad none of the better ones were ever adopted and carried out. Packard BuildingI would venture to say that the Packard building was a stable or carriage repair facility of some kind. That's what The Longacre was known for-If you look around on 8th Ave, there are still a very few buildings that look like the 2 just north of Packard. What a picture! Oh, and Happy New Year Electric cabOn the right, facing away from us in the distance past two hansom cabs,is an electric hansom cab with pneumatic tires. You can see the electric motors on the rear axle. The Times TowerThe building was empty for a long time, but has since been renovated and has tenants, including a Walgreens on the ground floor. Last year, Mayor Bloomberg drove through an initiative to reserve much of Times Square for pedestrians, with the result that it today looks and feels in some ways more like the 1904 photo than the one shown from 2000. +106Below is the same view (south from 46th Street) from November of 2010. (The Gallery, DPC, Horses, NYC)
New York Tenement: 1912
... A Jewish family works on garters in the kitchen of a New York City tenement home. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine, November, 1912. View ... 
 
Posted by Ken - 09/08/2011 - 8:23pm -

A Jewish family works on garters in the kitchen of a New York City tenement home. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine, November, 1912. View full size. What?My 14-year old daughter asked "What's garters?" What's Garters?Well in this particular case you can tell your daughter that they are used to hold up a gentleman's socks. Ladies' garters looked...different. You can still buy gentlemen's garters - you can certainly find them online. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, NYC)
Christmas Shoppers in New York
Christmas shoppers in New York City. Photo from the Bain News Service collection, between 1910 and 1915. ... 
 
Posted by Ken - 09/09/2011 - 9:59am -

Christmas shoppers in New York City. Photo from the Bain News Service collection, between 1910 and 1915. View full size. Deft brushworkWhat bizarre retouching! I wonder what was originally in the box that was blanked-over. [Not uncommon for newspaper photographs of that era. - Dave] RetouchingYou wouldn't want to inadvertently publicize a store that didn't pay for advertising! Retouched?Interesting, I assumed when I first looked at the photo, that the woman on the left was carrying a ladies muff in her left hand. Are you thinking that is a package or box that was been retouched? [The packages and hat, as well as the coats (the lapels of the lady on the left, for example) have been retouched to make them stand out. - Dave] More on retouchingOf course, looking closer (I am new to thinking about old photos being altered) I can see the odd-looking highlights. So, what I think is a muff, probably is--which is also a bit odd because it's so large! (The Gallery, Christmas, G.G. Bain, NYC)
Broad Street: 1905
... this article , "at the turn of the nineteenth century, New York City's infrastructure relied upon disease-creating entities such as the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 8:22pm -

Philadelphia circa 1905. "Broad Street north from Spruce." Detroit Publishing Company, 8x10 glass negative. Library of Congress. View full size. Early AutoI consider myself a "car buff" but these very early autos elude identification for me. Any guesses? Even if we don't know the make, the sight of a lone automobile on the dung-strewn streets is one of those great transitional moments. City HallBroad street leads to City Hall which is the tallest and largest masonry building in the world, using no steel. The walls of the first floor are over 20 feet thick to support the weight of the building. I have seen this building just about every day of my life and I still stop to look at its beauty. EmissionsBack when you really had to worry about your carbon footprint. Seven-O-Five or 12:35?Trying to determine the time of day is not too easy for old eyes, but it seems like there are LOTS of parking spaces available. Also, imagine wearing a long dress and then trying to avoid all the horse poop in the street. People seemed very civilized 108 years ago. The architecture was quite elaborate as well. Nice photo. [In answer to your question: Look at the shadows. - Dave] Horse droppingswere a major problem in big cities in the equine era. The streets had to be scooped up frequently, which required a large force of street cleaners. According to this article, "at the turn of the nineteenth century, New York City's infrastructure relied upon disease-creating entities such as the horse. Between 100,000 and 200,000 horses lived in the city at any given time. Each one of those horses gave off 24 pounds of manure and several quarts of urine a day." Rooftop signsOn the left of the picture is a rooftop sign that reads "THE NORTH...." and the building in front of it seems to have the same type of sign. Anyone know what they said? Also I think the theatre on the right is still in use today. (Maybe Ron can verify.) I lived in Philly for six years and was always amazed at the buildings. It's so wild to see what it looked like back in the day. This is why I love this site. [There is no rooftop sign on the building to the left but there is a flag -- it says Bellevue, for the Bellevue Stratford Hotel. The "North" sign is on the tower to the right, atop the North American Building. - Dave] Old photographyPeople often comment on the sharpness of these old large format photos, but they're superior in another way as well. See how the vertical lines in the modern picture all lean in toward the center because the camera is looking up, while the old view camera could be adjusted to eliminate this distortion and keep the vertical lines vertical. [There are plenty of modern film and digital cameras that will accommodate shift lenses, which are widely used in architectural photography. - Dave] Today's BroadView Larger Map Philly Soul?Way to go, man! Great shot. I live right outside Philly. I love seeing old pics of places I know well. Shorpy is showing some love for the Two-One-Five, representin' old school style! Keep up the fantastic work, my friend! I visit your page daily for stuff just like this. Cheers! The TheaterJimsShip, the theater is still standing. It's the Academy of Music, it opened in 1857. Academy of MusicThe Academy of Music is the building on the left. The theater on the right was the Broad Street Theatre, torn down in 1937. http://libwww.library.phila.gov/HIP/HIPSearchItem.cfm?ItemID=pdcl00176 No GenericaThis picture has such amazing details. I really love the different styles of the buildings. There are places in CA where you can get lost so easy because every house looks exactly the same. I can look at this picture for hours. Seven Lamps"These building look far better than what replaced them." They usually do. Modern architecture seems to be created by people who never progressed further than stacking blocks on top of each other. But that's just my opinion. Used to be betterI went to UArts in Philly and the building on the right with the turrets was replaced by the Terra building (where I took some of my classes). This picture was definitely taken on Locust Street (I lived around the corner). These building look far better than what replaced them). Philadelphia city planningPhiladelphia was laid out by its founder, William Penn. His plan from 1683 called for Broad and High (Market) Streets to be extra-wide. Penn didn't want narrow, crowded streets like ones in European cities at the time. Better BuildingsFor every Mies Van Der Rohe there's a thousand hacks thinking it's easy and that's why we have the canyons of today. Sad. I'm amazed at the proportions of the aptly named Broad St. It looks like it could handle 10 or 12 carriages wide! Any idea why they went that wide and was that the norm? Certainly made it easy to convert into the car age. Wide streetsThe wider the street the easier to turn a team of horses, mules, or oxen. InspiredWhat is the tall building on the right with the spires, it appears to have been torn down judging by the google map, what a shame. That was a beautiful building. Spruce and BroadNo this was taken from Spruce. (Check google maps) I also went to UArts when it was Philadelphia College of Art. I lived on the corner of Broad and Spruce. Where the first building you see on the left is used to be the Schubert Theater now the Merriam Theater owned by UArts. The next building on the left would be the Academy of Music. [The Broad Street Theatre, on the right, was at Spruce and Broad. Below: Street View from the same location. - Dave] Missing Mansard StoriesHas anyone noticed that the top three or four stories of the building on the left at the corner of Spruce & Broad have been demolished. The building now extends only up to the grand cornice level. All of the articulations of the French-styled mansards, chimneys and other elements of the upper stories are gone. They probably created maintenance problems for the owner and were a source of leaks over time. The building today looks far better in my opinion than it does in this photograph; the awkward and unbalanced details of its former crown are out of sync with the aesthetic of the lower block, which has the grand cornice for an appropriate and typical termination. [The mansard-roofed building is gone. You're confusing it with the building behind it. - Dave] RE: Tall Building w/ SpiresThe Hotel Walton. Photos of the lobby are also tremendous. +108Below is the same view from October of 2013. Early autoThe car rushing through the photo is a 1904 Covert runabout. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, DPC, Philadelphia)
S.S. Deathtrap: 1910
... than a dozen years: the burning of the 'General Slocum' in New York's East River in 1904 (1,021 deaths, and mentioned in Joyce's 'Ulysses'), ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/24/2023 - 9:40pm -

Lake Erie circa 1910. "Excursion steamer Eastland -- Cleveland, Ohio." On July 24, 1915, 844 passengers and crew were drowned when the Eastland, which had a history of listing problems, rolled onto its side while docked in the Chicago River. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Media eventThe 'Eastland' disaster of 1915 was extensively recorded in both still photography and film (discovered in 2015). The images are horrific. Ironically this was the least deadly of four notorious ship catastrophes within less than a dozen years: the burning of the 'General Slocum' in New York's East River in 1904 (1,021 deaths, and mentioned in Joyce's 'Ulysses'), the 'Titanic' in 1912 (1517), and the torpedoing of the 'Lusitania' (1199) just two months prior to the 'Eastland' rollover's 844 deaths. Family TragedyHere is the Eastland Disaster Historical Society account of that fateful day: The S.S. Eastland, known as the "Speed Queen of the Great Lakes," was part of a fleet of five excursion boats assigned to take Western Electric employees, families and friends across Lake Michigan to Michigan City, Indiana, for a day of fun and fellowship. But the festivities were short-lived and quickly turned tragic. The Eastland, docked at the Clark Street Bridge, never left the Chicago River. Tragedy struck as the ship rolled over into the river at the wharf's edge. More than 2,500 passengers and crew members were on board that day – and 844 people lost their lives, including 22 entire families. The Response Months of planning and preparation for the excursion and picnic led up to the Eastland Disaster, but the tragedy itself was over in a matter of minutes. However, the rescue and recovery efforts following the tragedy went on for days, even weeks. The sinking of the SS EastlandThe listing problems were made worse in 1912 after the Titanic sank. Ships were required by law to have enough lifeboat capacity for everyone on board. To meet the requirement, they added more lifeboats to the top deck, making it more top heavy. When passengers boarded for the Western Electric excursion, many flocked to the top deck on the shore side to wave to people there, and extra weight up there caused it to capsize. George Halas, later the founder of the Chicago Bears and the National Football League, was supposed to be on that trip. That Sinking FeelingShe appears to be listing to starboard here. A horrible tragedy, which my grandparents remembered many years later as being in the news, and never forgot. Wrong lessons learned ??I've read that, post Titanic, the ship was outfitted with additional lifeboats, something which would have made the ship even more top-heavy. The original owners wanted a shallower draftWikipedia has a good rundown of the SS Eastland tragedy. Shortly after being launched in 1903, the Eastland was modified to have a shallower draft for trips on the Black River in South Haven, Michigan. At the same time, air conditioning was added, and modifications were made to increase the ship's speed. These combined modifications reduced the ship's metacentric height (I learned a new term), making it less stable. Recognizing there was now a stability problem, the passenger limit was lowered from 3,000 to 2,800. Cabins were removed and the smokestacks shortened. Alterations continued to be made to improve the ship's stability, while other alterations made it worse. During these 12 years of operation, the ship went through five different owners. No alteration remedied the listing problem and, in 1915 the approved passenger capacity was increased to 2,570 after more lifeboats had been added (post Titanic), making the ship even more top heavy. Clarence Darrow represented the Eastland's owners and officers in a criminal trial. They were found not guilty. Second LifeNot long after the horrific tragedy in the Chicago River, SS Eastland was raised and repurposed as the gunboat USS Wilmette in the employ of the US Navy Reserve. She served mostly as a training ship for Naval Reservists from 1918 until just after the end of World War II and sold for scrap in October 1945. That Sinking FeelingThe apparent list to starboard may be due to the obviously stiff wind from port as evidenced by the flags and stack smoke plus, the ship has a ton of freeboard which will subject it to crosswind. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Cleveland, DPC)
New York Central: 1905
Circa 1905. "New York Central railroad station, Rochester." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, ... role in society. What better way to show your place in a city. Amshack indeed! (The Gallery, DPC, Horses, Railroads, Rochester) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/26/2015 - 11:49am -

Circa 1905. "New York Central railroad station, Rochester." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Replaced a few years laterIn the 1910s this station would be replaced by Rochester's brand new New York Central station, about a block or two further east on Central Avenue. The new station was considered by the NYCRR to be the second best station in their system; Grand Central of course being the first. The station also won recognition as one of the most beautiful American train stations to be demolished. It disappeared by pieces in the 60s and 70s, and was replaced by an Amshack. Taj Mahal indeed!Being the primary mode of long distance travel at the turn of last century, the railroads were not shy in building - and overbuilding - homages to themselves in the form of stations. I'm not being critical. It was their way of advertising their role in society. What better way to show your place in a city. Amshack indeed! (The Gallery, DPC, Horses, Railroads, Rochester)
Amex: 1910
... me to guess that the city we're looking for is Kingston, New York. Still There Too! Here it is today. City Of Angels Downtown ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/02/2012 - 5:23pm -

Circa 1910. "American Express Co., Main and Sixth." Just steps away from the Aseptic Barber Shop. Who can tell us what city we're in? View full size. Pacific Electric Building, Los AngelesThis is the Pacific Electric Building (or Huntington Building) at 6th and Main in Los Angeles, California. You can see intertwined Ps and Es in the column capitals at the cornice. And, amazingly enough, still there! Main & SixthIt's Sixth Street, not State, but I have no idea what city. On state streetthat great street, I just want to say, they do things they don't do on Broadway. Chicago? [I goofed in typing "State." Should have been "Sixth." - Dave] It's the Huntington BuildingIt's the Huntington Building in Los Angeles. "W.M.Garland & Company" was the clue." Pacific Power and LightPortland? Amex 1910 locationThe lampposts ("5-Globe Llewelin") indicate downtown L.A., unless the design was used elsewhere. But I don't believe so. West CoastI would guess Los Angeles as there is a Pacific Light and Power sign on one of the windows in the building. Dual gauge in L.A.It's Los Angeles. The tipoff (for me at least) is the dual-gauge streetcar track -- 3'6" for the city streetcars of the Los Angeles Railway; standard gauge for the interurbans of the Pacific Electric. I'm going to guess Los AngelesWe're on S. Main Street. Pacific Light and Power Company in one of the windows is a clue we're on the west coast. The real clue are the offices of W. M. Garland Company Real Estate. Mr. Garland was a commercial developer in Los Angeles. He was instrumental in bringing the Olympics to Los Angeles in 1932. That's my final answer. Los AngelesI believe this is the old Pacific Electric building on Sixth and Main. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Electric_Building In Los AngelesThis is the Pacific Electric Building in Los Angeles. Lazy AnswerMy limited research leads me to guess that the city we're looking for is Kingston, New York. Still There Too!Here it is today. City Of AngelsDowntown Los Angeles. The actual building was called the Pacific Electric Building. AlohaI'm going to guess Honolulu based on the "Pacific Power and Light" sign in an upper window. That Toddling TownI gotta say it's Chicago. InterurbanPacific Electric Building in Los Angeles, CA American ExpressThat building, I believe, is the one on Broadway in NYC. Los AngelesI think this is L.A. Could it besunny Los Angeles? The Magic 8 Ball saysLos Angeles. My bet is on San FranciscoThis is obviously just a local branch office, and a window on an upper floor says "Pacific". And, the number of streetcars. Los AngelesCorner of W. Sixth and S. Main, Los Angeles. All three buildings still there. We are in Los AngelesSixth and Main, Los Angeles. That is the Edendale streetcar line. Los AngelesThe building is the Pacific Electric headquarters at 6th and Main, in Los Angeles. More here. Sitting downBet there isn't a bloke sitting on a stool in the intersection now. More importantWhy is there a man who appears to be holding a newspaper sitting on a chair in the middle of the street? Perhaps the officer is telling him to "move along now, nothing to see here." Trolleys left their markThe attachments where the various wires and cable were are still visible on the building. View Larger Map Follow the trolley toEdendale. AlwaysWonderful to know where you are! But who is that sitting on a stool, in the middle of the interesection, next to the policeman? And why? Pacific Electric Railway Terminal The National Magazine, 1908 The Huntington Interests The lines operated by the Los Angeles Railway Company, the Pacific Electric, the Los Angeles Inter-Urban Railway Company, the Los Angeles & Redondo Railway Company, The San Bernardino Valley Traction Company and the Riverside & Arlington Railway Company, which comprise the Huntington system, is undoubtedly the greatest system of street and inter-urban railways in the world. It consists of over 500 miles of standard gauge line, reaching from Alpine (Mount Lowe), a mile above the sea, to the south coast ocean resorts, and penetrates all the valleys in the beautiful country adjacent to Los Angeles. … The Pacific Electric Railway was the name adopted by the corporation managing the suburban electric lines of the Huntington system, Mr. Huntington having acquired the line to Pasadena and outlining the plan for an extensive system of suburban railways reaching out from Los Angeles in every direction. Since then there have been completed electric railroads to practically every city and town of importance in Southern California and to the thriving beach resorts tributary to Los Angeles as a center. … One of the most enduring monuments to his public spirit and enterprise is the mammoth Pacific Electric Building of Los Angeles, a building of nine stories, with eleven acres of floor space and which is the terminal station for the wonderfully perfect inter-urban system. This is the largest structure of its kind west of Chicago, and was completed in December, 1904. The American Architect and Building News, 1908 The Pacific Electric Building, and the Jonathan Club Roof Garden, Los Angles, Cal. The rooms and roof garden of the Jonathan Club, on the upper stories of the Pacific Electric Building, at Los Angeles, were an afterthought. At the time the external character of the building was determined by Mr. Thornton Fitzhugh, the architect, the contracts let and the construction work well advanced, no thought had been given to the adaptation of the upper floors for club purposes. This problem was therefore a most difficult one, not only because the changes involved were many and complicated, but owing to official dictation and limitations imposed, the result is one in many respects quite at variance with what would have been accomplished had the architect been allowed freer rein in his work. None the less the Pacific Electric Building presents characteristics that would entitle it to some measure of recognition if built in the largest cities. Its proportions for a city the size of Los Angeles are unusual and its equipment such as will meet every condition of a first-class office building. The building stands on a plot 285x211 feet, and is nine stories high. The total floor space is more than twelve acres, and exceeds in area the Broad Exchange Building in New York, which is 21 stories high. The structure was erected for the Pacific Electric Railway Co. The basement has a clear floor space of 58,000 feet and is designed for use as a freight depot. The main floor ceiling is thirty feet high, supported by cement columns. Through an opening sixty feet high, spanned by a cement girder eight feet deep, the cars enter the building. The upper stories from the second to the sixth inclusive are devoted to offices. There are ninety-nine offices on each floor, or a total of 594 in all. No office is less than twenty by fifteen feet, and they range in size to a maximum of sixty by thirty feet. All three still there!the building on the right looked very modern in 1910, all simple and light. Another vote for LAThe streetcar on the left side of the image says, "Edendale," which was a neighborhood in old Los Angeles. Imagine an LA with ..."completed electric railroads to practically every city and town of importance in Southern California and to the thriving beach resorts." I'll think of that during my commute. Familiar!It looks very much the same today, though I doubt the chap on the stool in the middle of Main Street would find his perch as comfortable today. Before the credit cardWhat was American Express' main line of business? [Express is short for "express mail." Express companies like Adams Express and American Express were businesses similar to UPS or FedEx, relying mostly on the railroads for speedy delivery. American Express specialized in services to travelers -- travelers checks and money orders. The window gives some clues. - Dave] The loneliest man in the worldI love it when a shot of an old building includes a person looking out a window. This one's a classic. You should see insideI worked on a couple of movies in the late '90s inside the abandoned Pacific Electric building. What an amazing space. I wandered all through the building and stumbled into what I was told was Huntington's private office -- awesome, massive, with unbelievable marble stairways. In "Gang Related" worked on one scene right around where the streetcar is shown here coming out of the garage. In the scene was Tupac Shakur, who appeared to be somewhat inebriated. It wasn't too much longer after that that he was murdered in Las Vegas. Yay LAIt's great to see a photograph of Los Angeles on Shorpy. I will have to take a look at this spot this weekend and stand at this corner. There's a great restaurant down the street on 4th and Main called Pete's with great Mac and Cheese. No Traffic ControlWow, no stop sign or anything. I also like the seat on the front of the trolley on Sixth. Does one pay extra to be out in front? 610 South MainIt is indeed the PE Building, later the Southern Pacific’s general offices in Los Angeles. I worked there in the late 1970's and early 1980's when the Red Cars were long gone and the street-level station was turned into a parking lot. Our disptaching office controlled traffic betweeb Yuma, AZ and Fresno /San Luis Obispo, CA. Downstairs it was interesting to park one's car next to marble-covered columns. Working rotating shifts I sometimes had to step over a local citizen or two sleeping on the sidewalk. The building closest to the viewer on the left was the Santa Fe's offices and across the street out of view to the right was the Continental Trailways bus depot. The top floors of the PE building housed a handsome two-storey atrium - perhaps Mr Huntingdon's offices. We had a “Watch Inspector” (a man who sold and serviced approved railroad timepieces) in the building and I bought a Ball Trainmaster wristwatch from him for about $120. Years later it cost that much just to have it cleaned. Understand the neighborhood is much nicer now and this building is a condominium. StillWanna know what's up with the seated person in the middle of the intersection! (The Gallery, DPC, Los Angeles, Streetcars)
New York Life: 1900
September 11, 1900. "New York Life building, Chicago." The building, at LaSalle and Monroe streets, was ... the materials through the 1920s and 30s. In 1938 the City gave itself the authority to require owners to remove cornices deemed ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/02/2017 - 2:28pm -

September 11, 1900. "New York Life building, Chicago." The building, at LaSalle and Monroe streets, was completed in 1894, with major additions in 1898 and 1903. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Lasalle and Monroe: 2017Like many other Loop properties, this has been converted to a boutique hotel. The Kimpton Grey Hotel opened in 2016. Look Out for the CurveThat continuous line of hatch covers between the inner rail and the slot as the streetcar track goes around the corner means that this was a "pull curve", the cable car had to hold on to the rope all the way around, and would do so until 1906. Lost CraftsmanshipI'm amazed daily by the amount of masonry craftsmanship used on the upper floors of early buildings like this. Decoration and ornamentation in places or so high they'll never be fully appreciated by those at ground level. Headless horse?There appears to be a headless horse in front of the building. I hope this is not really the case. Cornice-ectomyIt would be a nice, classy gesture if they replaced the original, prominent cornice. I am not, however, holding my breath. [One way they're dealing with cornices in Detroit. -tterrace] "Cornice Danger" prompted removalsNumerous buildings lost pieces or whole sections of their uppermost cornices as age and freeze-thaw took their toll on the materials through the 1920s and 30s. In 1938 the City gave itself the authority to require owners to remove cornices deemed dangerous. This threat was enough that by the 1950s wholesale decapitation of these elements was underway. However, given the successful restorations of several cornices in recent years (like the Marquette building just around the corner on Dearborn) it is surprising that the just performed hotel conversion did not add this historic element back. Probably it was just deemed too expensive, or, if historic tax credits were involved, there wasn't clear enough documentation of the original to cornice to do it to preservation standards. (The Gallery, Chicago, DPC)
New York World's Fair: '64 or '65
This is a picture of my mom and her brother at the New York World's Fair. I guess my grandma wanted to get the at much as she could in ... 
 
Posted by Dana - 07/23/2009 - 8:02pm -

This is a picture of my mom and her brother at the New York World's Fair. I guess my grandma wanted to get the at much as she could in the photo so my mom and uncle are really far away, but you can see my mom's pretty plaid dress. My grandpa worked for the airlines in Miami, Fla., the now defunct Eastern Airlines. So they were able to get cheap tickets up to New York. When talking about the Fair my mom always mentions seeing the talking Abraham Lincoln robot. View full size. Me too!My mom and dad went to that World's Fair too. Dad was also fascinated by the Abraham Lincoln robot. When Disney World was built, we had to go right away so Dad could once again see "Lincoln" in the Hall of Presidents. Me ThreeMom and Dad didn't make it, but I was at that World's Fair. The Bull City (actually Durham, N.C.) H.S. Band played a concert at one of the outdoor venues there. I came away with a piece of spin art (the first time I had encountered that medium) and a Sinclair brontosaurus made by the injection molding process. Ah, Band Trip to NYC, the Taft Hotel -- what could be better? (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
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