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Miss Simpson: 1926
... while a member of the legislature served on committees on fish and game and military affairs. An early career-woman prototype ... she certainly knew how to handle a gun, with er work on "fish and game" and "military affairs" committees. Did she remain Miss ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/07/2012 - 2:08am -

January 15, 1926. Washington, D.C. "Miss Mary J. Simpson, journal clerk of the Senate." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
Before you click --Normally I'm excited to see the full size version.
Not this time!  Sheesh!  Big mistake!
That face could stop a moose at 40 paces.
From serious to "cheese!"Didja ever wonder who was the first shutterbug to prompt his subject to smile instead of look like they were posing for an oil painting?  I know why Brady-era subjects looked stern - even a well-lit scene could take 30-45 seconds to expose, and a neutral expression is easier to hold for that long.  But, my gosh, by 1926, film was fast enough (and it looks like a flash was used), so that Miss Simpson could relax a little at least!
All that's missingis the hairnet and Arte Johnson and a park bench.  
First Woman Bill Clerk

Washington Post, Jan 8, 1926 


Vermont Woman is Senate Office Aid

Miss Mary J. Simpson, a former member of the Vermont legislature, has been appointed a bill clerk in the office of the secretary of the Senate.  She is the first woman ever to serve in that capacity, receiving her appointment on the recommendation of Senator Dale, of Vermont.
She was educated at Craftsbury academy, Wheaton seminary, St. Johnsbury academy and University of Vermont. She taught for several years and while a member of the legislature served on committees on fish and game and military affairs. 
An early career-woman prototypeThis Miss Simpson had quite a responsibility.  She probably transcribed the happenings in the Senate Chambers, prepared them for print, and then kept copies of all of the bills and resolutions.  I see where even before her Senate appointment, she served in the Vermont legislature in what most certainly was an elected position. As an aside, I am fascinated by the heavily-marceled hairdo.  
Not a Happy CamperLook at her face -- she's got the angry-librarian look nailed.  Once she gets a few more wrinkles to give her gravitas, she'll be telling the Senators which way to vote.
Something in those Green MountainsMiss Simpson appears to share the same easygoing, lighthearted outlook on life evinced by her fellow Vermonter and president, Calvin Coolidge.
What a clean desk! What a severe expression!She looks like she stepped out of an Agatha Christie novel of the 1920s. She'd be at home on the Blue Train, or working at the Vicarage. With her background, it seems that she certainly knew how to handle a gun, with er work on "fish and game" and "military affairs" committees.
Did she remain Miss Simpson? Any idea of the rest of her autobiography?
Flat as a FritterMy mother told me in the 20's women bound their bosoms by winding a cloth tightly around their chest so as to make them conform to the flat-chested flapper look popular in the mid-20's.
Something tells methat Miss Simpson was not one to throw caution to the winds.
What my motherwould call "plain"
A resemblance?I wonder if she was any relation to George Washington.
Can't fool me.That is Conan O'Brian in disguise, even with a serious face in a black and white photo, one can detect his red hair and freckles.
Hit and MissNot to be too snide, but this Miss will probably say a Miss.  I can only hope her personality was just a tad better than her appearance.
That's no ladyThat's Bob Hope in drag.
A certain ember burning withinAh, but for the intervening decades she would be mine - She WOULD be mine.
What a babe!Is this Miss Hathaway's sister?
Wow!I'll bet she was a real firecracker in the sack!
Her nickname:"Dollar Bill." I'm just sayin'
Miss SwannShe looka lika man!
Resemblance Looks somewhat like Bette Davis in one her spinster roles.
She would be pretty if only she --Lost the glasses.
Got some chapstick.
Let her hair grow out. 
For the love, just smile!
The profile of her face in the photo does her no favors either.  She was only, what, 34 in this photo?
DOH!Certainly not related to Homer!
Miss Simpson: 1926From the Vermont Historical Society:
Mary Jean Simpson was born in East Craftsbury, Vermont and attended Craftsbury Academy, Wheaton Seminary in Massachusetts, and St. Johnsbury Academy from which she graduated in 1908. She went on to the University of Vermont, but transferred to Mount Holyoke College, which she left after her sophomore year when she returned to UVM. In 1913 she graduated with a PhD and turned to teaching. From 1913-1916 she taught at People's Academy in Morrisville, was head of the History Department at Montpelier High School from 1916-1918, and became the Principal of People's Academy from 1918-1920. In 1921 she moved to New York City to pursue graduate work at Columbia University. While there, she did some substitute teaching and started a Fresh Air program that arranged for New York City children to visit Craftsbury during the summer. Simpson returned to Craftsbury in 1924 and decided to run for the Vermont State Legislature. She was elected and served on the Fish and Game and Military Committees, but requested a transfer to the Education Committee. She worked to tighten a 1921 billboard law, which made her the first Vermont woman to submit a bill. After her one term, she moved to Washington, D.C. to become Bill Clerk in the Office of the Secretary of the United States Senate, and became the first woman to ever be selected for this position. Simpson came back to Vermont in 1933 and was the head of Women's Work in the Civil Works Administration and was the Executive Director of the professional programs of the Vermont Emergency Relief Administration. In 1935 she directed the Women's and Professional Division of the Vermont Works Progress Administration and the Vermont's Civilian Conservation Corps. She agreed in 1937 to become the third Dean of Women at the University of Vermont. She stayed in that position until 1955 and, while at UVM, she helped set up the school's first infirmary and recruit the woman who started the university's first nursing program. A dormitory at UVM now carries Simpson's name, and she was presented with a Distinguished Service Award in 1961. At graduation every year, UVM presents the Mary Jean Simpson award to a senior woman who best exemplifies some of the former dean's qualities of character, leadership, and scholarship. After retirement, Simpson made her home in East Craftsbury and remained active in state and civic affairs until her death in 1977.
Give Her a BreakOkay, so she's no Mary Pickford. She was obviously a highly intelligent and accomplished woman in an era when few women reached positions of responsibility. I admire her achievements, even as I acknowledge her unfortunate hairstyle.
Miss SWith such an impressive resume, I wouldn't think it matters what she looks like.
Owned Brassknocker FarmMy dad worked for Miss Jean at Brassknocker Farm in E. Craftsbury in the late 40's. I mowed her sisters lawn next door. Miss Jean was a very prom and proper lady. 
(The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo, The Office)

Dairy Queen: 1977
... also sold soft serve ice cream, burgers, hot dogs, fried fish, etc. I can see how the two places could be mistaken for each other. Keep ... 
 
Posted by rizzman1953 - 05/12/2012 - 2:33pm -

Late one evening, summer of '77 on Mount Auburn street in Watertown, Massachusetts; it is now long gone. I loved the sign and the car. Taken with a 4x5 view camera. I can still taste the ice cream -- dipped in chocolate of course -- and the sticky fingers. View full size.
Twenty-two-year-old Buick on snows!That 1955 Buick Special two-door sedan appears to be wearing a set of snow tires on the rear.  Wonder why it'd have them on during the summer?  After all, if that car was driven during twenty-two Massachusetts winters it would've rusted completely away.
Rizzman rocksI do hope you publish a book of your photos at some point. They are really strikingly beautiful. Thanks for this latest.
ShenanigansI am positive more than one fellow Shorpian will know what Marvel Mystery Oil is. Back in the late 50s when my ride was the Chevy V8-powered '54 Studebaker you see here, posed next to my friend Roger's chopped '48 (I think) Mercury ragtop, we hung out at Ted's Drive-in Diner in Altoona, Pa. One summer night one of the guys filled his windshield washer bag with Marvel Mystery Oil, ran the hose into the top of the carburetor of his '57 Ford convertible, and while someone held the diner's door open, backed his car as close to it as he could and triggered the windshield washer pump. An hour later the place was still pretty much swimming in Marvel Mystery Oil smoke. Ted was the opposite of well-pleased.   
How to in digital?This is a beautiful shot taken in the days of analog photography.
How would you accomplish this with a digital camera?
[The same way. -Dave]
So dreamyThe lighting is phenomenal!  What a great surreal/hyperreal quality.  I want to go to there.
Stunning! Holy CRAP!!
What an incredibly well-done picture this is!
 I'm reminded of Ansel Adam's "Moonrise Over Hernandez New Mexico" -- he was driving along, saw the shot developing and jumped from his car, set up his camera and took it, then, while reversing the slide for another, the light changed and that was that!
My 'umble opinion is that your image is in this class.
Boy that looks familiarWould you know if this was anywhere near (what was then) Westover Air Force Base? That's where we moved when we left Okinawa, and where I spent the 6th grade (so it would've been 1973, '74). Looking at this shot I can almost FEEL myself walking in that door again. Maybe it was on the route of one of the many sightseeing trips my family took, but this is an incredibly evocative picture (and thank you for it); I'm SURE I've been there.
MemoryI used to love this place. My grandfather would often take me there.
So reminiscentof my first trip to the United States to Glasgow, Montana, from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, in the 1950s, long before Dairy Queen came to Canada. I kept the milkshake container for years.
Another great picture!Love these night shots, like a scene from a movie!
Director yells "Action" two guys with stocking masks come running out of the DQ, they jump into the Buick they backed in for a quick getaway, they burn rubber out on to the street and take off into the night. Cue Rock & Roll Soundtrack.
"Summer air"The snow tires still on in the summer? About 30 years ago an old lady came into the shop wanting us to put summer air in her tires and take out the winter air. Seems another shop had been charging her $5 to do this twice a year to go along with the snow tire removal in the summer.
And the oil spots under the engine were the norm, as was having to feather the gas pedal on a cold winter startup because the choke was finicky. Sometimes you had to put a stick in the choke to get the engine started. 
1955 Buick SpecialIt is rather clean looking to be a 22-year old car in 1977.
Yep, that's summer in balmy New EnglandSnow tires.
EmissionsThe noticeable soot from a tailpipe on the wall of the DQ shows an incredibly rich mixture, probably a choke that was stuck closed. These old behemoths broke down a lot, required annual valve jobs and tuneups and it was just understood this was the way it was. Now you can go over 100K on a set of spark plugs, and I can't rememeber the last time a car came in for a valve job.  
Those were the days, indeedThe snow tires (studded?) in summer suggest a number of possible scenarios. Maybe the 22 year old car was owned by a high school kid working at DQ for the summer, too poor to buy a conventional set. The chrome strip at the base of the car between the rear wheel well and bumper is aftermarket. (JC Whitney?) Maybe someone was trying to cover up a little rust, or perhaps the owner didn’t think Harley Earl had arranged enough chrome on the model. I understand Earl was particularly partial to the 55 Century, which looked almost identical to the Special. (The Century had four portholes.)  The grille of the 55 was, like Earl himself, massive and imposing, if not charming. It may be a bit trite to say it, but it’s an unmitigated fact: those were the days, my friend.  
Big BusinessDairy Queen, those local roadside ice cream stores are now part of the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate. The now approximately 6000 world wide locations were purchased by Warren Buffett's company in 1998. Berkshire Hathaway's class A stock closed on May 11, 2012 at $122,795 a share.
Update:
Nov 28, 2014 closing price $223,065
Film NoirThank you Rizzman for another beautiful moody nightshot  which brings back memories of my father's solid black '55 4-door Buick Special V-8.  Also, I love that Eskimo sign which reminds me of Dairy Queen's old jingle singing "the cone with the curl on top".  With your obvious talent for photography, I hope it is still a big part of your life.  The purpose of any art is to get an emotional response from the viewer and you have definitely touched the Shorpy audience with each and every one of your shots.
Ice Milk, not Ice CreamI worked in a DQ in the 1970s while attending high school in Vancouver, B.C. The product we served was called "ice milk," lower in fat than ice cream. I have no idea what they call it now in Canada but Google suggests that in the US it is now called low-fat ice cream. Restaurants were either a "Sizzler" (electric flat grill) or a "Brazier" (gas BBQ type grill). Some would get confused and try and order a "brassiere" burger.
The first DQ opened in Canada in 1953 in Estevan, Saskatchewan.
[In its early years, Dairy Queen advertised its product as "freshly frozen dairy food." - Dave]
ZZZZZTTTT!!!!Great shot. You can almost hear the sound of the bug zapper.
Blizzard anyone?Seeing this picture reminds me of my Uncle George who always made it a point to stop at the Dairy Queen on any adventure trip we took.  Usually, it was stop once on the way there, and once on the way back; a double shot of ice cream fun.  I also remember him telling a story from back before I was born.  One of his other traditions was to take my sisters to the Dairy Queen on the last day it was open for the season (usually November 1st in Maine).  He would always tell my sisters they had to wash their hands and faces before they could go.  One year, there was a blizzard on the last day of "ice cream" season, and my uncle had stopped by to visit my father.  He had no intention of going to the Dairy Queen (due to the heavy snow) and figured my sisters wouldn't think of it either.  My sister Sue came running out to the kitchen and began tugging on my uncle's pant leg.  He ignored her for a while and she went away.  A few minutes later, she was tugging at his pant leg again, and when he looked down, she was there with a washcloth, washing her face and smiling up at him.  He felt so guilty he packed them all in the car and took them out for ice cream.  The Dairy Queen attendant said they had actually planned on closing early because they hadn't seen any customers up until them.  Since my uncle's passing in 1992, I have had to assume the role of "Uncle George", and whenever taking my nephews and nieces (or their children) on adventures, we always make plans for a stop at an ice cream location.  Some traditions are just worth hanging on to.
Uncle George: The Next Generation
Great PhotoGreat Photo, wrong location. I grew up in Wtaertown and have many family members and friends there. There was no Dairy Queen on Mt. Auburn St. There was however a similar establishment called Dairy Joy. It also sold soft serve ice cream, burgers, hot dogs, fried fish, etc. I can see how the two places could be mistaken for each other. Keep the great pictures coming, I love ice cream and old cars.
[Perhaps rizzman will chime in to clear this up. He took the photo. - tterrace]
Wish I'd done thisI know from an earlier photograph, that these were done as part of a photography class, but I wish I'd gone around my town and taken night photos like these while the icons of my teenage years were still standing.
I could be wrong about the locationMy memory could be faulty. It could have been any community around Boston including Route 1, but surely within a less than 25 mile radius. Sorry if I misled anyone.
Dennis the MenaceYup, I remember when DQ used him as their mascot in the 70's!
I still love DQ, but they have apparently stopped using the term "parfait"; a few years ago I had asked for a strawberry parfait and the girl at the counter just stared at me like I was crazy!
What's sadder is that I remember them still using the term a recently as a year or two before that incident, but at least the same product is available, it's just simply known as a strawberry sundae.
Best DQ I ever went to was in Jedda, Saudi Arabia - they kept everything spotless and the ice cream perfect in case King Fahd dropped it! :)
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)

Eggs Kerosene: 1939
... in a title? This one could have easily been called Fish Lard. Amazing Prices Poor people stuck to the basics in those days. ... for showing us the other side. I’ll have a pound of fish for a nickel and a pound of short ribs for a dime, please, Oh, and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/15/2022 - 11:16am -

June 1939. Savannah, Georgia. "Negro grocery store." Last seen here. Medium format acetate negative by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Savannah ConfirmedSee the sign for the circus in the upper right hand corner.
The Magnolia sideThis pic further supports the Savannah (vs. Sylvania) premise, since the distant undercrossing (to the Savannah Union station) matches the Sanborn map.  Will we move down the street to 737 and 735 Magnolia and find out what they were ???
What's in a title?This one could have easily been called Fish Lard.
Amazing PricesPoor people stuck to the basics in those days. Today that location is underneath a freeway.
Turn the cornerThank you, Marion Post Wolcott, for showing us the other side.  I’ll have a pound of fish for a nickel and a pound of short ribs for a dime, please,  Oh, and what’s white meat? (I know, I can look it up, and I did, but it’s so vague.)
The BikeThe most amazing thing is that it appears the bike is not chained to the pole. Nowadays, an unchained bike would have been stolen before the owner even made it to the front door. 
Not For SaleOf all the items in that store, I would love to have the bike!
A nice cuppaTetley Tea is a very English product so a bit surprised to see it advertised so far from home so long ago. 
[The coffee they sold also came from faraway lands. - Dave]
(The Gallery, Bicycles, Gas Stations, M.P. Wolcott, Savannah, Stores & Markets)

Any Thing Store: 1940
... these trees were planted not for beautification but for fish bait. A specific type of moth lade their eggs on catalpa trees so their ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/03/2022 - 11:55pm -

February 1940. "Secondhand store. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Cats rule, Dogs droolAdmittedly I am more of a feline fancier than a dog lover, possibly why I didn't notice the chair-mutt until jamax commented on its presence.  Spurred on by all of the eclectic merchandise on offer, it seemed appropriate to look for any signs of a cat, on or near the premises.  Much to my delight my search was rewarded!  Nobody can tell me that isn't Felix watching the universe unfold below him from his lordly vantage point. Observe the Mighty Ruler surveying his kingdom from the lofty branch situated between the two main tree trunks on the right!
[That "cat" has more bark than bite. - Dave]
Going, Going ... Gone?We can only wonder how many of the "treasures" here were collected for the scrap drives a few years later.
Photo ShoppingThis one grabbed my attention.  I see several things to buy.   The woman is eying the crib.  Maybe the gentleman watching doesn't know why.  He'll get the lunchbox.
Ab's Picker's HeavenAllan Thomas Abston (1892-1976) is seen standing in front of his Used Furniture Store at 609 W. Reno Avenue in Oklahoma City.  He and his wife, Ova B. Page, came from Tennessee in about 1930.  Selling used furniture was a lot easier than working in the coal mines. They had three sons and two daughters, to help them sell their "gently used" goods during the Great Depression. 
Kettle Store?If Ma and Pa Kettle owned a store, this is what it would look like.
Garbage In, Garbage Out"One man's trash is another man's treasure," goes the old saying.  
However,  after years spent "antiquing", thrift shopping, Craigslisting, eBaying,  and even "dumpster diving", I've come to the conclusion that, often, "one man's trash" is just "your trash" waiting to happen.
Signs4sale: $0 OBOBet the same hand that did that masterpiece atop the porch roof had no part in those ransom-note-like scrawlings off to the right. What do I bet??  How 'bout a washboard, slightly used.
Come to my estate sale; you won't be sorryBelow is 609 West Reno Avenue today.  Given the condition of the old house in 1940 there was little doubt it would not be there today.
I am spending a good part of my retirement years on the same treasure hunt as Dezi Beck, only substitute Estate Sales for Dumpster Diving (most of the dumpsters around me are in locked enclosures).  I tell people I should be ashamed at how much art on my walls came from thrift stores.  I have about a dozen pieces on the walls worth over $1,000 each for which I paid less than $100.  I suspect most of it was from the kids cleaning out their parents' houses and just wanting the houses emptied.  I've also developed a list of search words for Craigslist, which include divorce and downsizing.  I have bought some amazing things that people in those situations just want to get rid of.  The end result is I told a friend I am purging my house of things I don't need while filling up my house with things I don't need ... but of better quality.

Things ChangeClearly, the items in the front yard likely don't come back inside each evening for safekeeping when business is done for the day. No Ring cameras or high tech survellaince back then. Junkyard dog on duty? Coming out of the Great Depression, were people in general just more trusting of their neighbors? Maybe a rhetorical question.
NOT ON MY WATCH Wow that proprietor is keeping a close eye on those two old gray would be thieves  
Wow! Wow!The very original recycling. I mean, springs for a mattress for sale? Man, we honestly have it good in these modern times with disposable everything merchandise. 
So ...Why is there a sawhorse on the roof?
Guard dog on dutyI wonder if the dog is for sale?
Suddenly …the Sanford and Son theme is playing in my head
String bean treeOn the left of the photo. Northern catalpa is the correct name. Yes, I Googled it.
It's complicatedIt makes my brain hurt to look at this but I'll make a quick stop and pick up one of those charming little drop-leaf tables far left beside the bedsprings, and a couple of the Windsor chairs. I will probably paint them all chartreuse.
Firmware for SaleThe modern version (in the 70s) was surplus electronics catalogs, like ROMs for sale, "many useful patterns."
Left behindI suspect that most of the items came from the homes of folks who migrated to a supposedly better life in the Far West in the 1930s to escape the ruin of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Families had to sell at giveaway prices what they could not take with them, and often their household possessions literally were given away.
Kindred spiritWe actually had one of those Windsor chairs in my basement when I was little, and during her "antiquing" phase, Mom did indeed stain it chartreuse.
Sewing MachineTo the right there is a sewing machine with a manual foot pedal. My Great Aunt Flossie used to make patchwork quilts with one of those.  She sewed well into her 90s.  She passed back in the early '80s.  
The Dog's name must be WaldoAfter much searching I finally found him!
"Waldo" appears to be relaxing under the table with a couple of early
Home Depot 5 gallon buckets sitting on it.
Mattress springswere a cheaper alternative to store bought harrowers.  If you needed loose soil smoothed out you would drag one or two mattress springs (weighted down a bit) behind your tractor.  We did this when we landscaped around our new house in the early 1970s.
More bark than bite ...Yep, you're right Dave, should have looked up there with binoculars.  I am overdue for my cataract surgery also.  Keep up the fantastic work!
Catalpa TreesIn the South these trees were planted not for beautification but for fish bait.   A specific type of moth lade their eggs on catalpa trees so their larvae (or worm) could feed on the catalpa leaves.  These worms were used for fishing.
(The Gallery, Dogs, OKC, Russell Lee, Stores & Markets)

Canary Cafe: 1942
... Fishermen's Last Chance. I'm not aware of a place to fish between here and downtown Dallas. I don't know if the two men on the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/27/2022 - 11:10am -

January 1942. "Roadside stand -- U.S. Highway 80 between Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas." Acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Root JuicesTook on a different meaning for my brother and I one pleasant summer Sunday in the early fifties. We were visiting my great grandmother and were investigating the root cellar under the house. We chanced upon some brown bottles on a shelf with those old wire bale type reclosable caps. We brought two up to the kitchen where everyone was gathered and asked what was in them. My great-uncle, who was legally blind and lived with Granny, said he had made home made root beer and we could try it. Well it tasted pretty good if a little yeasty. That first bottle tasted like a second one would be just the thing. After waking from a good nap and finding out that my dad, great-uncle and several older cousins had a good laugh at our expense was it revealed that the root beer recipe used included sugar and yeast with predictable results. It all turned out fine. Mum was pretty pissed though.
A blinding flash of inspired synergyHmmmm.
Lettuce and tomato.  Might be a little bland.
Bacon and tomato.  Something missing.
Wait a moment - lettuce, tomato and bacon!  It even sounds delicious.
After eating, how ‘bout a movieIt looks like “how Green was my Valley “is playing. Wanna catch a movie?
Intersection of North Bagley and West Davis Streets, DallasThis commercial building was located at the northwest corner of present-day North Bagley and West Davis Streets in Dallas. The building in the foreground is either completely gone or buried in the current building, but the bungalow in the far background is still standing at the northwest corner of Tillery Avenue and West Davis Street (603 Tillery Avenue).

Fishermen's last chanceI'm not sure why there is a sign saying Fishermen's Last Chance. I'm not aware of a place to fish between here and downtown Dallas.
I don't know if the two men on the phone pole, far left, are paying attention to Rothstein, but there is someone standing on the ground below them looking directly at him.
How green was my carpeting?Perhaps it is my extreme nearsightedness even with eyeglasses, but ... is that grass on the ground in front of the cafe'?  If it is grass, why does it look like carpeting?  Or ought I just go lie down for awhile?
[That's a dirt carpet. - Dave]
Life is so peculiarI've seen a number of things in my short lifetime, but I'm fairly sure I've never seen any signage making claims about "real root juices." Every day is a new day. Keeps things interesting.
I found a parking spot... but where's the Palace?  They're showing "How Green Was My Valley" and it starts in 5 minutes!!
Arthur Rothstein arrived too soonI'm struck by the fact that all of these 1942 photos of "US 80 between Dallas and Fort Worth" are actually within a mile or two of the small cemetery where Clyde Barrow is buried. There may be a few seedy motor courts along that strip surviving from that time, but it's too bad that Arthur Rothstein arrived a mere five years too early to visit my favorite lodging in the neighborhood. Built as the Triple R Ranch Motel in 1947, it still looks much as it does on this linen postcard, minus the steel archway. Later, as the Triple "A" Motel, it was listed from 1956 to 1961 in the Negro Travelers' Green Book, reportedly the last such establishment in Dallas to survive intact. Today it is known as the Inn of the Dove. It's not fancy. It's modest, and modestly priced, quiet, with secure parking, and a win for historic preservation.
The two linemen in the background appear to be working on secondary power distribution. They're a little too high up the pole to be working on the phones. Oh, and what was it like to live in a time when "World's Safest Milk" was considered a winning tagline?
(The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Eateries & Bars)

Fairview Hotel: 1916
... he has not had time to fix up much. Nevertheless, the fish, beans, sandwiches, and other eatables are so tempting that the ... the lamps throw out a dim gleam, and the odor of frying fish and the fumes of the pipe struggle for the mastery. The crowd gets noisy ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/27/2012 - 1:21pm -

Washington circa 1916. "Fairview Hotel, 1st Street and Florida Avenue." The proprietor is former slave and "colored philosopher" Keith Sutherland. See the comments below for more on him. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.
Room comes with outside bar.I wonder if he ever tried to patent his Pepecual Motion machine? 
Soup to GoTake a good look at the wooden cart. It has a kerosene container with a tap. It looks like it goes under the "soup" pot. Maybe Mr. Sutherland took his cart around and sold food as a vendor. He has a counter on both sides! Amazing.
I don't know why......but I have sudden craving for a delicious CORBY CAKE™.
Gold Dust Twins"I will agree with you sister why do they want to break up Fairview for"
Cryptic sign. One might assume the city wanted to tear down the, um, stately Fairview Hotel. I can't imagine this was seriously a room for rent, unless it's just the check-in. Looks more like a ramshackle lunch stand.
Fair View?Why, I'd say it was better than fair.  It's downright byootyfull.
Gold Dust Twins"Fairbank's Gold Dust Washing Powder - The Many Purpose Cleaner. Gold Dust products were represented by the Gold Dust Twins, two African-American children surrounded by gold coins. The orange box with the universally recognized twins practically jumped off the shelf. In fact the twins were one of the best known trademarks of the 19th century. Let the Twins Do Your Work was the tag line. The back of the box shows the twins tackling several household chores as well as a list of 34 cleaning jobs made easier by using Gold Dust.
http://www.the-forum.com/advert/golddust.htm

Wow!Now this is one of the most interesting photos posted on Shorpy in a long time. I would love to know the story behind the "I will agree with you sister..." sign.
This Quaint StructureWashington Post, September 3, 1916.


PLEAD FOR QUAINT HOTEL
Hundred Neighbors Sign a Petition
To Save Sutherland's "Fairview."
A petition eight feet long, signed by about 100 neighbors of the Fairview Hotel, First street and Florida avenue northeast, will be introduced as evidence against the condemnation and closing of this quaint structure when a hearing is held at the District building Tuesday to determine whether the property shall be razed for sanitary reasons. Keith Sutherland is the aged colored proprietor, and he hobbled to the District building last week and appealed to Daniel Donovan, secretary to the board of commissioners, to save his place.
Since filing his appeal the health department has investigated the property. Its report has been turned over to Commissioner Brownlow, and will be heard at the hearing.
Fairview is a one-room hotel, opposite the Baltimore and Ohio freight yards. On the spotless whitewashed walls the proprietor, Sutherland, has written some quaint bits of philosophy for the edification of his customers -- truck drivers and employes about the yards.
Corby - Washington's Biggest BakeryArticle from October 1915 issue of Bakers Review courtesy of Google Books:
The largest bakery in Washington--and model one, too, in every sense of the word--is that owned and operated by the Corby Baking Co., one of the most progressive baking concerns in the United States.
     The firm was organized twenty years ago, when they started a little bakery down town. In 1902 they bought out a baker at 2305 Georgia Ave., (where their present plant is situated), and then built the first addition. In 1912 they built again, giving the Plant of the Corby Baking Co., Washington, D. C. building its present size.
The article even has pictures!
Say!I think I stayed there one year Thursday night!
Roof GardenFor me a most entertaining aspect of the photo is the three rusty tins being used as planters on top of the shack:     FAIR     VIEW     HOTEL
And the whiskey bottles on the stand tell a lot about this place.
Those signsKeith Sutherland's quaint signs would qualify today as genuine folk art.
Gold Dust TwinsFred Lynn and Jim Rice were known as the Gold Dust Twins in 1975.  I figured the name came from somewhere, but I didn't know it was from washing powder.
Sage DiesWashington Post, Feb. 21, 1933.


Sage Dies
Former Slave Prophesied
Voters' Landslide for Roosevelt.
Keith Sutherland, colored philosopher and prophet whose political forecast won him the thanks of President-elect Roosevelt, fulfilled his final prediction Sunday when he folded his hands about a Bible and died at his home, 1640 Eleventh street.
The former slave felt the approach of death Friday, his children said. He called his family together and instructed them to prepare a funeral, saying that he would die on the Sabbath.
Last August Sutherland dreamed of a great voters' landslide for Franklin D. Roosevelt. The dream was so "clear" that he wrote Mr. Roosevelt a description of it. Mr. Roosevelt responded with a "thank you" note saying he found the prediction "very encouraging."
For the past half century Sutherland has kept a restaurant in Washington where the walls were posted with his prophecies, many of them showing unusual foresight.
He was 79 years old. Funeral services will be held tomorrow at 1 p.m. at the P.A. Lomax funeral home, Fourteenth and S streets. Interment will be at Harmony Cemetery. He is survived by four children.
The Real McCoyIt actually looks like Grandpappy Amos McCoy's apple cider stand.
Hostelry Spared

Local News Briefs

Upon recommendation of both the health officer, William C. Woodward, and Building Inspector Hacker, the District commissioners decided not to condemn "Fairview," the famous hostelry at First street and Florida avenue northwest , owned by Keith Sutherland, colored philosopher.  About a month ago complaints reached the health office that "Fairview" was insanitary and a menace to the health of the city.  The commissioners decided to investigate, but before they were ready to take action, an eight-foot petition signed by hundreds of residents of the northeast section, asking that "Fairview" be allowed to remain, was presented to them by Sutherland.

Washington Post, Sep 9, 1916 



District Building Notes

Keith Sutherland, the aged colored proprietor of the Fairview Hotel, at First street and Florida avenue northwest, impressed city authorities so much last week with a plea for the retention of his property, which had almost been condemned to be razed, that it is likely the "hostelry" will be allowed to stand.  Sutherland hobbled to the District building and presented a petition for his place signed by about 200 neighbors.  Health Officer Woodward investigated the property and it is understood reported favorably on letting it remain.  The building inspector, Morris Hacker, has the matter now under consideration.  Sutherland is famous throughout his section of the city for his bits of philosophy, with which the walls of his establishment are painted.

Washington Post, Sep 10, 1916 


Alley Cook-ShopsWashington Post, Jan. 1, 1897.


LICENSES FOR ALLEY COOK SHOPS.
Judge Kimball Decides They Are Liable
To a Fee of $25 a Year.
The alleys of this city are filled with colored cook-shops, which heretofore have paid no license fee. Judge Kimball said yesterday, however, that every one of them must pay $25 a year. Only the police and the people who visit the numerous alleys and little streets of the city know how many of these cook-shops exist. The colored people generally resort to these places for pigs' feet, meat pie, and substantial provender prepared by the old mammies and quaint old colored men who run them, and cook dishes to the taste of the people of their race.
The police yesterday brought into court, as a test case, Keith Sutherland, who has conducted a cook-shop for many years at 1111 R street. He was released on bonds after he took out a license, and as the matter has now been tested the police will bring all the proprietors of unlicensed cook-shops to the Police Court.
Into the FutureThe descendants of Keith Sutherland's little counter 100 years ago were still going strong when I moved to Washington in the 1980s. I was directed by my new colleagues to explore the alleyways around our offices at M Street and Connecticut Avenue for (legal) hole-in-the-wall eateries for lunch and breakfast. It didn't take long for these places to become favorites of mine. I've been gone from D.C. for 20 years now; I'm wondering if these establishment still exist.
Sutherland Family
1880 Census
1643 Vermont Avenue
Sandy Sutherland,	54
Rach Sutherland,	57, (wife)
Webster Sutherland,	12, (son)
Keith Sutherland,	25, (son)
Hattey Sutherland,	22, (daughter-in-law)
Mary Sutherland,		6,  (daughter)
Willie Sutherland,	4,  (son)
1900 Census
1112 R St
Keith Sutherland,	46
Hattie Sutherland,	44, (wife)
Arthur Sutherland,	3, (son - adopted)
Webster Sutherland,	32, (brother)
1920 Census
104 Seaton Place Northeast
Keith S Sutherland,	65
Hattie D Sutherland,	64,	(wife)
Webster	Sutherland,	52,	(brother)
???,			14,	(daughter)
Arthur L., 		21,	(son)
Cora,			15,	(daughter-in-law)
Pinkey ???,		52,	(mother-in-law)

Just like India of todayHere in India, we still have thousands of "hotels" just like this one. I can walk to the end of the street here and find three of them that in black-and-white wouldn't look so different.
Many are even on wheels (carts with bicycle wheels). Most have similar folk-art signs complete with misspellings.  And similar records of cleanliness.
I always thought it was interesting that restaurants in India are still called hotels.  Now I see it's not odd, just archaic. 
Corby BakeryIt later became a Wonder Bread bakery (last time I was by there, the old "Wonder Bread" sign was still in place).  The Corby buildings are still there (east side of Georgia just north of Bryant Street) and now house a strip of retail shops and fast food places.
"Arbiter of all Brawls""Keitt" Sutherland was getting towards the end of a colorful life here.
Washington Post, February 4, 1900.


EX-KING OF THE BOTTOM
Once Dominated a Notorious Section of the City.
WHERE CRIME AND EVIL REIGNED.
Reminiscences of "Hell's Bottom," Which Formally Kept the Police Department Busy, Recalled by "Keitt" Sutherland, the Odd Character Who Figured as Self-appointed Arbiter of all Brawls –- His Curious Resort in Center of that Section.
KEITT'S.
I, am, going,
to, put, my,
name, above,
THE DOOR.
The above legend with its superfluity of commas, inscribed on a piece of board about a  foot square, nailed above the door of a tumble-down building at the intersection of Vermont avenue, Twelfth and R streets, marks the abode of the “King of Hell’s Bottom.” The structure thus adorned is the pool room of “Keitt” Sutherland, overlord and supreme ruler of the negroes in the
vicinity.  Although the encroachments of modern dwellings, increase in the police force, and other accompaniments of growing metropolitan life have somewhat shorn him of his feudal rights and curtailed his former realm, “Keitt” is now, and always will be, monarch of all he chooses to survey.
It is still within the memory of the present generation when “Hell’s Bottom” was a fact and not a memory.  The swampy, low-lying ground bred mosquitoes, malaria, and – thugs.  It was the quarter set apart for and dominated by the tough element of the colored population.  A white man with money in his pocket studiously avoided the locality after dark, or else set a fast pace to which he adjusted the accompaniment of a rag-time whistle.  Half a dozen saloons congested within the radius of a block served the barroom habitués with whisky as hot as chile con carne and as exhilarating as Chinese pundu.  Fights arose approaching the dimensions of a riot, and the guardians of the law had all they could do to quell the disturbances.  A policeman or two was killed, and that, together with the growth of the city, led to the rehabilitation of “Hell’s Bottom.”  Now it is interesting mainly in its wealth of reminiscence.
“How did I happen to put up that sign?”  Keitt repeats after the inevitable query. “I’ll tell you. You see my folks used to own that property, and they was sort o’ slow dyin’ off.  I knowed I was going to come into it some day, an’ I thought I might as well let people know it.  About that time a show came along, and they sang a song somethin’ like this: “I am going to put my name above the door.  For it’s better late than never.  An’ I’ll do so howsomever.’  It gave me an idea.  I just put that sign above the door.  After while the folks died, an’ I got the property.”

Queer Sort of Place.

Guided by the much-be-commaed signboard, the visitor goes to the door of the poolroom and inquires for “Keitt.” He finds the room filled with colored youth of all sizes, the adults of which are engaged in playing pool at 5 cents a game.  The balls on the table are a joblot, the survivors of the fittest in many a hard-fought game.  The cushions are about as responsive as brickbats.  But the players do not seem to care for that so long as they can drive the balls into the pockets and make their opponents pay for the sport.  An ancient, dingy card on the wall informs the reader that he is within the precincts of the “Northern Light Poolroom.”  The same placard also gives the following warning: “Persons are cautioned against laying around this building.”
“Where is Keitt?” inquires the intruder, who finds himself regarded with suspicion.
“Two doahs down below.  Jest hollah ‘Katy,’ an’ he’ll show up,” is the answer.
“Keitt” on inspection justified the right to the title of “king.”  He is a giant, weighing 250 pounds, well distributed over a broad frame six feet and one inch in height.  He looks like a man who would not shun a rough and tumble fight.  He does not have to.  A registered striking machine off in the corner shows that he can deliver a 500-pound blow.  He might do better, but unfortunately the makers of the instrument did not figure that a man’s fist was a pile driver, and 500 pounds is as high as the machine will register.  Many are the tables told of his prowess; of how he whipped in single combat the slugger of the community, a man who had challenged any five to come on at once; of how when only a bootblack  in the ‘60’s, he sent three bullies about their business with broken heads and black eyes; of how he used to suppress incipient riots in his saloon by means of his strong arm and without the aid of the bluecoats in the neighborhood.  Indeed, the police used to say that “Keitt” was as good as a sergeant and a squad with loaded “billies.”
But “Keitt” (the name is a popular conversion of the more familiar “Keith”) has not won his way entirely through the medium of brawn. He is a man of intelligence, and has a keen eye for business.  He is the magnate of the neighborhood, with property in his name, money in the bank, and a good comfortable roll about his place of business.  He can go down in his pocket and bring out more $50 bills than the average man caries about in the $5 denomination.  If one hints robbery or burglary “Keitt” simply rolls his eye expressively, and enough has been said.  No one cares to tamper with his till.

Plenty of Local Color.

The saloon on the outside looks like a combination coal and wood shed.  “Keitt” apologetically explains that it was formerly a stable, and that he has not had time to fix up much.  Nevertheless, the fish, beans, sandwiches, and other eatables are so tempting that the frequenters of the place do not pay much attention to external appearances.  The magic of the proprietor’s name draws as much custom as he can attend to, and fully as much as the customers can pay for.  There is a charm about the old haunt that cannot be dispelled by police regulations or the proximity of modern dwellings.
On Saturday night the place takes on something of its old glory.  In the smoke-begrimed room – hardly 12 by 12 – are found thirty or forty men eating and talking. Through the thick clouds of smoke the lamps throw out a dim gleam, and the odor of frying fish and the fumes of the pipe struggle for the mastery.  The crowd gets noisy at times, but any attempt at boisterousness is quieted by a word from the dominant spirit of the gathering.  If any one gets obstreperous he is thrown out on the pavement, and it makes little difference to the bouncer whether the mutinous one lands on his head or not.  This is the negro Bohemia.  They who live from hand to mouth love to come her.  The boot-black with a dime receives as much consideration as the belated teamster with a roll of one-dollar bills.
Business is business, and “Keitt” is a business man.  Consequently there is very little credit given.  “Five or ten cents is about the limit,” says the autocrat.  But “Keitt” is something of a philanthropist., although he makes his charity redound to his personal benefit.  An illustrated placard, done in what appears to be an excellent quality of shoe blacking, has the figure of a man sawing wood.  It bears the following words, “Just tell them that you saw me sawing wood at Keitt’s for a grind.”  The term “grind” is synonymous with mastication, the wood sawyer thereby being supposed to do a stunt for the recompense of a square meal.  This does away with the tearful plaint that is ever the specialty of the hungry and penniless, gives employment to the idle, and increases the size of “Keitt’s” wood pile.  The latter is sold to the negroes of the neighborhood at prevailing prices.  “Keitt” figures that his method is wiser than giving unlimited credit, and he is probably right.
“Keitt” is a mine of reminiscence.  He has been in Washington 1862, when he came from Charles County, Md., where he was born a slave.  He was a bootblack around the Treasury building, and he remembers seeing Lincoln’s funeral pass by, with the white horse tied behind the hearse.  His history of the rise and fall of “Hell’s Bottom” is quite valuable from a local standpoint.  Divested of dialect, it is as follows
“’Hell’s Bottom’ began to get its name shortly after the close of the war in 1866.  There were two very lively places in those days.  One was a triangular square at Rhode Island avenue and Eleventh street.  It was here that an eloquent colored preacher, who went by the name of ‘John the Baptist,’ used to hold revival services, which were attended by the newly-freed slaves.  The revival was all right, but the four or five barrooms in the neighborhood used to hold the overflow meetings, and when the crowds went home at night you couldn’t tell whether they were shouting from religion or whisky.
“Then there was what was known as the ‘contraband camp,’ located on S street, between Twelfth and Thirteenth.  The negroes who had just been freed stayed there waiting for white people to come and hire them.  They got into all sorts of trouble, and many of them settled in the neighborhood.  Money was scarce and whisky was cheap – a certain sort of whisky – and the combination resulted in giving the place the name which  it held for so many years.  The police force was small.  There was no police court, and the magistrates before whom offenders were brought rarely fixed the penalty at more than $2.  Crime and lawlessness grew terribly, and a man had to fight, whenever he went into the ‘Bottom.’
“The unsettled condition of the locality made things worse.  Men used to shoot reed birds where Corcoran street now is.  I have caught many a mud turtle there in the 60’s.  I saw a man get drowned in the creek at Seventh and R streets.  At the point where the engine-house is now located on R street a man could catch all the minnows he wanted for bait.  Tall swamp grass afforded easy concealment for any one who wanted to hide after a petty theft or the robbery of some pedestrian.  Consequently, it is small wonder that the law was defied in those days.

Many Disorderly Rowdies.

“A white man never wanted to cross the ‘Bottom’ after dark.  If he did he had to keep stepping.  Just how many crimes of magnitude were committed there no one can tell.  The life of the negro was far from easy.  If a fellow took a girl to church, the chances were that he would not take her home.  A gang of rowdies would meet him at the church door as he came out.  They would tell him to ‘trot,’ and he seldom disobeyed.  They escorted the girl themselves.  It was impossible to stop this sort of petty misdeeds.
“At times the trouble grew serious.  I have seen 500 negroes engaged in a fight all at once in ‘Hell’s Bottom.’  That was during the mayoralty elections, and the riot would be started by the discovery of a negro who was voting the Democratic ticket.  I have had big fights in my old saloon, but there was only one that I could not stop with the assistance of two bouncers I had in those days.  There were fully fifty men in the saloon at the time, and most of them were drunk.  They began to quarrel, and when I could not stop them I blew a distress call.  About fifteen policemen came, for in those days it was useless to send two or three to quell a disturbance around here.  When word came that the police were after them the last man of them rushed through the rear part of the saloon, and I’ll give you my word that they broke down the fences in five back yards in getting away.  Not a man of them was captured.
“Ah, those were the days.  Things are quiet around here now, but sometimes we have a little fun, and then the boys go to the farm for ninety days.  I keep ‘em pretty straight in my place, though, let me tell you.”
(The Gallery, D.C., Eateries & Bars, Harris + Ewing)

The Pike, Long Beach 1963
... bell that dove into a tank with a bunch of tired old fish and a lazy stingray. Got tattooed there at 18. The Pike Now My ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 07/28/2020 - 11:06am -

The Pike at Long Beach, California, August 1963. An old-style amusement park with wooden roller coaster "The Cyclone," closed in 1979. View full size.
Hear that?This picture has a special quality for me.  It seems, if you concentrated, you could just hear the music, and smell the scent of those wonderful/awful amusment park treats. I love the cars!  Wonder what they'd be worth now?
Pike TykeI was just a few weeks old and living up north in Contra Costa County when this was taken.
Oh, myI moved to LA in the year 2000. The only remnant of this place was an arcade, under a peaked circular roof. A couple of years later amid rampant condominium construction, only the roof remained, like a giant coolie hat on cinder blocks. It looked like someone wanted to save that roof. I moved away. Did they put it to some use? Long Beach is wonderful, it's always *almost* Santa Monica. Shhhh. Save it for me.
The Incredibly Strange CreaturesUnless I'm horribly misaken, this was the amusement park featured in the Ray Steckler classic bad film "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies"! I highly recommend the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment of it.
Incredibly Strange but trueYep, the Pike was the place where "Incredibly Strange Creatures" was filmed.  It might be one of the best "worst" movies of all time.  
The PikeI started school at Long Beach State in 1964, in contrast to the weeks old tyke. The Pike was great fun to walk around in during the day, even if your pockets were empty. Got a little edgy though when the sun went down. Lots of sailors foreign and domestic roamed that place the nights I went there. I remember it as kind of seedy and hinted of lurking danger in the darker corners. But those were enticing features to me and my friends in that era. We loved it. A dose of real life beyond a sterile campus setting.
Magic BusIs anyone else salivating at the sight of that new-looking split-windshield Microbus?
Scary!!Nothing in this world is WORSE than an "Incredibly Strange Creature Who Stops Living and Becomes a Mixed-Up Zombie"!!
58 Merc1958 Mercury Monterey in the foreground. Nice.
'63 T-BirdThat's a  Thunderbird next to the MicroBus. The side "vents" indicate it's a '63.
In a way, this was really the last summer of the 1950's... just before the Kennedy assassination and the British invasion.
SailorsI was one of those "domestic sailors" and rode the roller coaster many times between 1964 and 1966. There were many attractions in the Longbeach area at that time.
The PikeLoved the Pike.  Rode the Cyclone when I was 11.  Nobody ever mentions the diving bell that dove into a tank with a bunch of tired old fish and a lazy stingray.  Got tattooed there at 18.
The Pike NowMy in-laws always told me about the Pike so my wife and son met some of her relatives there last summer on what was my first trip to California. The Pike is back...sort of. They have a ferris wheel that offers a nice view of the area and a carousel. Aside from that, there are some restaurants and shops and that's about it. I think the area where the Pike "was" is now all condos and parking lots.
Josh
Family outingMy Dad heard about the Pike from guys at work and convinced Mom that it would be a fun outing. When we arrived we were not allowed to get out of the car. It was 1967 and it was full of "hippies, ladies of the night and aimless drifters" according to my Mom. We never made it back and then they tore it down. My Aunt remembers good times there in the 40's with her friends and cute sailors.
1962, 10 Years Old.Mom gave me five bucks and cut me loose there for the day, barefoot. I would dip in the plunge till pruny and dry while I hit the arcades with penny toss and a ride. Wild Mouse, Cyclone, Tilt-a-Whirl and a strange airplane ride at the end of the park where you could control your spin and turn yourself upside down on a windy day. I rode it several times and grew up to be a pilot by age 17. Laugh house later was torn down and found to have been storing a real mummy as from an old 1800's traveling carnival. When money was found in its mouth he was identified.  Mom worked across the street in the Heartwell building. All back while Rainbow Pier was still in existence and the Long Beach Arena was a planned dream.  Thanks for the photo of my time.
ClickWhat was the name of the photo gallery where you stood behind the funny painted standups and got your picture taken?
MadnessThis place was also seen in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). There are a couple of stills from the movie here..
http://members.cox.net/mkpl4/mmmmw/thumb.htm
near the bottom of the page under "Long Beach."
That coaster looks huge in the movie.
The Old Pike DaysWalt Disney said he built Disneyland because the Pike was too seedy for his daughters.
My dad took me on the roller coaster when I was 12 and scared me to death. Gawd I was glad when the ride was over.
I went there in 1968 in my Navy days and my buddies got me on the Tilt-A-Whirl at full speed. I was sick for two days.
Now the place is just a lot of tacky condos.
Dancing at the PikeIn 1962 I met Dennis Patrick Smith of Long Beach at the Pike. We loved dancing there, or walking on the beach and finding snack places in Long Beach. I went back to school and my romance with DPS continued by telephone and letters. In 1964, I was back in Long Beach and that summer we loved the bumper cars. What incredible atmosphere the whole area provided! 
My relationship with DPS continued for 19 years, but in another realm, much like the decline and demise of The Pike. The mental pictures of Pike memories still conjure up nostalgia like no other, and particularly dancing on that ocean air dance floor.
Days at the  PikeSummertime at the Pike.
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, tterrapix)

Vagabonds: 1937
... on Riverside Drive. We used the boat when we camped at Fish Lake in upstate New York. Our trailer looked like the one here. I had ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/12/2014 - 2:18pm -

Washington, D.C. June 4, 1937. "Trailer camp." Harris & Ewing takes us into the late 1930s with a "new" batch of 1,945 glass negatives. View full size.
Parade flagCurious flag mounted on the fender, could it have been required when pulling a trailer?
The Good Old DaysWhen a stubborn car could be cured with the tools you could cram into your back pocket and there were no electronic gizmos involved.  Looks like a Dodge.
I was born in 1937and look forward to more pictures of my parents' world at the time.
Too many moving partsWhat my father and his friends always said about the latest newfangled washing machines. Is the father in this picture secretly wishing for the simplicity of his old Model T, with no water pump, distributor, generator, battery, starter, gas gauge or roll-up windows to worry about? Or is he glad these conveniences have been brought to a reliable state of mass production as he teaches his son the finer points of adjustment? 
Cool ShortsNot often Shorpy shows clothing that fits today's style.
The kid's shorts would fit perfectly today.  Correct length and all. But not his shoes. Not by a longshot.
Don't Look Like VagabondsAn orchard in the background suggests a labor camp but the travel trailer and the car suggest a vacation of sorts, maybe a "working" vacation.
The trailer looks almost new, no dents, broken glass, windows open, roof vent operational ana d the car looks to be in good shape, too. The bottom of the spare tire shows road dirt but this doesn't strike me as a "Grapes of Wrath" type migration. hey, is that a radio antenna sticking out of the top of the trailer?
["Vagabond," in addition to meaning wanderer, was a brand of travel trailer as well as the name of countless motels. - Dave]
Plugged InThere seems to be an electric light with a shade and an empty light cord comming down from somewhere out of sight from the top of the picture.
Grapes, UpgradedSeems straight out of "The Grapes of Wrath," though these folks seems a little better off.  
Trailer CampThe trailer looks like it's plugged into electric and there's an electric light hanging overhead - Grapes of Wrath this is not.
Curious Flag... That's a fender marker.  So you could see where the edge of your fender was while parking and not bash it all up. The other side should have one, too.
1931 De VauxThe car is a 1931 De Vaux 6-75 sedan, made by the De Vaux-Hall Motors Corporation.  It was the brainchild of Norman de Vaux, who had on-again off-again ties with General Motors and built the Chevrolet and non-GM Durant factories in Oakland, California.  Starting at $595, the De Vaux was an inexpensive assembled car – that is, it was put together with parts from different manufacturers.  The car bodies were leftover 1930 Durants with different fenders, hood and grill – all made by the Hayes Body Corporation in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  The engines at first were a 65 hp design by Elbert J. Hall, who had co-designed the Liberty engine of WWI fame and co-founded the Hall-Scott Motor Car Company in Berkeley, California.  That is the engine in the picture and it was capable of moving the car along at 70 - 80 miles per hour.  Later Continental supplied four and six cylinder engines, as they did for Durant, Peerless, Jordan and many other makes.
De Vaux-Hall Motors acquired the Durant factory in Oakland as well as a factory in Grand Rapids leased from the Hayes Body Corporation, and began building De Vaux automobiles in both places.  Unable to keep up with sudden demand, De Vaux-Hall only produced 4,808 vehicles in 13 months before they sold to Continental Motors Corporation in 1932.  Continental reportedly produced another 4,200 cars called the Continental De Vaux before discontinuing production in 1934.  Norman de Vaux repurchased the assets in hopes of restarting production, but in 1936 finally sold the Oakland factory to GM.
There are some 23 Oakland built and around 32 Grand Rapids built De Vaux automobiles still surviving today.

As far as the travel trailer goes, it is the ubiquitous “bread loaf” shape made by numerous manufacturers in the 1930’s including Roycraft, Schult, Kozy Coach, Glider, etc.  There were over 2000 trailer manufacturers in 1937.  Pierce Arrow made a few hundred of them in the late thirties, and even the Hayes Body Corporation manufactured a similar style.  Plus there were dozens of do-it-yourself plans available for the handyman.  My best guess is that this is most likely a mid-thirties Silver Dome Hyway model.
ContrastInteresting modern electrical connections to the trailer contrasted with the befringed pull-down shade on the driver-side car window.
Caravan park all rightThe crud on the spare was most likely thrown up from the front wheel. The name "HALL"appears to be embossed on the engine block. Would that indicate what make of car it is?
What's the make ...of the car? The engine block has the word "HALL" cast into the side.
110V of Fine Livin'It looks like the light is plugged/spliced into the top of the trailer.
The trailerWhat kind of material is the trailer made of, I wonder?
Old travel trailersWhat would the external walls of the travel trailer in this photo be made of? It looks sort of like fiberglass although I figure it would be much too early for that. It does have a pattern on it.
[Painted aluminum would be my guess. - Dave]
Fairly well offThis family seems to have fared quite well through the Depression.  They look well dressed and the man sports "romeros," slip-on shoes popular until the 1950's. The car and trailer both look well maintained. It appears another member of the family or a neighbor friend is coming around the front of the trailer.  For most of 1941, our family of four lived in a 19-foot trailer similar to this, with two doors on the curb-side.
Hall-ScottTwo talented young Californians, Elbert J. Hall and Bert C. Scott, founded the legendary Hall-Scott engine company by producing gasoline powered rail cars. The duo then went on to build motor cars from 1910 to 1921 before moving on to aircraft and marine engines, where the enjoyed their greatest success.
In WWI they produced a family of engines for the “Liberty Motor” program. The engines shared the same cylinder dimensions in 4, 6, 8 and 12 cylinders, with interchangeable parts, designed to be mass produced. No matter the size engine, these low RPM engines were reliable and light weight, producing a very favorable power to weight ratio. Hall-Scott engines were among the best known in aviation history.
After WWI, Hall-Scott left their leadership role in the aviation market to turn to producing engines for trucks, buses, boats and power units.
American Car and Foundry bought Hall-Scott in 1925. ACF used Hall-Scott's fame to advertise their buses as being Hall-Scott powered. They refused to sell engines to others. ACF made an exception for International trucks. The Internationals sported Hall-Scott engines in the 1920s and early 1930s. The engines ran vertically or horizontally, on LPG or gasoline.
deVauxWow!  Good answer! Thanks
Trailer CampingTrailer camping was a new phenomenon in the 1930s: it was accompanied by great speculation, and also fear, as to how this would reshape the housing, labor, and tourist economies.  The immediate pragmatic concern in D.C. appears to have been issues related to hygiene and sanitation.
Based on other photographs in this series at the LOC showing the proximity of the Washington Monument (will we see them Dave?), my hunch is that this photo is at the Washington Tourist Camp, located "on the bank of the historic Potomac River, and in the midst of the rare and magnificent Japanese cherry trees."



Washington Post, Jul 6, 1937 


Hopes Appear Dim for D.C. Trailer Camp
Only 25 Auto Nomads in Potomac Park During Fourth.

Although prospects for a District trailer camp do not appear any too bright for him, Assistant Corporation Counsel Edward W. Thomas will call a meeting of the Washington trailer committee, sometime this week, he said last night.
"Private property for a trailer camp would be pretty high and most other land around here is already in the national park system.  But we will meet to discuss trailer health and traffic problems."
The committee was appointed in February by Commissioner George E. Allen to make a study of the trailer situation.  Due to activity of District officials at the Capitol during the past few months, no meeting has been held.
In the meantime - as the touring season reaches its peak - there are at least two schools of thought concerning the need for a trailer camp.  Less than 25 trailers were parked in the Washington Tourist Camp over the holidays.  Some of their occupants expressed opinion that if the District provided a special camp "there would be 500 trailers here every night."

Knode Among Doubters

J.S. Knode, manager of the tourist camp, is among those who have their doubts about that and who wonder whether the economist was right when he predicted that a big portion of the American public would be living on wheels within the next decade.
There is rarely a time when the Knode camp could not accommodate a trailer or two more.  The only "homes on wheels" he turns away regularly, he said, are ones bearing District license plates.
"Strangely enough, we are always turning them away.  We're just for tourists, but it's hard for them to realize it, apparently."
Washington offers no inducements for touring nomads who wish to settle down for two or three months as they do in Florida during the winter.  The tourist camps place a two-week limit on their stay, and it is rare that health regulations can be met when the trailer is parked on private property.

"Gypsy Law" Broken.

Under an old "gypsy law," any vehicle used as living quarters can not be parked on any lot for more than 24 hours unless water and sanitary facilities are provided.
Another hindrance that Thomas considers might stand in the way of a special trailer camp is the District building regulation that requires all new structures to be made of masonry.  Trailers have but little brick and mortar in their construction.
Takoma Park, Md., officials last month had to "declare war" on trailers which were parked in violation of the gypsy law.  They reported last night, however, the situation was corrected easily and that several trailers are now "hitched up" in that vicinity.
At the tourist camp in East Potomac Park it was evident that trailering soon settles down to a routine just like any other type of travel.  Nobody appeared to be much concerned with what the neighbors were doing, or even conscious of the State printed on their license tags.  As isolated as if they lived in adjoining apartments some of the nomads sat on doorsteps to read their evening papers - apparently unaware of children who tried to shoot firecrackers in the wet "backyards."
Camping and trailersIn 1954 I took our family of five to see D.C. We stayed in a tent at a campground near the Jefferson Memorial. We had all our camp gear in the 14 ft. boat we trailered on our vacations. This same trip we took the kids to see the Statue of Liberty. In Manhattan, I got in trouble for having a car and trailer on Riverside Drive. We used the boat when we camped at Fish Lake in upstate New York.
Our trailer looked like the one here. I had to report back to the 20th Armored Division in California. Hearing there was a shortage of housing at the base near Lompoc, we bought a trailer in Detroit and towed it west. This was wartime and we had many flat tires. But we got there and sold the trailer when we left California for home.
Vintage TrailerI love seeing photos of vintage trailers. I camp nearly every weekend with my family in our Airstream trailer. It's neat seeing how others fared back before trailers were outfitted with mind-boggling luxuries such as satellite systems, minibars, TVs and so on.
This photo was taken shortly after Wally Byam introduced the first Airstream trailer model, the Airstream Clipper. Interestingly enough, Airstream was the only trailer manufacturer to survive the Depression.
Something about 1930s trailersIn those days practically all trailers were made of wood and covered with Masonite. This was surprisingly durable when painted, they lasted at least 10 years. Much longer if painted or kept under cover.
A few examples of Masonite trailers survive from the 30s and 40s.
More expensive models had a special leatherette material over the Masonite. This may be what is on the trailer in the picture.
The roof was also made of Masonite. It was covered with canvas over a layer of cotton padding then the canvas was sealed with 2 coats of special paint.
In the picture you can see how the edge of the roof canvas is tacked down over the padding.
The most expensive trailers were covered with sheet aluminum. But this did not get popular until after WW2 when better, cheaper, and thinner aluminum became available.
The electrical socket on the roof is a bit of an optical illusion. It is a light socket hanging in the air. Look to the right and you can see a light fixture shaped like an inverted bowl. There must have been a row of these lights suspended from a horizontal wire .
The trailer looks brand new, the car would have been about 5 years old.
There were many brands of trailer that looked like that. If you wanted to pin down the exact brand you could compare to the advertisements and pictures at Atlas Mobile Home Museum website. They have the largest collection on the net.
(The Gallery, Camping, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Harris + Ewing)

Aqua and Orange: 1967
... own childhood vacation days. Marco.....Polo..... FISH OUT OF WATER!!! HoJo Fried Clam Digger Just looking at this picture ... 
 
Posted by davisayer - 09/08/2008 - 12:40am -

Poolside at a Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge in Austin, Texas, 1967. 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Hugh Mason Ayer. View full size.
Possibly still aroundI believe this is still around -- but the Vintage HoJoness has been remodeled away.
If you check Expedia.com and Hotels.com there's some photos, and there's hojoplazaaustin.com
Greetings from HoJo'sI collect tacky motel postcards from the 1950s and '60s, and this reminds me of one.  The fine action shot of the diver and the gloriously saturated colors put it far above most postcards, though.  This is a beautiful image.
Out of the WaterAs a former lifeguard, I cringe at this picture.  She is just begging for a head/spine injury.
If you are of a certain age,If you are of a certain age, those colors and roof design are permanently impressed in your memory. 
Gallery matesNo doubt about it, this ranks right up there with End of the Road: 1964 for sheer Kodachomeosity.
Awesome backflipI can smell the chlorine...
BeautifulBeautiful photo--the colors are so vibrant.
I see three things you don't see at today's motel pools; slide, diving board and an ashtray!
What a fantastic reminder of my own childhood vacation days. 
Marco.....Polo.....FISH OUT OF WATER!!!
HoJo Fried Clam DiggerJust looking at this picture makes the mouth water for some of those great HoJo fried claims.
When the last Howard Johnson's closed here in San Diego, it was a sad day for the loss of that one great vacation treat.
Like the shot of the gravel truck in the background, sitting and plotting to crack any and all windshields trailing it.
Orange and WhiteTheir color scheme made a nice match for the University of Texas school colors there (what with many of the Austin street signs also that way - white on orange).  I lived in Austin while attending UT 1966-69.
GollyI've lived in Austin for 8 years now...I had no idea we had a Howard Johnson's.
Wow!Wow, what a backflip!
Slides and diving boardsThis was obviously taken during the era when if you did something idiotic it was YOUR fault...not the fault of the hotel for providing entertainment and counting on you to use it responsibly. That part of the "good old days" I do miss...
HoJoHojoboy is right...I am just as old (young?) as he is and when we were little, HoJos were a welcome sight. My brother and I would beg to stay at them because we knew they had the best pools. That is, unless we were camping--then we'd beg for the KOA. A quick scan of the horizon as we drove into any given town let us know if we were going to stay there or keep on driving.
Howard Johnson's are still around, but they went all "continental." It's a shame. Thanks again for the memory jog, what a treat.
Doesn't seem that long ago that...Hotels looked like this. There was a huge Hojo in Knoxville, TN where I grew up. I'm not exactly old either. As in 31 years old. When we were kids, my Mom would take us down to the Hojo in the summer. For a couple of bucks, they would let you swim in their massive indoor pool- complete with an island, a slide in the middle, and a hot tub. I also recall playing Pac-Man on one of those table consoles with the glass tops. There as also a Tiki bar. 
 The Hojo shut down years ago. Half the hotel including the pool and the orange check-in office was torn down. A developer looks to have tried making the remaining hotel into condos. 
 Motels today are sterile places. I tend to try and stay at old ones if possible.
AmericanaMattie, if you love collecting this stuff, this is the best site I've ever been to for all things "Roadside Americana":
http://www.lileks.com/motels/index.html
Lileks has the best mixture of reverence and humor for the America we all grew up with. Be sure you tour the Institute of Official Cheer!
Fried Clam StripsThe origin of HoJo's Tendersweet Fried Clams...
HoJo KvilleI remember the HoJo in Knoxville that an earlier poster wrote about. That indoor pool with the island was the bomb-diggity. We used to stop there on our way from Florida to Ohio (and back). I spent lots of time in that pool until it was time for supper or sleep. Great memories!
Ice CreamHoJo's ice cream was the best!
"A certain age"To heck with all this pussy-footing around how old we are.  Sheesh!  I'm 48 hotel/motel years old. When I was growing up (come summertime) there was nothing more my Dad wanted to do than Sparkle-Wash our red '65 Chevy Impala wagon (no AC) and head out onto the road.  This photo made me do a memory mindflip back to when three kids, Mom and a springer spaniel (along with a Triple-A Triptik) trusted Dad in his wanderlust. We HAD to like like HoJo's because Dad HAD to have every serving of tendersweet fried clams he could digest. Yes, ashtrays were everywhere!  You could smoke in a doctor's office.  I see a lot of old movies where Doc is lighting up his own fave-filtered brand.  Thanks for listening.
AustiniteI have lived in Austin most of my life (48). I believe this HJ is at 183 & I-35, NW corner. There was likely one in South Austin as well, but I can't recall where it was. But I know there was one here as mentioned. That was pretty much the North edge of town back then.  I love this site, even though it has minimal Texas stuff, I love historical record photography. Bless you for this tremendous preservation record you have created. 
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Travel & Vacation)

Eastern High: 1910
... Did they all have the overly warm three-day old tuna fish for lunch, or what? Almost all seem a bit, uh, bad-tempered at the moment ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/09/2012 - 2:56pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1910. "Eastern High School." Points of interest in this unusually detailed portrait include caps and insignia of the High School Cadet Corps, Company F, and a cat. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.
That catNot just "a" cat but "my" cat.
Where the hell did he get a Time Machine ?
GREAT picture BTW.
Who goes there?Who are the live wires? Thirty or forty years down the road, who will be good for a beer, a meal, a chat?

Fast, or not so fast?Some of the girls are wearing the boys' cadet caps. Does that mean they're fast girls, you know, the kind that would hold hands on the first date?
Statistically SignificantThere's a 2:1 Girl/Boy ratio here. Just sayin'.
How many girls here also in Theta Pi photo?This is fun.  At first I was trying to see if anybody wore the same blouse, but I think the Theta Pi sorority photo has the girls wearing dressier tops. 
Here are my matches:
Girl with Cat is Girl with Cup in Theta photo (TP)
Girl 3rd from left front row is front left in TP.  Same necklace and take no guff expression.
Girl 4th from left in front row is 2nd from right in middle row of TP.  Same mouth and chesticular regions.
Girl in 2nd row above with bow is just as beautiful in TP center left.  (I noted my desire in the TP comments)
A couple of other maybes.   
I am assuming that the girl above on the left almost mixed into the boys was not invited to join Theta Pi.
Thanks Dave for these great photos.
[Blurry gal, far right in the second row from the bottom, is also a Theta Pi (far right, seated). - Dave]
Discarded HeadgearNote the two hats on the ground. Somehow, I cannot picture that fedora on any of the boys, but can easily imagine that oddly shaped thing with the feather situated on any of those girls.
AbbreviationsThe military-style caps say "HSC" with "F" below. The girls' ribbons say "EHS" (or possibly "EIS") with F below. OK, "High School Cadets" and "Eastern High School"--but what does the "F" signify?  I mean in 1910, not 2009.
[As noted in the caption, Company F of the Cadet Corps. - Dave]
The ironing! The ironing!One of the pleasures of a picture this clear is the tactile sense you get of the clothing. All those girls in crisp white blouses, that had been hung out to dry on the line. But then--the ironing it took to get them to look so neat! With a sad iron heated on the stove, no less. Second girl from the left, front row, I'm looking at you. Highly skilled labor is clearly involved.
CholericDid they all have the overly warm three-day old tuna fish for lunch, or what? Almost all seem a bit, uh, bad-tempered at the moment and ready to return to the cafeteria for a refund.
Guys in TiesLove this photo! The girl with the black bow is lovely, the girl front and center has a rather unfortunate expression, and I'd love to get to know the three boys in ties in the back left.
"High School Cadets"John Philip Sousa wrote "The High School Cadets" march in 1890, when he was head of the Marine Band in Washington. Sousa is buried in Congressional Cemetery, which is just a few blocks from the still-existing Eastern High School.
Miss BlurryYou are right Dave. Blurry gal has the same medallion in both photos. Theta Pi gal 3rd from left is the hands on the hip girl in the front row above.
CorrectionMeant to say the girl who is third from left, not right.
[Shorpy Tip #3425: Registered users can edit their own comments at any time. Just click the "edit" link at the bottom of the comment box. - Dave]
Some hit songs of the day.These kids would have been listening to these hit songs of the day.
"Any Little Girl, That's a Nice Little Girl, Is the Right Little Girl for Me"
"Chicken Reel"
"Chinatown, My Chinatown"
"Cloud-Chief"
"Come Josephine in My Flying Machine
"Down by the Old Mill Stream"
"Every Little Movement (Has a Meaning All Its Own)"
"I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am"
"Let Me Call You Sweetheart"
"Silver Star (1910 song)"
"Some of These Days"
"Washington and Lee Swing"
Sheet Music Top 10Most likely they would be playing them on the piano, or put a roll in the player piano. Someone would accompany on a guitar, or a banjo, and the rest would stand around and sing. At least this is how it was in my mother's family. Oh yes, they had the Victrola too, but home entertainment was do-it-yourself for most folks. Children took piano lessons, and later were expected to play for family gatherings.
Egg IronsNot only did these ladies have to iron every inch of these dresses using irons heated over a fire, they probably also used egg irons for the puffy sleeves.  These were egg-shaped pieces of iron of varying sizes attached to long handles  and used to iron curved items which would have been inaccessible using a flat iron.  I know, since I used two of them to keep my young daughter's puffy sleeves nicely unwrinkled. I would love to have kept them as an antique curiosity but had to return to the friend who loaned them to me.  Bless her heart.
That ThingWhat is the thing near the middle of the doors?  Obviously not a damper, because the door already has a hydraulic damper.  Looks sort of solenoidish ... an electrically controlled lock?  A trigger for a burglar alarm?
Sass and BrassThe young lass wearing the boy's cap and holding her chin in her hand ... wow! She looks like she would be a great gal to buy a drink or three.
Egg Iron, Tailor's Ham 'n' Sleeve RollFashions loaded with intricate trims and curved seams needed a whole smorgy of special devices for pressing, and some are still available from specialty sewing shops. Here's a 1912 engraving of an egg iron, and another image of a tailor's ham and a sleeve roll, both still very useful for taming curved seams on uncreased things like men's suit coats. As for the goffering iron, used to press ruffs and  millstone collars, I have the illustration but the device maybe looks too, er-ah, scary for the genteel crowd here.
 
Pinkie RingThe ring that the young man, top row, third from the right not including "Blurry Boy," is wearing is most likely a signet ring, simple and gold with his engraved initial.
Just Under the SurfacePerhaps a dedicated newspaper detective could tell us whether this was the Company F at Eastern High in 1905 that, after winning a drill competition, mutinied against the principal, who would not let them celebrate the next day. From a quick scan of the Post I gather that, against explicit orders, the cadets and their girlfriends left the campus (marched?) and went around to some of their former grade schools in a kind of rowdy triumph. When they returned, they made an effigy of their principal (out of a cabbage and a sack) and wrote a "round-robin" to demand his removal.
Even if this group is a "later generation" of Company F, 1905 was part of their lore. 
PleatsOh, the pleats on Catwoman's skirt! If I'd been her I would have lobbied for just that position in the group photo, to show them off.
Special PleatingThose a hip-stitched pleats. Sewn down along the hips and then they become normal pleats. Those were still around in the 60s.
(The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Portraits)

High Street: 1910
... the place. It may have been something like a spoon of tuna fish with a carrot and a couple of grapes for dessert. We've inflated in prices ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/20/2012 - 1:31pm -

Columbus, Ohio, circa 1910. "High Street, south from State." Where strollers have, among many available choices, a 3-cent lunchroom, the Imperial Tonsorial Parlor and Baths, "base ball scores received by innings" and swastika sporting goods. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Lying through their teethWhy do I get the feeling that "American Painless Dentists" and "Dr. Cochrane Painless Dentist" were anything but?
Oral HistoryI'm 64 years old and I have yet to visit a painless dentist!
To Ladder or Not to LadderI suppose it would be a fireman's nightmare if one had to negotiate a ladder between all the overhead electric wires during rescue attempts.  However I also suppose that during this era ladder type fire trucks were yet to be developed, though I could be wrong, but even an extension ladder propped on the side of a building would be a challenge.
1910 sports barFor inning by inning baseball scores in 1910, I imagine that it must be a bar with a subscription to a Western Union baseball ticker service, and a big blackboard for the staff to write up the scores. 
Tipping pointFrom looking at a lot of Shorpy pics from the first decade of the 20th century, it seems that 1911 or '12 was just about the tipping point between the horse and buggy era and the automobile era.  There were two shots of New York from about 1906 and 1913, and the contrast was startling.
I'll bet if you came back only a year later, you'd find drastically more cars, and drastically fewer horses.
Read all about itSeems the corner is amply covered by newshawkers.
LunchUhhhh...I really wonder what you could get at a 3 cent lunch? Then, on the other hand, saloons offered a free lunch if you bought a 5 or 10 cent glass of beer. The free lunch could vary upon the class of saloon you were patronizing. It could be a full range cold cut platter with other items available in an upscale joint or it could just be a pickled egg in a lower class establishment. I am sure the bartenders of either class joint encouraged patrons to move along if they didn't continue to buy an occasional beer.  
Not really painless.More of a phantom pain today, felt more in the pocketbook than the mouth.
ProgressOnly the building on the right corner appears to still stand. Locals might note the Lazarus sign above the clock tower. A department store that ceased to exist in the last several years.
View Larger Map
Newsies!I love the newsboys in their short pants, especially the one with the big grin on his face.
I'd really like to know more about the Lazarus tower (on the right, over the clock).  What's THAT about?
[See below. - Dave]
Piano DistrictI count three piano stores in one block. I wonder if all of Ohio even has three piano stores left?
Big TipperIf you had the 3¢ lunch and left a nickel on the counter the tip would have been 40 percent.
[Ahem. Five cents for a three-cent meal is a 167 percent tip. - Dave]
Now that I've looked at this post again, I think you misinterpreted the tip ratio.  The nickel left on the counter was for the meal, 3¢, leaving
2¢ for the tip. Do you think I'm a Rockefeller and that I would leave a
5¢ tip?
+99Same view from July of 2009.
Shannon'sThe font (typeface?) on that sign is way hip.
Can anyone make out what they were the makers of?
It was trueThe dentists felt no pain at all.
Time still standingThe clock on the corner is a Howard Tower clock.  Company records show it being a 12 foot two face clock installed in 1899.
Yikes!That modern photo really does not display an improvement.
NewsboysMy father was born in 1902 and lived in what is now  German Village in 1910 (it was then just the south side of Columbus).  I remember him telling me that he sold newspapers downtown as a young boy, which means he would have been about the same age as the newsboys in the photo.  I know the odds are against it, but it's strange to think that one of those boys in the photo could be my father, or at least a friend of his.
He used to talk quite often about growing up in Columbus in those days, and even as a callow lad I found the stories interesting, albeit in an abstract way.  Looking back, I think those stories helped plant the seeds of my life-long love of history.  Now I'd love to be able to talk to him and ask him for more details about his childhood and those days in Columbus, but of course he's long gone.  
For example, he told me that he would sometimes hop on the streetcars to sell his papers and ride them to the end of the line, where he would help the conductor turn the car around (apparently on turntables).  He also loved to hang around the old Union Station and watch the trains come in and out, and eventually someone put a broom in his hand and told him that if he was going to hang around he should make himself useful.  He ended up working for the Pennsylvania Railroad for 44 years (1920 - 1964) during the golden age of steam.
Three years before "The Day the Dam Broke"This would be the Columbus that a young James Thurber wrote of in "My Life and Hard Times."
Bad MathSorry Dave:  when you wrote, "Ahem. Five cents for a three-cent meal is a 167 percent tip. - Dave] you forgot to subtract the 1.  My HP 17 b-II financial calculator says the markup is 66.67%.
[In a lunchroom you'd pay your three cents (or whatever) upfront, then get your food. The five cents would be all tip -- 167 percent. - Dave]
Must be a loss leaderSurely that lunch was priced at three cents to get you inside the place. It may have been something like a spoon of tuna fish with a carrot and a couple of grapes for dessert. We've inflated in prices a lot in 100 years, but not 200 times or 20,000 percent.
Hall's HardwareI remember going to Hall's Hardware with my dad in the early '70s. They had a hobby shop in the basement that was like walking into a dream.
ArchesFlint, Michigan (where I initially thought this photo was taken) has identical arches over its main street (Saginaw Street).  Until now, I thought they were unique to that locale.  Did they serve a purpose, or were they just for looks?  It doesn't appear that they're being used for electric service to the street railway.
[I think they were just decorative. More here in the comments. - Dave]
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, DPC, Streetcars)

24 and 26: 1917
... such as: "That's Luna Park at Coney Island. The big fish sculptures at the base of the tower are the giveaway" or "Has to be a ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/12/2011 - 12:07pm -

"Auto wreck, Mass. Ave., Washington circa 1917." A comment on our earlier post of this accident correctly pegged the location as Massachusetts Avenue at 21st Street N.W. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
Religious Action CenterAlthough the idea of a Baptist night club is pretty delightful, kinda like Amish Karaoke Night, it's not really that kind of "action." The Arthur and Sara Jo Kobacker Building, 2027 Massachusetts Avenue NW at Kivie Kaplan Way, is home to the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, a lobbying organization.
Where's the Crowd?I think this is the first accident photo I've seen on Shorpy where there isn't a group of people standing around looking at the wreck or the photographer.
Darn it!Dave, you stole what was going to be my comment with the title of the post!  Only 26 cars in DC, and two are right here.
The real question is what car or other large moving object hit #26, as it appears that #24 is just pulled to the curb parked.
Psychic Midget!The kid obviously crushed the vehicle with her telekinetic powers. It's always the midget!
24Seems to have a tiller instead of a steering wheel.
AhhhhWith this photo, we now have the complete scenario:
A. The vehicle was parked at the curb when it was struck. (Evidence the parking brake is set, photo 1.)
B. The rope had secured the vehicle to the lamp post.  (DC had a vehicle theft problem since the Jefferson buggy incident of 1803.) 
C. I am so full of it.  
WindowsThe most interesting thing about this picture is the exterior Venetian blinds on the corner house.
Someone needs to print this pictureAnd deliver it to the owners of the current address.  I sure wish someone would hand me a picture of my 1918 house when it was relatively new...
JazzDadI'm getting the idea, JazzDad.
Ever since I found Shorpy, I've been wanting to post one of those definitive, plonking replies, such as:
"That's Luna Park at Coney Island.  The big fish sculptures at the base of the tower are the giveaway" or
"Has to be a B-17E, look at the dorsal fin and the framed nose transparency"
Someone always beats me to it.  But thanks to your post, I can see whole new fields of commentary opening up......
Crash Investigationon closer inpection of the photo reveal debris from the wrecked car in the middle of the street. it was probably dragged fron there to the sidewalk.
I'm amused by these photos of early century DC auto wrecks. with so few cars on the road, how did they ever find each other, then run into each other?  
First. . . for the obligatory streetview:
View Larger Map
What is that building?Someone else beat me to the Street View, but I looked alongside the building, and it is quite long.  Was it a dorm, or boardinghouse, or something?  
I see nowThanks for the enlargement. Danged trifocals!
If this were a horror movie, this might be the time someone says:  "I wonder who they're trying to keep out?"
Then the sidekick would say: "Or keep ... in!"
Tin Door?Interesting building in the background.  Why do you suppose they blocked off the doorway with sheets of corrugated tin?
[Those are boards, and there's still a door. It is unusual. - Dave]

It got better with ageFinally, a building that looks better today than it did 90 years ago!  If you look at the back of it on Street View, it's got the oddest collection of mismatched windows.  I'm with Gus Oltz: would some Washingtonian please tell us what the heck this place is?  (Bonus points if you can provide interior views.)
[It's the "Religious Action Center." Some sort of Baptist night club, maybe. - Dave]
View Larger Map
Behind the barsIt appears that there are bricks a few inches behind the bars which doesn't make sense unless it was done for decorative purposes.  Perhaps to offset the horse-barn look of the front door.  Y'all are right.  The house is becoming more interesting than the accident.
[I don't think those are bricks. - Dave]

Windows TooI too am intrigued at the exterior blinds on the house.
I wonder if anybody was ticketed.
BarredActually, I thought it interesting to see that "security bars" were necessary at such an early date (building, right). I guess I'm kind of amused at my naivete ~ city life being what it has always been.
Skid MarksLooks like the skid marks tell the tale.  
Accident ReconstructionThanks to the Accident Analysis Center, one of the most important research firms and reconstruction of road accidents in Spain, made an enlightening video that answers the question "What really happened?"
http://www.elzo-meridianos.blogspot.com/
[All I can say is, "Wow!" (En Español: ¡Wow!) - Dave]
Re: Accident ReconstructionOMG! This raises the caliber of Shorpy comments to an entirely new level. ¡Me encanta!  
I am still bothered by that rope, however.  I think that rope is there because it was used to pull the stricken vehicle out of the intersection.  Thus, the photographed resting place of this car shouldn't be assumed to be the direct result of the collision.  (Perhaps this is idea is already incorporated in the "Accident Reconstruction." Por desgracia, my Spanish is not good enough to tell.  Perhaps we could be blessed with an English version of this video for all us poor (ugly) Americans who only studied foreign languages in junior high school.)
Reconstrucción de accidentesFor the benefit of fellow English-speaking visitors, I've made a translation of the texts included in the fantastic accident reconstruction video posted here. Hope this can make the magnificent video easier to understand.
-.-.-
Found at www.elzo-meridianos.blogspot.com
A 100-year-old traffic accident.
It’s always amusing to see old pictures. By looking at these 1917 photographs it looks like we haven’t improved at all. An almost daily picture, where we see we have hardly learned anything. On it you can see a wrecked car on the curbside at Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C. It was the longest street in the Capital, formerly known as Millionaire’s Row, now Embassy Row.
It’s impressive to see the massive damage, seeing a lonely child watching the wrecked car. You can see the broken wooden spokes of the destroyed wheels. The license numbers of the vehicles involved in the crash are perfectly clear: numbers 26 and 24. Many questions arise when we see these amazing pictures; what actually happened here?
What actually happened?
Warning
The information in the following video DOES NOT correspond to a rigorous case study. We don’t have the necessary and mandatory starting point data for any serious traffic accident investigation (conditions of traffic, measurements, forensic analysis of the vehicles, etc.)
The following video only offers an appreciation based on the photographs and developed by sheer fun.
Center for the Analysis of Accidents
Investigation and Research of Traffic Accidents
-.-.-
EXHIBITS
Exhibit A: Impact point
Exhibit B: Skid marks (left wheels)
Exhibit C: Skid marks (right wheels, less visible)
A priori, the vehicle parked at the curbside with license number 24, does not seem to be involved in the accident. There is no appreciable damage or deformations, not even on the front of the vehicle. There are not spilled liquids under it, nor any apparent evidence that could imply it had any part in the accident.
It only has the top pulled to the back without folding; that way it took less time to put it on place in case of rain. Had it been involved in the crash, the front of the car should show appreciable damage, even from the point where this photo was taken. The stick protruding from the left is the steering cane, a forerunner of today’s steering wheels.
Possible mechanics of the accident
The car on the photograph (represented in red in the reconstruction) could be driving on 21 St due North, with the intention of either continuing on the same direction or turning right on the intersection.
Another vehicle (represented on blue) was driving on Massachusetts Avenue, due west.
When it reached the intersection, the car of the photo, either due to loss of control or because of a mechanical problem, or because the driver tried to make the turn at an excessive speed, starts to skid to the right.
It leaves skid marks in the shape of a fan. The marks made by the left-side wheels are darker than those from the right-side wheels, because the left wheels were exerting more friction.
An impact is produced, of the type frontal – lateral, damaging mainly the rear-left section of the car. The rear wheels could break at this moment as a result of the impact, since they were bent on an opposite direction from the movement of the car with which the vehicle crashed.
Washington, D.C., 1917.
Massachusetts Avenue
21st Street
It is unlikely that the position on which the car was photographed was its authentic final position after the accident. Probably it was towed away to the curbside so that it wouldn’t obstruct the traffic on the street.
In order to move the car, they could have used the rope that appears to be tied to the rear of the car, with the other end of the rope left in the interior of the vehicle after the maneuver.
It is possible that the car was moved to this location in order to allow the leaking fuel to fall to the sewer, in an attempt to prevent possible accidental fires; who knows what policies or procedures followed the towing services back then?
Wow!Unbelievably cool reconstruction of the accident!
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Kids, Natl Photo)

Dorothy Parker: 1938
... Better for walking on the Sea bottom. Really impresses the fish. (The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Pretty Girls, Swimming) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/27/2012 - 12:23pm -

August 4, 1938. Washington, D.C. "Miss Dorothy Parker has been selected as Miss Washington and will compete for the title of Miss America at the Atlantic City beauty pageant to be held during Labor Day week. 18 Years old, she weighs 112 pounds and is 5 feet, 4 inches in height. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. Albert Parker of Washington." Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.
JiltedThe 1938 Miss America crown went to tap dancer Marilyn Meseke of Marion, Ohio.
Love the ShoesYup, she's all decked out to keep her head above water.
You got me, Dave!I was expecting the Algonquin and what do we get but yet another lovely girl. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.
High HeelsNothing like climbing a ladder while wearing high heels. I'm surprised the lifeguard didn't blow his whistle at her....or something like that! 
Zoom?Can you zoom on the guys on the high board?  They appear VERY INTERESTED.
Whew...That is a divine example of feminine pulchritude.
SemanticsWith pictures like this, the term 'VIEW FULL SIZE' takes on a new and much more fascinating meaning. Charming photo.
Not as nice as...That other Miss Washington, Marjorie Joesting. Not even close. https://www.shorpy.com/node/4282
Fashion notesShe still has the marks on her legs from her knee stockings. It could have been a more professional photo op!
A different DotIndeed, I, too was expecting another Dorothy Parker -- "What fresh hell is this?" But this one's definitely a lot easier on the eyes.
Miss Columbia Heights

Washington Post, Aug 3, 1938


Dorothy Parker Captures City Beauty Crown
"Miss Washington of 1938" Wins From Field of 17 Contestants.

While the steamship Potomac steamed down the river on a moonlight cruise last night, Dorothy Parker, the former "Miss Columbia Heights," was named Miss Washington 1938 and won her chance to compete in the national beauty contest in Atlantic City.
Miss Parker won from a final field of 17 girls selected in preliminary eliminations. She lives at 1228 Shepherd street northwest.
Judges of the contest were Lyle O'Rourke, president of the Junior Board of Commerce and drama critics from Washington newspapers.  A holiday crowd watched as the girls paraded in bathing suits and then in evening gowns.
Others in the contest were Nadine Petrey, Betty Crown, Dale Simmons, Jeanette Tucker, Elizabeth McDonald, Betty Wax, Toni Mann, Betty Jean Smalley, Gere Dell Sale, Louise Emmerich, Beatrice Evert, Sylvia Berger, Dorothy Boston and Tempa Marshall.

That Other Dorothy Men often make passes
At swimsuited lasses.
In Her PrimeThe other Dorothy wasn't bad looking. Plus she was witty, liked a good martini (maybe too much in terms of volume as well as frequency), and wasn't particularly bound by conventional morality. Get around the too much booze part and she'd probably be fun to hang around with. At least the Algonquin Round Table thought so (and they didn't mind the boozing).
Flippers 1938 style!Those are not shoes! They are flippers or frog feet 1938 style. Better for walking on the Sea bottom. Really impresses the fish.
(The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Pretty Girls, Swimming)

Face-Off: 1960
... My father (biological) was a Beat. He was a rather small fish in a very big pond in Greenwich Village but became the big fish in the very small pond when he moved to Ottawa, Canada, in the mid-50s. He ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 09/29/2011 - 6:08pm -

In this work, the photographer presciently foreshadows the essential dialectic that was to become the touchstone of the nineteen sixties. The polarities of the cultural rift that was to come is limned by the stark juxtaposition of iconic figures: one, a near-Kerouacian embodiment of the rejection of middle-class bourgeois values and mores, confronts his antithetical archetype, himself a veritable paradigm of conventional managerial-class affectations. Note also the seemingly aleatory disposition of deceptively mundane objects: the "bullet" lamps, an allusion to the violence intrinsic to the enforcement of conformist societal imperatives; the desk with no legs, an unconscious admission of the illusory foundations of work-ethic mythologies. Most tellingly, a copy of the Declaration of Independence is inexorably detaching itself from the wall, an ironic metaphor for the impermanence of superficial obeisance to culturally-imposed eschatology.
Back here on planet Earth, I'll point out that this is my brother visiting his college friend Bob in his room at the Blue Rock Apartments in Larkspur, California. The misè-en-scene was captured by me with my then-new Kodak Starmite. The negative is gone, and all that's left is this Scotch-taped print. View full size.
Nouvelle vague"Jean-Luc Godard describes his latest existentialist-Marxist film project with a member of the 'Cahiers du Cinema' editorial collective, who remains unconvinced of its ideological correctness."
In plain EnglishTwo guys in need of Scotch tape while ignoring a photographer are bored, lonely, and hungry in a college dorm stocked with a hanging desk, a period piece lamp, and a twin bed. Don't read too much into it.
Huh???DO WHAT NOW?
Psychic test"If you can guess what number I'm thinking of, I'll buy lunch."
You had me at "limned"Well done, sir. Bravo. 
Caption this pic"Hey, thats a nice pipe you got there."
"What pipe?"
Alternate caption"You swore to me that we would get dates when we got to college."
Best everparagraph of meaningless BS I have ever read. Ever.  Especially love the legless desk reference as a great excuse to be a lazy bum. I may have to figure out a way to use that one. 
But, surely, there is some esoteric significance to the fact that Bob chose to assume the costume of the misguided white collar aspirant--perhaps a conforming counter point to the casual guise of the pipe smoking, literati-esque brother (didn't you say he was an English teacher)? And all while listening to the music of the mindless masses on his cool transistor radio.
Or is it just a game of who blinks first?
Your brother, in profileTo me he resembles your Italian grandfather in some of the photos you've posted. Since 50+ years have passed since this picture, does he still ... or have I gotten it all wrong?
Silicon significanceAnd what ideological subtext, pray tell, may be gleaned from the early transistor radio, dutifully complying with the law of gravity, on the legless desk?
Don't make 'em like they used toWow! That great lamp, and that awful tile floor. Thanks for the memories.
Kerouackian???No Kerouackian worth his salt back during his heyday in Greenwich Village or elsewhere in the 1960's would be seen dead smoking a pipe. But I do really dig that pole lamp. I had one of those that moved with me three times in that ancient age to various pads in Manhattan.
Writers WritePersonally I just adore the writing. Very period in itself & I wonder if anyone here could really have done any better---apathy & inaction may be the subject, but just being apathetic is not in the actual writing.
But wait, there's more!The theme of polarity is further underscored by the subtle, yet tangible, effect
produced by the strategic placement of the streaked floor tile; tiles of
alternating "grains" have produced a discordant foundational atmosphere
which effectively summarizes the vignette in its entirety.
Compare thisto the way students will be dressing in 1970!
Kerouac and PipeOne Kerouackian who smoked a pipe: Jack Kerouac.
I'll betthe guy on the right (your brother's roommate) carried a slide rule in his shirt pocket, right? Your brother, in the typically angst-ish feel of the early '60s, probably had a copy of "Howl" or some Hemingway novel in his hip pocket. Am I right (or even close)?
+100Points for using my most favorite word ever: inexorable.
Right, what you said.Nice pole lamp.
Slide rules and HowlBob was an ornamental horticulture major and went on to a successful career in landscape architecture, so presumably he had use for a slide rule, as did my brother, who started out in OH before switching majors to English. In fact, we have a self-timer shot he took of himself at his desk in his Cal Poly dorm room holding one. Unfortunately, he didn't use it to calculate his lens setting and it's badly out of focus. Too bad; it would have been a cool pic.
In the late-50s and early 60s, I sometimes accompanied my brother on trips to San Francisco that often included stops at City Lights Books, the virtual Mecca of beatnikdom. The owner, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, was the first to publish Ginsburg's Howl and Other Poems, thus occasioning a celebrated and unsuccessful obscenity prosecution by city officials. I never saw Ginsburg, but do remember my 14-year-old eyes widening at the berets, goatees, black turtlenecks, espresso, bongos and other Beat Generation trappings and personages therein. The scene was crazy, daddy-o; I flipped.
Aw, hell; here it is, from 1956.
Let him out!Prince Albert in the can.
Great off-the-cuff proseReminds my of something my mid-60's college roommate would come up with after smoking (or dropping) one too many.
On berets, goatees, capesMy father (biological) was a Beat. He was a rather small fish in a very big pond in Greenwich Village but became the big fish in the very small pond when he moved to Ottawa, Canada, in the mid-50s. He was actually in a debate on the local AM radio station, CFRA, in 1962 with three local English professors, two of whom felt that "The Beat Generation" were a bunch of bearded wastrels and their "literature" would be forgotten in a few years. I still have the reel-to-reel of the debate.
Mom tells me that he was often roughed up because he wore a beard, once being hospitalized in NYC, as a result.
My cousin out in Iowa related to me that Dad cut quite a figure when he arrived for my grandfather's 1952 funeral in Sioux City, wearing a cape, a beret, and a beard, and carrying a copy of "On the Road" none of which anyone out in Iowa had ever seen. My cousin said that he was in awe of him, particularly coveting the copy of "On the Road" which he had heard about but never seen.
["On the Road" wasn't published until 1957. - Dave]
Blast!Kudos on the Kerouac with pipe photo post. 
Your brother reminds me of Henry Mitchell. You know, Dennis's dad.
Brilliant captionAnd so like the decor of my own bedroom.
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, tterrapix)

And Now the News: 1956
... still have it, as well as a twin of the wishing well. Fish bowl: it served two purposes: to temporarily house goldfish that one of us ... delete any photos that I take. What's with the empty fish bowl? Was there a recent death in the family? College fun Did your ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 11/17/2016 - 3:46pm -

November 22, 1956, Larkspur, Calif. My brother reading The San Francisco News, at the time one of four dailies published in the city. He's home on Thanksgiving break from Cal Poly, where he'd just taken up the pipe. We're hosting a big crowd of relatives for dinner, hence the kitchen chair in the living room for overflow dinner seating. In the upper right corner on top of the TV cabinet I see my coin collection, ready for me to show off to my uncles and anybody else I can waylay. At the lower left, an item familiar to just about anybody who grew up in the 50s, an anodized aluminum tumbler. The magazine rack has a Coronet, a Life, undoubtedly some Saturday Evening Posts. To prove we're in California, a souvenir redwood wishing well coin bank on the window seat, along with my mother's African violets in their occasional living state. My sister snapped this Kodachrome slide with brother's Lordox. View full size.
Cold Hands   I remember those aluminum glasses, how cold they were to hold when full of an icy liquid.
Stark HistorySo much to comment upon in this scene, besides it being my last Thanksgiving in the SF Bay area (Hayward).  The newspaper headline shows the aftermath of the short-lived 1956 Hungarian Revolution. It had been a busy month of news, even for a fourth-grader, what with the Suez Crisis and Ike being reelected as well.
My modest coin collection had not yet advanced to the point of needing those Whitman Coin Books to stuff them into.  Checking any change for the supposedly super-rare 1943 copper penny was almost a reflex back then.  I was also totally ignorant of the silver in those WW2 nickels! (And never imagined that less than a decade later newly-minted US coinage would be almost totally devoid of silver.)
Where there's smokeThe contrast between his shirt and the color of the newspaper is striking; I can definitely see that a different process is used now. That's the evening paper, which would indicate that it's new, and hasn't sat out in the sun to yellow, and yet the color looks like it's been sitting in the driveway for three days. 
Also I have to admit to being deeply amused by a freshman with a PIPE. Heh. Wonder how long that particular affectation lasted!!
Our family artifactsThe turtle: Good eyes! Actually, it's made of sea shells: cowries for the carapace and head and snails for the feet. I actually still have it, as well as a twin of the wishing well. Fish bowl: it served two purposes: to temporarily house goldfish that one of us would win at a festival game booth by throwing a ping-pong ball in their bowl, and to temporarily house tadpoles and polliwogs we'd catch at the Russian River. "Temporarily" because in each case their survival rate was depressingly low. Aluminum tumblers: ours had come with cottage cheese in them originally. Funny, I have that foil-gum-wrapper sensitivity thing too, but I never had a problem with the tumblers. Newsprint: no, the SF News came on uncolored newsprint. The Call-Bulletin, which The News later merged with, had a pink front page, as I recall; and a red masthead, I think. Ginger pots: my mother's shopping expeditions to The City (via Greyhound bus, with me in tow) would generally include Chinatown to get candied ginger and watermelon, so we always had several of those around.
Nodding turtle?Could that be a nodding turtle with a half walnut shell carapace, just to the right of the wishing well? Wow!
Time CapsuleThis is another example of a photo that people would have barely looked at when it was first developed but is hugely interesting to us 50 years later.
It's one of the reasons I find it difficult to delete any photos that I take. 
What's with the empty fish bowl? Was there a recent death in the family?
College funDid your goldfish die or was your brother trying to see how many he could swallow?
At SeventeenMy mother made knitted booties to surround the anodized aluminum tumblers. Of course the seam was at the bottom, so the tumblers never sat quite straight. Neither did they prevent the terrible sensation of icy medal clinking on my teeth -- the horror, the horror. I came home for my Thanksgiving break from Cal Poly with a boyfriend; perhaps a pipe would have been better. Our souvenir from Sequoia was a redwood plaque fringed with bark that said, "There's no place like home." Times were so much simpler then -- frilly white curtains and all. Or maybe it was because I was just seventeen.
Two thingsTwo things. Is it possible that the paper is on pink newsprint? Pink, light green and yellow were used back in the day along with white. And my mother still has some of her anodized aluminum tumblers, but I find the taste and feel to be like chewing gum wrapper foil (try it, you won't like it).
Scrap Aluminum TumblersMy dad worked for Alcoa for years and they offered employees blemished aluminum items that were being reprocessed for scrap priced by weight, 50 cents per pound.  Sometime in the 50s he bought about twenty of those tumblers in their unfinished aluminum state.  I sold the old home place in 2002 and I think they are still there in the basement.
He re-roofed a carport in the early 70s with 4.5' x 12' corrugated aluminum sheeting bought at 50 cents a pound.
Ginger potThose green pots that candied ginger came in and that no-one could ever bear to throw out -- they must have sat by the millions on window ledges across America, just like the one here.  I haven't seen one lately, though.  Does candied ginger come that way any more?
Hungarian MonksI go to Mass most Sundays at a local monastery that was founded by Hungarian Cistercians who escaped the Communists. Those that are  left of the original group are all in their late '70's or early '80's. Odd to think of them winding up in Texas.
I swear my grandma had those exact same drapes in 1952. We had commercial knitty sleeves for the tumblers that fit smoothly around the bottom, so you could set them down. Their iciness made the peculiar water in my mom's old home town at all palatable.
Learning to InhaleSmoked a pipe for many years. I needed to learn how  to inhale to enjoy that other smokable that became increasingly popular in the '60s.
-- Will, the guy in the photo
Call-Bulletin's newsprint colorwas actually purple as I recall for the front section wrapper, if that's the correct term. My grade school friend Charles McGowan and I used to joke at the top of our lungs when coming back from Saturday matinees in San Anselmo to Larkspur about it being made my microbes that would eventually consume the readers. Great 1940s smart-aleck 10-year-olds' humor in those days. BTW, the S.F. Chronicle's Sporting Green then was printed on green newsprint....
-- Will in the photo (Paul's brother)
Stylish window fashionsMy house was built in 1950, and I'd love to have those frilly dotted swiss curtains for my bedroom and the floral barkcloth drapes for my living room.
Dotted Swiss CurtainsGood for Mattie for noticing that. Our mother was always very proud of having "real" dotted Swiss curtains and not just "flocked". Mother would be pleased. She came into a bit of money and had the living and dining room windows "done" by a decorator from a local store. Not seen are the custom made wooden cornices above.
What, the curtains?I now know more about the window decor I lived with through my entire childhood than I ever knew before, including the "dotted Swiss" business and that those drapes (which I would kill for) are of "barkcloth."
The ChairsHey - We have one or two of those Kitchen Chairs today. Really, and the table they went with!
-- Mary and Lane
Niece to Will (the guy in the photo)
Aluminum tumblersMy Aunt Daisy presented us with a set of those aluminum tumblers one Christmas in the 50s.  I think it was six of them, each one a different bright color.  They were put away on a high shelf and my mother never used them.  She was convinced that aluminum cookware, etc. was a danger to one's health.  She never mentioned anything to her sister about the deadly gift.
[If Alcoa ever fields a gymnastics team, you know what they should name it? The Aluminum Tumblers. - Dave]
Robbed!I feel cheated.  Having been born in 1964, I never was myself acquainted with those aluminum tumblers. My era was plastic.
Aluminium TumblersI was a child of the 50s and in our family only the little kids used the aluminum tumblers. My mother threw those out, along with the Fiesta pitchers she had. Yow! I have collected aluminum ware for many years and I have dozens of tumblers, as well as many natural aluminum pieces that were hand made in the 30s and 40s. The main problem with the anodized colored aluminum ware is that it scratches easily, especially if the anodizing was not done well. The anodized layer needs a coat of clear lacquer to protect it. Some manufacturers just didn't bother. 
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Thanksgiving, tterrapix)

Their New Home: 1971
... slide down the hills on cardboard. They could swim or fish in the lagoon, learn to sail or water ski with friends who had ski boats. ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 01/18/2010 - 10:49pm -

A Kodachrome moment in November 1971, shortly after my sister and her family, newly transplanted from Diamond Bar in Southern California, moved into their new home in the Bahia section of Novato. I'm not quite sure how you'd describe the architectural style, but that was it in Bahia. Here I've captured my brother-in-law getting gardening advice from my father, who's hauled us up from Larkspur in our 1966 Rambler Classic wagon. The other vehicle I'm sure needs no introduction. My nephew Dave, age six, strolls out into the cul-de-sac. Antennas at the left are for San Francisco radio station KCBS. View full size.
Agricultural Amazing. The gambrel roofs on both the house and garage are more reminiscent of an Amish hay barn than a Marin County tract home. 
Dutch treatWe had a house a lot like this in Florida. Gambrel roof and kind of a Dutch dairy-cow motif inside. I guess you could call it cheesy!
I'd call itA barn. Or two barns. Not to everyone's taste I suppose, but it was the 70s.
The Autumn of '71There are Thanksgiving Pilgrims, an Indian and a ship in the windows. My mom would decorate the windows for the holidays (often with our help) when I was a kid in the 60s. There were stencil kits, "frost" spray, and these cardboard cutouts.
Paging Dr. Lileks To the Shorpy ICU, stat!
The Story of Bahia (Novato)Bahia History
Bahia was a "water oriented" community. It had a deep lagoon and a channel which was dredged to the Petaluma River. The original homes were designed to resemble a New England Village, with the weathered gray siding and the white framed windows. It was quite a paradise for the kids growing up there in the late 60s through the 80s. People whose houses were on the water had docks, and kept their sail or motor boats docked right at their home. Those of us who lived off water also had boats and docked them with neighbors who had extra space their dock, or they were hauled out and kept out of sight in a side yard. There was lots of open space in the oak studded hills, and the kids could climb trees, build tree forts, slide down the hills on cardboard. They could swim or fish in the lagoon, learn to sail or water ski with friends who had ski boats. Alas, the planning for this community was not well thought out. The channel and lagoon were downstream from the river and had no natural water flow towards the river, so it silted up quite badly. Dredging became more and more expensive, and the home owners had trouble affording the repeated dredging projects. More development was proposed and consideration was given to putting in a lock, to prevent the silt build up. But no one could agree with what should be done. Meanwhile new environmental regulations came into being, regarding contaminants in the spoils from dredging, and controlling where the spoils could be deposited. This became an even more expensive proposition. Lawsuits were filed, neighbors were against neighbors, and meanwhile the lagoon was silting up. People had to take out their boats, their docks became useless, except as a deck. 
Today the main lagoon is a salt marsh, and the people who live there can enjoy the marsh wildlife. Much of the surrounding property was bought up for Marin County Open Space, so there are still hills to hike in, and wildflowers and nature to enjoy. No more tree forts or cardboard sliding though.
Below is a quote regarding the present day Bahia Neighborhood.
"Geography - Neighborhoods
About Bahia
    The community of Bahia is located in Novato on the East side of hwy 101 exiting Atherton. Bahia consists of 288 homes built in 4 stages during the 1960s and 1970s. The community is located in northeast Novato, close to the Petaluma river. Residents of the Bahia enjoy a clubhouse, pool, and two tennis courts. A deep water lagoon on the eastern side of the neighborhood provides birdwatching for local residents. Rush Creek and Novato Open Space Preserves), containing the only known occurrence of a blue oak woodland salt marsh ecotone in California, borders the community. This Open Space area offers multi-use trails for hiking, biking, equestrian riding, dog walking, wildlife and bird watching. Bahia is a nature lover's paradise!" 
Oh, and Bahia is on Facebook:
I grew up in Bahia (in Novato - not San Rafael!)
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=47031241875
More, more, please.I like it!  I want to see inside this house.  I'm hoping to find a reproduction churn and spinning wheel.  This modest little barn-style house in California is certainly preferable to the bloated Mediterranean McMansions that blight the landscape here in the desert Southwest. Just saying.
EmmaH from the Edge of Texas
Ex NovatoanI lived in Novato at the time, moving to Petaluma in October 1971.
Bahia was new in 1971. My brother and I drove though it a couple of times. The KCBS towers were near the old Midway Drive-In, which closed about 20 years ago. The towers disappeared within the past five or so.
Probably deck materialAs a SoCal carpenter of that era, I can remember putting up a lot of siding houses with what we called T-111, the name of the 5/8ths thick plywood with the grooves you see here. There were several other wood exteriors like shingles, board and batt, tongue and groove, lapped siding, but the most prevalent was the T-111 since it was the most cost effective in terms of material and labor. 
And for the bundled redwood dropped just off the driveway, it is more likely intended for a narrow deck, given the long 2x material for the decking and rail cap. While the 2x2s in the center were typically used for the deck railing stiles. If it were for fencing, you'd see a lot of 1x in there. Just guessing though.
And out backDid they they keep the riding mower in a garden shed that was a quarter-scale replica of a split-level ranch?
Danger! Flammable!With the wood panel siding and the wood shingle roof, it's like a giant match head, just waiting for an ember from a wildfire to light it.  As for architectural styles, to the left and behind this house there appears to be a square, flat-roofed house, another early '70s style.
I'd sure like to see this address in Google Street View, to see if this house still stands.
FencingThere's the redwood fence awaiting construction on the "lawn."
38 years agoThis was the month I was born.  Neat!
Door openI see that garage door left open and can only hear my dad yelling, "Who left the garage door open?  What?  Were you raised in a barn?!"
Were you born in a barn?No, but I grew up in one!
Close the doorMy parents often reminded my brothers and me to close the door, as we were not "living in a barn."
Bahia styleThere were variations in the Bahia roof configurations, some flat at the very top, and there was at least one conventionally-eaved, but the whole development had a unified style:
When styles collide.Dutch Colonial meets California Ranch. Ugh.
I think I found itIs it 2705 Tiki Road?  Looking at the various map sites, I figured that the house faces either south or southwest, putting the KCBS transmitter behind it.  The house at 2705 Tiki has the right layout, and faces southwest.  One of the real estate sites estimates its value at $518,000, and says it is 1,472 square feet, built in 1971.  There's no Google Street View, but here it is in Bing Maps Bird's Eye View.
[Perhaps, much later tonight or very early tomorrow, someone could drive by with a camera and bang on the windows. Don't forget to ask for a phone number! - Dave]
(Addendum from the Shorpy Worldwide Interactive legal team: DO NOT drive by. DO NOT bang on windows.) 
Dutch Meets Valley Girl...as in, "Oh my Gawd!  It's, like, weird!"
I grew up right down the street from here!Cool photo. Now I'll have to go dig up some of our house in Bahia when my parents bought it new back in 1972. I like how there's absolutely no landscaping whatsoever.
I walk my dogs there!Those towers are still there!
Kodachrome!Sweet! Oh, how I miss it. Nice job.
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, tterrapix)

Ithaca: 1901
... Seems to be a fairly wide angle shot, without the 'fish eye' type distortion at the edges of the pic. Was there something ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/20/2012 - 11:05am -

State Street in Ithaca, N.Y., circa 1901. Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.
Far above Cayuga's waterswith her waves of blue
stands our noble alma mater
glorious to view!
Well not yet my alma mater, its quite interesting to see a view of Ithaca, where I'm going to be spending the next four years of my life, from over a century ago. To think Cornell was only 36 years old when this picture was taken! BTW the guy in the beanie was probably an alumnus of Cornell. Ithaca College was a tiny music conservatory until 1931.
Nice perspectiveBeautiful composition.  The city before it was cluttered with cars is lovely.
They've Got Moxieand they'd probably sell it to you, too.
Calling all KeystonesAs any silent film fan knows, the window washers, the dog, the well-dressed ladies and the unattended bicycle can only spell trouble. Throw in the barrels, the trolley tracks, plus the horse droppings, and you've got an epic scene on your hands.
Rat Cap!We had to wear freshman beanies like that back in the late 1940s in Florida.

BicyclesI can see at least four bicycles. The 1890's were the "Golden Age of the Bicycle," with the invention of the double-triangle frame and the pneumatic tire both less than 15 years old in 1901.
North TiogaThis appears to be Ithaca Commons looking east toward North Tioga Street from Cayuga Street. Some of the buildings still look the same.
Ithaca CommonsI believe this is the part of State St. that is now the Ithaca Commons, with this view looking east up the hill towards Cornell.  If I'm wrong, someone correct me.  Awesome photo.
Ithaca CommonsBird's eye view.
"Cars stop here"What about the wagons -- they had the right of way?
["Cars" meant streetcars. It was a "car stop." - Dave]
Behind the TimesI'm surprised that a prosperous Northern city still had horsecars in 1901, many cities electrified their trolleys in the 1890's, if I remember correctly.
I'm curious yellow....That's a scene one doesn't see anymore, a sparrow hittin' on mashed horse apples on the street.  Puzzles me however, how to understand the relection of the gent on the bicycle in the window and how it relates to his actual position on the street, an optical illusion of sorts?
BicyclistsWhat a great scene!  One doesn't think of 1901 daily life having a lot of bicycling as primary transportation. But just look at
all the bikes on the street! 
Comparing photosThis has to be my favorite then and now comparison of the same area. Great work. The popular priced clothiers at P. Rascover have been replaced by the hip sounding Loose Threads, but the mannequins have stayed! The woman on the right with the parasol has a 2009 counterpart in almost the exact same spot, but now with a messenger bag.
Then and NowHere's a picture taken today from as near as I can get to the same spot. The conversion of State Street to the Commons back in the mid-1970's has blocked the long vista down the street, but many of the buildings are still identifiable. Click to enlarge.

[Great photo. Thanks! - Dave]
What's cooking?The "Now You're Cooking" building in the modern photo looks completely different from the building in that spot in the 1901 photo, and - strangely - it looks older.  I like the nice curved windows at the top. 
Those two guysI don't like either one of those two guys walking on the right
No, not at all.
Foy
Las Vegas
Beer DogCan any Cornelians verify the legend of the dog who lived in one of the frat houses on campus and would ride a streetcar into town by himself every day to drink beer at one of the bars?
My dad, btw, graduated from the university 40 years after this picture was made.
Wide Angle?Seems to be a fairly wide angle shot, without the 'fish eye' type distortion at the edges of the pic. Was there something different about lenses, apertures or cameras then?
[This is the "look" characteristic of just about any large view camera. - Dave]
BicyclesIn addition to the buildings, the bicycles have remained a presence in Ithaca.  People bike everywhere, which is somewhat incomprehensible to me in a town that has as many hills as Ithaca.  What has not remained the same is the level of dress (although that is true of nearly every locale pictured on Shorpy).  Still, if someone wore a suit in Ithaca, they'd probably stop traffic.  The type of stores on this street has changed as well. I'm guessing Ithaca Hemp Company would not have been nearly so popular at the turn of the previous century as it is with the hippies that largely make up the town now.
To R-Spice: I hope that you retain that enthusiasm for Cornell after you've been here awhile (and particularly through your first winter).  Good luck!
Ithaca StreetcarsIthaca streetcars seem to have been electrified from the outset.
In the year 1887-88 the first track was laid, extending from the Ithaca Hotel to the railroad stations at the foot of State street. On the 1st of May, 1891, the franchises and property of the old company were transferred to the present organization, and on the 1st of June, 1892, the company purchased the franchise and property of the Brush-Swan Electric Light Company, which it still owns. That company had used electricity on the street cars under the unsatisfactory Daft system stem since January 4. 1888. The Brush-Swan system was adopted in 1891.
-- "Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York" by John H. Selkreg, 1894
The Daft system apparently used a low-voltage third-rail power - which had to be a problem in snowy Ithaca. It's possible that Brush-Swan was a battery system, which would explain the lack of overhead wires. 
A different perspectiveI took a pic of that same spot as well:

The photo was probably taken with a large-format camera that had perspective controls. It's very hard to do that with a 35mm SLR -- you would need a tilt-shift lens and there aren't any that are really wide enough.  I tried to do it by stitching several photos together in Photoshop and adjust perspective, but it's not really very good.
That photo, the old one, is really amazing.  It was taken by a professional, to be sure!
(The Gallery, DPC)

But Wait, There's More: 1923
... Fab! So many brands, so many questions. Gorton's Flaked Fish in a can sounds like mealy cod-mush; Astor's Uncoated Rice sounds almost ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/11/2011 - 8:38pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1923. The Hub furniture store at Seventh and D Streets N.W. Free with any kitchen cabinet: One each of 74 "nationally known food products." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
CondimentsI'm more apt to wonder about the lye and soap being included amongst "food products."
[Hm. Basic foodstuffs? - Dave]
Hub '08They don't give out food anymore, but here it is 2008 and Hub Furniture is still with us here in the DC area.
Aunt JemimaI'd like to try out some of that Aunt Jemima pancake mix. I had some of her syrup just this morning.
Mrs. Schlorer's Olive-NaiseWith a name like that, it has to be good. Or, on the other hand, never saw that on the store shelves. It must have been bad.
Only ONE bottle of Pabst?BAH!!!
Olive-Naise?Everything old is new again.  Here is a new product promotion: "Hellmann's® Mayonnaise Dressing With Extra Virgin Olive Oil is creamy and delicious with the added great taste of Bertolli® Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It's lower in fat than regular mayonnaise and a great complement to a healthy diet."
Fab!So many brands, so many questions. Gorton's Flaked Fish in a can sounds like mealy cod-mush; Astor's Uncoated Rice sounds almost naughty. It's a surprise to see FAB, since that sounds like a brand from the era of punchy three-letter surfactant merchants,  like DUZ, BIZ and VEL. Bonus: there's a reflection in the window for Ceresota Flour, which was made in Minneapolis for 60 years in an industrial complex six blocks from my office.
Re: the pointy tower in the reflection – was that the Central Market at 7th & B? 
[Yikes. A comment -- and a question -- from Lileks himself! What is the answer somebody? This is like finding out Conrad Hilton has checked into your B&B. I'm all tingly. - Dave]
Pre-FabSo many survived. There was a Fab detergent in the 60s/70s, as I recall. The Borax and lye they can keep, along with the naptha and cleansers.
I too am all tingly that the great Lileks is here. I have lost -- I mean "enjoyed" -- entire afternoons on his site. 
Granite CountertopsTthe more things change, the more they stay the same... 
Unusual carCan anyone tell me what make and model that unusual car in the background is?
[It's a Franklin. - Dave]
Reflections on a PhotographLike Hitchcock, the photographer (and tripod) make an discreet appearance in the window.
Pabst Blue Ribbon in 1921?A bottle of Pabst is one of the items listed, and there's a poster for PBR in the center of the window. What exactly was PBR in 1921? That was during Prohibition -- did they make a nonalcoholic beer or something?
[Beer was legal during Prohibition -- as long as it didn't contain more than a half-percent of alcohol. Below, a Pabst ad from 1921. Note that now it's called a "brew" rather than a beer. - Dave]

Those aren't just any cabinetsThose are Hoosier cabinets. The Sellers brand shown in the window was made until about 1950. I have a Hoosier in my kitchen, helping out with the decided shortage of built-in cabinets.
No ExcuseHub Furniture was located on the SE corner at 7th and D (309-319 7th).  I think the Shorpy photo is looking at the 7th Street facade so the geometry is not right to see Center Market in the reflection.  Across the street would have been the Lincoln National Bank, but I have yet to find any photos of this lost building to see if it had a pointy tower.
The Historic American Buildings Survey photographed Hub furniture in 1987.  The awful monolithic facade was applied in 1958, covering up the original 6 buildings composing the store.  Evidence of the former display windows is still visible along 7th street.

Wow!Wow, lots of familiar old names there, like Comet and Astor rice, Dromedary, Karo.  I didn't know that FAB was so old.  And James Lileks has a userid here?  It only makes sense.  Hi James!  How do you like the new I-35W bridge?
TreatOh my goodness...one of my favorite bloggers posted on my favorite blog? I am beside myself. I'm a big fan of all Mr. Lileks' work, and there have been so many times I've connected his site(s) and this one in my head.
The Tower in the WindowThat's probably the Strand Theater at Ninth and D. Home of the Loomis Radio School! Click to enlarge.

Worth Over $15It amazes me how many of these products have disappeared from history - at least in the sense that there are no google hits for them (until now).  

 Loffler's Sausage
 James F. Oyster's Butter [Personal Note: James' brother once lived in my house!]
 Buck Near Beer
 Beardsley's Herring
 Hecker's Pancake Maker
 Swindell's Potato Chips 
 Auth's Lard 
Dr. Schindler's Salted Peanuts

[We all thank you for this fascinating piece of detective work! Click the ad below to enlarge. Interesting how Coca-Cola has become "Cocoa-Cola," both here and in the store window. - Dave]

(The Gallery, D.C., Kitchens etc., Natl Photo, Stores & Markets)

Sleeping Beauty: 1910
... the left is strikingly beautiful. As for the dude wearing fish scales and the lace around his neck; I can just see him arriving at school ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/22/2012 - 8:39pm -

Washington circa 1910. "Congress Heights Dramatic Club." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative, Library of Congress. View full size.
Nearly ThereDoesn't she sleep for a hundred years? Only a year to go...
CostumesKids had much better costumes in the days when nearly any mother could whip up something fairly elaborate on the home sewing machine.
Posh CostumesWere these Congressmen's kids? Looks like the costume budget was pretty big for an amateur youth theater group. There is evidence that attics had been searched for props, though. That immense Paisley shawl under Sleeping Beauty is of a size worn with Lincoln-era crinolines, but not later.
Gee, I don't know ...all these pictures of prone folks are giving me flashbacks of "playing doctor" when I was a young-un'. Please stop toying with me, Dave; you're playing with fire.
Act 2This is the same backdrop as in "Class Photo."
Wowza.Such beautiful children.  Not that kids today aren't cute, but I'm sure they all grew up to be beautiful men and women in their day.
Same old ratioTwo girls for every boy. I guess drama clubs have been like that since Great-Great-Grandma's day.
Jack and JillThe girl on the left is strikingly beautiful. As for the dude wearing fish scales and the lace around his neck; I can just see him arriving at school wearing that outfit and being stopped by the bullies in the schoolyard! But he's a good sport, good for him!
No movies - no internet - John in New Orleans again - 
I wonder where their ideas for costumes came from.  Books, probably.  Most people in 1910 probably didn't have preconceived notions of what medieval costume would have looked like from years of watching movies or Disney cartoons - although I know they had magazines in 1910 with photographs reproduced. I just wonder about stuff like that.  Of course without TV and movies and the computer (ahem...) to distract them, they read a great deal more than most of us do today...
And I look at this photograph and wonder about the friendships that were made during the rehearsals of this production and the giggling and fun that went on as they tried on their funny costumes...  Where was it staged... what did the cars and carriages look like lined up outside...  
[They probably saw some movies. There are hundreds of movie ads in the Washington Post archives from 1910. Plus there were plays, opera houses, vaudeville. - Dave]

Sly smileSleeping Beauty is smiling slightly because she knows any second she's gonna get a big wet one!
That GirlThat beautiful young lady could be the model for every interpretation of an Angel ever painted. Wonderful picture!
Costume History BooksIn addition to theater productions and the early movies, there were numerous well illustrated books on historical costume that would have been readily available in Washington schools and libraries. One very popular source was The History of Costume by Braun & Schneider, published serially in Germany from 1861 to 1880, and widely reprinted ever since. Such resources added a level of authenticity to the look of historical genre paintings, theater and opera productions, and the early movies. And, textile mills here and in Europe churned out reproductions of historical textiles and trims from many periods for popular revival styles in fashion, architecture and for churches. It looks like Sleeping Beauty's handmaidens had seen Plate 15b in Braun & Schneider, among other images. This plate is reproduced online at
http://www.siue.edu/COSTUMES/PLATE15BX.HTML
That's interesting!I knew they had movies then, but I hadn't realized that they were as widely available as they were, judging from these ads.  We had "moving pictures" as early as the 1890's here in New Orleans, and I know these were "big city" kids with access to these venues, but I guess I always think of silent movies as something out of the 1920's - and then "talkies" from the late 20's and 30's. So much change going on right before WWI... I'd like to know more about their world. 
Pre-RaphaelitesAbsolutely gorgeous!  Reminds me of a Burne-Jones painting. If
anything, the variety of faces actually improves on, say, a Waterhouse
or Burne-Jones image, which tended to feature one type of face
serially.
Costume imageryIt wouldn't have been necessary to do much research to come up with costumes like this; in fact I'm sure the look wasn't at all unfamiliar to these kids, since this period was justifiably termed the "Golden Age of Illustration." Books of fairy tales, myths and adventure stories aimed at younger readers were filled with full-color paintings by such illustrators as N.C. Wyeth, Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. Though from 1924, the Wyeth Charlemagne illustration below is typical of what was being done during this period.

Time didn't flyAfter perusing the excellent reference provided by A.T. at 3:58 am, I was surprised at how slowly fashions changed then.  Now, we can recognize the 1920's, 1930's, etc. with no problem.  Most interesting is that the men started exposing more and more lower body and the women continued to wear long skirts well into the 20th century.  Except for the military, hats eeemed to have disappeared altogether just within the last 50 years.
This looks familiar...  I'm currently stage managing a production of "Camelot." These costumes would fit right in. The kneeling prince even has a sword and tights. I love that the king has that elaborate chain of office, but his crown is rather simple. 
Jack and JillI am struck by the fact that this photo looks like the Sleeping Beauty tableau described in Louisa May Alcott's book "Jack and Jill." I wonder if any of children (especially the girls) read the book and set themselves up in the same way.
Harry ChickI normally hate topic drift but my mind is completely befuddled by the Plaza Theater's "Harry Chick in Songs" .....  something to do with Ag's mechanical demo hen we saw earlier (tomorrow?)
[The tenor Harry Chick was billed as "Washington's sweetest songster." - Dave]
(The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Kids)

Studebanglers: 1919
... right, but she looks right at home with her creel, net, fish and waders. Their jaunty hats and pretty blouses add to the wholesome ... Sprigs The sprigs are doubtless packing to separate the fish for their trip to the skillet. You couldn't pick up a sack of ice at the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/15/2014 - 12:08pm -

The Bay Area circa 1919. "Girls fishing next to Studebaker 'Big Six' touring car." 6.5 x 8.5 glass negative, purchased and scanned by Shorpy, originally from the Wyland Stanley Collection of San Francisco historical memorabilia. View full size.
Whose Line is it Anyway?So you're fishing without any line?  I noticed that the fly reel that is in the mud would be quite valuable today (not to mention the car)
Pretty as a PictureThis has to be one of my very favorite Shorpy images ever! Love everything about it... car lovers can ogle the Studebaker convertible touring car, and the girls and their accoutrements are perfection! Not sure if those are price tags on the girl's equipment on the right, but she looks right at home with her creel, net, fish and waders.  Their jaunty hats and pretty blouses add to the wholesome outdoorsy look, but not TOO outdoorsy.  
A "reel" good time !I'd go fishing with these lovely ladies anytime. But please keep that reel out of the mud!
Family resemblanceThe square frame around the roadster's headlights reminded me of the 1964 Studebaker Avantis. 
SpriggyFisher folk, please explain purpose of fir sprigs on creel.
Posers!I wonder which one of them is a Studebaker dealer? Or maybe she was dating one. That's the ticket.
I don't mean to carp about fly fishingbut the lady appears to be holding one.
SprigsThe sprigs are doubtless packing to separate the fish for their trip to the skillet.  You couldn't pick up a sack of ice at the 7-11 back then.
Kephart (circa 1917) doesn't mention this usage in his manuals, going with paper or towels for the job, but that was pretty avant garde and probably beyond reach for the more rustic citizenry.
These obviously modern women would doubtless have gone with their tea towels, if they were actually fishing, but here the photographer running the show clearly wanted tradition and Huck Finn-liness to show.
Great shot!I always thought creels should be lined with damp moss.  I saw the evergreen sprigs and wondered why as I would think the fresh sprigs would foul the taste of any fish put in there.  Probably non fishing types types setting up for the shot.
I bet the gear ended up returned.  Note what looks like price tags on the creel and waders on the RH model.
Could this beA very old Cabela's ad?
The Beach Boys were right!California Girls.
Shmock Shmock!A charming invitation to put ferns in creels,
Speaking of sprigs.They look like they are from a redwood tree. 
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Pretty Girls, San Francisco, W. Stanley)

Under the El: 1940
... Tables for Ladies... It's not every oysters/fish restaurant that can claim that. ["Table for Ladies" seems to have ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/09/2011 - 10:51am -

July 1940. Another view under the elevated tracks in Chicago. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration.
The ElWhat are the streets?
Tables for Ladies...It's not every oysters/fish restaurant that can claim that.
["Table for Ladies" seems to have been a pretty common sign for restaurants. More so back toward the turn of the century. - Dave]
The El intersectionIt's one of the corners of the Loop ... my husband thinks the street going away from the viewer toward the vanishing point is Wabash, and the street crossing it is Lake. This is how it looks today. (Google Map Street View). 
Under the ElIt's Jewelers Row, all right, but I think you're shooting a bit too far to the north. The facade of the building does not match the second story of the Carson Pirie Scott building on that intersection. We should be thinking closer to Jackson Boulevard or Van Buren. I've seen the Schlitz marquees before.
Fred PotthastOh Fred, thanks for having such a searchable name.  Fred Potthast's restaurant was at 4 West Van Buren, per a 1933 Chicago Tribune article about Loop taverns reopening in the wake of Prohibition's repeal. "Below stairs Fred Potthast, the second generation of his name and occupation in that premises, has his license tucked away against the impending change, but won’t need to hire any carpenters to build him a brand new bar. He’s quite satisfied with the one that was installed there forty-four years ago [1889] by his father, famous for his sea food cuisine."  
Even more significant: we are looking at the block on which Jake and Elwood blues lived in the SRO hotel in "The Blues Brothers"--the block ostensibly destroyed by a homicidal Carrie Fisher.
The space is now a vacant lot that was supposed to become a park when the library was built but never has.  Lotta history dere though.
State and Van Buren looking westtoday there is a park on the right and the Washington Library on the left. The next street light is Plymouth Court
Tables for LadiesNot only the Table sign there was usually a Ladies Entrance which bypassed the bar and led directly to the table section.
I remember the local neighborhood taverns in Baltimore would have those signs and alternate entrances which no self respecting man would use no matter if it were pouring down rain and you had to walk an extra 20 to 50 feet for the Bar entrance.
The StreetsThe photographer appears to be standing in the intersection of State Street (left to right) and Van Buren, looking Westward.
More recently this area was used in the remake of Ocean's Eleven, it's where Matt Damon pulls the business card out of his pocket that Danny Ocean swapped for the wallet Matt had just lifted from the unsuspected El rider.
The only thing left from 1940 ...is the steel holding up the El and the location of a couple of manholes in the street. Streetview in maps.google is my friend when my memory is not.
Wells and LakeI've studied this image and I really think that it was shot at Wells and Lake, the northern and western corner of the Loop. The image appears to be looking southward while standing on Wells.
Look at the buildings in this Google Map street view. Specifically, pan or slide to the right and notice the building with the "cut" or beveled corner. The doorway is where it should be, in the beveled corner.  The other Loop corners don't have existing structures that come as close as this. Of course, the original structures in Vachon's image may no longer exist, and I could be wrong. 
View Larger Mapcbp=12,178.12917418537864,,0,14.927384966794076
Anyway, it seems convincing. I'm going to check it out on foot soon if the temperature ever climbs above freezing. Perhaps this means I need a hobby.
Looking west on West Van Buren from South StateThe view is under the south perimeter of the Union Loop El, which straddles Van Buren Street from Wells Street to Wabash Avenue.
As has already been mentioned, there are two clues that show this view looks west on Van Buren at State. First is the Fred Potthast Restaurant. The low address number (4) indicates that we are looking west along the first block of West Van Buren, as State Street (in the  foreground) is the dividing line for Chicago streets running east and west. 
Second and even more telling is the track junction allowing the streetcars to operate eastbound on Van Buren and continue on State north or south.
+77Below is the same perspective from June of 2017 (minus the charm in the original).
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Chicago, John Vachon, Railroads)

Dr. Vedder: 1894
... Dr. Vedder's 1st floor window says. ["Oceanic Sun Fish." - Dave] Love This is the kind of photo I get lost in. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/20/2012 - 10:22am -

St. Augustine, Florida, circa 1894. "Treasury Street." Dry plate glass negative by William Henry Jackson, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.
Treasury StreetDoesn't the sign underneath the "Dr." say Bay Street - or is that alleyway Bay?
[The "alleyway" is Treasury Street -- the subject of the photo. - Dave]
Wilson's PrideOne of the great picket fences ever!  Wonderful!
Great marketingGotta love that sign. Dr. Vedder will make you better.
Augustine, here I comeHave seen now several pictures of Augustine. I believe I should have been born there and not in in the wet-feet country Holland.
Clean alleyObviously, the posts at each end kept vehicles (horse-drawn at that time) from traveling down the alley. No back door deliveries on this segment of Treasury St. Also no horse manure on the cobblestones. If men didn't pee there (forgive me, I have lived in a third-world country), it was not a bad-smelling place.
The alley has a slight V-shape, so water drained to the center and may have flowed ... somewhere.  A finger of the ocean was a very short distance away, if today's Treasury Street is still in its 1890s location.
Clean alleys are coming back in style. They are an important pedestrian-friendly component of "New Urbanism" neighborhoods. Other elements of New Urbanism include front porches, neighborhood stores, sidewalks, parks, common areas, and smaller lots -- much like an average middle-class 1890s neighborhood.
Dens of AlligatorsDr. John J. Vedder (1819-1899), seen here, was a wealthy retired dentist and business investor from Schenectady, New York, with a passion for the natural history and fauna of Florida. He transformed his residence into a private museum, Vedder's Genuine Curiosity Store, to house his displays of Florida's native species, and learned taxidermy to create his displays. His first cousin, Elihu Vedder, Jr., was the renowned American painter. Dr. Vedder eventually sold his museum to the St. Augustine Historical Society, its first home. Here is an 1886 advertisement for Dr. Vedder's museum.

AmazingThis is, by far, the most amazing photo I've seen on Shorpy yet. It has a time-machine quality to it; you can almost feel what it would have been like to stand there with the good doctor. The image also has a sense of movement - when you look at the gentleman in the distance at the other end of the alley, who is strolling down the street. I'm left wondering, though, what the sign leaning against Dr. Vedder's 1st floor window says.
["Oceanic Sun Fish." - Dave]
LoveThis is the kind of photo I get lost in. Wonderful. I love you Shorpy's.
Family member hereI am a great-great-great grandson of Dr. John Vedder. I have seen several photos of him but this is by far the clearest. There is a similar photograph in the Rollins College Archives. You can read all you care to know about the Vedder Museum here:
http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wabnoles/veddermuseum.htm...
Curlicues and flourishesIt's always fascinating to see how commercial signage styles change. One thing you would never expect to see any more is the decorative detail in the D, and that thingy dangling from the V.
A Great TownAn amazing photograph with the kind of clarity that glass plate negatives could give. Dr. Vedders' building was originally the Panton and Lesley office, built during the 1770s British period. They were the licensed Indian traders at the time of the Revolution. It is currently the site of the Hilton hotel, but the short wall in front is still there, retained as an historical artifact, as is Treasury Street itself, touted for years as the country's narrowest thouroughfare. Bay Street is now Castillo Drive, but is still commonly called the Bayfront. It's a great place to visit!
(The Gallery, DPC, Florida, W.H. Jackson)

Smells Fishy: 1958
... pungent smell in the world is, my vote goes for a menhaden fish-processing plant, more commonly called a “pogie plant.” This one was ... for some reason. My dad was fascinated by menhaden fish; he’d spot huge schools of them in the Gulf of Mexico from his plane, ... 
 
Posted by Jim Page - 09/14/2012 - 9:07pm -

If anyone wants to know what the weirdest, most pungent smell in the world is, my vote goes for a menhaden fish-processing plant, more commonly called a “pogie plant.” This one was on Highway 87 between Port Arthur and Sabine Pass, Texas, and owned by a friend of my dad’s, John Quinn.
My dad’s car is the 1952 DeSoto Custom Club coupé which looks black in this photo, but was actually a very dark green. He loved that car and so did I. I’m guessing that bright-red object is either a gas pump or– and this is entirely possible– Dr Who is visiting Sabine Pass, Texas, for some reason.
My dad was fascinated by menhaden fish; he’d spot huge schools of them in the Gulf of Mexico from his plane, radio the fishing boats as to the location, and they’d pay him a percentage of the catch’s proceeds. That was called “fish spotting” and some pilots made a lot of money doing that!
A Texas marine biologist’s report from 1960 that I found on the web claimed that this plant, and one other in Texas, processed 60 MILLION pounds of menhaden in 1959. Holy mackerel, that’s a lot of fish!!!
Photo from 1958 (I think!). View full size.
Interesting  A good picture with a lot of details.  I would guess the red object is a fuel pump because it looks like a pipe near it coming from an underground storage tank.  I wonder why the pump and pipe isn't protected from traffic though.  The truck in the foreground is pretty beat up and labeled #5 so I assume the fish plant had a fleet of trucks.  A great photo for lovers of classic vehicles.
Nice mix of carsI like the ford in the middle part of the photo. I see (I think) a couple of Oldsmobiles and a Ford pickup.  Can anyone tell me about the others?
Re: Nice mix of carsOn the right center one of my favorite cars is a Fairlane 500. Pretty sure it is a 1957 model. Also see a 56 Pontiac which looks purple to me just to the left of the red pump.
Nice parking lotIn the foreground we have a circa '55 Ford pickup with its working clothes on, behind it is a '57 Ford Fairlane, nosed up to the gas pump is a '56 Mercury, across the alley from that is a '56 Pontiac, next to the Poncho is a brand-new Ford pickup with a plywood box built over the bed, and the gray and white sedan on its bumper is a '50 Ford. For the final four we have, right to left, a '51 Chevy, a '51 Desoto, a '55-up GMC pickup, and a circa '47 Desoto with badly sunbaked paint.
How did I do?
Working_Fool's Auto ReviewHey!
You did far better than I could. From some other old slides I had made into digital files, I had identified that DeSoto of my dad's as a 1952, but you are more likely to be correct than I am. It was a great car, and dad later had a white '58 Firestorm (I believe that was the model) DeSoto that was my favorite. I'm on the left in the attached photo from 1962.
CorrelateIt would interesting to correlate the number of comments a picture generates with the number of cars/pretty girls in that picture. 
DeSotosWere my dad's favorite.  The late 50s models were: Firedome, Fireflite, Adventurer, and shorter-wheelbase Firesweep.  He moved on to Chryslers when DeSoto ended its run in 1961.
Must be the salt airIt just struck me how rusty and beat-up looking some of these vehicles are, considering the year is c.1958.  The Ford F-100 is only a couple of years old, but it looks like it's at least 20 (even if it didn't have that dented fender)!  Does the Gulf climate really age vehicles that fast?
re:Working_Fool's Auto ReviewGood job.  Couple of minor corrections/clarifications:  The c.'55 Ford pickup is a '56, and the '50 Ford sedan is actually a '51.
I clearly remember the 1957 Ford FairlaneI nearly fell out of the passenger door and right on to Main Street Barstow (a.k.a. Route 66) in one when I was five! 
Mom took a hard left, the door flew open and I hung on to Grandma for dear life, Grandma hung onto Mom and Mom hung on to the Steering wheel!
The second time I almost got killed in that car was when a rear tire blew out on Highway 18, we spun around two or three times without hitting anything but I think we all needed a change of undergarments. 
I can't recall how many times it left us stranded with a dead battery, I was only four or five during the time we had that death trap.
Sure like to have another one today though.
Question For ptcruiserThanks for your comment! DeSotos and Pontiacs were my dad's favorites, and he was a commercial pilot; it seemed a lot of his pilot friends also favored those two brands.
Can you tell what exact model the white one is in the second photo I posted? I can't remember and don't know the brand enough to distinguish the models. I seem to remember it was Fire-something or other. I really loved that car. It had a push-button automatic transmission and was super fast.
Thanks!
--Jim
@Jim PageI was unable to zoom on your picture, and my laptop resolution is not the best.  You can see the model name in back-slanted script on the tailfin.  With the help of a magnifying glass I think I can just make out the letter "p" at the end, so I'm guessing it's the low-priced Firesweep series.  It was built on the shorter wheelbase of the Dodge Royale, as true DeSotos were very long cars.  Hard to determine with the telephone pole breaking up the continuity, but this appears to be shorter.
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)

Kearney: 1940
... and keystone arches, hand-split resawn roof shingles, fish scale wood shingles as part of the siding, both horizontal and vertical ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/14/2022 - 12:39pm -

November 1940. "House in Kearney, Nebraska." A sort of hitching-post graveyard. Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Relative ValueIt's always been interesting to me about the timeline of value for these houses. Nowadays, this house would be seen as a treasure, worthy of being restored as closely as possible to its original state. One wonders if at the time (1940) this was just considered a wheezy or tacky remnant of the not so distant past, a rundown eyesore to be removed or broken up into apartments.
2301 B AvenueThe house still looks very nice, although there was a lot of charm in the porch that's been removed.  From the Google Street View, you can see this house recently sold. Here is the listing, with eight photographs of the interior.  Very nice, especially the updated kitchen, while keeping a lot of the woodwork stained and not painted, and the stained-glass windows.  It's larger than I would have guessed -- 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3,700 square feet.
My observation is that houses of this era became undesirable as many modern conveniences became available.  Conveniences such as better and more plentiful indoor plumbing, electric appliances requiring outlets on multiple walls in every room, better heating systems, air conditioning, bigger closets, and much better insulation.  This house probably still doesn't have particularly good insulation.  Plus, as today, many people simply want something newer and different than what they grew up in.  It often takes a while for us to look at something and say, hey, that's worth preserving.
It Still Stands!This house still stands on the NW corner of B Avenue and E 23rd Street

RenumberedFrom 2312 to 2301.

Kearney HouseWhat a number of architectural details on this house! Both pointed and keystone arches, hand-split resawn roof shingles, fish scale wood shingles as part of the siding, both horizontal and vertical wood siding, that beautiful tower reminiscent of a bell tower, that handmade sunburst in the gable, and the overdone supports at the gable ends ... skilled hands dressed this house. Would love to have seen the interior.
De-RampingIn 1940, the sidewalk alongside this house reached the street by way of a curb cut at the corner. By 2022, despite vastly greater awareness of infrastructure impeding people with disabilities, the curb had been rebuilt as a solid barrier. Was this unusual, or did the thinking with respect to civic "improvements" evolve widely along these lines? And if so, how come?
I've always wonderedHow do the diligent Shorpsters track down these houses?  When all we find in the caption is “House in Kearney, Nebraska,” how does smurley come up with the precise location at the NW corner of B Avenue and E 23rd Street?  Do these intrepid Shorpy explorers go prowling and up down the streets on streetview until they find their quarry?
(Thank you, Chuckster and archfan, for your replies above.)
No downspouts?That's an interesting gutter treatment, and I suspect they had no end of water problems. It appears that all rainwater falling onto the visible portion of the front gable was routed to the sloped roof just below the tower then simply pitched over the right side. Ugh! I hope they had a lot of good copper or lead flashing in those valleys behind the tower. The entire house looks like a maintenance nightmare. 
To DavidKGood question. However, I may perpetuate the enigma in that I simply typed "old house in Kerney NE" and it came up in the images with an address, which I then entered into Google maps.
Got 'em now!KimS, if you look at the modern-day photo of the home uploaded by Smurley, downspouts are a proud new feature!
House Huntingdavidk: How do you find houses?
I don't know how smurley found this house, but here are some things I've used:
1. Pick a small town!
2. Look for the city center and start near there
3. Look for a neighborhood near the city center that has houses from the same era
4. Sometimes you can spot a likely neighborhood from the satellite view - more tree cover often indicates an older neighborhood
5. If you're lucky enough to have a house number, you can google the house number + the city/state, and get a list of addresses with that number in. In this case, searching "2301 kearney, nebraska" gives you 2301 B Ave as the first hit.
6. Finally, if you're stubborn enough and have enough time, you could use street view to search up and down the streets
Others may have different techniques, but that's what I've used. Good luck with your hunt!
A Porch With a New PurposeThe porch wasn’t removed, it was enclosed.
In the GutterSomebody was listening to KimS! Rain water and melting snow now flows into gutters, leaders and downspouts. (As can be seen in Google Street View 2022 image posted by smurley).
A more realistic FloorPlan?Realtor.com says 3700 square feet, which I agree is a whole bunch larger than the place looks, but Zillow lists a more plausible 1,340 sq ft.
Odd sidewalk placementWhat's striking to me about this part of Kearney (from aerial views) is the unusual amount of space between the curb and the edge of the sidewalk, not just on B Avenue but in many nearby neighborhoods. It's as if the sidewalks were placed much closer to the front of each house. The current "Kearney Plan," the city's comprehensive guide plan, explains it this way: "A typical cross-section includes a 100-foot wide street channel, ten to twelve-foot greenway strips between the curb line and the sidewalk, four-foot sidewalks, and 15 to 25-foot front yard setbacks."  Within those "ten to twelve-foot greenway strips" is a lot of space for snowbanks. For more: https://www.cityofkearney.org/DocumentCenter/View/988/2003-Comprehensive...
(The Gallery, John Vachon, Small Towns)

Bustling Beantown: 1906
... right of the photo whose sign is cut off is selling fish tacos. [Alas, the original negative indicates otherwise. "Fishing ... and engineering reprographics business. The "fish tacos" stand may well be Stoddard's, another firm still in business but ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/19/2012 - 12:55pm -

Boston circa 1906. "Washington Street." On our left: National Fireworks. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Lowest rates to the West!Seems to be the downtown ticket offices for no less than 6 railroads: Grand Trunk; B & O; Canadian Pacific; Boston and Albany; Chicago; Milwaukee and St. Paul; and finally the New York, New Haven, and Hartford, who advertise the lowest rates to the west via something I can't make out. Of course they don't say you'll most likely have to go southwest through Connecticut first, but you'll get there. 
I love any glimpse of the New Haven's glorious script logo, but the hand-set sign above is a real treat: notice how the flourishes on the 'N,' 'Y,' 'v,' and 'f' match those in the logo. Simply wonderful.
My HometownThis is my hometown. I spent a significant part of my youth in the '50s and '60s on Washington Street, shopping with Mom and later running around with my friends. Now I just study every detail and drift back to my father's youth and try to visualize the sights, sounds and smells of Boston at the turn of the 20th century.
Thanks, Shorpy, for preserving this for us today.
Old SouthThe vine covered tower in the background belongs to the Old South Meeting House (also called the Old South Church), built in 1729-1730. As the biggest gathering place in colonial Boston, it housed the mass meeting of December 16, 1773 that led to the Boston Tea Party.  Curiously, the main entrance to the building is not through the tower, but around the corner on the broad side of the building (along Milk Street and out of the picture). 
Horse senseSpeaking of equine exhausts, note the advertising for Daniel's Horse Colic Cure.  An essential product for the time, I suspect.
Filene's BasementWhatever happened to Filene's Basement?
Wilse
Neat!A fireworks store right in the middle of town!
Bowling and Pool right across the street. All I need now is some alcohol. If only there was a Boston Tavern nearby.
Angled signsMan, I would have been afraid to walk under those angled signs hanging from the upper floors. 
Also, I would like to believe that the shop on the extreme right of the photo whose sign is cut off is selling fish tacos.
[Alas, the original negative indicates otherwise. "Fishing Tackle," presumably. - tterrace]
Street-Sweeping FashionAnother example of the strangeness of women's fashions of that day - dresses so long that two-stepping was the only way to avoid the equine exhausts found everywhere. Women must have been gathering and hiking those street sweepers all the time, yet I can't recall seeing that action on Shorpy. Wonderful tip-down signage. And isn't 50 cents/hour for pool a bit steep for those times?
100+ years laterThings have changed a bit, as one assumes
O.F.C Rye"Mellowed by ten years repose in the wood."
Pa was hereMy grandfather, Francesco Conte, came to America from Naples, Italy, aboard the SS Romanic and landed in Boston on the Fourth of July, 1906. I wonder if he had time to stroll around the city a bit before heading to the north shore, where he soon settled. If so, my imagination tells me this is pretty much what he saw. And coming from a small town just outside of Naples, it must have been quite a sight for a 17-year-old. Another amazing photo from my favorite website ever! Thanks.
+98Below is the same view (north from Bromfield Street) from May of 2008.
So many signsSo many signs to read - a wonderful image.
Have you spotted Charlie Chaplin walking away from us towards the horses on the right?
50 cents per hourI agree it seems like too much for the times. It would only cost 25 cents to play 10 games at 2.5 cents a cue which is what the competition and the parlor in question is also charging. 
Blueprints Gone The Way of Horse Colic CureThe Makepeace Blueprints sign advertises the services of B.L. Makepeace, a firm still in the architecture and engineering reprographics business. 
The "fish tacos" stand may well be Stoddard's, another firm still in business but just in cutlery and other carriage trade products.
Filene's b'mentwilso127- If you want to see what became of Filene's Basement do an internet search for "Filene's Hole". I bike/walk past every day on my way to work. It's a sad state of affairs for what was a true Boston icon.
(The Gallery, Boston, DPC, Streetcars)

Manhattan: 1908
... the picture. Both the boat and the man carrying the huge fish is from the Land of Ice and Snow. In the city of Bergen in Norway, there was this man who earned his pay delivering fish in that fashion, carrying them over his shoulders. He inspired an artist ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/18/2012 - 3:35pm -

New York circa 1908. "Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Signs of the TimesI spotted a couple of ubiquitous ads on the buildings. The first, to the right of the Bridge Tower appears to be above the "Moens (?) Old Metal" sign, is the partial signature of Charles H. Fletcher, the seller of Fletcher's Castoria, a digestive cure-all. His autograph was on countless walls throughout the city. The other appears to be to the right of the Fletcher's and just above the Roadbed, visible through the suspension cables is a "Postum" sign. Postum was a coffee substitute, a mix that was hot water soluble and  caffeine free. It was first sold in 1895 and discontinued in 2007. The drink was named for its manufacturer C.W. Post. The company, Post Foods, was at the end, a division of Kraft Food. The Long Island University Nassau County Campus, C.W. Post College, is named in his honor, after his daughter, Marjorie Merriweather Post, who was also Mrs.E.F. Hutton, donated her palatial estate to them.
Scott's EmulsionAs soon as I laid eyes on that photo, I spotted that huge ad for "Scott's Emulsion" on the building in the center. I was sure I had seen that ad before ... But where ? And then it clicked.
I live in Belgium, and my grandparents live in a small town south of Brussels, where an old chemist shop still has its front wall covered with old ads painted on tiles. And one of them is that very same ad for the Scott's Emulsion. The chemist shop recently had their front wall classified as historic monument.
MajesticRoebling's masterpiece may today be eclipsed by the many other bridges and taller buildings of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.  This photo shows the magnificence of the bridge when it was young.
Utter BeautyHas anyone seen such a beautiful shot? The detail, it's magnificent! I am speechless. And in the center, the crowning glory of the photo, is the Brooklyn Bridge! I am awed. Thank you so much for uploading this image!
A land of opportunityWhat you might call a city bustling. I particularly love the detail of the canopies at the foot of the bridge pillar.
NorskAwesome photo! The freighter in the center of the photo appears to be flying the Norwegian flag. With the "H" on the funnel, it should be possible to at least identify the name of the shipping line, and then possibly the individual ship. 
Interesting!That's fascinating about the painting matching 'Scott's Emulsion'.
Those were the days, back when artists were employed to paint things by hand.  I notice nowadays they're using giant inkjet printers to print billboards on plastic.
I doubt if those will ever pass the test of time though.
Two NorwegiansActually, there are two Norwegians in the picture. Both the boat and the man carrying the huge fish is from the Land of Ice and Snow. In the city of Bergen in Norway, there was this man who earned his pay delivering fish in that fashion, carrying them over his shoulders. He inspired an artist to paint the fish man as we all now him. These things means a lot to us Norwegians, you see.
Clear acrossWhat always strikes me in old views like this is how easy it used to be to see all the way across Manhattan and the Hudson to the hills of New Jersey.
From the same spot today, those hills are just a rumor.
The effect is even more pronounced in similar views of far uptown, which remained almost completely unbuilt until well into the age of photography.
(The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, NYC)

Dead Letter Office: 1925
... Duck, which is not duck at all but a dried and salted fish (Lizard fish). Periodically, we would open the tin up and marvel at the horrible ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/11/2011 - 8:59pm -

March 25, 1925. "Frank C. Staley and Frank H. Bushby of Dead Letter Office, P.O. Dept." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
SSDDI am amazed at how much of the dead mail is tires.  Until 2003 I operated a rural garage and found that the Postal Service was the best choice when tires were being shipped to me.  By this era experience had taught me that it must have been UPS that had a dead tire office.
Tires by mailWow! I didnt know the mail-order tire business was that big back then. and what's with the dead pheasant nailed to the board??
The moral of the story:Don't send tires in the mail!  They won't get through.
Antiques RoadshowI couldn't help wondering what the wheeled bear and tin car toys would bring today if they were to appear on the Antiques Roadshow. I doubt they ever found their rightful owners.
All those tires!All those tires!  I didn't know you could buy tires online back then!
TiredMost of the tires look pretty used. I wonder what the story is.
ToylandLook at all the toys. There's Rosebud front and center.
When Santa didn't come...was probably Christmas 1924, since in my childhood everyone who lived in small towns used to get their Christmas gifts through Sears Roebuck, Montgomery Ward or other mail order catalogs. I would go so far as to say my mom ordered ALL our gifts from those two first mentioned.  How heartbreaking for those who waited for the delivery that ended up in March, still in the dead letter office.
Guess my address labels fell offI'm sorry, Mr. Postmaster, but all of these things are mine.  I don't know how the mailing labels fell off.  I've been waiting ever so long for all of it!  Thanks for storing everything for me.  Just go ahead and forward it all to me now.  Thanks.
Dear Acme Bird SupplyPlease send one pheasant nailed to a board. Am currently without. Thank you.
You know the Post OfficeWhat do you bet that every item pictured is still sitting in a Postal warehouse somewhere... I mean, they aren't going to say "Ok...throw out all the old stuff."
[All of this stuff was unloaded every few months at a public auction. - Dave]
eBayIt's still being auctioned off -- on eBay!
http://pages.ebay.com/promo/usps.html
MemoriesThat Champion sled brings back some great memories.  Ahhhh....
ROSEBUD!Rosebud the sled was saved from the incinerator, changed her name, and promptly got lost in the mail.  
Naughty BoysI wonder how many of those cloche hats and baby dolls were stuffed in the mailboxes by smarty-pants boys who were teasing little sisters and hapless ladies. 
The heck with the toys......Have you seen what beat-up old wooden crates go for at antique shows?
Love to have that little touring car toy though.
Uncle Samuel's AuctionThis year marked the first time that the Post Office conducted the annual auction itself rather then contract it out to a professional auction house.  Perhaps that was the motivation for the photo.


Postal Auction Enriches Treasury by $2,000 in Sales 
Accumulation in Mails Varies from Plugs of Tobacco to Layettes - Books Among the Wares - Bidders are Many - Continued Today.

"Ladies and gentlemen: What have we here?  A pair of suspenders!  Ah, a support - a sustaining influence of life.  These hapless suspenders started out of a Chicago mail order house six months ago.  Why did they never reach the ultimate consumer?  Who knows?  Perhaps, the buyer's trousers fell down before they got here.  Maybe, he died.  But Uncle Samuel must not let sentiment carry him away with the tribulations of these suspenders.  They come now to the auction block.  They are to go for a mere pittance.  What am I offered for them?  Fifteen cents?  Why, lady, that's a miserly sum.  Do I hear 20 cents?"
Uncle Sam, whose multiple businesses have carried him into all sorts of fields since he donned his well known attire, yesterday figuratively rolled up his sleeves and set about to rid himself of the accumulated stuff of his parcel post.  For years he has been sitting around and listening to professional auctioneers, but now has learned how to do it himself.
As witness, yesterday's sale, conducted at the Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania avenue at Eleventh and Twelfth streets, enriched his pockets some $2,000 and his wares are only half gone.
The variety of a rural general store went yesterday - 80 pounds of plug tobacco for $22; automobile tires, household furnishings, a baby's layette, if you know what that is; a half dozen shirts for men of discrimination and milady's wearing apparel.
Today, beginning at 9:30 o'clock, there is to go for more mere pittances, more automobile tires, more household furnishings and jewelry - everything from rich opals to shimmering diamonds - little pleasantries that might influence your sweetheart if she is indecisive regarding a decidedly decisive step.
The trials of the book houses that sell you through the magazine advertisement and let you become cold before the books reach you are reflected in the literary array.  There is a book on the "Life of Woodrow Wilson," by Josephus Daniels, lying alongside "The Government as a Strikebreaker," by Joy Lovestone.  There are books of every description, in fact.
The building was crowded for yesterday's sale, but just like the professional auctioneers, Uncle Sam is saving the best things for today.
F.C. Staley, superintendent of the division of dead letters and dead parcel post, is supervising the sale.  He just returned from supervising thirteen other sales in various parts of the country.  Captain of the Watch, A.S. Riddle, Charles Kracke, a clerk in the dead letter office, and F.H. Bushby, another postal employee, are crying the merits of the wares.

Washington Post, Apr 3, 1925 


The Tribulations of SuspendersStanton_Square, I always appreciate the supplementary material you add to pictures.  Thanks!  This one is particularly great--whoever wrote it had a light touch.  The tribulations of suspenders, indeed!
Fond memoriesUp until the late 1960s or so, we used to get parcels sent by my stepfather's family in India like the two behind the gent on the left.
A box would have been wrapped in a couple of layers of cotton duck and sewn securely, then tied with string. It was generously covered in wax seals but I am not sure if those were for customs purposes. I don't think they actually sealed anything as they would have in a letter. There would have been a great many postage stamps and cancellation stamps, as well as customs stamps and transit stamps.
I remember clearly one parcel we received which was crammed full of Indian sweets and delicacies. It was the first time I had ever tasted some of these things and several I have been looking for over the years, to no avail. One of the things that remained up in the cupboard over the fridge in our house for perhaps 30 years and was likely thrown out only when my mother sold the place was a tin of Bombay Duck, which is not duck at all but a dried and salted fish (Lizard fish).
Periodically, we would open the tin up and marvel at the horrible smell and close it up and put it back in the cupboard. I seem to recall being given a piece to taste back when we got the parcel and I suppose it tasted like any other dried, salted fish -- basically, disgusting.
We stopped receiving the parcels after we visited India in 1968 and my dad and his mother had a falling out.
(The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo)

The Devil's Workshop: 1911
... Seacoast Canning Co., Factory #2, waiting for more fish. They all work, but they waste a great deal of time, as the adults do also, waiting for fish to arrive." Anyone up for a quick knife fight? Photograph and caption by ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/07/2009 - 12:56am -

August 1911. Eastport, Maine. "Group of young cutters, Seacoast Canning Co., Factory #2, waiting for more fish. They all work, but they waste a great deal of time, as the adults do also, waiting for fish to arrive." Anyone up for a quick knife fight? Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
There but for the grace of GodIronic that this is titled as it is.  When I was a kid in Newark, I knew poverty, but nothing so terrible as this.  These "idle hands" were virtual slaves and should be playing ball and reading books. Photos that I see here of people touch me so much more deeply than those of cityscapes and buildings. These fresh, yet forlorn faces say so much, and not one single smile among them. Where are their thoughts taking them? Thanks for these reminders of how good my childhood was.
The Devil's Workshop: 1911This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. I have tracked down the descendants of 10 of the child laborers that Hine photographed at this cannery. There are 53 of those photos on the Library of Congress website. Among the stories I have posted is one about Elsie Shaw, a six-year-old worker at the cannery. You can see her remarkable story at www.morningsonmaplestreet.com/elsieshaw1.html
Jets and SharksAlthough they look like a gang ready to fight, they were most likely gutting and prepping sardines, a huge industry in Maine.  So many who worked in packing plants lost fingers, either by their own fast knives or by automated cutting machines.  In 1948 "Cannery Row" was published about the sardine factories on the West Coast, namely Monterey, but it was not about the working conditions for kids in 1911, more depression era personal stuff.  Also I'm guessing they were on "piece work" in which one gets paid for the quantity of his output, not hourly wages.  I doubt they would pay anyone for sitting around waiting in 1911.  No trophies or self-esteem training for these youngsters.  
Bag itWonder what is inside the pile of bags that they are sitting on.
Based on the empty bag in one boy's lap, I suspect they are bags of more bags.
And yes, those are quite some knives for those boys to have. Forget safety scissors with blunt points, these put Crocodile Dundee to shame.
A Guttin' We Will Go"And you make sure you wear your "Fish Shoes" when you go a-guttin' young man!"  Shoes of the boy on the back right have the toes blown out. Laces look bunchy, like they weren't laced properly; or maybe broken and tied together?
How many of these boys have ADD??  Put a group of this number together today and you'd have bedlam---not to mention, several stabbed children. In my opinion, these attention deficit disorders are something unique to our times.
Fast forwardBare feet, a sharp knife and fish guts.  Sounds like a perfect summer day when I was their age --- what a difference 60 years can make.
(The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)

Jack's Sandwich Shop: 1941
... cafeterias' took the place of the "Jimmies' Cafe" and the 'Fish Market' and the "Hong Kong Emporium" that were so busy, so packed to the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/19/2016 - 9:12pm -

        UPDATE: Restaurant ID courtesy of Sagitta.
San Francisco circa 1941. "Restaurant counter." And another shot of the Buckley Music System "Music Box." (Selection No. 1: "Three at a Table for Two" by Dick Todd.) 8x10 acetate negative, photographer unknown. View full size.
Drop 1 to 24 NickelsClick to enlarge.

Bing & BobThanks to Dave we see Bing Crosby has four songs on this page alone. His brother Bob only has one.
I think I'd rather eat here than at Mackey's. A lot cleaner and better maintained looking.
Slow FoodNothing like a steaming bowl of condensed "Genuine Turtle."
Playboy ChannelI'll opt for the Bob Wills selection.
Jack's Sandwich Shop3007 16th Street, San Francisco.
It's the corner of 16th and Mission, actually. Today it's a bus stop, but the facade of the California Savings across the street (barely visible through the plate glass) hasn't changed at all apparently in 75 years.
[Excellent sandwich-sleuthing! - Dave]

Music for lonely diners.A sandwich, a cup of coffee, and just me.
Tilt & SwingThere is some wonderful focal depth in this image. Note the upholstery tacks on the chair backs: they are in focus all the way down the line. But note some of the objects off center, such as the man in the foreground: his head is out of focus, but his upper arm is sharp enough to see the weave and stitching of his jacket's fabric. The focus is selective in its depth. I don't pretend to have any hands-on experience with a large-format "bellows" camera, but I've browsed Ansel Adams' instructional notes on such matters. And this image shows the effects of tilting and swinging the lens and the film plane in concert. By contrast, a rigid lens and film plane (as with a standard camera) will only gain or lose depth, "corner to corner," according to the narrowing or widening of the aperture. Meanwhile, with a "tilt/shift" lens attached (of which I do have some hands-on experience), the tilt occurs only at the lens, while the film plane (or digital sensor) remains "squared"; the effect isn't as complex as what we see in this photo. No, I believe what we are seeing here is an example of a tilt and a swing. It isn't a casual shot. There was a lot of equipment and preparation going on at the back of this diner. An 8x10 view camera is a big rig, demanding a substantial tripod; and the tilting and swinging of the lens and film back, with the bellows extended, added to the "non-candid" nature of this composition. And yet the photographer has managed to capture a "decisive moment" of quiet psychological tension between disengagement and attentiveness. 
SorryI'm not eating at a place with no hat hangers on the back of the stools. I'd rather starve.
I'll eat at this oneThis is a cleaner place than the Sausalito diner, and it has ashtrays, too. No hat clips on the seats though. Can't have everything. I like waffles to boot.
Re: Popcorn Too?I don't think the large box thing in the background is for popcorn, but I can't be sure what it is.  I believe the light on top of the "icebox" is an advertising sign for coffee.  I wish the picture were a bit clearer, but the image on it looks like a coffee cup.  Perhaps it was some form of espresso they were serving.
Five cents for one songMusic was quite expensive compared to food.
Popcorn too?Anyone know what the large device is at the window?  Popcorn maker?  Also what is the light up ad on the icebox?  (as we called it growing up).
I don't plan on eating off the floor, so---Will take my chances at Mackey's. Has a friendlier social vibe and this looks more like the lonely guy joint. Pass.
FWIW...The car outside is a 1941 GM product, can't tell which make. Chevrolet, probably, but other makes shared the body style. Could be a '42 if the hung up coats indicate Winter.
When I Lost YouLooks like he selected "When I Lost You" sung by Bing Crosby.  Cost him a nickel, you can hear it for free here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5JporiR9oM.
On hats and dining.This lunch counter looks exactly like what it is advertised to be: a place to have a quick and inexpensive lunch. For that, it seems to be a good place. I would love to have such a place now near where I live or work. (Lunch counters unfortunately seem to be only a matter of history now.)
As for all the people complaining about the absence of hat clips: did you not notice the line of pegs for hats and coats along the wall?
South of Market South of Market St in San Francisco there were many hole-in-the-wall eateries.  They were almost all very narrow, with a set of skinny tables & chairs along one wall, and a counter on the other.  The kitchen was behind the counter, with a few at the 'back' of the eatery.
 Many were shut down in the late 1970's by 'urban renewal' and the plans for the then-un-named Moscone Center.  Places were put out years before the buildings were removed, and you'd see 'closing soon' signs in a lot of windows.
 They were the working person's lunch menu.  Chinese that way, Italian the other, and burgers and fries the third.  Some pretty decent seafood places shuttered their windows and were no longer.  Those in power, with the help of the banks, decided that San Francisco would no longer cater to those who worked there.  It was to be a 'tourist destination', along with a pan-handler and street bum destination, but that was not known for sure at the time.
 Workers, go home.  We don't need you.  Brown bags and 'company cafeterias' took the place of the "Jimmies' Cafe" and the 'Fish Market' and the "Hong Kong Emporium"  that were so busy, so packed to the gills with people intent on easing their hunger that you stood sometimes out the door to get a seat and get back to work before time ran out.  Sometimes things didn't work out that way.  No longer even a memory for the SF of today.  Minna, Tehama, and Natoma streets all disappeared with 'urban renewal', and I got there late.  These places provided fresh, decent food at a reasonable price, and you cannot buy that anywhere in that city any more.  It has changed, and I won't go back to what it is now.
tom
AmenI can second the view of tomincantonga as to the wholesale destructions of SF's SOMA character. I worked just below Market Street throughout the 1980s and saw every useful small business driven out and replaced with huge banks or chain stores. Sadly missed are the delis, shoe repair shops, military surplus stores, hobby shops, etc. that used to make lunchtime errands a pleasure and something of an urban adventure.
PopcornIt looks like a donut maker.  They resembled a popcorn  machine but they fried donuts.
Pennsylvania has 'emBack in my ad-agency days, I sometimes drove to printers in Pennsylvania, and that state must be the last bastion of the roadside diner. 
Once, I was with an account manager who was from Long Island, I believe, and we stopped in a diner for breakfast. The waitress asked us if we wanted SOS (look it up). He had never heard of it before and was somewhat dismissive when she defined it. She said, "Hold your attitude till you try some," and brought him a sample in a little white bowl. 
He was astonished, declared it the best thing he'd ever had for a breakfast item, and insisted on it when we were on the road together.
Hot Chocolate??My guess is that the lit advertising sign on top of the refrigerator is for "Hot Chocolate". The lettering isn't quite readable, but the word lengths fit. The phrase below the steaming cup could be "Rich in Chocolate Flavor" or something similar.
I Miss These Places       Growing up in New England in the 70's I got to experience the last gasp of these places. Most of them were just called "Coffee Shop". They could be found on the first floor of many big office buildings, in bus stations, hotel lobbys etc. They were all independent but had nearly identical menus. Tuna melts, grilled and/or steamed hotdogs, open face turkey sandwiches, pre-made salads with saran wrap over the plate and a side of bright orange French dressing. Coke mixed by hand with 2 pumps of syrup followed by soda water. Really good milkshakes. Really terrible coffee that nobody realized was terrible because Starbucks was still 30+ years away. Slices of pie and cake in a glass case. 
(Technology, The Gallery, Eateries & Bars, San Francisco)

Hotel Mikado: 1942
... Empire, Sumida & Son hardware, Angel Cake Shop, Moon Fish Co., Eagle Employment Agency, Kawahara Co. and Dr. C.K. Nagao, dentist. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/23/2022 - 4:43pm -

April 1942. "Los Angeles, California. Street scene in Little Tokyo." Businesses represented here on East First Street include the Hotel Mikado, Sho-Fu-Do confectionery, Ten-Gen restaurant, Sato Book Store, Hotel Empire, Sumida & Son hardware, Angel Cake Shop, Moon Fish Co., Eagle Employment Agency, Kawahara Co. and Dr. C.K. Nagao, dentist. Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Office of War Information. View full size.
+74Below is the same view from November of 2016.
Mikado pencilsI've always heard that the Mirado pencils we used in grade school in the '50s had previously been called Mikado pencils, but they changed their name after Pearl Harbor.

Both trunks are emptyAnd his feet are a blur because he doesn't want to get a parking ticket.
Kawahara Co.In the business of "agricultural minerals" since at least 1931.
ChangesLooking at the street view picture from 2016, all three of these buildings still exist but with some changes.  The two buildings that are center and to the right have lost the upper few feet of their facade (although still contain the same fire escapes in the 1942 picture) and the building on the left is missing it's its third floor.  Why the third floor is missing is odd, fire or storm damage in the past maybe, we’re left to wonder.
Re: street view pictureThis is not from Google streetview, Jeremybd, but one of a very unique series of photos taken by TimeAndAgainPhoto, who photographs the same scene many years after the original, using the same source photos as Shorpy, and sent in by TAAP to Shorpy when Dave posts the original for us.  It is a cool project that spans America and many years.
1942 Dodge CoupeWhat I think is a 1942 Dodge coupe on the left is the shiniest car I've seen on Shorpy.
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Los Angeles, Russell Lee, Stores & Markets, WW2)
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