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East Sixty-Second: 1938
... Acetate negative by Sheldon Dick. View full size. Laundry poles Something you won't see on the city landscape any longer. ... have to actually look: like telephone poles and electric lines, they are so prevalent you no longer even see them. “Lines up! ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/06/2018 - 9:39am -

1938. "New York, New York. East 62nd Street." Where this two-masted schooner sets sail every washday. Acetate negative by Sheldon Dick. View full size. Laundry polesSomething you won't see on the city landscape any longer. Growing up in the Bronx seeing our laundry flapping in the breeze out our kitchen window was a usual sight. Now we have specially scented fabric softener to imitate the fresh clean scent. That ship has sailedBut the building on the left remains intact. I can see Mexico-- on the other side of that wall! Almost new, and very shiny...1938 Chevrolet Standard sedan at the curb. Re: Laundry PolesAu contraire, Fathead. Of my last five apartments in Brooklyn all had laundry poles in the backyards; two were still being used for their intended purpose. Most you see are just rusty reminders of by-gone years. But you have to actually look: like telephone poles and electric lines, they are so prevalent you no longer even see them. “Lines up! Lines up!"My late father (1912-2009) stated that years ago there were street vendors who specialized in replacing broken laundry lines. They were wiry-looking fellows who would climb the pole for a fee. They would walk down the streets crying “Lines up! Lines up!” while also keeping an eye out for apartments that needed their services. (The Gallery, NYC, Sheldon Dick)
Palace Laundry: 1925
Washington, D.C., circa 1925. "Palace Laundry." 1811 Adams Mill Road N.W. National Photo Company Collection glass ... about this photo. First was the font used for the "Palace Laundry." In cursive, with all lowercase letters, it seems more like something ... later than 1925; with its curved, not squared, roof lines, I would have guessed it as a 1927 or 1928 model. [It could be ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/08/2012 - 1:00pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1925. "Palace Laundry." 1811 Adams Mill Road N.W. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. McCrory 5 & 10?Could that be a McCrory 5 & 10 on the left? [Sanitary Grocery. - Dave] Tree SignI've never seen a tree used as a signpost like this one -- ONE WAY DO NOT ENTER, wired about the trunk. The D.C. city traffic managers were obviously "green" long before their time. Trendy neighborhoodThere's a BB&T bank occupying the building to the right with the arched windows. That peculiar window that's halfway in the stone facade and half in the red brick is still there. There seems to be a cafe in the buildings to the left. View Larger Map ParkedCan someone identify the cars? Slight Anomalies?Two things struck me about this photo. First was the font used for the "Palace Laundry." In cursive, with all lowercase letters, it seems more like something from the 1940's or 1950's. Quite unusual, I think, for the time. Second is the dark sedan on our left. It looks just slightly later than 1925; with its curved, not squared, roof lines, I would have guessed it as a 1927 or 1928 model. [It could be 1928. "Circa" means "around" or "approximately." Where are the car experts? - Dave] CarsI think both cars are GM products. The one on the left looks like a GM product from 1927-1931, it's looks similar to a 1927 Buick and the car on the right looks like a 1919 Buick. I'm not 100% sure. [Neither one is from GM. The car on the left is a circa 1928 Studebaker Dictator. The one on the right is a Hudson. - Dave] Cars IIThanks for the info. I thought I'd give it a shot since noone else did. I'm not too familier with '10s and '20s cars. '40s and '50s cars I can name in an instant. Adams-MorganThis is in an area now referred to as Adams-Morgan, party central for people in their 20s. I can't recall the name of the cafe on the left but it's big with the local kickball league. Crazy CoincidenceI was going thru the DC 1935 Addresses and found that the relative I was researching was working at the Palace Laundry then. Thanks for posting the photo. Palace LaundryThe Palace Laundry and the Redskins have something in common -- both were owned by George Preston Marshall. In fact, Marshall's profitable laundry chain (which had more than 50 stores at its peak) enabled him to buy a pro football team, the Boston Redskins, which he moved to his hometown of Washington in 1937. Incidentally, the Palace Laundry's slogan was "Long live linen." The Missing Half Year & The UnknownThe first car is a 1928 1/2 Studebaker. The long hood length indicates this is actually a President 8 (the Dictator was on a much shorter wheelbase). The 1928 1/2 year models had a new narrower radiator design and a very short visor (military style) over the windshield. The wheels are also unusual, but they are not unique to this year (they were definitely available in 1927 and both 1928 model years). The 1929 closed Studebaker models had a curved "A" post at the windshield so it is easy to identify this as a 1928 1/2 year model. The second car does not appear to be a Hudson. On almost all Hudson's the Hudson triangle is visible on the hubcaps. I cannot see any here (but the photo also does not show the hubcaps as clearly as I would like). Also, the front of the grill should have a flat portion below the corporate logo for a Hudson. Lastly, I cannot find any pictures of a Hudson with the large number of vertical louvers on the hood as seen here. I would have guessed the second car as a Lincoln, but the grill also does not match. I have not been able to determine the exact make of the second car. (P.S. Based on the previously posted information should the title be updated to reflect the year 1928 or 1929 as well as the caption?) Not a StudebakerThe first car is definitely NOT a Studebaker of any year or model. Nothing matches up including body shape, cowl lights radiator shell. Not sure what it is, but sure what it isn't! Disc wheelsThe large car with the disc wheels is a 1929 Nash. Their ad stressed the fact that their motor had seven main bearings making it exceptionally smooth. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Natl Photo, Stores & Markets)
The $64 Washer: 1941
... if it was winter time shovel the snow out from under the lines. Clothes would freeze solid then we'd bring them back in and hang them up ... moved into an old Vancouver, B.C. apartment building, the laundry featured three wringer washers with dual concrete laundry tubs for ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/02/2024 - 3:08pm -

        Its big 8-sheet porcelain tub is insulated to keep water warm! Streamlined 8-position wringer with soft balloon rolls has chromium pressure controls; push-pull safety release; roll-stop safety dry feed rest and automatic water-return board. October 1941. "Kenmore washer for sale. Sears Roebuck store at Syracuse, New York." Medium format negative by John Collier. View full size. Mom Was DelightedI remember my mother getting one like that circa 1950; primitive it may have been, but it beat the heck out of the tub and washboard it replaced. Incidentally the price translates to $650 in current dollars. Not cheap, especially considering the lack of disposable income people had back then. They've Gotten CheaperAlthough you can't buy that exact model these days, I think, a comparable washer, with electronics, would cost $1,031.47 in 2016 dollars. $64 was a ton of money pre-WWII. I remember my grandmother had one a bit earlier than that one. She used to roll it onto her front porch to wash clothes and drain the water onto her yard. I remember helping her when I was 3-4 years old and the wringer sucked my arm right into it. Sure glad she was close by and knew to hit the emergency release 'cause I remembered that pinch for a lot of years. That was also when mom's (or grandmothers) used soap instead of detergent. It made great bubbles and smelled oh so nice! Not Exactly CheapBut I'm sure that every part was Made in the U.S. A. Familiar contraption!That looks a lot like the one that was in the basement of the house I shared in grad school at Duke in the early 80s. We were so broke, as students, we used that old thing and its wringer instead of going to a laundromat. If you have never gotten grabbed by an electric wringer, you can't fully appreciate that old saying about getting your teat caught in a wringer. YEOW! Mom-in-Law Was Delighted, TooMy mother-in-law, who grew up as a Pennsylvania farm girl, used one of these until she moved out of her suburban Philadelphia house in 2002, aged 85. She'd run the clothes through the wringer and then put 'em in her fairly new automatic dryer. The grandkids were enthralled! A Dream WasherWringer washers seem primitive now but they made life so much easier for women. I am old enough to remember my mother using one. In the photo above, you can see female customers in the background. They are all dressed up in hats, "good" coats, stockings and heels. Perhaps this Sears store was in downtown Syracuse. A trip downtown warranted getting dressed up. I remember those machinesAlong with the two galvanized washtubs for rinsing the clothes. My job to fill them with water and the washer. Punch the hole in the bottle of bluing for the white clothes. Wipe the outside clotheslines off and if it was winter time shovel the snow out from under the lines. Clothes would freeze solid then we'd bring them back in and hang them up in the basement. Coal furnace would dry them in half and hour. Only on Mondays. Wash day. Skip the Linepennsylvaniaproud said "if it was winter time shovel the snow out from under the [clothes]lines. Clothes would freeze solid then we'd bring them back in and hang them up in the basement. Coal furnace would dry them in half and hour." Why not just hang them in the basement to dry in the first place (in winter)? Not getting why do the extra steps of outdoor clothesline. Demonstration Washing MachineOn the extreme right, there is a washer with glass sides. These were used in department and appliance stores to demonstrate the washing action of the agitator. You could easily see how the clothes circulated in the water. When I left home in 1967 and moved into an old Vancouver, B.C. apartment building, the laundry featured three wringer washers with dual concrete laundry tubs for rinsing, a gas-fired ironing machine, and clotheslines in the spacious roof-top laundry room. Elderly ladies taught me how to use the machines - I was 19 at the time. In the United States, automatics outsold wringers as early as 1951, but in Canada that did not happen until 1968. One of the main reasons was that an automatic was three times more expensive than a wringer. I still have a 1944 Beatty wringer that I use occasionally. Here is a video on how to do your laundry with a wringer washer. Looking at photos like thisWell... Europe was not only at war, but... twenty years late? This design, for me it's just like 1960 or something like that. And some change...I'm sorry, but it's that 95 cents that broke the deal for me. Remember the "Suds Saver" Feature?You would stopper one side of your dual basement sink (which was probably made of concrete) and the washer would drain the sudsy wash water into that side. Then with the next load, the washer would suck that wash water back in and reuse it. My mother would wash the whites or lights first and "suds save" to wash the kids' clothes after that. It certainly did save water, especially if you had a big family and washed lots of loads. Old-style washers with wringerWhen my wife and I bought a 1920s Tampa bungalow, it had a wringer Maytag, originally fitted with a gas engine, in the garage building out back. Patty decided to use it one day, just for laughs, but she was astonished at how clean the clothes were. Soon, that old Maytag was what she used all the time. If I remember correctly, Patty collected the water after washing and used that on her flowerbeds, and the soap helped control insects. Regarding that wringer, yep; I caught my hand in it one time and that was all it took to teach me to stay clear of it after that. But the old wringer washers worked and drying on a clothesline also had advantages. At the cottageMy dad added a room to the back of my grandparents cottage the year after he added an electric pump for running water. He installed a flush toilet, and, a wringer washer just like the one in the picture appeared soon after. It was over in the corner, and I do not remember seeing it in use, but know that my grandmother would have used it to wash all the towels and such us ragamuffins got sand-encrusted at the beach. She sure put up with a lot of noise from the succeeding groups of grand kids showing up week after week for their time at the cottage. It was a never-ending battle to keep sand out of the front room, and encouragments to 'Wipe Your Feet Outside'or 'Get the sand OFF' were made often and AUDIBLY. It didn't help. There seemed to always be a layer of sand in the bottom of the washer tub. Wonder if it wore out the gizzards. Grandma's Washer of ChoiceAs a child growing up in the 60's, I remember well my grandmother owning two of these. She could afford a more modern style washer, but the wringer ones are what she preferred. I guess probably because that is what she was used to using. Sitting on her back porch, watching her feed those clothes through the wringers, looked like so much fun! As much as I'd beg her to let me do it she'd never let me for fear of getting my hand caught!! (Technology, The Gallery, John Collier, Stores & Markets, Syracuse)
Ebby's Diner: 1942
... way were turned into parkland or create strange property lines that are still visible, as G of V noted. The tracks then continued east ... scent of freshly laundered sheets and/or towels from the Laundry at the top left of the picture. A-lone survivor Built like a ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/25/2024 - 3:47pm -

February 1942. "Lancaster, Pennsylvania." Ebby's Diner and the Corine Hotel at Queen and Chestnut streets. Photo by John Vachon for the Office of War Information. View full size. Trolley 236 still runningLancaster had a city streetcar system and an extensive electric interurban railway service in the area. It lasted until 1947 when buses replaced the trolleys. Birney car 236 still runs in nearby Manheim, and you can learn all about it in this video. John Vachon's street views from above really capture that moment in time. Delicious geometriesCertain photos on this website work their magic immediately and then leave me to try to figure out where the power comes from. First to spring out at me are the pleasing geometric planes, forming a big Z in the middle, with the streetcar tracks acting as the central diagonal. Then there’s Ebby’s Diner, which appears like a larger version of those two streetcars. And the allure of those cozy establishments -– how I wish I could go to eat at that diner or The Village restaurant or even Sprenger’s, whatever kind of place that is. And winter! Bravo, John Vachon. Here and GoneThe diner is gone. It would have been to the far right facing Chestnut. The hotel is gone too. It would have been where the parking lot is now. The three-story brick building remains with some modifications. The commercial ground-floor space was removed. Great photo!What a great photo! WowEchoing @davidK, this photograph is a masterpiece. Whazzat?Is that a lumberyard in the upper right? It’s an unusual open-sided structure The Old PRR Main LineThe original Pennsylvania Railroad main line passed through Lancaster right through the downtown area. The depot was located at Queen and Chestnut Streets. You can see a boxcar under the roof where the original depot once stood. Apparently by this time the track had been terminated here and that boxcar is now sitting in what would probably be a covered team track. A study of satellite views will reveal parts of the old right-of-way and some buildings cropped at odd angles or others that were once parallel to the tracks. [update] Upon finding maps of Lancaster circa 1900 I have concluded that the actual PRR trackage passed right across the lower portion of the photograph frame and, indeed, Ebby's Diner is perched directly on the former right-of-way. The box car further down E. Queen St. is actually on a stub-end siding that once served a business there or could have been a freight house. Ebby's Was The Old Pennsy RR StationI could be turned around, but I think the view faces northwest, in which case the train station was on the lot where Ebby's stands in this photo. The tracks came into Lancaster from the N.W. and crossed the empty lot next to (left of) the Hotel Corine, then across Queen Street to the passenger station. The beginning of these tracks are visible from Dillerville Road (or on Google Maps) near the western end of the Norfolk Southern Lancaster yard. The tracks crossed Harrisburg Avenue west of the new stadium and ran into the center of town. The boxcar under the shed was one of many stub tracks that branched into small sidings. Bits of the right of way were turned into parkland or create strange property lines that are still visible, as G of V noted. The tracks then continued east and north to rejoin the main line. Also goneis the building from where John Vachon took this photograph. If you swing around in the Street View supplied by kozel, there's a Holiday Inn there now. No doubt it was a cold February day in Lancaster, yet two windows at the corner hotel (I can't read the name) are open. On the top floor one is open a little. The window directly below it is wide open. Brrrrrr. This Photo Smells So GoodMy mouth is watering, what with the cooking smell coming from the diner and the cold frigid air that carries the smells of the bacon and eggs, or steak and potatoes to your olfactory senses. The hotel might have a place to eat as well, if so, that would overload the senses with its waft of whatever is non the grill. Another odor would be the scent of freshly laundered sheets and/or towels from the Laundry at the top left of the picture. A-lone survivorBuilt like a brick shi... er, well, solid as a rock. Probably good for another coupla hundred years. About those open windowsDoug (see below) pointed out that on an obviously chilly day, a couple of the windows in the hotel are open. Back in the day it was a routine practice for housekeeping to throw open windows in recently vacated rooms to air them out. This would have been especially desirable in an era when smoking was so common, even in hotel rooms. Also, most hotels did not have individual thermostats in rooms to control the heat. The heat was typically from radiators or from ventilation grates in the floor connected to an often coal fired furnace. In either case, the heat was usually controlled by the hotel staff. Sometimes rooms could get a bit stuffy or just plain hot, to the point where even on a nippy day, cracking a window for a few minutes might be the only way to get some fresh air and cool off. Lancaster's Pennsy StationI found this early view of the Pennsylvania Railroad Station courtesy of the Lancaster County Historical Society. Sometimes It May Not Have Smelled So GoodThe Lancaster Stockyards, the largest stockyard east of Chicago, was located about a mile north of here along the PRR mainline between Philadelphia and points west. It handled 10,000 cattle a day, along with pigs, sheep and other animals arriving by rail from the west. After a layover, the doomed animals boarded connecting trains and were distributed to other cities to meet their fates. If the wind was just right the scent of bacon and steak on the hoof may have tainted the wonderful odors emanating from Ebby’s and The Village. 142 units, 12 stories, $7,556 per mo.The site of the former Corine Hotel, shown as a parking lot on Google Street View, is currently a construction site for a market-rate rental development, scheduled to be finished by late spring 2024. [$7556 is the rental rate for the first-floor retail/restaurant space. - Dave] More Open WindowsI can definitely related to Ad Orientem's comments on heated hotel rooms. To paraphrase Mark Twain, the hottest Summer I ever spent was a Winter's night in Moscow! We spent several nights in Moscow's Hotel Ukraina back in January, 1998. Imagine sleeping in underwear, on top of the bed, with the floor-to-ceiling (unscreened!) windows open to try to catch a breath of breeze. Under 10F outside, and over 80F inside, with no way to regulate the steam heat! The downside of free city-wide steam. Closed?The diner shows no signs of life that I can see. Can anyone read the sign on the door? [All those footprints would seem to indicate otherwise. - Dave] Man in BlackExceptionally composed photograph. To my eye the man in black along the roadway is the focal point. The angles lead to him. I am always amazed by snow scenes, the intensity of reflected light, which even on a cloudy day usually requires a small aperture with attendant great depth of field and sharpness. (The Gallery, Eateries & Bars, John Vachon, Streetcars)
Our Lady of Lourdes: 1914
... Avenue near 144th Street and when they sold coffee the lines would go all around the block. How about the punchball games out side ... of 142nd Street. OLL was also known as Old Ladies' Laundry. I've written down the names of almost all the boys who, at one ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/13/2022 - 12:33pm -

        A newly restored version of a Shorpy favorite that has collected three pages of comments since it was first posted in 2007 -- The caption for this one just says "Post Office." Thanks to our commenters we now know that the building with the statue is the Our Lady of Lourdes School at 468 W. 143rd Street in New York circa 1914. 8x10 glass negative, Bain News Service. View full size | The school in 2007. Post office?Looks like a Catholic school, actually. This is just a wild-a**ed guess, but St. Jean Baptiste on East 75th? This would coincide with the warehouse cart on the left (sort of). Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic SchoolThis is Our Lady of Lourdes School in New York City on 143rd Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Convent Avenue. The school was built in 1913 in Washington Heights, an exclusively white, upper middle-class neighborhood. It was built and equipped at a total cost of one hundred and forty thousand dollars. Besides classrooms for five hundred pupils, the building contained an auditorium with a stage lavishly equipped for theatrical productions, a gymnasium, a roof-top playground, an assembly room for parish organizations, rooms for classes in cooking and sewing, and offices for the school officials. The associated church (Our Lady of Lourdes) is located directly behind the school on the next block, 142nd Street. Yes...Which is the Post Office? The large building in the center must be a Catholic School, what with a saint on the roof and all. As for the location, I have no clue. Post OfficeWhich building is the Post Office? post officeBuilding with street level entrance and flags would be my likely guess. Today...Google Street View. It's always interesting to see NYC in the early years, and how it's changed. Our Lady of LourdesI attended this school for eight years in the 1950s. The lower grades entered by one door and the higher grades used the other. City College frat houses faced the school. Recess was on the street out front. We didn't have any cooking or sewing classes, no classrooms equipped for that. There wasn't any gym. We weren't allowed to go up on the roof and there wasn't an assembly room. We did have a annual spring play using the stage and we had a Christmas concert. There was a way into the church from the back of the school. The nuns that taught there were called Society of the Holy Child. Father Kline was one of the priests and Mother Mary Edward taught there. A good school, good memories. Johnny PumpThat fire hydrant probably was installed in the late 1880s. Was born and bred in NYC and traversed all five boroughs many many times, but NEVER laid eyes on a johnny pump like that. Every boy who ever grew up in "The City" is instinctively drawn to hop over as many hydrants as possible. However that one is a KILLER. Our Lady of LourdesI attended OLL from 1933 to 1941. The lower grades kindergarten to fourth were taught by the Ursuline Order of Sisters. The upper grades fifth to eighth were taught by the Sisters of the Holy Child. The school was funded and guided by the priests of the adjoining OLL Church. We were there to learn,to pray: no play, no library, no lunch room, no outside activities. It was not an easy life for children of poor families during this Great Depression Era. I often cried and asked God to help me through the day, the year. I know I received a very good education but not a happy one. There were nuns I would have died for, however there were many that should not have been allowed to teach children. The Church and school were founded by Monsignor Thomas McMann. There is a bust of the good priest near the entrance to the upper church. In the 1930s we were allowed on the roof for various activities. The term "very stern " comes to mind. The statue is Our Lady of Lourdes, similar to the statue in the grotto in the lower church on 142nd Street. It was removed a few years ago as it decayed and was ready to fall off the roof. Convent AvenueThis photo faces east, and the townhouses in the background are along the east side of Convent Avenue. All of them still stand, most are in superb condition. This is the finest real estate in Harlem; a house across the street sold for $3.89 million about 18 months ago. Here is a listing for a house a few doors down from the ones seen here: http://tinyurl.com/2396kb Note the terraces on two of the buildings -- those are stunning and almost never seen in New York. Does anyone remember anDoes anyone remember an Irish nun by the name of Sister Gerard? She was one of the Ursula ? nuns at the Our Lady of Lourdes in Manhatten. She emigrated about 1910, so am not sure anyone would remember her... Is there a cemetery associated with Our Lady of Lourdes? Upper and Lower ChurchCan you tell me if the Upper and Grotto Church still exists and do they have mass on Saturdays and Sundays? I lived 2 streets away a long time ago and would like to see the old neighborshood. I have never forgotten the Grotto. It's so unique. Would like to share it with my spouse. Or maybe I can speak with someone in the convent. Are the nuns still there? Thank you. Diana Gosciniak Our Lady of LourdesI also went there in the 1950's. The nuns were very dedicated to teaching. Our religion was the major reason they and all of us were there. The grotto was under the main stairs and confession was held downstairs at 4 pm on Saturday. The children's Mass was at 9 am on Sunday, a High Mass in Latin. The doors of the main church came from old St. Patrick's downtown in Little Italy. The sisters made sure that the majority of 8th grade students got into Catholic high school. A lot of the girls went to Cathedral H.S. and the boys went to Cardinal Hayes. The church was around the corner with a connection to the back of the school. The convent was right next door to the church and the rectory was across the street. Once in a while we were invited to go to the convent on a Saturday to see the nuns. The neighborhood was pretty good, all kind of stores that tolerated all of us kids. It was nice going there for eight years. Fond memories. O.L.L. Upper and lower churchYes, the upper church is still active with most Masses in Spanish. The lower church {the Grotto) is not used. However the statue of the Blessed Mother is still on view. The sisters left about 10 years ago. I visited the school and was told the Church no longer had any say in its operation. When did you attend? I was there from 1933 to 1940. J Woods Theatrical productions?Oh, how I wish I had your recall. However, I did attend O.L.L. from 1933 through 1940. Yes, the stage was used - but with limited equipment. I never saw or played on a rooftop playground. There was no gymnasium. The seats in the auditorium were moved to the side for military drilling by boys from grades 5 to 8 once a week. The girls exercised in a nearby room. The children in the lower grades had no physical training. I don't remember an assembly room for any parish organizations. Family members were not encouraged to come to the school except on Graduation Day or if the student had a serious problem that required a meeting with the principal and/or a parish priest. I must say we all received a very good education and were farther ahead in our studies than the Public School kids. Yours truly and in friendship, Jackie Woods OLL NeighborhoodI lived on Amsterdam Ave for 16 years. Where did you live? When did you attend OLL School? The few friends I had from the old days have passed on. I answered your other message; The Nuns left about 15 years ago. You need to have someone open the lower church to visit there. The Blessed Mother's Statue is still located in the Grotto but masses are no longer read there. Regards and in friendship. Jackie Woods Our Lady of Lourdes, 2008I had a chance to stop by West 143rd street and take a snapshot today. The cornerstone is dated 1912. As you can see, every building shown in the "1914" photograph is extant and all are in excellent condition. There is even a fire hydrant in the same location as the fire hydrant shown in the photo. As for changes — there are trees on the block now, and the cornice has been removed from Our Lady of Lourdes, as has the statue of the saint. And, of course, as with all modern photos taken in New York, it is full of automobiles. (Click to enlarge) The reddish sign on the left side of the street, behind the motorcycle, identifies this block as part of the Hamilton Heights Historical District (Hamilton Grange is only a few blocks away). Today was garbage day, so a distracting pile of trash sits in the foreground, sorry about that. Our Lady of LourdesCentral Harlem, did you attend Our Lady of Lourdes? If so what years? Thanks for the picture Jackie Woods Our Lady of LourdesI attended an Episcopalian school. I contributed that photo because of my joy in Harlem history, not any tie to this school in particular. Last weekend, I found a photograph of this block dating to 1908! All the buildings looked the same except for OLL, which was then an empty lot. Perhaps Team Shorpy can enlighten me -- would it be compliant with copyright law for me to scan and post it? [Is there a copyright notice on it? If it was copyrighted before 1923, the copyright has expired. - Dave] Our Lady of LourdesThank you for your latest information, Central Harlem. Where was your school located? Did you live nearby? I'm 80 years old going on 81 and all I have are my memories (mostly fond). And my memory is outstanding. I was hoping to hear from anyone who attended OLL with me. By the way, the folks on Amsterdam Avenue always envied the folks on Convent Avenue, always a beautiful clean street. (Today we would say "upscale.") Three of my children were born in The Lutheran Hospital of Manhattan on 144th off Convent. I had moved to upper Washington Heights by then but my doctor was still working out of there. Thank you and in friendship, Jackie Woods Our Lady of Lourdes, 1909I had a chance to scan the old photo I found of this block. It dates to 1909, not 1908 as I had first said. Every building seen in this photo remains, though some of the lots on the right-hand side of 143rd street were empty in 1909, including the lot that would house Our Lady of Lourdes three years later. Anticipating the interest of Shorpy's crew of automotive experts, I provide a closeup of that car on Amsterdam Avenue, below. Also, a note to Jackie Woods: we're of different generations. It is good to exchange notes here, but I'm sure we've never met. Our Lady of Lourdes SchoolWhat wonderful memories of days past. I attended OLL from 1943 and graduated in 1951. One of five brothers to do so. You may have known my older brothers, Larry, Dick or Bill. We lived in that apartment building at the end of the street on the OLL side. That was the location of Alexander Hamilton's house, Hamilton Grange. When it was built, it forced the move to its present location behind the church. It will be moved again to the SE corner of Convent and 141st Street. You also mentioned Lutheran Hospital. It wasn't so great for our family. My brother Dick was taken there after being hit by a car. While recovering, he contracted rheumatic fever in the hospital and later died at New York Hospital. We also lived at 310 Convent Avenue because my mother's family, the Healys, lived on 141st Street. If you have any other questions, ask away. I'm still in contact with several classmates and between us, we should be able to answer. "Thanks for the Memories" Bob Phillips OLL graduatesHi, Yes, I do remember a Phillips family. The boys or boy were in a higher grade with one of my brothers. As you can see, I had already left OLL when you started there. I am pleased you have good memories of your early years. Unfortunately, mine are mixed. An incident: a bunch of us, about 12 years old at the time, were fooling around and one of the boys fell out of a tree and broke his arm. We carried him to Lutheran Hospital They wouldn't let us in the front door. Told us to take him to Knickerbocker Hospital near 131st Street, and so we did. Today, I ask why no first aid was administered or an ambulance called. However, I have nothing but good words about the hospital in later years. I was sorry to hear about brother RIP Regards and in friendship, Jackie Woods PS My oldest sister, Ellen, class of 1936 Won scholorship to Holy Child Academy My older brother William (Billy), Class of 1937, won a scholarship to Regis High. MemoriesI graduated from OLL in 1973 and it is so wonderful to see a website with the School and the information that it offers. I too wondered about the Masses in the lower church. The grotto was always so beautiful and special. I have lived in Florida since 1986 and hope to make a trip to NYC just to visit the old school. Thanks again for bringing a smile to my face today. God bless. OLL MemoriesHi. I attended OLL from grades K to 5. I have the most beautiful memories of my childhood there. I loved the nuns. I can't believe how time has gone so fast. If anyone remembers me or remembers Sister Mary Owen or Ms. Valentine or the gym instructor George Izquierdo. I am talking about late 1960's, early 70's. Please contact me. Are the sisters still there? I went to visit Sister Mary Owen a couple of years ago. She wasn't wearing her habit any more. Those were good old days. I was so mischievous, always getting into trouble. Oh my God. I had the best early education there, never will I forget. I love history and I love these pictures that were posted up above, everything looks the same. Thanks! My family still lives up in Washington Heights. Our Lady of Lourdes School and ChurchAnd a HI to you, The good sisters left about ten years ago. You can reach the school online, it has a Web site. The school is no longer under the supervision of the Church. If you look over the rest of this page you will see that I have answered a number of postings that may be of interest to you. "Memories are made of this." In friendship, Jackie Woods OLL AlumniHello OLL'ers Head over to the OLL website www.ourladyoflourdesschool.net There's an alumni page where you can send your information and be put on the mailing list. OLLCould not connect with your e-mail: kbarkley@ourladyoflourdesschool.net Would you please check it. When did you attend OLL? I gave my information previously on bottom of page. Look forward to hearing from you. In friendship, Jackie woods To Jackie WoodsI knew Dennis before the war, and graduated OLL in 1937. My sister Marie graduated in 1936 and received a scholarship to Holy Name. Finding your web site after all these years is a small miracle. I'm sorry to say Marie, such a special person, passed away in 1977. Andrew, a 1943 or 44 graduate, died in 2000. I did not marry till 1985, had a daughter in 86. My wife Alice and I celebrated our daughter Colleen's wedding Nov. 24, 2007. I hope this proves I was not as bad as the sisters believed. They wanted so to see me go that they created the first coed class and skipped me from 6th to 8th grade. Yes we marched on the roof, auditorium, basement and in far away competition. I believe we had a West Point officer, but not certain. I just hope that life was as rewarding to all OLL graduates as I. God bless. John Orlando Wideawake80@verizon.net OLL, late 1950s and early 60sDon't know how I found this website, but so glad that I did. I graduated OLL in June 1961. The nuns are my most vivid memories of the school. The spring and Christmas plays that were held each year. Recess outside during lunchtime. Walking to school each day and spending the few pennies we had to buy candy at the store on Amsterdam Avenue, and the bicycle store there where we rented bikes on Saturday afternoons. Going to confession every Saturday down in the grotto. Checking the Legion of Decency list for movie listings. Learning to sing the Mass in Latin for every Sunday High Mass and, most important, the foundation the nuns gave us for our religion that is still strong to this day. A few years ago, we drove from Jersey up to the old place and convent still looked pretty good. Can someone please explain about not being under the archdiocese any longer. Thanks again. Lutheran HospitalI found this link when looking for the Lutheran Hospital. Very interesting information. I am researching my family history and found out this hospital is where my great grandfather passed away. Thinking that there may be additional information on the records, I searched for the hospital but have not been able to find any recent reference to it. Has the Hospital been closed? Can anybody give me some background information? I will certainly appreciate it, Anne [You might try the Archives search box on the New York Times Web site. Lutheran Hospital of Manhattan, at 343 Convent Avenue, merged with Norwegian Lutheran Deaconess Hospital in 1956 to form Our Saviour's Lutheran Hospital at the Norwegian Hospital facility on 46th Street and Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn. It's now called Lutheran Medical Center. - Dave] Lutheran HospitalHello Anne, Yes, I know Lutheran Hospital. My three oldest boys were born there: 1951: 1952: 1954. My brother-in-law's father died there c. 1937. When I last passed by the neighborhood, three years ago, I saw that the hospital had been converted to an assisted living facility. The neighborhood is looking great - real upscale. The brownstones that one could buy in the 1930s for a song are now selling for well over a million dollars. In the 1930s they were empty, thanks to the banks that foreclosed during the Depression. As kids we ran through them and at one time had a clubhouse inside one. In friendship, Jackie Woods Lutheran HospitalThanks you both, Dave and Jackie, for your responses. I will follow the advice and hope to be able to pass soon by the neighborhood. Anne OLL MemoriesHi Henry, I too remember Sister Mary Owen, my brother David Mora had her and she was really strict. We keep in touch with George Izquierdo and he is doing great. Sister Rosemarie passed away. I try to stay in touch with O.L.L. It was really a happy time in my childhood and the happy memories will always be a part of my life. Maxine Mora Lutheran Hospital of ManhattanLooking for pictures of the Hospital. I was born in 1940 in the facility and would like to see what it looked like in that era--anyone have a picture? Dad Was an AlumnusHello Jackie, I am curious to see if you know my father, Frank Corrigan, who was born in 1926, which would make him 82 this August. I think he was in the Class of 1941. I am also curious to see if you have any contact or info on Alfred Pereira or his sister Clara Pereira Mercado. Any help would be appreciated. Stephen Corrigan Please email me when you get a chance, stephenjcorrigan@aol.com. Frank CorriganYes, I knew Frank Corrigan, Class of 1940, not 1941, he was closer to my brother Dennis than me, I was a year younger. Didn't Frank have a younger very pretty sister? I last saw Frank c. 1968 in the upper Washington Heights area where many of the families from OLL had moved to from the 140th streets. I knew Pancho Pereira (the name Alfred does not ring a bell) and Clara, his younger sister. His little brother JoJo was killed in Korea. Pancho had a birthmark: strands of very white hair in the front of his head of very black hair. They were wonderful good people. Pancho was good friends with Jackie Koster, whose sister Barbara married Burl Ives in Hollywood and lived happily everafter. In friendship, Ed and Jackie Woods eandjwoods50@yahoo.com Vacant Houses in Hamilton HeightsI thought we were the only ones that got into those empty houses. Afternoons we'd go in through a back window to study and do our homework. We didn't break anything, and at our age we always wondered why the houses were vacant. The Depression angle we didn't figure out until later. Tom Calumet and Frank Howe went with me. I understand Frank has died and Tom Calumet left NYC around 1945 to go out west with his parents. I graduated from OLL in 1941, and now live in Hopkins, MN OLL MemoriesI graduated in 1960. There were about 10 of us cousins who graduated between 1955 and 1960. I remember Father Cline, Fr. Malloy, Monsignor Hart, Mother Bonaventure, Mother Dominica and others. Does anyone remember the day the frat boys across the street pushed the dummy out the window during our recess? I can almost taste the corn muffins and egg creams at the soda fountain around the corner on Amsterdam Avenue while "Barbara Ann" played on the jukebox. OLL PhotoI have a great a picture of my Confirmation Day. I'm in full OLL uniform dated c. May 1935. How can I send it to the OLL Shorpy site? Yours truly, Ed Woods [Click the links under "Become a member, contribute photos." - Dave] Frat boys 0, Mother Mary Edward 10I sure do remember that day. Mother Mary Edward marched over and blasted them. Also the candy store around the corner used to sell two-cent pumpkin seeds out of a little red box. Does anyone remember the rumor going around that the Grotto Chapel was haunted? I remember walking home with "Little Star" playing on the transistor radio. The OLL GrottoI remember serving at what was called the Workmen's Mass in the Grotto in the 1930s - 6 o'clock in the morning! I know the Grotto is not used any more (I visited there in December 2007). As to the candy store on the corner of 143rd and Amsterdam, it was a very busy place: candy, pen nibs (no fountain pens), book covers etc. One day the owner came to school and told Sister Casmere, the principal, that we were disorderly and she must tell the students to behave when shopping in his store. Her solution was to tell the entire student body that they were not allowed to shop there. In a day or so, the man was back begging forgiveness and asked to plaese allow the children to return to his store. The kids were his main business. HelloHi Maxine How are you? Thank you for responding to me. It was very nice to hear from you. Sorry to hear about Sister Rosemary, but I don't remember her was she the pricipal of the school. I do remember Mr. Izquierdo he was the gym instructor with another man don't recall his name I believe he became principal of the school later on. Oh! now I remember his name was Mr. White I believe. God trying to recall, it is getting a little difficult now a days but I like it. It brings me back in time. How time have changed it was so innocent back than not like now. Looking back in time, makes me feel like I grew up to fast. How is Mr. Izquierdo doing? How can I contact him? Please let me know. My e-mail address is Je_Ocejo@yahoo.com. I remember he got married back than to a girl name Rocio, I don't know if they are still together but that lady was my father's friend daughter. Who else do you remember. Please get back to me with pictures. I have pictures too. Let me know how can I e-mail them to you. Would you believe that we are talking about almost atleast 35 years ago but I don't forget. God Bless you. Henry OLLBob, Any recollections of my father, Frank Corrigan, Class of 1940? Maybe not yourself but some of your older brothers. Steve Corrigan More OLL MemoriesI graduated in 1937 and was probably a fellow graduate of a brother. I had skipped 7th grade and so did not get to know classmates well. It is possible that the Waters family lived across the alley on the second floor of the building on 142nd Street. We lived on the top floor of the next building on Hamilton Place. In the same building lived Buddy Sweeney and Sal Guizzardi, also a tall blond kid who graduated with me. I believe your mother and my mom, Agnes Orlando, were friends. I believe your mother visited mine in 1952-3 in our new home in Bergenfield, N.J. I remember a sister who must have graduated with me or my sister Marie Orlando in 1936. My brother Andrew graduated 1947. My mother, brother and sister have passed away. I remember Poncho, the Kosta family, the Madigans, Woodses, Rendeans, Glyforces, McCarvils, Walshes, Philipses, Flynns, Duggans, Hooks, Rodriquezes, Craigs, Hugheses, Conways etc. I am sure we had many things in common being OLL graduates at a very special interval of time. I wish you well in your very beautiful state which I have passed through on three occasions. Best wishes and fond memories. John and Alice Orlando OLLLot older than you. Attended OLL from late 1930s to early 40s. Baptized, first Holy Communion and Confirmation (Cardinal Spellman). Lived at 145 and the Drive. Remember principal when I was there, Mother Mary Margaret. First grade teacher was Mother Mary Andrews. Remember playing on roof and being shocked by Mother Mary Andrews jumping rope. Believe there was a Father Dolan around that that time. Only went to through the 3rd grade there and then moved to 75th St and the Blessed Sacrament -- a whole different world, and not as kind or caring. Memories of OldHi Henry. You may not remember me but I also taught gym with George and sometimes Ms. Ortiz. George is with the Department of Education on the East Side. I work for the Bloomberg Administration. Sister Mary Owen has moved to Rye and of course all the nuns are now gone. I left in 1996 but I still miss all of the good times shared during my years there. Memories Are GoodHello, You taught me gym and we also had alot of good times with the High School Club on Friday nights. I have most painful memories of O.L.L the day Msgr. Cahill passed away. I never knew how much a heart could have so much pain and yet go on. My dad died on 4-29-96, Max Mora and I felt the same pain all over again. Do you know where Mother John Fisher has gone ... her name had changed to Sister Maryanne. I would love to hear from you. Maxine Mora Hi HenryMy email address is mmorafredericks@aol.com. I have yours and I am so happy to be in contact with you I graduated in 1973. I went to Cathedral High School. Later moved to Florida. My brothers and sisters are still in NY and I miss so much of it. I look forward to catching up with you. I will write soon. God Bless. Maxine Fellow ClassmateHi Tony, It has been more than 48 years since I last saw you - at our graduation from OLL in 1960. Let me know what you have been up to in the past half century. My e-mail address is kmckenna@clarku.edu. Kevin LTNSMr. White! Not sure if you still come to this site, but on the off chance that you still visit i thought i would write. It's been so long since I've seen or heard from you, not since "Len Fong" closed. For all others that may still come by this site, I graduated in 1983 (possibly 82). Would love to hear from a blast from the past. Please email me at kellyw88@gmail.com John McKennaHi Kevin, Any chance you are related to the McKenna family? John McKenna, Class of 1941 Your name sure rings a bell, however there must be 20 years difference between us. Have a healthy and happy 2009 In friendship, Ed Woods John McKennaHi Ed, I'm afraid that I'm not related to John McKenna. My brothers, Donald and Desmond, graduated from Our Lady of Lourdes in the fifties. I wasn't aware of another McKenna family in the parish when I was at OLL. Happy and healthy 2009 to you as well, Ed. Cheers, Kevin McKenna FamilyThe John McKenna family I knew lived on the northeast corner of Hamilton Place and 141st street. I had other friends and schoolmates in that building. Thinking back, you probably had to be an Irish Catholic to live there. Whatever, I think you had to be an Irish Catholic to attend OLL. I never knew any others at that time, the 1930s. Most fathers worked for the subway and trolley systems or at the milk delivery companies along 125th Street near the river. Those were the days, my friend. Innocence prevailed! In friendship, Ed and Jackie Woods The Mc KennasJim McKenna and his younger brother Tommy lived in that house above Grizzardi's grocery. Tom hung around with Marty the Hanger Phipher and the Warriors. Billy Vahey and his brother Eddie who retired as a Lieutenant in the NYPD lived there also. Their mother was still there in the early 80s. You probably knew the Schadack family, who I believe owned Schrafft's or Donald York. I think the building was 644 West 145 St. It was the first apartment house in the city to have a self-service elevator. When we lived there the neighborhood was known as Washington Heights. For some reason it's now referred to as Hamilton Heights. A couple of great web sites -- Forgotten NY and Bridge and Tunnel Club. You can spend hours & hours on Rockaway Beach alone. Lots of good memories! How about the movie theaters -- the Delmar, the RKO Hamilton, the Dorset, the Loews Rio, the Loews 175 (now the Rev. Ikes Church) and all the theaters along 180th Street? Hamilton HeightsNorm, Many thanks for your fine memories of our old neighborhood but there are a few minor corrections I have to make. The first is the name Shadack family. I believe the correct spelling is Shattuck and his address was 676 Riverside Drive on the corner of 145th Street. We lived there and my brother Bill was classmates with Gene Shattuck. No relation to the Schrafft's empire. Secondly, Hamilton Heights was always known as such. Outsiders didn't know where that was so we usually said Washington Heights for simplicity. Washington Heights doesn't really start until 157th Street and is separated from Hamilton Heights by the Audubon plot. The Old NeighborhoodAlex Hamilton lived nearby. There was a very pleasant young man (OLL Class of 1941) named Eugene Shattuck who lived near 145th Street and Riverside Drive. His father was a professor at Manhattan College and his family owned the Schrafft's Restaurants. I fondly recall Eugene having the wonderful hourglass-shaped bottles of hard Schrafft's candy brought to school and distributing one bottle to each of his classmates at Christmas time. Needless to say, the poor Amsterdam Avenue kids were in awe of one who could afford to do such a good deed. You mention the Warriors, I knew the (Gang) but not any of the names mentioned here on Shorpy. In friendship, Ed and Jackie Woods P.S. My in-laws the Boyd family lived at 676 Riverside Drive. Les Sr. had a radio repair shop on 145th and Broadway. 676 Riverside DriveI lived at 676 as well. The family's name was Shattuck. In my day, many, many years ago, the elevator had an operator. A sweet man in full uniform. There was a doorman as well. Saw the building years later and was appalled at the change. Then went up to OLL and hardly recognized it. It was the best school I ever went to. Thank you for reminding me of the fun. And yes, of the education I got there. By the way, 676 on the Drive was called the Deerfield. OLL StudentsI am researching my family history and I came upon this great site. In 1930 my grandparents Michael and Marie Murphy were living at 1744 Amsterdam Avenue and later in the 1930s at 115 Hamilton Place. All of the Murphy children attended Our Lady of Lourdes School. They were: Maurice (born 1916) Rita (born 1917/ my Mother) John (born 1918) Theresa (born 1920) Vincent (born 1922) Veronica (born 1925) My mom had such fond memories of her time spent there. Rita Harmon Bianchetto Hi Neighbor!!Hi Rita, I'm a former resident of 676 Riverside. My family lived there from 1940 to 1960 in apartment 4A. Bobby Foy lived next door to us. I think you may have left just after we arrived since I remember the elevator operator. The change to automatic was somtime during or just after WWII. I remember they put up this 10 foot wall with a door to limit access to the building. Fat lot of good that did us as my mother was robbed in broad daylight in the service chamber of our apartment in 1960. That's when my Dad had us pack up and leave for a secure location in the Bronx. Anyway, the apartment was great. We had a balcony looking over 145th Street and the river. My brothers were Larry Jr., Bill and Nick. Bill was a good friend to Gene Shattuck and went to Xavier with him. Nick and I also went there. Larry had a scholarship to All Hallows. Judy, can you tell me your last name and if you knew me. Hope to hear from you. Bob Phillips at bobbyphilly@msn.com Your DadSorry Steve, I graduated in 1947 and my three brothers have died. But the name Corrigan does ring a bell. Probably from my brother Larry who knew just about everyone in OLL. Sorry I couldn't help out but it was great hearing from you. Bob Phillips Andrew.Yes, I remember your brother Andrew. We were in the same class and we used to kid him about his name - Andrew Orlando and how tall he was. What's he doing these days? Bob Phillips Those were the days, my friendsHello Rita, I remember the name Murphy but not the faces. We lived a block south of you at 1704 Amsterdam. My sister Ellen, Class of 1936, and brother Bill, Class of 1937, would have known your family. We had many friends on Hamilton Place, the Koster family for one: Anita, Class of 1936, her younger sister Barbara married Burl Ives, and her other sister Mary Lou married Eddie Byrne (1710 Amsterdam). Ed's sister married Chump Greeny -- killed at Anzio Beach. He must have lived near your family. My brother in law Les Boyd lived in the Deerfield and had an electric appliance store on the corner of 145th and B'way and a sporting goods store on the next block next to the Chinese restaurant. In friendship, Ed and Jackie Woods Hello RitaHello Rita, I attended St. Catherine's Academy on 151st between B'way and Amsterdam (It cost my dear old dad $10 a month for what was considered a private school.) I graduated in 1943 in a class of only four girls. I then went to the Sacred Heart of Mary Academy in Inwood (I had to climb the long steps up from B'way every day for four years -- Class of 1947. Most of my relatives went to OLL as did my husband of 59 years, Ed Woods. We are still alive, kicking and fighting and making up every day. In my Class of 1943, one of the girls was Ann Murphy -- any relation? Also a Virginia O'Malley and my best friend, June McAvoy, who keeps in touch with me. June's grandfather was Judge McAvoy, who had died by that time. I loved when my folks took me to McGuire's Bar and Restaurant on B'way and 155th. Oh that Roast Lamb (Irish style) on a Sunday or a holiday. The girls used to go to Nuestra Senora de Esperanza (Our Lady of Hope) next to the museum complex. We were told not to go there for confession, but the Spanish priests were limited in English. Thinking back we had but little to confess at that time. Eddie and I had an apartment on 150th near the Drive for a few years until 1956, then it was off to Long Island to raise our six children. In friendship and love hearing from you, Ed and Jackie Woods The MurphysHi Ed and Jackie, Thanks so very much for your reply. I wish my mom was still with us but she died in 1998, the last of the Murphy kids. My grandfather Mike Murphy worked for the Post Office (a mail carrier working out of the General P.O. at 33rd and 8th). My grandmother Marie Murphy died in 1939 while living at Hamilton Place. Uncle Maurice went to Regis H.S. for several years before leaving to attend All Hallows; John and Vincent then attended All Hallows; my mom, Rita, attended Cathedral; Veronica, I believe, attended St. Vincent, and Theresa died at age 25 in 1944 (not sure of her high school). Mom worked at Woolworth's on 145th Street and Broadway, and after high school at New York Telephone, retiring about 1980. She got married in 1943 and moved to 152nd Street, and we attended St. Catherine of Genoa on W. 153rd. I graduated in 1958. So I know the neighborhood. Peace, Rita Hi Ed and JackieSo Jackie you are a St. Kate's gal like me! My tuition was a dollar a month, so your education was really a private school. You have listed the Academy at 151st Street but I think that it was on 152nd between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. I took my high school entrance exam at SHM so I am sort of familiar with the school -- fireworks were going off during our exam. The end result was I did fine and attended Blessed Sacrament on West 70th, Class of 1962. I last saw the "girls" at a reunion in 2002. My Spanish teacher just celebrated her 70th anniversary as a nun with the Sisters of Charity. I am not familiar with any of the girls names that you mentioned,including Ann Murphy. I do know McQuire's, where I had my first Shirley Temple, Mass at Our Lady of Esperanza, Trinity Cemetery & loved visiting the museums. Do either of you recall Eugenio Pacelli, before he became Pope Pius XII visiting at OLL ? Please tell me about your days on 150th Street near the Drive since I may have been the little skinny blond kid you both passed on the street. Peace, Rita in Northern New Jersy West 150th NYCHello Rita, Yes, we lived at 615 W. 150th from 1950 to 1956. Four of my children were born there (three at Lutheran Hospital and one at Jewish Memorial). We had many friends from school and the neighborhood living nearby. However, by 1956 it was time to move on; many changes in the neighborhood. One of my nearby friends was Juanita Poitier; Sidney was just getting started with his acting career. A real nice couple. Was Father Tracy (Pastor) still there when you attended school? How about Father Brady? He was always telling stories during Mass about his sea time with the Navy. Eddie remembers going to the Woolworths lunch counter (145th and B'way) in the early 1940s just to have an excuse to talk with the girls. He knew many of them from school and the neighborhood. In friendship, Jackie West 152ndHi Jackie and Ed, I lived at 620 West 152nd Street, just a stone's throw from you folks. My sister was born at Jewish Memorial Hospital in March 1952 -- Dr. Sandler from Broadway 150/151st St. delivered. Those were the days of Dave's deli on the corner of 151st & Broadway famous for pastrami on rye and a cold beer for the dads, Rafferty's Bar and Grill on the other side of B'way, Harry's or Pierre's homemade candy and ice cream parlor, Cora's beauty salon where my Nana would get a cold wave and blue tint. And not to be forgotten, Snow & Youman's drug store on B'Way and 151st. I recall the name Fr. Brady but it was Pastor Kane and Fr. Tracy (and his Irish Setter, Rusty) that I recall. I just sent a photo of Fr. Tracy to my classmates. Rita Japanese BazaarWho remembers the Japanese-American bazaar in the brownstones across from the OLL lower grades school during the war? They had the blue star & the gold star pennants hanging in the windows. They also had a store on Amsterdam Avenue near 144th Street and when they sold coffee the lines would go all around the block. How about the punchball games out side the school, or stoop ball? Anyone remember playing basketball and using the bottom rung on the fire escape ladder as a basket? The nearest basketball court was at 148th Street by the river. If you wanted to "take out" a ball from the park, you would leave a shirt as a deposit. I remember shoveling snow off the court in order to play. Unfortunately those days were the last time the country was almost 100% together. Twenty years from now, these will be the "good old days." Your brother AndrewI palled around with Andy & another kid named Eddie McGlynn. As a matter of fact I have a picture of Andy, Buddy Ayres & me at Rye Beach. Buddy went to Bishop Dubois with us. He was from Vinegar Hill. You didn't mention the Wittlingers. They lived on the first floor in your building. Brendan lives in Virginia. I'm still in touch with him, Matty Waters and Les Scantleberry. Pancho Pereria made a career of the Navy. He died several years ago. JoeJoe, one of my closest friends, was killed in Korea. Dave's DeliI haven't had a good hot corned beef sandwich since I last had one at Dave's. His son Milton was running the store in the 1950s after Dave retired to Florida. Dave's used to have a window in the summer that sold potato knishes (5 cents, with mustard) and of course kosher hot dogs. I heard a Clement Moore fan club still meets every Christmas Eve next to Trinity Church Cemetery and recites "The Night Before Christmas." I was born in 1928 at 853 Riverside Drive. When 90 Riverside was built in 1941 and blocked the view of the Hudson, we moved there. Warm regards, Jackie and Ed The old neighborhoodThe Wittlingers (the twins were the same age as my two younger brothers, also twins), Matty Waters, Les Scantleberry, JoJo: All those names I remember, especially Pancho and his family. For the life of me, I cannot understand why your name doesn't ring a bell. You mentioned the Warriors. Did you know Tommy or Willie Taylor, the Conroys, Drago, Jackie Hughes, etc. What years did you attend OLL? I looked up some old friends on the Internet over the past few years -- said hello and then goodbye when their families called to give me the news: Vinny McCarville, Bruce Boyd, Phil Marshall, Eddie O'Brien -- all gone to their maker. They were spread out all over the country. It was satisfying, however, just to say hello. I met Vinny in New Orleans and we had a beer for the first time in many years. We had gone to sea together during WWII and had a lot of memories. You must forgive my spelling etc. My eyesight is on its way out (along with everything else). I will be 82 in a few months but active and still traveling. I have been to six of the seven continents and my wish is to have breakfast at the South Pole. In friendship, Ed and Jackie Woods ToppersWas Dave's on B'Way near 140th Street? I sold the Sunday News there for 25 cents during the news strike. It was normally a nickel. We had to go down to the News Building to buy them. Overhead! Who remembers the Sugar Bowl on the corner of 143rd and Broadway? A great hangout for different age groups. How about Toppers Ice Cream parlor on B'Way between 139 & 140th? In the 1940s and early '50s you could go to the Audubon Theater at 168th and B'Way on Sunday for 77 Cents and see three features, 23 cartoons, newsreels and an eight-act stage show with such luminaries as Billy Halop of the Dead End Kids or Lash LaRue or Ferdinand the Bull. Top shelf. They must get at lest a buck fifty for admission today! Tea and Nut StoreHi Norm, My mom (Rita Murphy) mentioned there was an Asian family owned Tea and Nut shop in OLL Parish when she was a child (born 1917). She said her brothers, Maurice and John Murphy, would sometimes play with the owners' son. I am wondering if this could be the same shop. Rita ToppersDave's was on the southwest corner of Broadway and 151st Street, a short trip from my home on 152nd near Riverside Drive. I do recall the Sugar Bowl and maybe was in it once or twice but never hung out there. Topper's is a name I never heard before, as far as ice cream parlors go. Thanks so much for mentioning the name and location. Perhaps before my time (1945 baby) or too far from my home. Many people have mentioned the Audubon Theater to me (165-166th Street) but I have no memory of it at all. I do recall the San Juan Theater that took over the space of the old Audubon. I love hearing about Mom's (Rita Murphy's) old neighborhood. Thanks for sharing. Rita Your Name?No, Dave's Deli was on 151st and Broadway. Yes, Toppers & the Sugar Bowl were popular hangouts, however the Piedmont, the Staghorn and the Chesterfield were more popular later on. I have pictures of the great snowfall of December 27, 1947 taken in front of the above mentioned restaurants with a bunch of the guys posing in the cold. The Audubon Theater became better known when Malcom X was murdered in its ballroom. I saw Milton Berle there in the early 1940s. Actually, the Bluebird and the Washington were also popular as they only cost 10 cents (no heat or air conditioning). Memories, memories, dreams of long ago. Ed and Jackie Woods The OLL ChoirI sang in the OLL choir for about 5 or 6 years and hated it.T he only advantage was that we skipped the last class for practice. The downside was that after attending 9 o'clock Mass we had to sing at the 11 o'clock High Mass, which interfered with our Sunday football game. I played with the Junior Cadets. We had a very good team coached by Joe Romo, who went on to be the trainer for the Oakland A's for many years. I saw him at Yankee Stadium whenever the team played the Yankees at home. Joe died several years ago. Mr. Skyler, the choirmaster, wore a wig that could easily be mistaken for road kill. I used to wonder if he was committing a sin by wearing something on his head in church. After all it was no different then wearing a hat during Mass. Mrs. Daly was a very lovely lady who played the organ and gave piano lessons. She lived down the street from us on 142nd between Broadway and Hamilton Place and had something like 10 kids. My sister Maureen was friends with Theresa and Billie. John was I believe the youngest son. Maureen graduated from Notre Dame de Lourdes on Convent Avenue. My sister Frances was close friends with Helen and Rita Nerney, who lived across the street. Fran died in 2002. ToppersI lived at 635 Riverside Drive. I recall Toppers being near the corner of 141st, next to a Jewish deli. In the summer my dad took my brother Tom and me for ice cream there every evening. Happy memories! Bishop DuboisI graduated 1953 from Bishop Dubois. I believe your brother Ernie was in my class at OLL. I hope he is doing well. Give him my regards. Bill Healy Names from the Old NeighborhoodBrendan & Bernie turned 76 on February 2. Don't ask how I remember things like this. I forgot what I had for breakfast this morning. I'll be 76 August 11, weather permitting. Everyone seems to forget Pinky (Michael) Pereria. You are closer to my late brother Jim's age. Jim hung out with Jimmy and John Bartlett, Donald LaGuardia, Tommy & Willie Taylor (born on the same day a year apart -- Irish twins). Again I don't know why I remember these things. Eddie O'Brien used to go by the name Drawde Neirbo, his name spelled backwards. He was a close friend of Big Jack Hughes. I recall a group of you guys joining the Merchant Marine during the war. The Dragos lived on 141st Street between Hamilton Place and Amsterdam Avenue. The youngest (Joseph?) was in my class. A couple of years ago I went down to the old neighborhood with my sons. Surprisingly, it looks great. Lots of renovations going on. My beautiful wife June is a BIC (Bronx Irish Catholic) from the South Bronx. It's not as great a neighborhood as it used to be, but lots of great people came out of there. I took her away from there, married her 50 plus years ago and got her a decent dental plan and raised five kids in New Jersey. I graduated in 1948. It should have been 1947 but Mother Mary Inez red-shirted me in the 6th grade. Will stay in touch. Norm Brown Norm Brown??Norm, I graduated in 1947 from OLL. I knew a kid (Norman Brown) who lived on 141st between Hamilton and Broadway. I think he had a younger brother. He went to OLL with me, but he did not graduate from OLL. Eddie McGlynn was in my class, and the Wittlingers. I lived at 510 W 140th. Are you that Norman? Bill H. The Summer of '66Hi Jackie and Ed, I never had one of Dave or Milton's corned beef sandwiches but I can say that the pastrami on rye was a thing that dreams are made of. I recall the knishes out the window in the summer and the hot dogs. Thanks so much for taking me back in time. Milton would take the pastrami out of that silver steamer box sharpening his knife, and the rest was heaven on rye. Milton was still behind the counter in the summer of 1966 but after that I can't say. I am sure that "The Night Before Christmas" is still recited next to Clement Moore's grave, in Trinity Cemetery. In my day the Girl Scout Troop that met at the Church of the Intercession would participate in the recitation of the Moore piece. I know that 853 Riverside Drive is on the Upper Drive, since I sat on "The Wall" on summer evenings as a teenager. You said you moved in 1941 to 90 RSD -- did you mean 90 or 890? I am not familiar with the numbering of the "lower" drive where the red house sits (so it was called). I am off in search of a good sandwich. Peace, Rita Stagershorn & ChesterfieldMalcom X was shot in the Audubon Ballroom at the back of the theater, which later became the Teatro San Juan. I saw Abbott and Costello there en Espanol. At 7 years old I was run over by a truck at 142 Street and Broadway, right outside the Staghorn, I managed to live! I would hang from the window outside the Chesterfield, watching football games on TV with Bobby Heller and Herby Gil and Buddy McCarthy. That was a hell of a snowstorm in '47. Remember digging tunnels through the snowbanks? You forgot to mention Larry's, just next to the Sugar Bowl. I would watch "Victory at Sea" there. A couple of years ago I took a walk through the OLL neighborhood and realized that when you are a kid everything you see is at eye level and taken for granted, but as you look up and around from a mature aspect it becomes a whole different world. It is really a beautiful area. 90 Riverside Drive WestHi Rita. I'm positive 853 was on the Lower Drive. When the new building went up next to it around 1941, the address was 90 Riverside Drive West. However, it caused so much confusion with 90 Riverside Drive (downtown) that the address was changed to 159-32 Riverside. The plot originally hosted a small golf course. I also went to the Church of the Intercession with the Girl Scouts. Small world. And the wall -- on a hot summer night, standing room only. Jackie West 140th NYCThe kids I hung around with were in the OLL classes of 1940 and 1941. I had a weekend job in 1941 with Ike's Bike Rental on 141st. He needed someone to identify the kids who rented there (bikes rented for 20 cents an hour -- and that's the truth). We started a Junior Air Raid Wardens group and had a store next to Ike's. Collected paper etc, for the war effort. And you are correct, within three years, when we turned 16, McCarvill, O'Brien, Drago and I joined the merchant marine. Did you know the Kieley family -- lived at 1628 Amsterdam before moving to the lower Bronx: Pauline, Rita, Josephine, Peggy and the two boys Nicky and Jimmy. I loved going to their upstairs apartment for tea, especially when Mrs Kiely made Irish Soda Bread. My wife (then girlfriend) Jackie sponsored Jim Kieley when he became a citizen around 1948. He was from County Waterford, the same as her family. We celebrated our 59th anniversary last week. Regards, Eddie Woods My Brother JimYou probably knew my brother Jim Brown. He too was born in 1928. He died three years ago today. He graduated from Cardinal Hayes, spent a couple of years in the Army and graduated from Fordham University. Jim lived in Wycoff, N.J. He was very successful in business. Amsterdam AvenueThe Denning family (10 kids) lived on Amsterdam Avenue between 141st and 142nd. Hughie had polio and wrote away to FDR for an autograph during the war. As it turned out he was the last person to get one. He was in an iron lung at the time. It was a big deal. Lots of press. One of the boys, Peter Schaefer Denning, was born on the back of a beer truck on the way to the hospital. Hence the name. The Connolly brothers, Eamon and Timmy, lived in the same building. Everyone in the family had red hair. Not unlike Bobby Foy's family. If I recall properly, the father looked like Arthur Godfrey, his mom like Lucille Ball, Bobby like Red Skelton, and they had a red cat plus an Irish setter. It took a lot of guts for a group of 16-year-old kids to join the merchant marine. A belated thanks for your service. My wife makes great Irish soda bread. Is there any other kind? You can give ten women the same ingredients for soda bread and you'll get ten different tasting breads. All great! Especially with a cup of Lynches Irish tea. The season is almost upon us once again. The only Kiely (different spelling) I knew was my NYPD partner Timmy, who was from the South Bronx, Hunts Point. Tim grew up with Colin Powell. Having worked in the South Bronx for 25 years and marrying June Margaret O'Brien, one of six girls from there, I pretty much connect with the people of SOBRO, as the area is now known. Sooner or later everything gets yuppified. How about this web site? Something else! Take care, Norm Mea CulpaHi Jackie, Of course you know 853 RSD is on the Lower Drive but Google Maps does not. "Looks like 800 Block of Upper Drive is even numbers and 800 Block on Lower Drive is odd numbers." I did not locate 159-32 but I did find a 159-34 and 159-00, seems to be the last structure (red brick) on the Lower Drive area that we are speaking of, now a co-op but the year of construction is not listed. I have very fond memories of the folks I spent time with on "our" wall. Peace, Rita Yes, it's Kiely I was in error. For whatever resaon, The Dublin House on 79th off the NE corner of Broadway became a meeting place for many of the kids from the OLL area up until the early 1970s: Eamon Connolly, Tommy Taylor etc. I worked with Tom for a short time before be went on the force and then as a T Man. I have not heard from him in too many years. One of great fellows from the old neighborhood. In friendship, Ed Woods My e-mail: eandjwoods50@Yahoo.com P.S. The Kiely family moved to Crimmons Ave in the Bronx West 159th Street NYCDear Rita, I do enjoy rehashing the old neighborhood and the wonderful memories we can recall. Yes, it is the last buillding on the street and I lived there until 1950, when I married Ed. My uncle George lived there until c. 1981 in a rent controlled apartment, and yes, it did become a co-op. When first opened, the building had four entrances. Later, in the 1980s, it was down to one main entrance on the via-dock for safety reasons. I loved our apartment there, which had a beautiful view of the Hudson and the George Washington Bridge. My friend June, nee McAvoy, lived at 3750 B'way. We were together in school for 12 years at St. Catherine's and Sacred Heart. June lives in Maryland. By the way, my e-mail is eandjwoods50@yahoo.com Jackie Woods The Red HouseDear Jackie & Ed, How lucky you were to have lived in the Red House, especially with the views of the bridge and the river. Growing up I never knew anyone who lived there, so never saw the interior, I'm sure it was lovely. I heard that David Dinkins lived there at some point before he became mayor. Many of my classmates lived in 790 Riverside Drive and I was always so impressed that their apartments had two doors. Our apartment was on the fourth floor of a walkup and across the street from a garage. Funny how I was not really impressed by a doorman but by the two doors. I seem to remember a gas station near your friend June's house...other side of Broadway from the museum, now college. One of my St. Catherine's classmates, last I heard, he was teaching at the college. Was Rexall Drug on the corner of 157th, with the newsstand outside the door, when you lived in the Red House? In my home we seemed to have all of the city newspapers -- morning, afternoon and evening, some selling for 4 cents. To this day I read two papers every day and still long to go out Saturday night to pick up the Sunday paper. Thanks for the email. Peace, Rita Class of 1959I attended O.L.L. from 5th to 8th grade. My 5th grade teacher was Mother Mary Edward, what a wonderful woman, 6th was Mother Mary St. Hugh, 7th Mother Mary Edward and 8th Mother Mary Bernadette. Graduated in 1959. Classes were mxed -- black, white and Latino. Memories are mostly good ones -- Father Kline, Father Malloy, Father Hart. The religious experience most memorable, especially during Lent, novenas on Wednesday afternoon and Stations on Friday after school. Liggets / RexallHello Rita, I loved the lunch/soda counter at Liggetts/Rexalls. for whatever reason, my family used the pharmacy across the street, on the east side of B'way, to have prescriptions filled. The family that owned and operated the newsstand helped us lease our first apartment at 600 W. 157th. Apartments were in short supply in 1950. We lived in the unit formerly rented by the Singer Midgets next to Peaches Browning of Daddy Browning fame. Of course they were long gone when we lived there. My father was very active in the Tioga Democratic Club with the Simonetti family. Do you remember Warner's Cafeteria between 157 & 158th? We visited St. Catherine's Church Christmas week 2007 with our niece who wanted to see where she was baptized in 1953. She is on Mayor Bloomberg's staff. Warm regards, Jackie Woods eandjwoods50@yahoo.com Oh, as the poet said, "To return to yesteryear and our salad days." My brother ErnieBilly, Ernie and I went to Bishop Dubois. Ernie for two years and I for three. We both were bounced in 1951 and transferred to Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J. We went there on a Schrafft's scholarship. Our mom waited on tables at Schrafft's in order to send us there. In those days it was pretty much a blue collar school. It wasn't that far removed from being a reform school. VERY STRICT. Today it's much more hoity toity. I'm still in close touch with my old classmates, most of whom have been successful in life. Ernie was a great basketball player, the first to score over 50 points in a game in Bergen County (three times), breaking Sherman White's record. White was an All American but messed up his career in the 1950-51 college season. Ernie went to Fordham on an athletic scholarship. Ernie died in 2002. He was a very special guy, extremely generous and giving. We miss him a lot. He lived a couple of blocks away from me as did most of my siblings. Sad to say, the circle grows smaller. 1959 OLL gradsAre you out there, does any one remember or know of any of the following graduates of O.L.L. -- Starr Martin, Carol Long or her sisters, Carlotta and Tony, Josephine Velez, Melvina (Kinky) Boyd, Chicky Aponte. I went of to Cathedral and the others to various Catholic high schools and lost touch. After finding this site, many memories have come back. Would like to know how old friends are doing. 600 W. 157thHi Jackie, You lived around the corner from the post office. I remember going there once to get a money order and losing Mom's gray umbrella. Your building was by the Grinnell, where a friend's father was the superintendent during the 60s. Liggett/Rexall -- we went to Snow & Youman's for drugs but to Rexall for film, flashbulbs and of course the soda fountain. The last time I was there was April 1965, just before my son was born. I do not recall a Warner's Cafeteria but do remember the famous, and oh so good, Imperial Deli, Lambos Flower Shop, Commander Bar & Grill, Full Moon & McGuire's. I visited St. Catherine's about 1994 and it was like being in a time warp, except for the piano near the altar. The church was just as I remembered when I got married in 1964, only smaller. The school is now public. I am in touch with some of my friends from the Class of 1958. It was nice that your niece was able to visit the church where she was baptized. I never heard of the Tioga Democratic Club or the Simonetti family (the only Simonettis I know are the family whose niece and son are engaged). Jackie, was the pharmacy on the east side of B'way United or perhaps that was a sign for United Cigar? So nice this walk down memory lane. Best to your Eddie. Peace, Rita Memories: dreams of long agoHi Rita, My close friend June's, nee McAvoy, family lived in the Grinnell for many years. Her grandfather was Judge McAvoy. Eddie claims to have an exceptionally good memory but he says he needs to yield to you. You do have a most wonderful recall. However, he is more familiar with the OLL school and church neighborhood. My brother-in-law (much older than Eddie and me) was in the vending machine business: Ace Distributing -- jukeboxes, cigarette machines etc. Eddie worked for him for a few years when we first married and the company had locations in almost every store in the neighborhood (including the Commander). That is a dead business today. How about Pigeon Park? You couldn't sit there. Warm regards, Jackie Woods GrinnellHi Jackie, Do you recall a Doctor James Farley living in the Grinnell? Doctor Farley must have taken care of half of Washington Heights over a period of many years (had an office on 178 St. between Broadway and Ft. Washington Ave.). Ah, Pigeon Park...I remember it well and always tried to circumvent it! All the best. Rita I remember it wellHi Rita, Our family physician was Dr. VanWorth, as an adult I visited Dr. Liebling, who had an office c. 156th. He later moved down to 72nd Street. A wonderful caring man (who made house calls). My son Ed Jr. was 58 years old this week, I have a picture of him when he was 1 sitting on a pony taken on the corner of 155th and B'way. John Orlando's brother married a St Catherine's girl. I don't know her age. Ain't we got fun? Jackie Woods Current resident of the neighborhood (Grinnell)I'd like to invite you to visit www.audubonparkny.com, which is a virtual walking tour of the neighorhood you're discussing. You can "take the walking tour" online or go to the Sitemap/ Index of Images to read about specific buildings and see pictures from many eras. I'm happy to post any pictures (and credit the owners) of the neighborhood that you'd like to share - focusing on the Audubon Park area (155th to 158th, Broadway to the river). www.audubonparkny.com Walking TourThanks so very much for posting the site for the Audubon Park area...I had a delightful walking tour. Down Memory Lane at OLLWhat happened, did we all run out of memories? Who remembers the stickball field comprised of Hamilton Place from 140 to 141st Street. A ball hit over the small roof on 141st was a double and over the roof at 95 Hamilton Place was a homer. After the war the street was so crowded with cars that the games were moved to Convent Avenue in front of CCNY. There was some heavy money bet on these games. Walking TourThanks, Rita, I'm glad you enjoyed the walk! Please come back and visit the site again. I post a Newsletter on the homepage (www.AudubonParkNY.com ) each month highlighting new pages, information, and research, as well as updates on the Historic District project. Matthew The Prairie StateDoes anyone have memories of the Prairie State? It was a WWI battleship moored in the Hudson River at about 135 Street and I believe used for Naval Reserve training. As kids we snuck on board and played basketball on it. The deck (court) had a bow on it which is partially responsible for the replacement parts in my ankle today. How about the "Dust Bowl" at 148 Street next to the river where we played football and baseball? Today it's state of the art, at least compared to what we played on. Now there is grass on the field. Progress! Under the Via DockFar from being a battleship, the Prairie State (also called the Illinois) was an old transport. However, as youngsters we would have been impressed by its size. Pancho and another neighborhood boy whose name I can't recall trained there before being sent to England as frogmen in preparation for the D-Day landing. It was decided that those boys with big chests (big lungs) could do the job best. I can recall Pancho telling me after the war that he had only a few days of Boot Camp. Sports -- we used the oval near City College. Stick ball -- 144th between Amsterdam and B'way. A ball hit to any roof was an out, never a homer. Spaldines was Spaldings were costly in the 1930s. One had to learn to hit as far up the street as possible, over the sewers. That is why the good hitters (one strike only) were called three-sewer hitters. The Prairie State was docked under the Via Dock c. 130th St. Like you, we visited it often. Nearby were the meatpacking/butcher plants. During the 1930s there were two "Hoovervilles" (hobo camps) under the dock. The overhead gave the men some some protection from the elements. I had an uncle who took me fishing off the piers. I felt sorry for the "lost souls." Then one day they were all gone. Hosed away! I used to wonder where they went. In friendship Ed Woods eandjwoods50@yahoo.com PanchoAs you recall, Pancho was short, about 5'8" and maybe 200 lbs. and a very good athlete -- basketball, baseball and could hold his own on a basketball court. I remember speaking to him about the UDT (Underwater Demolition Teams,the precursor to the Navy Seals) and asking him if they were relegated to swimming all the time. He told me they spent most of the time running, running, running to build endurance. As I remember, the Oval was near Convent Avenue. We never used the term two sewers in stickball. That was a Bronx expression. We bought our pink "Spaldeens" at Rutenbergs candy store on Amsterdam Avenue between 140 and 141 Streets for a nickel. He also sold kids twofers, two for a penny loosies, and Bugle Tobacco so you could roll your own or purchase a corncob pipe to puff away. Loosies were two cigarettes for a penny. I understand due to the cost of smokes they are doing that again. We played "swift pitching" in the park at Hamilton Place between 140 and 141 streets. It was comprised of drawing a box (a strike zone) on the the handball court wall and throwing balls and strikes as hard as you could. I'm a little younger then you but I remember the Swift Meat Plant down by the river and the time John Garfield filmed a scene from a movie, Force of Evil, running down the steps toward the river. Somehow he ended up at the red lighthouse under the GW Bridge and discovered his brother's body, played by Thomas Gomez, in the river. As kids during the war we would fish and crag off the docks right near the old Two Six Precinct. I'll never forget the time my younger brother came home with a catfish and an eel and damn near burned the house down trying to cook them. Boy, life was a lot simpler then. Even with a world war raging. Amsterdam AveRutenbergs, address 1628 Amsterdam, I lived in the upstairs bldg for five years. The Rutenbergs lived in an apt in the back of their store. Tommy Smith worked their paper route for many years. Tommy lived in 1626 next to McCarvill. The Conroys (Johnny the Bull) lived in 1630. Eddie O'Brien lived in 1634 over the Rothschild Deli where we could buy Old Dutch beer for 14 cents a quart plus a 5 cent deposit. "It's for my father." The playground around the corner was busy at night after it closed for the day. My recall of loosies is six for five cents in a small paper bag with six wooden matches. You refer to the station house as the "Two Six Precinct." Something tells me you were "on the job." A good family friend, Frank Lynch, became the Captain at 152nd and Amsterdam (The Three Two)? Your e-mail? In friendship, Ed Woods Three Oh PrecinctYes I worked in the South Bronx for 25 years which included 10 years at the Yankee Stadium,ten of the best years of my life. A ring side seat at the world. We played many games there-- Shae, West Point, etc. -- and traveled to Venezuela with the New York Press team. I worked out with players on the DL. Thurman Munson was a good friend as was Catfish Hunter. Lou Pinella and Graig Nettles. We guarded Pope Paul and Pope John Paul II. John Paul II gave off an aura that was indescribable. I was very close to him on three occasions and he made you weak in the knees and start to shake. Believe me it wasn't his celebrity status. Some of the people I knew were Cary Grant who used to look for me when he came to many games. Someday I'll tell you how he saved my marriage. A funny story! Jimmy Cagney came to a few games. Boy was that sad to see Rocky Sullivan, every Irish American kid's hero, all crippled up with arthritis. I finished up in the Bronx Detective Task Force and never looked back. It was a great career if you rolled with the punches. The six for five must have been filter tips.I forgot about the wooden matches. Do you remember the Hooten Bars they sold? One by two inch chocolate candy stuck on wax paper. Nobody seems to remember them. Rutenberg had the greatest malteds. They kept the milk frozen. God! Were they good! The Three Oh Precinct was at 152 Street & Amsterdam Avenue across from St. Catherines Grammar School where I went to kindergarten for a day. Later it became Bishop Dubois H.S., which I attended for three years before getting bounced along with my younger brother. There was a kid by the name of Neally Riorden who may have lived in your building and a kid by the name of Brian Neeson Hannon who died around 1945. I remember going to his wake on Vinegar Hill. Next we should take a trip down Vinegar Hill. My e mail is fuzz408@optonline.net God bless & HAPPY EASTER Rutenberg'sRutenberg's had the greatest milkshakes mainly because they kept the milk semi frozen. They also had Hooten bars, sheets of one by two inch chocolate that sold for a penny each. I've never met anyone from a different neighborhood who heard of them. Yes, I was on the job for 25 years in the South Bronx. Check your personal e mail. The Three Oh was at 152 Street and Amsterdam Avenue. It's now a landmark. The new precinct is on 151st Street of Amsterdam. How about Wings Cigarettes with the photos of WW II planes? The Shamrock Bar was on the corner of 140th Street and Amsterdam. On weekends guys would pick up containers of beer and carry them over to Convent Avenue for refreshments during the stickball games. Take care, Norm PanchoLooking for any info on Pancho Periera. He is my godfather and was best friends with my dad, Frank Corrigan. OLLumnaI went graduated from OLL in 1950. I came across this great site and I am wondering if anyone graduated the same year. I have been trying to get in contact with my fellow classmates and this looked like a great opportunity! The Old ShamrockI visted the 140th Street area a few years ago and took a few pictures. The Shamrock is gone with the wind -- history. I showed a picture of the building (1626 Amsterdam) to Vinnie McCarvill, who had lived there, when I met him for a beer in New Orleans a few years ago, and he almost wept. Some great memories of our Salad Days came to mind. "Oh the nights at the playground on Hamilton Place." It's the place where we came of age. In friendship, Eddie and Jackie ParishesOne thing folks from New Orleans and New York City have in common is that you identified your neighborhood by the parish in which you lived. Agnes GerrityMy mother, Agnes Gerrity, born 1916, and her brothers Thomas and Richard (born c. 1914 and 1920) attended Our Lady of Lourdes until high school. All three have passed away but I'd love to hear if anyone happens to remember them. Like your mother, my mom loved that school and spoke of it often. Anne Collins OLL Confirmation Day 1935I thought former students would enjoy seeing the uniform we wore in Our Lady of Lourdes School Primary Dept (1st to 4th Grade) during the 1930s. KnickersIt was humiliating having to wear knickers. Remember pulling them down to your ankles and thinking "maybe people will think they are pegged pants"? Boy did we ever fool the public! And how about the high starched collars -- I don't think they could have even gotten Freddie Barthomew to wear them. Didn't we replace them with waterboarding? However Ed, they look great on you. Do you still wear them? Old OLL picsDoes any one have some old OLL class photos or just some neighborhood pictures to post here in the comments? I'm sure a lot of Shorpy addicts would appreciate them. OLLi go to school at lourdes now im in the 8th grade and i think its really cool to see people talk about the memories they had about my school before i was even born and i would love to see some kind of picture of the inside of the school like a class picture so i can see what it used to look like [Just wait'll you get to Capitalization and Punctuation. - Dave] Class of 1964I too went to OLL from '57-'64. My parents and I moved to 3495 Broadway at 143rd St. in 1956. I started in the 4th grade with Mother Mary William. The school in those days was no longer a military academy. We wore navy blue uniforms, white shirts and the school tie and the girls wore navy blue jumpers with a white blouse and blue tie. It was very interesting reading about all the students who came before me and where they lived. I always was so curious to find out how this old neighborhood looked like years before we moved in. As you all know, the area changed at some point racially, although when I was at OLL the school was still predominantly white with a handful of Black children. I will always have wonderful memories of my time at OLL. My parents moved out of the area in 1969 and I since been back once to recapture some old memories of my childhood. NostalgiaThe picture that follows is the 1937 graduation class with the girls omitted. Monsignor McMahon built church and school(1901-1913); after 15 years as Curator at St Patrick's Cathedral, constructed 7 years earlier. See church of Our Lady of Lourdes for construction details. At the time of graduation, Fr's Mahoney, Dillon and Brennan resided across from the Church. The Poor Clares home was to right of the church, and secondary had Society of the Holy Name Jesus sisters. School and Church gave us faith and hope and discipline. Our world was the depression years followed by the wars. Our class of 1937 was just in time. The handsome lad below the sergeant stripes is the brother of contributor Ed Woods.Ed,and brothers Bill and Dennis served with distinction. Andy Saraga bottom right was a highly decorated Marines The others served as well. I hope Our Lady of Lourdes provides the inspiration our families sought for us. Nostalgia 1937The 1937 graduation photo is great. It's with both sadness and pride to think that most of these wonderful kids would be defending our country in a very short time in different uniforms.Believe it or not this military training was useful. How about more pictures like this and some candid neighborhood shots. OLL in the NYThttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/nyregion/16priest.htm So interesting: A more recent residentJust want to say that I've read every entry on this post. It is so interesting to read the memories shared by those that lived way before you in the same neighborhood. My mother and I live on 135th Street near Riverside between 66th and 77th, then moved to 138th between Hamilton and Amsterdam. I went to PS 161 and graduated from CCNY. I also have fond memories of my childhood. I used to play basketball in an after school center at Our Lady of Lourdes as a young kid, visited the area a couple of years ago and brought back great pics. Cheers to all Mauricio The Grinnell: Celebrating Its Centennial Those of you who remember The Grinnell (800 Riverside Drive) may be interested to know that the residents have just begun celebrating the building's centennial. We're having a year of events,so this is a great year to visit! Check the website: http://www.thegrinnellat100.com/ for photos, historical news articles, and residents' memories (and contribute your own). Click the calendar tab for a listing of the events between now and July 2011. Matthew Why Grinnel!The hundredth anniversary of a building? Forgotten is the fact that it's also the anniversary of the site building, and all the memories fast fading. I think Ed Woods of all the graduates, always hit the mark. Several others struggled to add something. If someone remembers the names of the sisters and preferably anecdotes please don't deny this information from this site. I personally remember sister Rose from 4th grade 1934. I believe Mother Michael provided my brother Andy's Confirmation name. Others with better memories speak up. Also it wasn't only our generation that owes recognition for all given freely. Christmas at Our Lady of LourdesAt Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, the statues in the creche would be replaced by live students. The scene would be repeated the following day at the 9 o'clock Children's Mass and the 11 o'clock High Mass. A live baby would be borrowed to lie in the manger. The girl who posed as the Blessed Mother and the boy who posed as Joseph were the envy of the entire student body. "Oh to return to yesteryear." Happy New YearThank you SHORPY for bringing back to us so many wonderful memories. It has been said pictures are worth a thousand words. Shorpy's pictures, however, are worth so much more -- just can't put a number on them. Thank you and a Happy New Year to the Shorpy Staff. Ed and Jackie Woods [And thank you, Ed and Jackie, for inspiring the hundreds of interesting comments in this thread. - Dave] The OLL neighborhoodIt's nice reading and re-reading your stories about OLL, Hamiliton Place,and seeing the names listed. Many years ago, in my past, I visited the old neighborhood only to find it somewhat depressing, old and in poor shape. One time in particular I had parked my new "rental car" near West 144th street, and was showing my young children some of the places I lived on Amsterdam Ave, Hamilton Place ( 95 and 115 buildings) when two older African Americans came up to us, and said you'd be better not park here." It wasn't said as a threat, but more it's unsafe here, now that the area has changed. I had told them that I used to live here many years ago. I am glad to hear from Norm, that the area has rebounded, and in looking at the prices of the real estate I wish we had stayed here. Keep up the good work. Matt Waters mattminn@aol.com Hi Anon Tipster 1959. I used to date Carlotta Long & visited her lovely home many times. 147 off Convent as I recall. I often wonder in my old age (69) whatever happened to her & how her life turned out. I did graduate from Dubois in 1960, so I'm very familiar w/the sights & places referenced here. So glad I found this site. Tis That Time of YearThank you SHORPY for another year of nostalgic pictures and comments. Brought to us in Black and White and Living Color. Such fond memories of long ago, especially the itchy bathing suits. In the 1920s and up to the early 1940s, when on or near the beach and boardwalk, boys had to wear the coarse wooolen suits with the tops on at all times. Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New York to Dave and staff. Ed and Jackie Woods Our Yearly PlaysI graduated in 1960 after 8 memorable years. I remember our yearly plays in the auditorium and all the hard work and practice we put into it. Father Hart was our pastor and I remember our farewell speech to him. My best friend was Lydia Marin and I remember Maria Santory, Joyce Brown, Maria Matos, Alma Mora, Maureen Quirk. If any of you from this class are around, give a shout. Jackie Erick Class of 1964Class of 1964 where are you guys? Write something here you remember. Do you remember me? OLL Class of 1957Here's the names of the boys' teachers from 1949 to 1957. I think I have then all correct. Grade 1, 1949-1950: Mother Mary Theodosia Grade 2, 1950-1951: Sister Mary Macrina Grade 3, 1951-1952: Mother Mary Eulalia Grade 4, 1952-1953: Mother Mary Declan Grade 5, 1953-1954: Mother Mary Edwards Grade 6, 1954-1955: Mother Maria Del Amor Grade 7, 1955-1956: Mother Mary Euphrates Grade 8, 1956-1957: Mother Mary Rosario Eighteen nuns lived in the convent adjacent to the church on 142nd Street: eight boys' teachers, eight girls' teachers, the school principal, known as the Reverend Mother, and the housekeeper. Six priests and the pastor lived in the rectory on the south side of 142nd Street. OLL was also known as Old Ladies' Laundry. I've written down the names of almost all the boys who, at one point or another, were part of the class of 1957. Only 27 graduated in 1957. Many were expelled in 1956 as part of a crackdown on gang membership. Mother Mary Rosario was brought in to preside over a difficult situation, but after the expulsions her job turned out to be not that complicated. I'll post the list of names another time. Our Lady of Lourdes Alumni ReunionHello out there. I am a current parent at Our Lady of Lourdes. As we enter a new decade, OLL would would like to start planning a few reunions. I am looking for some potential organizers to help us reach out and plan events in the new year. Please reach out if you are interested in planning or connect dots. There are many new happenings at the school. We will be launching a new website by the end of the month with an alumni portion. Thank you! Vanessa vdecarbo@ollnyc.org Class of 1971Hi! I graduated in 1971 and our teacher was Sister Patricia. I remember Marlene Taylor, Karen, Miriam, Dina, Elsie, Maria and Robin, Carla, Margaret and Giselle. Our class was an all girl class. I also remember Sister Rebecca, Sister Theresa, Sister Rosemarie (our history teacher). I continued to Cathedral High School but I miss all my dear classmates. Is there anyone out there who enters this site? My email is n.krelios@yahoo.com I would love to hear from someone. Marlene Taylor became a doctor (wonderful!!!). Shorpy Hall of FameIf there were a Shorpy Hall of Fame, this photo would definitely have to be in the inaugural class. I've enjoyed going through the many comments for this photo going back to 2007 even though I have absolutely no connection to the school other than being Catholic. What is equally as awesome is that a look at the location today via Google Maps indicates that, other than a few trees, fire hydrants, automobiles and removal of the statue, everything is basically the same today. Double DutchKllroy is correct about not much having changed, but it looks like even the foreground fire hydrant is in the same place (but a newer model). It looks like the circa 1914 photographer was set-up on the northeast corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 143rd Street. The Google Maps photo was taken travelling northbound on Amsterdam Avenue. So basically both photos are shot from almost the same location; it is interesting how the vintage image makes 143rd Street appear much shorter than in the Google image. I guess it's the result of different formats and lenses. By the way, the buildings at the far end of the T-intersection, on Convent Avenue (mostly blocked by the trees in the Google image), reflect NYC's Dutch heritage [ETA:] as does "Amsterdam" Avenue. (The Gallery, Education, Schools, G.G. Bain, Kids, NYC)
Banner Laundry: 1925
... Alexandria, Virginia, 1925. "Ford Motor Co. -- Banner Laundry truck." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full ... MAin and FRanklin. Each central office supported 10,000 lines. Additionally, there is no Banner Laundry (although a plethora of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/01/2018 - 6:24pm -

Alexandria, Virginia, 1925. "Ford Motor Co. -- Banner Laundry truck." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. Early Example of Fake ShuttersThose shutters on the second-floor window above the front door really look out of place and are designed very differently from the working ones on the other windows. Perhaps the homeowner had an early Home Depot moment and decided to have some non-functional ones installed after the fact for looks. Then as now, a mistake in judgment. [Or perhaps it's you who are mistaken! The bifold shutters, seen here in another view, cover the entire window. - Dave] Re Phone 203A search of the District of Columbia city directory reveals no 3 digit telephone numbers. They were using 4 digits with a central office name. Among the names were POtomac, MAin and FRanklin. Each central office supported 10,000 lines. Additionally, there is no Banner Laundry (although a plethora of Chinese laundries). This is most likely a promotional photo from Ford Motor Company. [Banner Laundry had locations in Alexandria and Washington, whose metro area includes the Maryland and Virginia suburbs in Montgomery and Arlington counties. The photo, as indicated by the caption, was made by the National Photo Company of Washington. - Dave] Not as easy as it looks.Phone 203. But first you had to tell the operator to connect you. Three digit phone numbersIn 1925 it took only three digits to phone out in DC, and dialing calling probably needed the assistance of an operator who would greet you with "Number, please." While today's land line phones, cell phones and other devices involve 10 digits, we certainly don't miss the old party lines of the 1920s where our privacy was never certain. And the actual address is ...607 Cameron Street, Alexandria. [The residence of one Dr. Fairfax, also seen here. And kudos for correcting the previous correction. - Dave] Another View?!?How was I supposed to know you had another image of the shutter up your sleeve that showed they were bifolds? Seems almost unfair! j/k (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Natl Photo)
Super Giant: 1964
... displays, you'd need a ladder to get at some of it. Lines The lines are still as long after the "wonderful" invention of Bar ... divorced. I claimed it from my father and it's hung in the laundry room of every house I've ever lived in since I moved on my own. I ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/22/2008 - 6:35am -

1964. The Super Giant supermarket in Rockville, Maryland. Color transparency by John Dominis, Life magazine photo archive. View full size. Twins?Look at the two ladies above checkout #7 and #8. They could be twins .. at least sisters. I love this photo ... there is so much to see! Funny how the Clorox label has not changed. That's good branding! Plaid ElephantDidn't that fellow come from the Island of Misfit Toys? Nice to see him or her gainfully employed. Credit cards?Are them Credit Card Imprinters on the registers? I didn't think grocery stores took credit cards until the late 80's. [The imprinters would be for charge cards, which for gas stations, grocery stores and other retailers go back at least to the 1950s and the era of the Charga-Plate. Charge accounts go back even farther, to the early days of retailing. Below: Artwork from a 1966 newspaper ad. What goes back to the late 80s is using bank-issued credit cards as an everyday substitute for cash, as opposed to merchant charge accounts, which generally had to be paid in full at the end of the month. - Dave] How little has changedIt's funny how things haven't changed. some of the equipment looks antiquated, but the whole checkout process is still the same. Little detailsLook closely at the rack at the checkout. One thing that stands out for me is razor blades. Lots and lots of razor blades. Now you're lucky if you even find them buried in among the 3-, 5-, 19-blade razors. (Don't even look for a safety razor today. I've tried 10 different stores here, no luck.) Next, just above the Lane 5 sign is a Brach's candy bin. Looks like the good folks at Time-Life have photoshopped the LIFE logo onto the bin. Anyone back me up on this? [That's not "photoshopped." It says "As advertised in LIFE." Often seen on product displays back in the Olden Days. - Dave] GeeSure were a lot of Caucasians back in 1964. Paper or plastic?It was at a Giant supermarket in suburban Washington in 1983 that I was first asked by the cashier "paper or plastic?" At first I was confused, thinking that she was asking me whether I wanted to pay with paper money or a credit card.... Keep GoingOh my great good God. I've never wanted a picture to "keep going" more than this one! I wish they had invented 360 degree viewing back then. AMAZING!! The good old daysI worked in a grocery store similar to this. Same cash registers. Brings back a lot of memories. Life Sure Got CasualComparing the turn-of-the-century pictures with this one shows the remarkable change in American public attire. The fellow writing the check in the right foreground might have been arrested for public indecency in earlier Shorpy Land. Didn't see too many men in short pants in 1905 stores. Deja VuI'm amazed at the number of products which are still instantly recognizable today. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for those prices! Check out the checkoutI can only imagine how long it took to get through the checkout line in the days before bar code scanners. It looks like the cashiers had to consult that notepad they all have propped up against their registers. Random musingsThose elephants are, like, crazy! People were thinner back then. The Clorox label hasn't changed a bit. Curious that the checkout ladies visible are all men. It's too bad we can't see the tabloid racks at the checkout stands. I just know there's a juicy headline on the Enquirer. Wow!I work about two miles from Rockville. Does anyone know the address of this store? Is it still there. This site is unbelievable... The ViewWhat strikes me about this is no one in view is morbidly obese. Look at the kid...... eyeballing that open Brach's candy display. Those are almost unchanged from than till now. I wonder if he copped a "sample"? CheckersThe checkers, the ones shown at least, are all male. This was once a well paid and somewhat skilled job if only for the sharp memory and hand-eye coordination. The gaudy merchandising hasn't changed much in 44 years but the checkout experience? Well, what do you all think , better or worse? Convenient beer & wineAt least in the late 70s, Marylanders learned to spot Super Giants, because through some complicated shift of definition (like SUVs = trucks), these stores were not subject to the prohibition that grocery stores and convenience stores can't sell alcohol. Today Giant Food remains but Super Giants are gone, and it's no longer possible to buy wine with your packaged ground beef. Pre-UPCOne of the more striking things here is the checkout registers where the clerk actually had to read a stamped-on price and key it in manually (after consulting a list of what might have been on discounted sale that day). Within ten years many registers would have their displays as bright glowing fluorescent digits (later LED/LCD) vs these mechanical pop-up number tags. UPC scanning lasers wouldn't be common for another 10 years or so. Look at all the Men!I am not accustomed to seeing so much testosterone in a grocery store! Everything looks supersized, even the hairdos. It's kinda funny how high they stacked the displays, you'd need a ladder to get at some of it. LinesThe lines are still as long after the "wonderful" invention of Bar Codes, Scanners and Chip & PIN credit/debit cards. One step forward, two steps back. So much to see!Dave, would you mind enlarging this to about six feet high? I can't make out all the details! What is Loon?On one of the ends.... [The sign says LOOK. - Dave] Supermarket "Where's Waldo?"Not one of these people have bottled water in their cart and there's no gum or candy visible on the registers... Now, find the: box of Life cereal, the Cracker Jacks, the Domino sugar, the Raisin Bran, the grape jelly, the grape juice, the box of Cheer detergent, and the anxious store manager. Brach's CandiesThe display of the bulk candy bin appears to read "Advertised in Life." I wonder how many Life readers caught the subtle product placement. A refreshing lack of "expression"Nary a tattoo nor a facial piercing in sight. Where's Waldo?I think he's in Aisle 6. Very interesting photo! Brach's CandiesScary how 21 years later, I could have been the kid looking into the Brach's Bulk Candies bin... I totally forgot about those bins until this picture. People were slimmer back thenOther than the antiquated cash registers and the male cashiers, what has changed the most is that we are more obese now. I love this pictureSo rich. So much to keep the eye busy. Almost like a Where's Waldo cartoon. From the Plaid Elephants advertising "Top Value" something-or other, all the way down to the Quaker logo on a box of Rice Chex. And who's that woman in line in front of the chip rack? She has a BIG BUTT! (If anyone tells me that's my mother, then she's YOUR mother.) Charge-a-platesThey go back to at least the 40's -- I remember them well. It was metal and specially notched for each of the stores which accepted them and where you had a charge account. Current plastic models, good for almost anything, are great but far less secure. Modern LifeThe Life cereal box behind the Rice Chex is virtually unchanged! Not so inexpensiveMedian income of all families in 1964 was about $6600. For female full-time workers, the median income was $3700. Median income of nonwhite males was $2800. http://www2.census.gov/prod2/popscan/p60-047.pdf I'll bet they didn't think these prices were all that cheap. I do wonder what day of the week this photo was taken - I'll bet it was a Saturday. Get your slob on!I imagine that this was taken on a very hot day. No matter what the weather, though, imagine this same scene in 1934 or 1904 - you wouldn't see people out in public wearing undershirts and shorts. I wonder if there's a particular moment in time or series of events when it became OK to look "slobby" in public? No sagging pants or backwards baseball caps, anyway. I second the vote For blown up sections of this photograph, a lot of shelves I would like to explore. [Click "view full size." That's as blown up as it gets. - Dave] Checking outWhen I worked in grocery in the mid 1970's, with only slightly newer registers, the checkout time would be about the same as now. Good checkers could check and bag at about the same rate as now - the difference being that the checker had to pay attention and couldn't have conversations with their coworkers while checking. The notepads have the produce prices on them. Typically, you would remember those after the first few checkouts of the same produce item per day and not need to refer back very often. Remember that the range of produce available was less than today, both because of improved distribution and widening of tastes. The preferred checking technique is to pull the item off with the left hand, check the price, and enter the price into the register with the right hand. The register we had had plastic covers to cover the keys for anything past $9.99, since items of that price were pretty rare, since grocery stores sold groceries and not other items. In general, we had fewer stoppages for price checks than a modern system will because of missing items in their database. The grocery stocked fewer items back then. The flip side is that inventory management was a pain - we would manually order based on what was on the shelves and did a periodic total inventory to find the correct wastage values from spoilage and shoplifting. I much prefer the wider range of food and produce available today. And just think...This could be one of the few larger group Shorpy pictures where most of the folks are still alive. The cute girl in the cart would be my sister's age; the adults are mostly in the mid-late 20s to early 40s range, giving them ages from the high 60s to the mid 80s. The older kids would still only be in their fifties. Anyone from Rockville know these folks? Fantastic Photo!Even though it's far "younger" that most of the great photos that Shorpy features, it's one of the most fascinating you've ever put up here. I can't take my eyes off it. Do we know the address?My partner and I -- en route to Bob's Noodle House -- have wondered about the origins of a now-empty grocery store in Rockville, near "downtown." Perhaps this Super Giant? Certainly of this era. You can just make it out in the middle of this view -- between the bus shelter and the tree -- through the parking lots. [The Super Giant was at 12051 Rockville Pike and Randolph Road, where Montrose Crossing is today. See the next comment up. - Dave] View Larger Map Rockville Super GiantThe 25,000-square-foot Super Giant that's the subject of this post opened November 12, 1962, at 12051 Rockville Pike at Randolph Road, anchoring a 205,000-square-foot discount shopping center with 3,000-car parking lot (and a "Jolly Trolley" to get you from car to store). Today it's a "lifestyle center" called Montrose Crossing. Below: A long time ago, in a shopping center far, far away ... Wow. Just wow.I, too, worked in a grocery store in the late-70s when I was in high school. As earlier commented, apparently not a whole lot changed from when this picture was taken to then (well, except the hairstyles and clothes -- which changed a *lot*). I remember the registers well -- the columns of keys were dedicated to 10's, 1's, 10 cents, 1 cent. The large palm-contoured key to the right would "enter" in the decimal digits. Lots of noise and moving parts. A good cashier could move the goods along the conveyor belt as quickly as the scanners of today. The rapid spinning of numbers on the register display was mesmerizing. The one big holdup was the dreaded "price check" if a stocker had to be summoned -- but more often the checker already had the price memorized (good thing too, since price label "swapping" was a problem). I stocked shelves using the incredibly complicated but efficient label gun used to print and affix the prices to the products. As a stocker you had a large holster that held this amazing device. The more I think about it, things have not changed that much. We still have lines, conveyor belts, "separators," shopping carts, impulse displays, checkers, baggers, stockers, butchers, and produce guys (the latter two being union jobs). At least until the self checkout and then later RFID based systems (you just walk out of the store with the goods and the store will automatically figure this out and bill your card). Top Value StampsMy mother collected those, they were also used at Kroger's in the Middle South. What surprises me is that there are no cigarette racks at the checkouts. When I was a kid, every grocery store had the cigarette packs in racks right at the checkouts, with a sign screaming "Buy A Pack Today!" Maybe it was a Maryland thing. I also remember drugstores and groceries where cigarettes were sold only in the pharmacies. Go figure. More of these pleaseI add my request for more photos like this of just ordinary life from the '50s & '60s. Sure brings back memories of simpler and I think happier times. When I was a kid I used to imagine how marvelous life would be fifty years hence in the 21st century. Well I'm there now -- and I'd like to go back to the 1950s please. [And you can, thanks to the magic of the Inter-nets! I wonder when we'll have those TVs you can hang on the wall like a painting. And Picture-Phones. Can't wait. - Dave] Mama can I have a penny?You know what would be right next to the electric doors (and that big rubber mat you had to step on to make them open) -- a row of gumball machines! Whatever happened to those? I loved just looking at them. Those glass globes, all those colorful gumballs. Sigh. RealityThats a highly posed photo. Everyone in the photo would have had to sign a model release for this to be published in Life. It is "possible" that the people where chosen for their looks. [I've worked in publishing for over 20 years. You wouldn't need a release for any picture taken in a public place, and certainly not for a crowd or group shot. Actually you don't need releases at all. Some publishers may have looked at them as insurance against lawsuits for invasion of privacy. Probably most didn't bother. As for "posed," I doubt it. - Dave] Blue StampsWhile I miss the concept of Blue Stamps or trading stamps, I get points from my store and they send me a check each quarter to use in the store. I have one premium my parents redeemed from a trading stamp program - a really hideous waterfront print which they had in their home until they divorced. I claimed it from my father and it's hung in the laundry room of every house I've ever lived in since I moved on my own. I remember the old way grocery stores were laid out, and I was always fascinated by the registers. Link: Whatever Happened to Green Stamps? [Down where I come from we had S&H Green Stamps -- Sperry and Hutchinson. And "redemption centers" chock-full of cheesy merchandise. Or you could get cash. When I was in college I chose cash. My fingers would be all green (and minty) from sticking wet stamps in the redemption books. - Dave] Lived next to one just like it in VirginiaThis is just like the Super Giant on South Glebe Road in Arlington, close by where my family was living in 1964. It's where my mother shopped and I loved to accompany her and browse around. You could buy anything from a live lobster to a coat, and just like the Rockville store, it was 20 minutes from downtown Washington. Deja vuMy supermarket experience goes back about 10 years before this one . . . but what a photo! We had women cashiers, and man, were they fast. I was a stock clerk and bagger, and had to move fast to get the groceries in those brown paper bags (no plastic). I also had to wear a white shirt and bow tie. Naturally, we took the groceries to the car for customers and put them in the car or trunk, wherever asked. That was known as customer service. We, too, gave S & H green stamps, although Top Value stamps were available a number of places. Price checkerMy father was a lifelong grocery man, making a cycle from clerk to manager to owner and finally back to clerking in the 1950s until he retired in 1966. He took pride in doing his job well, whatever it was. Each night, sitting in his green leather chair, he'd read our two newspapers, one local and one city, end to end. One night I noticed that he'd paused for quite some time at the full-page weekly ad for the market he worked at and I asked him why. He was memorizing the prices of the specials starting the next day. Brach's candy displayThe shot of the boy near the candy display reminds me of a time back in the very early 1960s where I did help myself to a piece or two. I looked up, saw an employee looking at me and boy, I was scared to death he would tell my parents. Also, with the evolution in scanning and so forth, it brought to an end, more or less, of checking the receipt tape against the stamped prices for mistakes the checker made. Checking ReceiptsI worked in a store just like this while in high school in the early '70s. The main difference I've noticed is that Sunday is a major shopping day now. Our store was open on Sunday, because the crosstown rival was open. We (and they) didn't do enough business to pay for the lights being on. Two people ran the store on Sundays - a checker and a stocker/bagboy. And we didn't have much to do. All we ever saw was people picking up a single item or picnic supplies. How times have changed. Now we check the receipt for mistakes made in shelf pricing. Did I get charged the sale price or not? [So after your groceries are rung up, you go back down the aisles checking the receipt against the shelf prices? Or you make note of the shelf prices while you're shopping? That's what I call diligent. - Dave] Stamp dispensersWhen I was a kid back in the late sixties, there were stamp dispenser next to each cash register, with a dial a lot like a telephone dial that would spew stamps as the cashier turned it. I'm surprised they don't have a similar thing in this store. [The grocery store we went to had an electric thingy that spit them out. Which looked a lot like the brown boxes shown in the photo. - Dave] Checking ReceiptsWe don't check every price - just the sale prices which are listed in the weekly ad, available at the front of the store. Sometimes the ad price doesn't get properly entered into the computer, so I pay attention, especially if it's a significant savings. Relative CostsMy mother kept note of her grocery bills for 40 years -- and in 1962 complained that it cost $12 a week to feed a family of four. Considering that my dad's salary was $75 a week, that was indeed a lot of money. We used to save Green Stamps, Plaid Stamps, and cigar bands for giveaways in the store. [That's a good point. I had to chuckle when I noticed that the most these registers could ring up is $99.99. - Dave] Amazing how pictures take you backThis is what grocery stores looked like when I was a wee lass in the '70's. This could have been our local A&P, except the freezer cases would have been brown instead of white. And I bet if you checked the ingredients on the packages those thin people are buying, you wouldn't see corn syrup as a top-ten ingredient of non-dessert items. A & PSee the short story by John Updike for the perfect literary pairing to this photo. Well, in my opinion anyways; it's the first thing that came to mind upon seeing it. I Remember Those Elephants!My great-grandma lived in Rockville at that time and I remember those elephants!! What a floodgate of memories just opened up! Thanks again, Dave! [Now we know why memory and elephants go together. - Dave] Making ChangeAs those cash registers (most likely) didn't display the change due, the cashiers actually had to know how to make change. [Cash registers waaay back in 1964 (and before) did indeed show change due. And sometimes were even connected to a change-maker that spit your coins into a little tray. - Dave] Brown paper packages tied up with stringThis is such an amazing photo -- I love it! As someone who was still 12 years away from being born when this photo was taken, I'm not familiar with the old customs. What kind of items would have been wrapped up in brown paper like the woman in line at register 7 has? It looks like a big box, so that ruled out meats or feminine products in my mind ...any ideas? [It's probably her laundry. - Dave] White MarketsIn Knoxville we had groceries called White Stores that looked like most any other grocery of the late 70's, early 80's: Dimly lit with greenish fluorescent tubes, bare-bones interior decoration, and indeed a Brach's candy bin. My mom used Green Stamps for years. It took eons to fill a book. At the White Stores you could "buy" various pieces of merchandise. She got a floor lamp one year and a set of Corning Ware the next. It seems like over the last 5-10 years, they've made grocery stores all upscale looking. Almost makes you feel like you're getting ripped off. Warehouse LookSay goodbye to this timeless shot and hello to the warehouse stylings of the local Costco. Grocery stores have been jazzing up their interiors hoping to attract and keep customers. It's not working. When I go to one, they are far less busy than even in the recent past. They have cut the payrolls down significantly here in San Diego due to losing profit to the warehouses. Consequently, the help is far less competent, far younger, far less helpful, and far below the wage scales of the wonderful veterans they cannot really replace. We need some grocery stores for certain smallish items that the warehouse giants will never carry. But they will dwindle down to a very precious few, and do it soon. Of course, this grandiose Super Giant displaced their mom-and-pop competitors. Same tune, different singers. Multi-tasking fingers>> the columns of keys were dedicated to 10's, 1's, 10 cents, 1 cent. And a really good clerk would be pressing at least two keys at a time, which modern keypads can't do. Pure gold.What could lure me from my busy, lurk-only status? Only this amazing photo! Wow. Just wow. And not a cell phone in sight... Pre-Obesity EpidemicAnd look. No great big fat people. Sure, there a couple of middle-agers spreading out here & there, but you know the ones I mean. Smaller aisles and carts!Because people are much bigger these days, everything else is too! I remember shopping with my mom and for the big holidays and having to use more than one cart. Super GiantThe Super Giant was in the shopping center that now has a Sports Authority, Old Navy and a much smaller Giant. Super Giant was similar to what you would find at WalMart now -- part department store, part grocery store. I grew up in Rockville and we used to shop there all the time, until they closed that is. Guess the world wasn't ready for that combination. I could be in that picture, but I'd be too young to walk. GurskyesqueThis reminds me of Andreas Gursky's photo "99 Cent" -- it could almost have been taken in the same place. Fiberglass tubs on conveyor belts.Great picture & website. I remember them bagging your groceries, putting them in fiberglass tubs, and giving you a placard with a 3 digit number on it. The tub would go on a conveyor belt to the outside of the store, you'd drive up, and they'd take your placard and load your groceries. Wonder if there are any pictures of those... Proto-WalmartThis store was huge and it was quite unique in the same model as today's Walmart with groceries, clothing, etc. It is odd that the concept did not survive in that era considering the success of Walmart today. Personally, as a kid, I didn't like it when my mom got clothes for me from there. They were the off-brands. I also remember the GEM membership store which was in the current Mid-Pike Plaza on the opposing SW corner, which was a precursor to Price Club except that it didn't have groceries. I Remember It WellI grew up in Rockville, MD and was in this store many times. It was a full "one stop" department store with a grocery store attached. I loved going there with my mother because while she was grocery shopping I could make my way to the toy department. Kid nirvana! I might have been there!Oh do I remember that! My family lived in Rockville until 1965, and my mother usually took me along. After moving, we'd go to the Rockville Super Giant only if we needed to stop at the department store side. The beige boxes that you see at Checkouts 6 and 7 were the Top Value Stamp dispensers. (The man in the T-shirt is signing a check on top of one.) They automatically spit out the right amount of those yellow stamps. We bought quite a few things with Top Value Stamps, including a well-built Westinghouse room dehumidifier. The Giant Food at Friendship Heights had a conveyor belt but this store did not. This one had so much land, there was a huge sidewalk area out front where you could bring your carts -- but not to the car. Instead there were pairs of plastic cards, one with a hook for the cart, one with a hole. They had a three digit number, and the note "NO TIPPING". Took me a while to understand that wasn't about tipping over the carts. When you pulled up, an employee (probably young) put the bags in your car for you. Speaking of brand names, I can see the stacks of Mueller's spaghetti in Aisle 6. It's the brand we ate then. (Now I know Farina flour has no business in pasta!) The meat department is along the wall at the left. Deli and seafood were at the far back corner. There were a pair of "Pick a Pickle" barrels in front of the deli counter. One Dill, one Half-Sour. Good pickles, and great fish. The fish department has always been a source of pride for Giant. Of course this was back when a flounder was over a foot long, not these six-inch midgets we get today. All the fish were whole on ice, only gutted, and they scraped the scales, and cut or filleted the fish to your order. The produce department starts behind the Brach's counter, and extends out the photo to the left. There were one or two manned scales there, where they would weigh your brown paper bag of produce, mark the price with a grease pencil, and staple it shut. If it was something tender like cherries, they would put "XX" on it, so that it would be correctly bagged. So the checkers only needed to know the prices of "piece" produce. There was a "post mix" soda machine at the end of Aisle 12, 13, or 14, which would mix syrup and soda water into a cup. I'd often get a Coke. Probably 5 cents. I remember getting Mercury dimes as change from that machine -- this photo is from the last year of silver dimes and quarters. (Serious inflation was kicking in to pay for the Vietnam War.) Cigarettes? Where were they? I should know, my mom smoked then. They were only in cartons, they were so dirt-cheap that nobody bought them by the pack, except in vending machines. They certainly didn't need to be kept "out of the reach of children" then. They were in a six-foot set of shelves somewhere. I suppose I had no taste in clothing at the time, as most of my clothes came from there. Well, let's be honest -- they were much nicer and more stylish than clothes at Sears. (Oh, those horrible Sears Toughskin jeans with the rubber inside the knees!) The department store side, which started to the right of the checkouts, was easily twice the size of what you see here. It had a lot of selection, and lots of good specialty counters. There was a photo counter at the front of the store (pretty much under the photographer, who was up in the balcony where the restrooms were). They sold things at fair prices, and gave good and honest sales help. There was a hobby counter in the far back right corner. Speaking of the restrooms, they had seats that automatically flipped up into the back of the toilet, with UV lights to "sanitize" them. Spooky. The current Giant Food store at that site, which my friends call the "Gucci Giant," is on the former department store side. When they first shut down the three Super Giant department stores, they left the grocery store were it was. I think about the time that White Flint Mall started "upscaling" Rockville Pike, they built a much fancier store on the old department store side. Compared to now, Rockville Pike was very working class, very blue collar. Congressional Plaza (on the site of the former Congressional Airport) had a JC Penney as the anchor, and a Giant Food. Near the Super Giant was an EJ Korvettes, now the site of G Street Decorator Fabrics. A little off Rockville Pike was GEM -- Government Employees Membership. These were the days when "Fair Trade" pricing (price fixing) was still legal, and enforceable everywhere but the District of Columbia. But GEM, being a "membership" store, could discount, so that's where you bought Fair Trade products like Farberware at a discount. Of course, GEM had to compete with discount stores in the District, which Congress had conveniently exempted from the Fair Trade Act, so they could shop cheaply. Scan itI enjoyed coming back to this photo for new comments -- I had one before, but long before the new post. I live not far from Troy, Ohio, where the local newspaper just had an article about the bar code scanner. The very first item scanned -- anywhere -- was at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, in 1974. Troy is less then 30 miles north of Dayton, where NCR developed the scanner. The Marsh store is still there, but NCR is leaving. King Soopers, 1960I work for a division of Kroger called King Soopers in Colorado. My store, which opened in February 1960, has a lot in common with this one. They have tried to modernize it but you can still see the old store showing through in places. Great photo. Bagger NostalgiaRegrettably, the baggers are out of view to the right. My greatest nostalgia for supermarkets past concerns the bag boys, practitioners of a high art. They took pride in how compactly they could pack your groceries with attention to putting the fragile items on top -- not to mention that they all tried to outdo each other in speed. Bagger Nostalgia...Part DeuxWhen I was a kid (1950s) I used to go with my father to the grocery (Kroger's) on Saturday morning. I always helped bag the groceries, especially if they were short handed, and he would always remind me of his bagging rule: "Don't even think about putting the meat next to the soap or even in the same bag." In the 50s as I remember it the majority of the cashiers were women and that was their only job at the store. I notice that even as early as the 60s they had the security screens next to the cash register to keep unwanted fingers out of the till form the adjacent aisle. I also remember making the family excursion to the Top Value redemption store to select the "FREE" gift that the household needed when we had sufficient stamp books filled. The other Super GiantThe third Super Giant is in White Oak. They took the "Super" off ages ago, but it is all still there. Mostly we went to the one in Laurel, which still retains its huge circa-1960 sign in the parking lot. Around 1980 it ate the old Kresge store next door, but by that time the department store features of the biggest stores were mostly gone. It's kind of funny -- the mall they built just south of the shopping center almost killed the latter, but now the shopping center is very busy and the mall may well be torn down. Memories from the early '60sMy mom worked at Chestnut Lodge and would often stop by the Super Giant on Rockville Pike on her way home to shop for groceries -- and clothes for me! I was much too young to be brand- or fashion-conscious and I remember loving the little cotton A-line dresses that Mom would bring home. We lived in the District and a big thrill for me would be to drive up to Rockville with my parents on the weekends and shop at the Super Giant and Korvettes! Crossing the PotomacThe hype of Super Giant was enough to entice these Northern Virginians into crossing The Potomac River into Maryland. The commute is commonplace today but not so much in 1964. We had not seen anything like it. Racks & racks of mass produced clothing and groceries, too! Grandmother bought the same suit in 3 different sizes. She and my mother got their money's worth. I was 13. It never left my closet. The NoiseThe old registers were so noisy. No screens to check what was going on, just quick eye movement to try and keep track. Ahh...back in the day when every item had a price on it. Ohhhh yeah and is that Blake Shelton?I spent many weekends at this gigantic store on Rockville Pike. I think I even bought a prom dress here....is that possible? I very clearly remember going up to the glassed in observation balcony on the second floor, which gave an overall view of the store (as this photo shows). That way I could scan the aisles in order to see where my Dad was at any given moment. I love this photo, and HEY isn't that a time-traveling Blake Shelton a little left of the center wearing a white short-sleeved shirt?? (LIFE, Stores & Markets)
Clothesline Canyon: 1900
... to see that guys that crawled up the poles to hang the lines - now THAT'S talent! Clotheslines I haven't seen clothes hanging ... me so much of the set of "Rear Window." Without the laundry, of course. Really cool photo. [Indeed. In fact I think I see ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/11/2011 - 6:59pm -

"New York tenement yard c. 1900-10." A washday wonderland in this uncropped version of yesterday's post. Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size. Spidermen?I'd like to see that guys that crawled up the poles to hang the lines - now THAT'S talent! ClotheslinesI haven't seen clothes hanging on a clothesline in years. Even here in Florida with plenty of sunshine people use electric dryers. Hitch's inspiration?This reminds me so much of the set of "Rear Window." Without the laundry, of course. Really cool photo. [Indeed. In fact I think I see Thelma Ritter ironing. - Dave] Disgracing the familyIn the small town where I was raised, washday was Monday and you can be sure that everybody definitely DID look at everybody else's laundry when it was hung out on the line. My mother really worked hard to get the whitest whites and the brightest brights and some residents would actually criticize the ladies who hung out "tattletale gray" whites and dull colors. If a new red dress was accidentally washed with whites, of course all the whites turned pink. And blue denim work clothes ran into and ruined other colors. Stains that were not scrubbed out meant the homemaker did not take the time to clean them properly. As long as my mom lived, she preferred clotheslines, never owned a dryer, and even on frigid winter days, her gnarled, knotty hands still hung clothes on the line and often brought them inside frozen solid so they would stand up by themselves. I won't mention any names (Mrs. Landowsky) regarding who was considered slovenly because her laundry was always stained and grayish. Of course nobody took into consideration that she had seven kids and probably could not afford bleach. Talk about "airing your dirty laundry in public," it was once a fact of life. And I still get nostalgic over clothespin bags, which were my only toys when I visited my grandmother. Soap operasIn the 1930s and 40s daytime radio was soap operas. If you listen to those programs today you will hear commercials touting the benefits of each and every brand of soap. White, white, white was the goal, and disgrace to any poor housewife who had gray laundry on washday. Airing the family's clean laundryI grew up hanging clothes out on the line on washing day--though our clothesline was in a backyard and could only be viewed by a limited number of neighbors. We had a set order to our loads--we always did the towels and linens first so that when they were hanging on the line they blocked the sight of the second load--underwear. This order is so ingrained in me that I still do my laundry towels and sheets first, then underwear, then the rest of the clothes--even though I haven't had a clothesline in years. Drying with fresh air and sunshine!I live across town from Google headquarters in what is as high-tech an area as you can find, but I still prefer to hang the clothes on a line. I have a half-century old metal folding unit which has begun to sag a bit, although it rarely is folded up or moved. For those who don't know, it's like an X stuck perpendicular to the top of its support pole when erected, with straight bars on two opposite sides (attached to the X ends) and the lines running between those bars. Anyone know if these are still being made? Fire escapesReminds me of hot summer afternoons at my grandparents house, sitting on the fire escape with my legs dangling through the bars, hoping for a cool breeze. ClotheslinesTo the person looking for a news clothesline: Google rotary clothesline or Hill's Hoist. I grew up with a rotary and prefer the T-bar type myself -- drying is more even. Coping with laundry must've been difficult then for women who worked outside the home and couldn't afford a laundry service or servant. We may roll our eyes at the old Christmas displays promoting a washing machine as the perfect gift for the "little woman" but I bet women who grew up doing laundry by hand would have been thrilled to receive one. All That Underwear...Nothing found that looks like Victoria's Secret! A traditionI lived in a house without a dryer for 14 years. I loved hanging the clothes on the line, except of course during the winter. It always made me feel like I was carrying on a tradition. My mother, grandmother and great-grandmother did likewise. CastleCan anyone identify the castle-like building in the distance in the middle of photo near the two smokestacks? (The Gallery, DPC, NYC)
Pennsylvania Lines: 1900
... operated railroads east of Pittsburgh, and "Pennsylvania Lines" operated lines west of Pittsburgh. In the front left to right, we ... shot. Hard to say what's going on. [Looks more like laundry, perhaps. -tterrace] (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Mining, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/19/2016 - 3:07pm -

Circa 1900. "Anchor Line docks and Penna. R.R. coal & ore docks, Erie, Pennsylvania." Also represented: Cars of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Women's dresses are ShortThose dresses only go down to the women's knees. Awfully short based on what I have seen for other women's attire for that time period. [An indication they're children. -tterrace] Women near the tracks.One thing that children and women did near the tracks in the days of coal burning locomotives was to scavenge lumps of coal that fell from the tenders as the engines passed. Train crews sometimes accidentally caused coal to fall off to help the folks who needed heat in their houses near the tracks, so those bags might just be full of coal! Someone please tell mewhat are those two women doing by the tracks? A little PRR Corporate and Lettering HistoryHere's my understanding: The PRR, particularly west of Pittsburgh, consolidated a large number of existing railroads. The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago (P FW & C) was the railroad that swallowed up the others. Then, the PRR reorganized into 2 activities, the "Pennsylvania Company" owned and operated railroads east of Pittsburgh, and "Pennsylvania Lines" operated lines west of Pittsburgh. In the front left to right, we see an earlier 19th century boxcar for the eastern part of the railroad and then two cars lettered in the turn-of-the-century style for the 'lines west' Then there is a Fast Freight Line car for the Union Line, which at one time was an association of railroads to provide through freight (same car across multiple railroads.) By this time, though, the Union Line was pretty much a marketing activity of the Pennsylvania company. Finally on the right, a P FW & C car with the earlier lettering. This also provides a great assortment of PRR 'standard cars' The car on the far right has the Wagner Door, an early tight sealing/plug arrangement (where the door slides out and then to the left. This website has a lot of information on the PRR cars, see in particular the PRR XB, XC and XD cars, which are all represented in the photo. http://prr.railfan.net/freight/ Two womenI saw them, too. Looking closer, they have some bundles of something, so I was wondering if they brought lunch for their husbands and are setting up a little picnic. A lot of the men seem to be standing around, such as near the railing on that loader thing. I also noticed that middle frame is a big steam flume going up, which made me wonder if that was a noontime whistle signaling lunchtime, and the cameraman was waiting for just that moment to snap the shot. Hard to say what's going on. [Looks more like laundry, perhaps. -tterrace] (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Mining, Railroads)
Stripes and Solids: 1905
... Publishing Company. View full size. Gym, tan, laundry. Gym, tan, laundry. Family Tradition I could weep as I look ... in the Depression, the joint Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines railroad was formed and the Pennsy lost its monopoly on the Delair ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/19/2012 - 12:55pm -

New Jersey circa 1905. "On the beach at Atlantic City." A lively group seen earlier here. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Gym, tan, laundry.Gym, tan, laundry. Family TraditionI could weep as I look at this, the life and pleasure of the young who are now all more than 110 years old. This was my grandparents' generation. They loved to visit Atlantic City and 20 years later my father and his three older siblings would be dancing and performing on the Million Dollar Pier, which I believe is pictured here. The stories of my father's boyhood years, summers in Atlantic City, "the playground of the world," and especially the sights and sounds of the Million Dollar Pier, are among my favorites of his. Perhaps like the people pictured here, his family would come by train from Philadelphia (well, they had to cross the river by ferry into Camden and then get the train). The family-- grandmother, uncles, mother and children, would come for the summer, while my grandfather remained in the city, working in the foundry, earning money to keep them there. [This photo shows the Steeplechase and Steel piers. - Dave] Shore fast lineMy grandparents would have ranged in age from toddlers to teenagers at this time. They were more likely to have spent summer holidays in Wildwood, though one pair of grandparents rarely missed the Miss America Pageant, which originated at Atlantic City and remained there until it was moved to Las Vegas for reasons that remain a mystery to this writer. Reading Railroad passengers from Philadelphia took the ferry to Camden's Reading Terminal for trains to Atlantic City but after 1896, Pennsylvania Railroad passengers had the choice of through trains that crossed the Delaware River at the Pennsy's Delair Bridge. Early in the Depression, the joint Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines railroad was formed and the Pennsy lost its monopoly on the Delair bridge. Those women must have been rather uncomfortable in such voluminous bathing costumes. Anyone?I have never understood why, in these shots of Atlantic City in the early 20th century, seemingly everyone is a) in the water and b) all bunched together. Nowadays if anyone goes into the ocean, they pretty much keep their distance (unless you are related-and surely all these people weren't) Was it just considered the social thing to do then? I am truly curious. [I'd say it's because of a) hot weather, and b) the sheer quantity of people. - tterrace] About ten years laterMy grandfather Harry A. Fox (far right in both images) and fellow sailors from the _USS Indiana_ on the beach at Atlantic City in 1918. In the second image they are clowning with some local children. (The Gallery, Atlantic City, DPC, Swimming)
Toledo Panorama: 1909
... Hocking Valley collected coal on network of feeder lines in southeast Ohio, assembled the cars at a main yard in Columbus and ran ... Street. Where should I buy my paint? Holmes Snowflake Laundry In the distance, behind the Jefferson Hotel and in the upper center ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/28/2012 - 4:46pm -

Circa 1909. "Toledo, Ohio, waterfront on Maumee River." Humongous 40,000-pixel-wide panorama made from five 8x10 glass negatives, downsized here to a still-hefty 11,000 pixels. Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Even MoreCharles Fletcher signs, just like in the Brooklyn Bridge picture of a few days ago. The guy was everywhere. Holy Toledo!Another Fletcher's Castoria sign!! Great picture! Road NamesT&OC was the Toledo & Ohio Central, a railroad originating in the West Virginia coal fields that ran northwest from Charleston up to Columbus and thence to Toledo. At this time it was still independent, but was later absorbed into the New York Central system. Hocking Valley collected coal on network of feeder lines in southeast Ohio, assembled the cars at a main yard in Columbus and ran them up their main to Toledo. C&O absorbed the HV in 1925, a strategic move that gave the C&O an outlet in the lucrative lakes coal trade. Kanawha & Michigan was a short line in West Virginia. WOW Factor = 10.Now THAT'S a Picture. Worth every minute (hour?) it took to do the merge. Peter Piper Picked a Passel of PixelsMy mouse is tired after studying this pic. I will come back to this one and find some more stuff to look up. Already found that there is still a Hocking Valley Railway. Located in Southeast Ohio, it is a scenic railway offering rides on restored cars. New York Central territoryLooking at the coal cars in the foreground, Toledo & Ohio Central, Zanesville & Western and Kanawha & Michigan eventually became part of NYC System. Hocking Valley Ry. became part of Chesapeake & Ohio. In the tall structure in front left, a K&M car is about to be turned over to empty its contents. The middle foreground finds an immaculate T&OC switch engine with no lack of work, going about its duties. PaintAccording to Google Maps, the Acme Quality Paint Store no longer exists at 420 Summit Street. Where should I buy my paint? Holmes Snowflake LaundryIn the distance, behind the Jefferson Hotel and in the upper center area of the photo, we can see the Holmes Snowflake Laundry building. See below for a different view. The Holmes Snowflake Building was the first Toledo location for the Champion Spark Plug Company, attracted to the city by the Willys Overland Company. Willys agreed to buy spark plugs from Robert and Frank Stranahan, if they would relocate their company to Toledo (ca. 1910). Louisa May Alcott'sLyttle Weeman Saddlery & Hardware. Jay C. MorseThought I had seen this ship before. Sure enough, one of the plates from this set is here. [That's a different plate. -Dave] At least the smokestack is still thereSeveral weeks ago we had lunch at a restaurant along the river with the same great view of the river. This view fills in the details that I imagined. AdsI wonder if the early marketing folks at Coca-Cola were influenced by Fletcher's Castoria ads. The logos are similar in style and the signs are everywhere. [I think Spencerian script was generally in vogue. - Dave] About that Hand SapolioI see by my desktop copy of "Once Famous Brands Now Forgotten" (I made that up) Hand Sapolio was the Ivory of its day, possibly the most famous soap there was around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In fact, I just checked in Volumes 27 and 28 of Nursing World for 1901, and found on page 391: “Hand Sapolio equals a mild Turkish bath in many of its advantages. It demands no extreme or heat or cold, but removes all scurf (sic), casts off the constantly dying outer skin, and gives the inner skin…..” Well, you get the idea. Here's a typical ad: Two-Masted TubsThose are interesting vessels on the river's far side, just left of panorama center. They look like they must have engines on board; I wonder if they ever got under sail using those masts, or were they formerly sailing barges that got converted? (Panoramas, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads, Toledo)
Made in America: 1942
... working hours is to get as many tanks as possible off the lines and ready for shipment to the fighting fronts. Michael's grandparents, ... of "California-Style" HoneyWheat Bread. - Dave] Laundry stove Used to be common in kitchens: Our family ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/03/2017 - 12:11pm -

June 1942. Chicago, Illinois. "Manpower. Americans all. His war job with Pressed Steel Can Car Company gives Michael Kassalo an extra good appetite. Operating a vertical turret lathe in a Midwest tank plant, Michael is one of many hundreds of first- and second-generation Americans whose sole purpose during working hours is to get as many tanks as possible off the lines and ready for shipment to the fighting fronts. Michael's grandparents, with whom he lives, cling to the Slavic language and to many 'Old Country' customs, but Michael and his brothers and sisters are as American as the Smiths and Joneses." Photo by Ann Rosener for the Office of War Information. View full size. Pressed Steel CAR Co.The original photo caption seems to have a typo. It most likely meant to reference the Pressed Steel Car Co., which was a major builder of railway equipment and did indeed convert to the production of tanks and other armored vehicles during the war. They had factories in Illinois as well as Pittsburgh. Tableside ApparatusCan anyone please tell me what the apparatus in the foreground is? It looks like something used to cook food at the tableside and has a vent pipe but I don't believe I have ever seen anything like it. How was it used? Very interesting picture. Michael reaches for ...... a handful of jellyfish? What IS that stuff? [He's reaching into a cellophane bag or wrapper. -tterrace] [For a slice of "California-Style" HoneyWheat Bread. - Dave] Laundry stoveUsed to be common in kitchens: Our family cooked on oneOur family cooked on one of those stoves during the war! My parents rented a house in 1944 in which the owners had removed the modern range. Left was a version of this stove in the kitchen. It doubled as the source of heat for the hot water heater. Having no oven, my grandmother used a stovetop oven (no thermostat of course) to bake rolls, pies and cornbread. All the stovetop cooking was done on that small stove, which was fired by coal. In the summers, our kitchen was one hot place, as the house was in South Alabama and of course there was no air conditioning! (The Gallery, Ann Rosener, Chicago, Kitchens etc., WW2)
Butler Family Buick: 1957
... look like -- does it have a red border? - Dave] Laundry Right above the Buick in the background is a clothesline. For ... clothespins to hang their wet clothes on rope or wire lines erected in their backyard. In larger trailer parks, there might be a ... 
 
Posted by Quisling.P.Rotog... - 02/19/2021 - 4:15pm -

Edward and Gwen Butler, my grandparents, lived in this trailer in Connecticut. It's rather dwarfed by the massive '55 Buick and the 15-foot TV antenna. They had just returned from a trip to England, hence the luggage at the door. Photo by Edward Butler circa 1957 on a 35mm Kodachrome slide, scanned February 2021. View full size. Everything old ...And people thought tiny houses were a new phenomenon TrailernomicsAnd that, my children, is the reward of frugal living: come home to a trailer, travel abroad. My unmarried uncle, who himself lived in a trailer in Connecticut, worked on sonar systems in submarines at Groton and spent his government earnings equipping his trailer with a Hammond organ (and Leslie unit) and the first color TV I'd ever seen, outfitted with a mast-mounted automatic antenna rotor. Unspeakable luxury, and incredibly cool! My "rich uncle" also had a thing for used Cadillacs and Lincoln Continentals, and our neighbors were all abuzz when he came to visit. Proof of a better life through mobile home living! (Postscript: He died in arrears on both his Florida condo and his last used car, but with a giant smile on his face.) PrioritiesYou get to do what you want with that you've earned! Almost perfectJust needs some Pink Flamingos to complete the scene. A four holer no lessThe 1955 Buick 4 door hardtop appears to be a four-holer, which means it was a top of the line Buick. [Except for the budget-priced Special, all of Buick's models for 1955 (Roadmaster, Century, Super) had four "ventiports." The 1955 Buick Century and Special Rivieras and Oldsmobile 88 and 98 Holiday sedans were GM's first four-door hardtops. - Dave] As my late mother would sayIt's so small, you have to go outside to change your mind. 1957?Not to engage in undue nitpicking, but ... umm ... the narrow-stripe whitewalls appearing on the Buick in this photo did not become available until 1962. [Umm, could you be wrong? It's a 1957 CT license plate. By 1959, Kodak had stopped using red-border slide mounts in favor of a white design. - Dave] Class!That's a snappy trailer with a great color scheme, but the Buick is a jaw-dropper. The two-tone paint jobs of that era were stunning to me then, and still are today. Thanks for sharing such a great photo! Second YearFor the Century, Buick's answer to the Olds Super 88, the principle of placing the big Roadmaster engine in the lighter Special's body. Debuted in 1936 when the Century was the first production car to be able to do 100 MPH, thus the name. Discontinued after 1942 but resumed in 1954 when wartime demand was finally satisfied and people were wanting faster, more powerful cars like the 1949 Olds 88 and 1951 Chrysler Saratoga which placed the brand new New Yorker's Hemi in the six-cylinder Windsor's lighter body. The Short, Short Trailer.Desi & Lucy wouldn't approve. Ah, memoriesMy first car was a worn-out '55 Olds Delta 88, which is very similar to that Buick, both in style and tonnage. Loved that car. Many good memories. [The first "Delta" 88 was a 1965 model. For 1955, there was the 88 and Super 88. - Dave] 55 OldsDave: Now that I think of it, you're right. It was a Super 88, with a very similar paint scheme in green to that blue Buick. Mine was a four door, but the paint's right. I had a Delta 88 in the 70's, which is probably why I confused the two. Didn't like it half as much. Date of Photo: Definitely 1957Hi, Dave and Doubleclutchin, There's no date on the slide mount, but the slide is one of a series that were all in the same slide magazine and chronicles my grandparents' 1957 trip to England. More precisely, they returned from England May 7, 1957 (as I recently learned from a Queen Mary passenger list). I can't say for sure if the luggage was placed outside the door for their departure on or arrival from that trip, but the photo must have been taken in late spring 1957. Also, in my higher-resolution, no JPEG-compression scan (which I did not upload to Shorpy), I can just make out "57" on the license plate--as Dave pointed out. And there are no tab overlays indicating a later-year update. Finally, the photo cannot be 1962 or later, because (according to my uncle) my grandparents had moved into a house by then. Thanks for all the interest in this photograph! I have hundreds of slides my grandfather took. If I come across others as good as this one, I'll submit them to Shorpy. --Jeremy (aka, Quisling P. Rotogravure) [Thanks for the update on this very popular post. What does the slide mount look like -- does it have a red border? - Dave] LaundryRight above the Buick in the background is a clothesline. For younger viewers/readers of Shorpy, in the 1950's most people dried their laundry by using clothespins to hang their wet clothes on rope or wire lines erected in their backyard. In larger trailer parks, there might be a common laundry room and clotheslines provided for residents. When I was growing up, we lived for a few years in a trailer park (roughly 60 trailer spaces) that had a common building containing toilets, showers, and a couple of old-fashioned wringer washing machines (not coin operated). There was a separate building with a good-sized community room, which was primarily used in the evening for watching a B&W television set while seated on folding chairs. There was only one channel available - no arguments about what to watch! The Slide, in Its MountHere's the original slide in its mount--although with an Airequipt aluminum frame removed! On the back: "34 Made in U.S.A." No date stamp, alas. --Jeremy Rocket "88"When I saw the comment on the Super 88, I immediately thought of the Jackie Brenston's (and Ike Turner) song Rocket "88", which many think is the first rock'n'roll song ever recorded. You woman have heard of jalopies You heard the noise they make Let me introduce you to my Rocket '88 Yes, it's great, just won't wait Everybody likes my Rocket '88 Baby, we'll ride in style movin' all along Airequipt aluminum frameWOW! does that bring back memories. I think I may still have an Airequipt slide projector around here somewhere complete with a collection of Airequipt magazines with the aluminum slide frames. Maybe 2¼" By the 1950s, whitewalls were at a pretty standard 3 inches, but that didn't last long. Around 1954 through 1956, you could expect to see whitewalls from 2½ to 2¹¹⁄₁₆ inches on American cars. Then, 1957 through 1961 saw another change with whitewalls ranging from 2¼ to 2½ inches. Finally, the big change happened in 1962, when most American automotive manufacturers made the switch to 1-inch whitewalls. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
The Washboard Jungle: 1900
... When the wind whipped the clothes over and over the lines, it was murder trying to get them reeled back in. (Note the clothesline ... in my household, whites make up a small fraction of our laundry. [I think I see some grays. - Dave] What got washed. The ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/26/2012 - 4:52pm -

"New York tenement yard c. 1900-10." One of the better surviving images of turn of the century tenement life. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size. Pulley ClotheslinesOur Mother used one of these when we lived in a flat in San Francisco. When the wind whipped the clothes over and over the lines, it was murder trying to get them reeled back in. (Note the clothesline on the topmost left.) I wonder who shinnied up those poles to attach the the pulleys. Probably a kid like Shorpy. A long way down the steps to the courtyard if you dropped a sock. Green SheetsIt may just look like clothing hung out to dry, but I see a linear solar-powered fabric dehydrator. PantaloonsNo tighty whiteys here Whites OnlyWas this a day for only washing whites? Because that must be 80% of the clothes here. Or did people back then wear very few darks and coloureds? I know in my household, whites make up a small fraction of our laundry. [I think I see some grays. - Dave] What got washed.The whites were the items most washed, dark clothes were the wool coats, hats, dresses, even pants, that were not washed every week like underwear and shirts. I wonder if the idea of a "washday" was so that the courtyard only looked like this one day a week. For the birdsI'd sure hate it if a flock of pigeons flew by. Bird HeavenYou would think there would be a problem with pigeons sitting on the lines. Scenes like this always remind me of the old cartoons where a character falls from a plane or something, goes through the lines and ends ends up safely on the ground dressed in some odd combination of apparel he accumulated along the way. Air-DriedThere's nothing like clean sheets and towels fresh from the line. Tumble-drying is a poor substitute. East End AvenueIt looked a lot like that in the 1940's too. I lived with my folks at 48 East End Avenue, not far from Gracie Mansion in Carl Shurtz Park. It was not glam in those days, and we lived in a second floor apartment above a liquor store and florist shop. Out the back were the usual New York back yards above which were the spider web of laundry lines, many of which did go from building to building. I've got a painting my dad did of the view out the living room window, and also paintings of the ice house that burned in a fire around the corner from us. From the Park we could watch the progress as the UN building was built. WashdayI had an acquaintance many years ago from the Boston area. Every Wednesday you could count on him for at least two or three call-outs for "Wednesday Washday." So that makes me think you might be onto something. Now that this particular photo shows the poles on which the pulleys were attached, it clears up my mistaken impression that these lines were strung between buildings. Makes sense that they weren't. Just for the conflicts between who got to use the line on any given day. These kind of everyday activity photos are a real specialty of Shorpy which seems to please a lot of us. Dave, you play well to your audience. Tenement DaysI'm a student in Glasgow now, and there are echoes of the tenement days in the way the washing is strung up in the courtyard -- it's metal pulleys now, and they're not high in the air between the buildings, but they're really close to the same. I must admit that though I put clothes out to air dry in California -- where in the summer, they can dry in ten minutes sometimes -- I haven't brought myself to do it here. Between the rabid seagulls, the breweries and the distilleries and the air pollution, I think my whites would be a bit gray... Ropa Tendida!En mi pueblo aun es así. (With my people it is the same.) Puzzling subjectThis photo would make a great jigsaw puzzle. [Hmmm. - Dave] Day of the Week?Not so sure about a designated or fixed day for doing the wash back then. Our family still relies on outdoor drying and, like haymaking, must be done "while the sun shines." [Back in olden times, anyone could have told you that washday was Monday. - Dave] Everyday is washdayor at least when I was growing up. We had two lines off the back of the house, and if it was muggy it would take a long time to dry. So you would hang the clothes in the morning, then dry them all day and start over the next day. All the whites go together because the bleach would ruin anything else. "Wash on Monday...Iron on Tuesday Mend on Wednesday Churn on Thursday Clean on Friday Bake on Saturday Rest on Sunday" I remember my grandmother baking the week's bread on Saturday. My mother would start off the week doing laundry and then I would earn a penny for each of my father's handkerchiefs that I ironed the next day. However, we never churned our own butter. Cloth diapersEwww. Just Ewww. DiapersFabulous photo, like this cropped version better than the full one. About cloth diapers: I was the oldest of four and folded a lot of diapers in the 1950s. (And yes, they come in from the line frozen stiff in winter and have to be draped about the house to finish drying.) Not to get too graphic here, but if not changed frequently, babies got terrible rashes and sores, so 10 or 12 diapers a day wouldn't be a lot. My mother bought 4 or 5 dozen for each new baby. So, I would have thought there would be a lot more diapers in this image than there seem to be. Maybe people living in tenements in 1900 couldn't afford fabric to be used only for diapers and used rags? Or diapers were shaped differently and I don't recognize them? Anthony! Anthony!I thought Wednesday was Prince spaghetti day. (The Gallery, DPC, NYC)
Online: 1900
... and Community Not only is this a community of laundry, it's a Community. I miss neighbors, and sitting on the stoop on a warm ... I like the messy, rebellious line of washing about 3 lines in from the top. At first, I decided to attribute it to the wind, but ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/13/2012 - 8:19pm -

Circa 1900-1910. "Yard of tenement, New York City." Hung out to dry somewhere in Manhattan. Detroit Publishing Company glass negative. View full size. Out of LineWhen I see these back porch clothesline photos I can't help but think of Mrs. Frobisher's squeaky pulley that concludes one of "Uncle Claude's" funniest vaudeville routines ever. W.C. Fields worked it into "It's a Gift" and the whole movie is a nonstop riot, perhaps his best. Well worth the looking into if you have never seen it. UnmentionablesI see a lot of men's underwear and kids' undershirts but nowhere can I find any ladies' undergarments -- corsets and such. I wonder if they aired those out to dry or if they had to be much more modest about it. Pulley ServiceI wonder who had the job of climbing those tall poles to place / replace / rethread the pulleys. Clearly this isn't the French Quarter. Clothespins and CommunityNot only is this a community of laundry, it's a Community. I miss neighbors, and sitting on the stoop on a warm summer evening, kids playing in the street, all of it. Bad Housekeeping?I like the messy, rebellious line of washing about 3 lines in from the top. At first, I decided to attribute it to the wind, but since everyone else's is so neat and straight, I wonder. I do see what looks like "unmentionables" towards the top right, and despite the predominance of plain longjohns, I do see some ladies print dresses in the bottom left corner. UnmentionablesMy understanding is that corsets and other personal items were hung inside other things such as sheets or pillow cases. However I doubt if corsets were washed very often -- if ever. Re: Pulley ServiceI read someplace (don't remember where) that in the days of laundry lines here in NYC, there were young boys who would shinny up the poles and adjust, repair, and replace the lines. I think twenty five cents was the going rate. Risky businessI thought it was a pain hanging clothes on our back yard line that was five feet off the ground. At least I didn't have to worry about falling out of a fourth floor window while doing it. The aroma!Even today, when clothes are hung outside to dry, they smell so much fresher than being confined in a dryer for 30-40 minutes with a chemical laden dryer sheet! Why only whites?Does anyone know why there are only whites drying? Generic Urban nostalgia I suppose most any city boy, or girl, who's over 50, will feel a pang of nostalgia for the 'Gentrified Tenements' our grand-parents lived in. I didn't care about the hour drive past the stinking oil crackers, or the four flights of stairs my mom and dad huffed up with pounds of holiday bounty. I relished the smells and sounds of the aging but solidly constructed apartments. This was life! Whose wash is that? Almost all of these tenements had basement areas where you could hang up stuff during inclement weather. Or dry out unmentionables. My godfather chose to set up an 8x16' model rail-road, much to the delight of us kids. Re: only whitesWhites were the first items washed, the first items hung. The women were washing the other stuff while the whites dried. The last items to be washed were usually papa's work clothes. (The Gallery, DPC, NYC)
Brooklyn Bridge: 1903
... There are almost as many rooftop clotheslines loaded with laundry as there are Fletcher's Castoria signs. It is interesting to note that ... lanes are the rights of way for the rapid transit/trolley lines. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, NYC, Streetcars) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/31/2012 - 2:56pm -

New York circa 1903. "East River and Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan." Among the many signs competing for our attention are billboards for "Crani-Tonic Hair Food" and Moxie. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Carter's Liver PillsCarter's Liver Pills may not have had the exposure that Chas H Fletcher's had on these billboards but they gave them a run for the money. Those early 1900 nostrums lasted into the post WW2 Era and even after that. The public finally caught on and I don't believe they're easily found anymore. However the pharmaceutical ads of today are blasting the same cure-all messages but they cost a lot more money. Lots of LaxativeCharles H. Fletcher certainly made his presence known in this vicinity. According to Wikipedia, he was a very successful laxative maker. Did Manhattan need it very badly? Ferry BoatsWonderful collection of vessels on this very busy waterway. In contrast, an almost leisurely pace on the bridge. Top o'the World?This view looks like it was taken from the top of the New York World Building on Park Row, which was seen earlier on Shorpy. Although the advertised height of the World Building (349 feet) was somewhat exaggerated, the top was still pretty high up! Hard to starboard !Looking to the right of the bridge,on the Brooklyn side,you'll see a ferryboat at a really bad angle! She's tilting hard to port while making a starboard turn, churning up the water real bad. Almost looks like she's trying to avoid the dock. Land Ho!What an amzaing picture. Could study it for days and not get bored. From Uneeda Biscuit, to Carter's Small Pill - Small Dose - Small Price Pills; to the two railcar ferries, to the WHOA! WAIT A MINUTE! What's up with the ferry listing hard to port with lots of propwash behind it heading for Brooklyn, just south of the bridge?!? Looks like it's trying hard to bank to port with props in reverse to avoid slamming the pier (but looks like it's too late to miss it!). Maybe the captain had to go too fast to make it across the busy water traffic and didn't have enough room to slow down. But if the captain hadn't sped up, there'd have been a collision. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. The captain probably needed one of the many advertised tonics after that ferry landing! What a country!The year this was taken was during the huge migration from Europe which lasted several decades. Just imagine the amazement of those often poverty-stricken, downtrodden, oppressed people arriving at Ellis Island with everything they owned on their backs and being brought to the city in which they must now make a new life and seeing, for the first time in their lives, this magnificent panorama of mind-boggling industrial activity, ships from around the world, sky scrapers everywhere, phenomenal bridges and modes of transportation, bustling well-dressed, smiling healthy people, ads everywhere for appetizing, abundant food and other worldly pleasures, religious steeples and domes, the smells of ocean and fumes and foods all mingled together and offering an endless buffet of opportunity and freedom. I find this beautiful picture breathtaking. Thank you Shorpy from a descendant of the huddled masses. For those of you good at spotting details:Did anyone notice any "Fletchers Castoria" ads? Mixed trafficIt must be the rush hour. Look how close the electric elevated train from Brooklyn with the trolley poles is to the cable Bridge Only train in front of it. The white disk on the front of the cable train tells which cable, set of interlaced rails, and station platform it is using. The elevated train uses its trolley poles when it runs on the ground beyond the end of the El structure in the outer reaches of Brooklyn. I want more Chas. H. Fletcher ads!Wonderfully detailed photo. I could study it for hours. Ah, memoriesWow, think there are enough ads for Fletcher's Castoria? I remember that gawdawful stuff from my childhood. Whenever we'd visit my grandmother she'd slip us a dose in some chocolate milk. Apparently daily BMs were high on her list. HyphenatedDon't forget the billboard for Pe-Ru-Na! One more thingAnd at least eight signs for Fletcher's Castoria! Steeplechase Park Bargain10 cents for five hours! Heck, I'd give $100 for five hours to be able to travel back to 1903 to experience Tilyou's Steeplechase Park. From the old photos and video clips of it I have seen, it was a happening place. Even today with all our technology, I'd bet folks would still have a wonderful time! Decisions, decisionsWith this dime burning a hole in my pocket I could either buy two Cremo cigars or spend five hours at Steeplechase Park. My BridgeWhat a wonderful picture of my bridge that I just bought last week from a nice man who told me that I could buy the Brooklyn Bridge for a few hundred dollars. Looking at this picture I believe it was a good investment. Running the gauntlet on the Brooklyn BridgeHaving a close eye on the rails for the El, interesting that they are running a gauntlet track on both sides across the bridge...no switch points, just a frog. Under a closer look, it looks like there is a cable between the rails for a...cable car? Seen just past where the switch points would be if it was a normal switch. BTW, first post here at Shorpy! Love the site!! Chas. H. FletcherI believe I count at least 21 Chas. H. Fletcher signs. Some are a bit obscured, but the text is quite distinctive so I believe I have it correct. If I ever get catapulted back in time, I am opening a sign company! Must have been a lucrative business. Fletcher's CastoriaI found 20 signs in this photo and there might be more! World SeriesNow that it is World Series time, in the middle of it actually; can anyone from New York confirm that it's called the World Series because the New York World newspaper promoted the first of these events, and the Series name has no international implications? [That notion is debunked here. - Dave] Fletcher AdsI found 20 of these ads. There might be more! 22 Fletcher Signs !!One wonders what his advertising budget was - apparently unlimited - Personally, I feel this was overkill and would be annoying enough to cause me to choose the other brand - I easily counted 22 if his signs, including 5 on the Brooklyn side of the river. Scuffy the TugboatThis fantastical scene reminds me of the old Golden Books story of Scuffy the Tugboat, when the two children were peering over the bridge on the harbour, watching Scuffy, as he found himself in a bewildering maze of giant ships all around him. What's with the ferry steamer in the upper right side of the photo? His paddles look "full-ahead," while the vessel is listing hard aport and about to ram the wharf? Uh-oh! Great photo; begging to be colorized by some Shorpy artista. Blowin' in the WindThere are almost as many rooftop clotheslines loaded with laundry as there are Fletcher's Castoria signs. It is interesting to note that even though the Brooklyn Bridge had been open for twenty years, the ferries were still running and would continue to do so until 1924. Hang On!Lots o' signs, yes, but my attention was drawn to that hard heeling-to-port ferry approaching the pier on the opposite shore (right in the photo). Was somebody showing off for the citizenry, or were they perhaps initially headed into the wrong berthing space? [Probably not. - Dave] TrafficCan you imagine the insanity on the river? There's even a ship hitting a bulkhead while turning into its dock. Lucky for them the wind was in their favor. (I now see Denny covered this the first comment. D'oh.) And Castor Oil had a predecessor? I never knew. Why pilots are regular officersInteresting factoid about castor oil: WW1 airplane engines were lubricated with it and sprayed a steady stream of the stuff back into the pilot's face, with predictable consequences. More RecentlyI was told that this Fletcher's Castoria sign at Henry & Market Streets, on NYC's Lower East Side, was around until about 2003. There are probably others that are still visible. Cable Power on the Brooklyn BridgeThe original Brooklyn Rapid Transit line that ran over the Brooklyn Bridge to the Park Row terminal was indeed a cable-powered line. The line was eventually electrified. Rapid transit service over the Brooklyn Bridge ended permanently in 1944 when the NYC Board of Transportation decided to terminate Brooklyn elevated train service at Jay Street/Bridge Street station. Trolleys then were briefly used on the Bridge tracks. The huge Sands Street and Park Row terminals were later torn down and the Bridge itself was rebuilt in 1952 and converted solely to automobile use. Today, there are three lanes in each direction on the Bridge for cars. The innermost lanes are the rights of way for the rapid transit/trolley lines. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, NYC, Streetcars)
Rear Windows: 1940
... disappears. Not a lot of pulleys Those laundry lines must have required a lot of effort just to get them to move. Several of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/27/2022 - 2:13pm -

March 22, 1940. New York. "Rear of #68 and #70 Greenwich Street showing dormers and stable ell back of #73 Washington Street at left. Houses built circa 1825." 5x7 inch acetate negative by Stanley P. Mixon for the Historic American Buildings Survey. View full size. ProblematicBurglar bars and a fire escape. What could possibly go wrong? Rear Window.Hitchcock, of course, made a classic flick of that scene in "Rear Window". Probably one of the greatest films ever made. And Grace Kelly -- sigh. Some fingers holding a scaleThis person -- presumably a surveyor for HABS -- is much braver than I would have been in standing next to these buildings. They're in pretty bad shape. Greenwich Street, of course, would face another falling wall hazard many years later. Fictive and real, far and nearThe courtyard in Hitchcock's 'Rear Window' was entirely a Hollywood set. (They had to dig out the studio floor, so most of it was below ground level.) However, Hitchcock's designers used an actual location as a reference, the back of 125 Christopher Street. (To complicate matters, the film gives a fictitious address, 125 West Ninth Street, which is not completely fictitious because Christopher Street is what Ninth Street is called west of Sixth Avenue.) That is two miles from Moxon's location; both are 1300 miles from the old Paramount lot. Put the photos below into black and white, and though more upscale they don't look that different from Moxon's. The Christopher Street courtyard is still intact. The house across the street survived67 Greenwich Street, across the street from 68 and 70, is still there. I had to get close; if you back up to get a better view, the address disappears. Not a lot of pulleysThose laundry lines must have required a lot of effort just to get them to move. Several of them don't seem to be running on pulleys, like the one across the middle of the fram, attaching as a loop in a rope around the top of the chimney. Another, going up to that top window, seems to loop on a hook. I know that this is a "slum" scene, but even for the middle-class, so much work went into something we pretty much take for granted now: laundering clothes. It's why nearly every person in nearly every old Shorpy photo are wearing soiled, tired, rumpled clothing -- even people of moderate wealth. People looked so different back then, and not just that they were skinny. Their clothes and shoes were not shiny-clean, or fresh and new; their socks were drooping. This, despite the fact that people of the early 20th century generally "dressed-up" in ways that we find astonishing. So when I see crisp costumes in period-piece movies and television, Shorpy has ruined it for me! I can't make the imaginative leap, because I know that people practically lived in their clothes back then. Looks like fire trap rowNineteenth-century buildings such as these often shared a common wall between them. The main downtown business street in my community was lined with buildings similar to these, although not so deteriorated back then. Some were wood-frame, others brick. Typically, the buildings had businesses on the first and sometimes second floor, apartments on floors above. In August, 1899, a fire started in one of the downtown buildings. Within hours, the entire core business area was reduced to smoldering ruins. Common-wall construction facilitated the totality of destruction. Tremendous heat in one building, often on the top or an upper floor, would cause bricks in the common wall to explode, opening the way for fire and smoke to spread into the next building. The brave but overwhelmed firefighters of the time couldn't begin to stop the spread. In the aftermath, the common-wall vulnerability became apparent. City fathers soon passed an ordinance prohibiting that kind of construction, along with other safety requirements. I'm sure New York City officials knew of the common-wall danger long before 1940. I wonder if these ancient buildings and so many like them were grandfathered in as they were or required to install some sort of add-in firewall. Not for longActually kinda startling to believe that such tenements still existed in that part of town as late as 1940. But, only 10 years later this entire 2-block stretch would become the entrance/exit to the Battery Park Tunnel to Brooklyn (and a parking garage). An exceptional resource for exploring NYC during this era: https://1940s.nyc/ In this view of the map the backyards of the two buildings, and the back structure that our man is surveying, can be clearly seen. This photo would have been shot from the back window of 71 Washington St. Visible at top center is the Adams Express Building (1914), and to the right of that, the Continental Bank Building (1932). NY Times on 67 GreenwichLengthy and researched NY Times article on 67 Greenwich, a survivor from 1810. Interior completely redone, four floors now three floors, but it is finding new uses today: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/realestate/streetscapes-dickey-house-... PerspectiveThese buildings as shown are old and dilapidated to the point of scary moviedom. While never to be confused with The Ritz, these were built to solve a housing problem and offered a tremendous step upward for the original residents. That changes over time, of course. (The Gallery, HABS, NYC)
Three Brooklyn Bridges: 1908
... from the flags, smoke/steam, and drying clothes on the lines (frozen undies, hooray!) it sure seems like the wind is blowing hard. ... go outside if you don't have to, but you have to do your laundry when you have a chance! Brooklyn Bridges Amazing photo... One of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/19/2012 - 3:42pm -

Feb. 22, 1908. "Three New York-Brooklyn bridges from Brooklyn." An amazingly detailed panorama of New York recorded by George Grantham Bain. Our 3100 pixel wide version (view full size), detailed as it is, is less than a quarter the size of the hi-res scan of the original 8x10 inch glass negative. From the left: Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge (under construction) and Williamsburg Bridge. Two BucksIf you look under the Brooklyn Bridge on the left hand side of the picture, there's a sign on the pier that says "2.00 to Boston". It would be interesting to know what that would cost nowadays. And I agree with Mr. Mel - a great picture! [In full, the sign says "Neptune Line via Fall River $2.00 to Boston." - Dave] Like 3DThe clarity and depth of this picture is exceptional, especially the tall apartment houses like the one above the Shorpy watermark, and the shorter one to right of it, in the front. We've all seen some great photos here, but this is one of the best. I'm still trying to take it all in. Columbia HeightsThe pillared porch (lower left of both photos) is about 148 Columbia Heights. Which seems to be one of the few areas in the picture not cleared out for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. View Larger Map Not much traffic...Must have been a winter day. Note the snow along the roads. A fascinating image to study for little details like that. [Another subtle clue to winterness is the first word of the photo caption. - Dave] Going UpTall structure going up on the horizon. I wonder if that's the Metropolitan Life Tower. Tallest building in the world from its completion in 1909 until 1913. It's in about the right spot but may be too wide. Just a guess. Still StandingI love Google map embeds. The building with the prominent quoins in the foreground is still standing at the corner of Clark and Willow. It looks like it retains the original fire escape and railing. They ought to get a copy of this photo for their lobby! Amazingly enoughThe whole block of houses still seems to be intact. A Queens Bridge Too!Way in the background, above the gas tanks in Manhattan, is the Queensboro Bridge under construction. SuperbMy gast is absolutely flabbered. Such detail; so well done. Denny Gill Chugiak, Alaska Where are the people?Where are all the people? Looking back on old NY pics, the streets always seem to be filled with people (traffic, cart vendors etc.) It is February and it looks like daylight so I imagine that this pic would not have been taken that early in the day so where have all the people gone. [They're probably indoors, seeing as how it's Saturday and freezing outside. I see two horses and a man and a woman. - Dave] Minor Footnote in HistoryThe Robert Gair Company Factory in the distance is where corrugated cardboard boxes were invented by mistake. Another ClueJudging from the flags, smoke/steam, and drying clothes on the lines (frozen undies, hooray!) it sure seems like the wind is blowing hard. Too unpleasant to go outside if you don't have to, but you have to do your laundry when you have a chance! Brooklyn BridgesAmazing photo... One of my favourites on here... Brooklyn lifeThe picture makes we wish I could just zoom in and see what life is like at that point in time in all those windows. A time machine would be nice. ModernThe Robert Gair Company building looks surprisingly modern, like something I'd imagine people might've built in the 1950-60s. Beautiful pictureI bought this picture from your gallery to give to a friend who lives in Brooklyn, and when it came in, I was amazed at the clarity. She absolutely fell in love with it. Thank you for making her happy. Robert Gair He was one of the first to build with concrete. It resulted in a building that didn't shake from his machinery making boxes and bags. Wow!Talk about a time machine! Why would they take a picture like this? I would think that it would be rather brutal to lug all that equipment onto a roof somewhere in winter and have to wait for the exposure. Some dedication! I'm glad George made the effort. [Exposure time for an 8x10 plate outdoors in 1908 would not have been very long. A few seconds at the most. - Dave] Glass negativesThese old photos from glass negatives look better than the old photos that are from film. Also better than any digital camera today. I know those cameras were cumbersome but the results look better to me. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, G.G. Bain, NYC)
Twelfth and G: 1901
... the couple across the street, strolling towards the Elite Laundry carriage, look so tall and effortlessly elegant. Ralston Club ... seen by the tall telephone poles, each carrying 80+ phone lines, lightning striking one of those poles could send jolts of lethal energy ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/02/2021 - 12:22pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1901. "View of G Street N.W., mostly north side, looking west from 12th Street showing Washington Savings Bank on the corner along with other businesses on the block." 5x7 inch glass negative, D.C. Street Survey Collection. View full size. The same ?? Hecht no !!Or as it's now known (and loved?): macy*s ... one of their few remaining downtown stores. Here it is today. Only the Epiphany still stands Short but sweet?I'm wild about the couple in the foreground, her hitching up her skirts, him staring imperiously at either the camera or the person wielding it. Neither of them can be above five foot two! But he's so dapper and she's so smart. In contrast height-wise, the couple across the street, strolling towards the Elite Laundry carriage, look so tall and effortlessly elegant. Ralston Club ... might have been a better name for this image. I got curious and wondered if it was related to the health regime called Ralstonism. How very curious that is! And Notcom - I don't know what the hecht you mean! Maybe I need to look closer ... [Big building on the corner in the Street View. - Dave] FlaneurismeNotcom is correct - Washington Savings Bank on the right has been replaced by a Macy's, which takes up the north side of the block to 13th Street. But if you swing Google Street View to your left there is a Chase Bank. The church is gone, but there is another one on the next block west in the same Gothic style, also on the north side of the street. The street trolley is gone, but if you swing to your right, you will see the Center Station Metro stop. I could not, however find any man today wearing a derby nor any woman hitching up her skirt. PolesI like how the telephone poles are slightly askew. Adds character. Curvy ...I thought the macular degeneration was acting up but it's just a crooked telephone pole. Ralston ClubStop in for some Purina. I love the observationsI am always surprised at what I miss, so thank you if you add to what I can see in the pictures Talkin' on the phoneBack in the day of wired phones it was known that it was dangerous to talk on the phone during a lightning storm. As can be seen by the tall telephone poles, each carrying 80+ phone lines, lightning striking one of those poles could send jolts of lethal energy directly down the phone lines, injuring anyone unfortunate to be holding their phone at that time! Take my money, please.I am openly drooling at the thought of what might be on offer in a 1901 antique dealer's shop. What the Hecht, indeedIt is a Macy's store now, but the current building was built by The Hecht Company (Hecht's), a department store chain which began operating in Washington in 1896. It was a family owned company until 1959, when the May Company bought Hecht's. The stores continued to be operated as Hecht's. The May Company was acquired by Federated Department Stores in 2005 and the store was converted to a Macy's. The store is unique in that it was built with its own entrance into Washington's Metro Center subway station. “Center Station”?The name of the Metro station located at 12th and G is not “Center Station,” it’s “Metro Center.” On the opposite corner from the BankIs that R2-D2 sitting there? Or a near relative of his? Light, Strength, Temperation, Oxygen ...Rather creepy person that Mr. Albert Webster Edgerly, who founded the Ralston Health Club, if we may believe what is written about him and his ideas here. (The Gallery, D.C., D.C. Street Survey, Streetcars)
Washday: 1900
... line. Don't the people at the far end of the block do laundry? Soggy sox If putting your wash out on the line causes rain, ... He charged around 25 cents for the climb and would sell lines and pulleys. If one planned ahead, the line and pulley would have been ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/26/2012 - 4:57pm -

New York circa 1900. "Yard of tenement at Park Avenue and 107th Street." 11 x 14 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Recalls Sam LevinsonThe Great Sam Levinson wrote of such a scene that his mother's nightgowns hung down a full three stories when wet, and his sister's skirts which "Dripped technicolor onto other people's whites" PrecipitationRain must have made for an interesting day at work the next morning. The GoldbergsThe lady in the upper left window has to be Mrs. Goldberg. She is getting ready to stick her head out the window and give us some words of wisdom. No. 9My grandfather was section chief for the DM&IR Railway in Duluth, Minnesota. The company-owned house was directly next to the tracks, as these tenements are. My grandmother was fortunate to have her clothesline on the other side of the house. But I remember her hanging out to the schedule of the Number 9 coming out of the Range with a load of iron ore. See the lady in the window? Maybe she sees King Kong! Off line.Don't the people at the far end of the block do laundry? Soggy soxIf putting your wash out on the line causes rain, there must be a hurricane headed for Manhattan. The UnmentionablesWhat? No jockstraps or thongs? Bombs Away!Imagine what marks some birds with digestive problems could leave on those washday whites. Real life in New York CityWow. Here's the world of my immigrant grandparents -- the intimate backyard world. I love the details of the shirtwaist-wearing women in the top story apartment, whose child is out on the fire escape. And the folks around a table on the right hand side of the picture, one story down. They've got a plant on the fire escape and some other stuff -- it's like a balcony! Wonderful picture - thanks Dave! Solar poweredWhat a beautiful example of a "carbon footprint" this photo is showing. Not an electric clothes dryer in sight. Brings back memories of the postwar 1940s era. For some reason washday was always on a Monday, today's washday is a push of a button any day or time of the week. Day of the weekMust be Monday! OMG!What would today's NIMBYists have to say about this scene? Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for meIf a big enough gust hit, those building could go sailing off into the sunset. Drip Drip DripI guess wash day was also No Playing in the Backyard Day! I wonder why the train wasn't movingThere is no Metro North station (back then, "New York and Harlem" station) between 42nd Street and 125th Street, or at least there hasn't been for a long time. This photo was probably taken through the window of a train that had stopped on the tracks for some reason. [This photo was made with a giant view camera (11 by 14 inch glass negative) on a tripod. It's not a snapshot from a train window. Detroit Publishing was a professional outfit. - Dave] The HoneymoonersYou can almost hear Ralph yelling out the window at Norton That carbon footprintOf course most of these clothes were washed in boiling water that had been heated on a coal stove. So that's a few tons of soot right there. Make Mine ModernGracious me, it makes me grateful for the "carbon footprint" of my washer and dryer for it keeps other "carbon" life forms from not only seeing my unmentionables, bot those who might leave a little carbon signature of their own on them. In my world wash day is whenIn my world wash day is when I can be sure of a good warm sunny day, or after the heaters go on, whenever i don't mind my lower floor of the house filled with wet hanging clothes. I don't know what folks did when it rained on wash day. I usually pay attention to the weather. If I do get rained out, fortunately there's still laundromats around with electric dryers. I do have a state-of-the-art front loader machine for the washing (anyone want my old maytag wringer?) I refuse to get a dryer just as I refuse to add a dish washer, or get an air conditioner. One simply has to draw a line. Hung out to dryMore interesting was watching the man who visited your backyard two or three times a year climb the poles to attach the clotheslines. "I climb poles" would echo through the yards. He charged around 25 cents for the climb and would sell lines and pulleys. If one planned ahead, the line and pulley would have been bought in the local hardware store for a small savings. PS The roof was used for sunbathing (Tar Beach) Marmoset or Flower Pot?Great photograph! Is that some sort of an animal on the window sill next to the top, far left? Btw, I see some unmentionables on the lines, but of course I can't, er, mention 'em. From roots like thisCouple years later, couple blocks south, couple blocks other side of those train tracks -- one of the kids playing under those clotheslines will be named Henry Louis Gehrig. From Monday OnFrom Monday on, my cares are over From Monday on, I'll be in clover We picked on Monday because it's washday And we'll wash our blues away From Monday on, the skies will look bright Don't tell me different, I know I'm right I'm gonna start shouting Hey Hey When he says Love Honor and Obey I'll be happy, from Monday on. A catchy late '20s Paul Whiteman tune with Bing and the boys singing about wedded bliss. (The Gallery, DPC, NYC)
Jersey Shore: 1904
... ocean. Washday These folks sure saved money on laundry detergent -- and bar soap, too. Then As Now Too many people. ... blue flannel, trimmed with bands of white on which are lines of red soutache. 3) Navy blue flannel, with a white collar, vest and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/20/2012 - 3:41pm -

The Jersey Shore circa 1904. "Steeplechase Pier and bathers, Atlantic City." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Women's bathing suits on sale today!Any color you want, as long as it's black. Shark!Just a dozen years more and to these waters (and Matawan Creek) will come a visitor that would be the primary inspiration for "Jaws" -- the Matawan Man-Eater. Water WingsIn the center bottom a woman is holding .. donno .. water wings I suppose. Have to wonder what they were made of in 1904. [Rubberized canvas. - Dave] So many pee-opleSo little ocean. WashdayThese folks sure saved money on laundry detergent -- and bar soap, too. Then As NowToo many people. Bathing suit bluesOh, for color film in 1904! Even though most of these suits were probably rented, I think we'd see many more dark blue bathing suits than black ones. Among the personally owned suits we'd also see some red, some dark gray, and occasionally a white one. Ads for suits mentioned solid colors along with navy blue or plain black, but the blue ones seemed to be the most popular. Most of the surviving suits from the period now in museums are some shade of dark blue. Even patterns for homemade swimsuits available in the years before this picture was taken recommend more blue material than anything else. Looking at patterns for eleven different bathing suits spanning nearly twenty years, I found two that were for striped material (one red and white, and one not stated - see the woman closest to the camera at bottom center in the picture), one for white, one for red, and one for patterned material. The other six recommended: 1) Russian blue flannel, with ruffles of white embroidery and consists of drawers, blouse and cap. The cap was made of white oiled silk. 2) Dark blue flannel, trimmed with bands of white on which are lines of red soutache. 3) Navy blue flannel, with a white collar, vest and belt ornamented with feather stitching. 4) Either of dark blue serge or Alpaca, consists of short drawers buttoned to a blouse waist which has a vest and a collar of white serge trimmed with a black braid and a skirt. 5) Red or blue flannel and consists of drawers, blouse, vest and skirt. 6) Dark blue serge, bound with white worsted braid, and ornamented in chain stitch embroidery with white split zephyr worsted. Even most of the reproductions made today are blue. Below are four surviving suits from museums or vintage clothing auctions, along with a reproduction (on the full-length mannequin). And in case you were wondering - yes, they wore swimming corsets under their bathing suits too, which were smaller than their normal ones. CoveredThe straw hat vendor must have made a mint on that beach! Last of Victorian ModestyWhat an event to actually see a man's underarms, a woman's thighs, the wet bodies that leave so little to the prudish to surmise ! I see that many of the men wear "letter" tops that belie the use of sportswear as swimming clothing & I also wonder if not that the rather ubiquitous floppy straw hats are also worn by men as much as by women. Experiences like these certainly pushed to old morals of the 19th Century right out of the average persons mind quickly. Ready to cakewalk & then tango right into the next fast-paced twenty years, after which even times like these would seen idyllic & far too contrived & controlled for any sincere fun seeker of the new century. A punch upabout to start next to the woman with the water wings! Up close and personalScan the surf line and count the number of men holding women (and women holding women). Probably one of the only socially acceptable times to touch or be close to the opposite sex in 1904 without chaperones. Jersey ShoreLook at the crowds! More than on a holiday weekend today. No exposed skin anywhere on the beach. Where are the lifeguards? Oh, they had none. Looks like it was "Swim at your own risk." I found Waldo!Hiding in plain sight, right up front. Water Wings & SwimsuitsI have an old pair of water wings that are a more teardrop shaped that are made of rubber lined white canvas. I doubt they would keep an adult afloat on their own, at best only offering a bit of help for a weak swimmer or one just learning. Thanks to Tobacconist for the great commentary and illustrations on vintage swim wear. My research confirms his/hers regarding color preferences during the heyday "skirts and bloomers" era of women's swim wear (roughly the 1850s through the 1910s, or 1920s for the most modest). I suspect the popularity of dark blue was because of the nautical associations that show up almost universally in the trim on women's suits (white trimmed sailor collars, anchors, etc.) Also, dark colors remain opaque when wet. Very important to modesty to be sure! -- Glenna Jo the swimsuit collector (using her husband's account to comment) Thanks, Tobacconist!Actually, I WAS wondering if they wore corsets under their bathing costumes! Some of the shapes really look like it. It makes a lot of sense that most of the suits would have been blue too, especially Navy-blue, since that is associated with the ocean. I think it would be very uncomfortable to wear so much clothing in the water, but I guess it wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't heavy fabric. I'll bet it was fairly heavy, though, especially the rented suits, to be able to hold up to a lot of use. (The Gallery, Atlantic City, DPC, Swimming)
A Most Amazing Room: 1910s
... room or Herbert's room. How did he get up to reach the laundry hanging over the sign? I see nothing other than a few rickety chairs ... At the time, Pawnee City was at the junction of two rail lines that likely brought a lot of visitors from across the country and with ... 
 
Posted by Fredric Falcon - 02/28/2019 - 3:49pm -

This room from well over a hundred years ago in Pawnee City, Nebraska, looks to have been the personal space of a boy or teenager. It's filled with weird little items a teenage boy might have found worth collecting. A handwritten sign on the wall says "WHO ENTERS HERE - LEAVE HOPE BEHIND". A large Punch and Judy puppet is mounted on a chair with a warning not to handle it. Playing cards decorate the walls. The scrawled message on the heating stove says "Sacred to the Memory of a Fireman - He has gone to his last fire". An American flag covers the ceiling. Browse around the room and see what you can find. It's his own private museum, the Voynich Manuscript of Victorian living space! Scanned from a 4x5 glass negative. View full size. Animal House 1.0Has that frat-house parlor vibe. BeachcomberThere are at least two horseshoe crabs on the wall. Nothing unusual for the Jersey shore but not really abundant in Nebraska. Eclectic and eccentricHe certainly had the eye and sensibilities of a collector, as well as a gift for design -- especially collage. I love how he ran out of room on "leavehopebehind" but didn't bother to do it over. All he left out was the hashtag. Could be BertThe sign on the right wall could say Robert's room or Herbert's room. How did he get up to reach the laundry hanging over the sign? I see nothing other than a few rickety chairs and something like a pulley clothesline similar to those seen stretching from tenement to tenement. Parasols, Chinese lanterns ...... not to mention what appear to be old helmets from the Franco-Prussian War, and a halberd. There's also a miniature human skull in a tiny shadow box. Some of these things might even have been stage props. I wonder if this room is in the same house where we met the baby on the floor the other day. If so, a darned interesting family must have lived there, and I'd love to have met them. His rocker is off its rockersI see the notches in his chair legs and the rockers are across the arms. I love his Prussian military helmet collection. It is a great room -- looks like mine when I was about 12. The door must have a STAY OUT sign. Mad Magazine, ca. 1910OK, I know William Gaines's father was only about 16 in 1910, but these guys were operating on the same wavelength. This is an extraordinary picture in that it shows a view of life wholly unlike anything we customarily encounter from this era, e.g., the cityscapes peopled by a formally attired citizenry as they navigate the Main Streets of an ascendant American economy. A picture-book world with everything properly in place. But looking at Junior's lair, it’s comforting to see a sensibility on display that I believe will be readily familiar to almost any reader of this blog, although perhaps a bit rough-hewn. I can’t speak for today’s (what are we calling them now?), but to this child of the Fifties, it looks really cool. My mother, however, would never have countenanced such rococo anarchy, which is probably why I think it looks cool. A truly amazing find. Map of FranceAt far left. Old Eighty-EightsI spied with my little eye a couple of things with "88" on them.I wonder what significance that number holds. Perhaps it was the year he was born, or graduated. Who knows? At any rate, I could waste all day looking at this photo! I love it! My guessI have to guess that the owner of this room was the child of one of the more eminent citizens of the town--worth noting is that Pawnee City produced Nebraska's first governor, David Butler. My guess, though, is that the banker's son is most likely--someone who had traveled as a young pup. PrivacyI bitterly resent the posting of this picture of my college dorm room. I Spy. . A rifle stock (probably a .22) sticking out from behind the cloth above the fire place he's hanging all his tchotchkes on. There isn't a stovepipe from the wood stove. The fireplace behind it is too low. The fireplace is also covered with a piece of cloth. Kind of a fire hazard. The Pith HelmetThere's a pith helmet with a plume in the picture and it looks like and I'm wondering where that might be from or what campaign. I can't seem to readily find a British one like that or any other. According to wikipedia, "The US Army wore blue cloth helmets of the same pattern as the British model from 1881 to 1901 as part of their full dress uniform. The version worn by cavalry and mounted artillery included plumes and cords in the colors (yellow or red) of their respective branches of service." It doesn't look quite like one of those though. Theater of the absurdThis looks like it could be the set of some kind of very weird stage play. Wonder RoomTrue, the preponderance of the materials (and the sign) point to a young man, but the more feminine touches make me wonder: The Chinese parasols, the girl cutout, the many hand fans, the Chinese lanterns, the necklaces, and the bonnets. Perhaps a would-be museum curator? Possibly he spent some time in Asia. As for identity, besides the "_bert"s Room” sign, the letter on the mantle mantel looks to me to start with a large flourish "Dear Robert." The banner partly obscuring one horseshoe crab and the one on the wall next to Punch both show "88," presumably 1888? That together with the "College" sign at far right could make him (and the photo) a bit older than we think. The map of France appears to be the 4 provinces of ancient Roman Gaul (except for the added bit of Basque territory I can’t find an equal to). A fire down belowIt looks obvious that stove vents through the back with a hot pipe passing through that piece of cloth over the fireplace if BillyB is wrong. If so ... Adding all that fabric pinned to the walls and mantle mantel, with all the paper and cloth flag hanging from the ceiling, it's amazing that the whole place didn't go up in flames on the first cold morning of the year. So that fireman may not have "gone to his last fire" after all. Typical Schoolboy's roomThis looks like thousands of old photographs of dorm rooms from colleges and prep schools, although an excellent example of the genre. The boys (and also girls, who however were often neater) would gather all the family castoffs, military campaign souvenirs, photos of actresses, weird signs, and college banners from brothers, fathers and uncles. As you imply, kids could recreate this look in their family homes if necessary. An Old Man Sits Collecting StampsIn a room all filled with Chinese lamps. He saves what others throw away, says that he'll be rich someday. -Cake, "Frank Sinatra" Well ... maybe,but I was a "frogs and snails and puppy dogs' tails" boy, grew up with three brothers, and raised three sons -- and I don't quite buy the interpretation here. It's just too arranged, too goofy, and just a tad feminine. There's a weird artistic sensibility in evidence here, and maybe a little derangement. What's up with the playing cards on the back of the door? I hesitate to go further, but it just doesn't look quite like an untampered-with boy's room. Some observationsFirst, the Chair That Is Not To Be Handled is a rocker, perhaps intended to be convertible, perhaps just partially dismantled. Second, the helmets (save that with the plume or feather) may be firefighters' gear, ceremonial if not quotidian; metal helmets of a military appearance were common for firefighters in France, Britain, and many other countries. Coupled with the legend on the stove, this suggests that the paterfamilias may have been a fireman, though how such exotic items came to be in the Cornhusker State is not obvious … maybe something to do with the map of France? Human beings seek to discern patterns, as much mentally as visually, so my reach may well have exceeded my grasp here. Re: I SpyHere in Maine, I have seen many stoves plugged into a fireplace cover. The stovepipe exits in the rear near the top (about opposite from where the word "Sacred" is) and goes straight into a hole in the top of the fireplace cover. It's hidden in this photo. Likely it is a coal stove, not a wood stove, although that is not certain. I do see a piece of wood leaning against the mantle mantel front next to it but coal stoves need kindling wood to get them going, so who knows? Also I don't think the fireplace cover is fabric. What looks like a wave in the face of it continues on up over the mantle mantelpiece, leading me to believe it is a stain on the original photograph. [That's the shadow of the fringe hanging off the M-A-N-T-E-L. This is scanned directly from the negative; a stain on it would show light, not dark. - Dave] I have seen a number of these fireplace covers with painted designs on them. They are made of metal. Still, with that fringed curtain hanging low off the mantle mantel top, it is indeed a fire hazard. Like the country folk here, hopefully the photo was made in summer and when the cold winds blow, the combustibles were moved a distance away from the heater. Penrod would have killed for this room.To KimS, This is exactly what a boy's room of the period looked like, perhaps neatened a little for the photo. The playing cards were in fact de rigueur -- a broken pack would have created tons of material to put up, and especially for a schoolboy, but also for college students, implied the "naughtiness" of forbidden adult gambling. Attached is part of a photo from my own collection showing a room in Springfield College from 1903 decorated with playing cards. [Subtle! - Dave] --Sorry if I was a bit didactic, but old dorm room photos are one of my collecting specialties. Also, I do not know why the attached photo did not appear. I checked, and it was not too wide (437x291 pixels). [Click "Edit" at the bottom of this comment. Browse to your photo, click "Attach" and then "Post comment." - Dave] Pawnee City remote, but not isolatedAt the time, Pawnee City was at the junction of two rail lines that likely brought a lot of visitors from across the country and with them, bringing curiosities from both coasts that would be attractive to a curious young person. The town is also in extreme southeastern Nebraska, not far from Missouri River traffic and the 'big cities' of Omaha and Kansas City. These photos are so fascinating and wonderful. Thank you! Andrew W. Roberts Norfolk, VA [We don't know for certain that this photo was taken in Pawnee. - Dave] (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
Going Up: 1900
... a Picture This one is amazing. Manhattan in 1901. I see laundry hanging on lines. Not an automobile or a window air conditioner. Not an airplane or a ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/13/2012 - 7:57pm -

Circa 1900. "New York financial district from the Woodbridge Building." The Park Row building at right was the world's tallest office tower. View full size. St. Paul BuildingLeft of the Park Row is the 26-story St. Paul Building, built 1895-1898 and demolished in 1958. It was one of the last skyscrapers designed by George B. Post, a pioneer of tall building construction in New York. Alas, it was not well received by the architectural critics of the time, and they were thinking primarily of the front of the building. What we see here are the naked backsides of the St. Paul and Park Row. What a PictureThis one is amazing. Manhattan in 1901. I see laundry hanging on lines. Not an automobile or a window air conditioner. Not an airplane or a dirigible. Not a TV antenna or a radio transmitting tower. What we have is the turn of the last century that would create more scientific paraphernalia in a few years than the world saw since its inception. Wireless Mast!Early radio. Gotta love it. Gotham GothicAnd people complain about "glass box" skyscrapers! This is one brutally ugly cityscape. Park Row BuildingThe Park Row Building is still there. It was built between 1896 and 1899. It held the distinction of the world's tallest office tower (391 feet, 30 floors) until 1908 when the 47-story Singer Building went up (612 feet). It was landmarked in 1999. November 3, 1900Based on the banners in the street, I'd bet that the photo was taken on the day of the great Sound Money Parade (November 3, 1900), in support of the Republican ticket. According to the New York Times the following morning, the 84,000-member parade included trade associations such as the Jewelers McKinley & Roosevelt Club, and the Drug, Chemicals, Paint, Varnish, and Oil Trades' McKinley & Roosevelt Sound Money Club (perhaps called the DCPVOTMRSMC). Eeew.That is one homely skyscraper. Park Row streetsideShows a more appealing view of building even if though overwhelming in height for its neighbors. Cupola statuesI would like to know more about the statues around the Park Row building cupolas. They are gone now. So are the flagpoles. It irks me that so many classic buildings have been stripped of such unique adornments. The Wireless MastThe wireless mast is found on top of the Western Union Building, also designed by George B. Post, built 1872-1875 (demolished 1913). The top floors of the building, originally under an enormous mansard roof, were rebuilt as seen here after a fire in 1890. Dig the McKinley & Roosevelt Campaign Banner!Very bottom - middle of the picture. At the time this picture was taken Teddy Roosevelt was Governor of New York and the NY Republican political machine was looking to get him out of the way. Their bright idea - convince him to run as VP with McKinley! At the time the VP position was even more powerless than it is today and the Republicans saw this as a safe parking place for a progressive that was causing them no end of headaches. He was, in effect, kicked upstairs (but he apparently went willingly). Less than a year later (September 1901) McKinley was assasinated and Roosevelt ascended to what he gleefully described as his "bully pulpit"! And at the moment of exposure, a guy on the top floor of the Sheldon Building decides to look out the window, and draw a breath of not-so-fresh air. The wireless mastMore likely, that tower was part of a signal flag system operated by a newspaper, perhaps the Journal of Commerce or the Wall St Journal or, more likely, the World. Merchants on Wall Street needed to know when cargo vessels were approaching the port. There was a series of flag stations which stretched from lower Manhattan to Sandy and out on Long Island. This tower was probably on a newspaper building on Park/Newspaper Row. Brutally ugly?Huh? How about fascinating? There is so much variety and interest in this picture - different eras of building, signs, churches, spires, flags, open windows, residential next to commercial and on and on. I could look at it over and over and discover something new every time I did. What do you get with a modern cityscape - one boring glass box after another - no life to be seen half the time. "Bird's Eye" viewHere's a recent shot: http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=qsjqgh8tzb2m&st... (The Gallery, DPC, NYC)
Granitine: 1942
... at Burlington ordnance plant." Home of the Granitine Laundry Tray. Acetate negative by John Vachon for the Office of War ... to the top of the divider between the two concrete laundry tubs. While the electric machines would have powered wringers, the ... the weather didn't cooperate then the clothes were hung on lines in the basement. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/16/2021 - 9:56am -

February 1942. "Burlington, Iowa. Acres Unit, Farm Security Administration trailer camp. In the utility building for workers at Burlington ordnance plant." Home of the Granitine Laundry Tray. Acetate negative by John Vachon for the Office of War Information. View full size. Two Wringer Washers and One WringerThere are two wringer washing machines to the left, and on the right what appears to be a wringer attached to the top of the divider between the two concrete laundry tubs. While the electric machines would have powered wringers, the other one where the lady is bent over may well have been operated with a hand crank. This would be an advantage for delicate items that might be damaged in a powered wringer. For clothes in water too hot to handle, an old cut off broom handle could be used, which is what the lady on the left might be doing. By 1951 automatic washers outsold wringers in the USA, a point that Canada did not reach until 1968. When I moved out on my own in Vancouver in 1967, my apartment building had three wringer washers until 1971. Through the WringerMy mom put her arm through one of those wringers that the child is eying somewhere around that same time in the 1940's. The effect of the flattening sort of disappeared when she was younger but you can literally see the damage it did to her arm nowadays. Listing to StarboardAnd somehow that seems appropriate. The moms are working hard, probably without sufficient thanks from the people whose clothes they are scrubbing. The tilt of the photo helps me to emphasize empathize with their fatigue. Those Washboard BluesNotice the built-in washboard on the front of the left-hand basins. The woman on the far side is bent over it, scrubbing away. Sometimes we forget how exhausting everyday domestic life must have been even in the '40s. I remember thoseIn 1947 when I was a kid my family moved into a 1941 vintage home that had a laundry tray just like those in the image. It was complete with the same built in washboard. However we had progressed beyond the wringer washer and had a newfangled "EASY Spindrier" washing machine with two tubs. One tub had an agitator similar to the agitator in today's top loading washers. After the washing process was completed the clothes were manually transferred to the second slightly smaller tub that would spin to eliminate most of the water. The next step was to hang the clothes on an outside clothes line and let mother nature's wind and Sun complete the drying process. If the weather didn't cooperate then the clothes were hung on lines in the basement. https://a.1stdibscdn.com/archivesE/upload/1121227/f_3585313/3585313_l.jp... It's not a chore, it's backbreaking workAnybody wonder why GE, Hoover et al and their hosehold appliances were all the rage after WW2? Peek-a-Boo!A small face is peeking above the washing machine. Watch those fingers in that wringer! Justice will be servedWe who watched the 1960s Batman TV show know what it means when the camera is tilted in this fashion. Soon the Caped Crusaders will break into the frothy lair of the sinister Suds Sisters and their young sidekick and sincerely kick their butts. "Holy mangle, Batman!!!" Alert supervisorThe rest of the community was hopefully as blessed as these two laundresses by the presence of such charming overseers as the one peeking at the wringer of the washing machine. I spent a little time watching an aunt use one of these and it always frightened me after being warned not to get myself caught in it. I ceased to be fearful when my mom got a mangle to press my dad's uniforms in. (The Gallery, John Vachon, Kids, Kitchens etc.)
Midwest Cafe: 1941
... 8, V-12, Straight 6 The Zephyr, with its aerodynamic lines and V-12, was a marketing coup for Ford Motor Company in the depths of ... in winter. Then, there was the unpleasant task of hanging laundry that froze nearly instantly, including my sister's diapers. Mom ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/09/2022 - 11:04am -

September 1941. "Main street of Craig, Colorado. A new and thriving boom town in the Yampa River Valley." Photo by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Straight 8, V-12, Straight 6The Zephyr, with its aerodynamic lines and V-12, was a marketing coup for Ford Motor Company in the depths of the Great Depression. It came back for 1946, then was gone. Out of stateInteresting that none of the cars shown are from Colorado. The left car has California plates, the center is from Montana, and the right from Wyoming. Craig seems like an unlikely tourist destination, but perhaps the food at the Midwest Cafe was worth the detour. Air ConditioningI enjoyed seeing the "air conditioned" sign. It reminds me of the old Kool cigarette ad on many a restaurant door: "Come in, it's KOOL inside." The cars are the Stars!The partial car on the left is a 1940 Buick Special coupe. The middle car is a 1940 Lincoln Zephyr, and the car on the right is a 1937 Chevrolet Master Business Coupe, which came with only ONE (the left one) taillight! This Boomer Boomed From CraigJust a bit after this photo was made, I was conceived in this place. My mother said there were reasons I was NOT born there. Mostly, she said it had to do with exiting the family house from the second floor in winter. Also, leaving the family car running all night in winter. Then, there was the unpleasant task of hanging laundry that froze nearly instantly, including my sister's diapers. Mom said people were neighborly. If you were starving in winter, they'd bring you a deer carcass to gnaw on and trade eggs for a cup of coffee. Also, Mom did say there were decent cafes & bars, but that they absorbed too much of my old man's time. So one blistering cold winter morning Mom packed her bags, determined to get the Hell out of there. My old man said, "If you'll wait a day, I'll go with you." Over the months ahead, there were reasons I was not born in Alaska, Washington, California nor Texas. There's a whole armoire of inherited family photos in the next room, some of which almost certainly were processed by those folks at Irwin's. KodaksUnlike in Canada, where we say Kodak and Lego (which are the actual names), in the US people say Kodaks and Legos. Why? ["Kodaks" = Kodak cameras. - Dave] +81 YearsThe Midwest Cafe was located at 520 Yampa Avenue, now the Spicy Basil. Oh yes ...Yes please, three over easy, hash browns, whole wheat and gravy, coffee for sure. AAA approvalBet it was good back then. KodaksInteresting how brand names take on a generic item identification. Kodaks refer to Kodak cameras specifically, but could have been used for all cameras? Similarly in the UK 'Hoover' became used as a generic term for vacuum cleaning: "I"m going to Hoover the carpets" (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Eateries & Bars, M.P. Wolcott, Small Towns)
Sam's White Barber Shop: 1927
... 29.3% lacked electricity, 82.2% had no wash basins or laundry tubs, 83.8% lacked central heating. . . . The entire area needed ... is the event the poster advertises is along those same lines. History of 4½ Street SW "During the late 19th century (when ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/08/2012 - 12:56pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1927. "Al Jolson's parents' house," 4½ Street S.W. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative, 8 x 10 inches. View full size. Narrow passageSmall, but scary, alley. Paging Big Joe TurnerI wonder if Big Joe Turner (who would've been 16 at the time) might have seen a poster for that show? The Boswell Sisters also had a song called Rock & Roll out around this time, must've been something in the air... Dearest Spot on EarthNote that address is in the southwest quadrant. I don't think there was a 4½ Street in the northwest. Washington Post, Jun 24, 1923 Native Washingtonians Succeed in Varied Fields of Endeavor ... To the southwest section of Washington as well as America generally the stage is typified by one name, "Al Jolson," for he is the pride of that neighborhood where he lived from the time he was a child of eight after coming to America from Europe until the dawn of fame drew his steps away from the Capital. Down in the substantial home at 713 Four-and-one-half street southwest, his boyhood home and where his father, the Rev. M.R. Yoelson still resides, there is always joy when "Al" is coming to town. For they know that although he is a personal friend of President Harding, who always tries to see his show and appreciates his humor and genius to the full, the "dearest spot on earth to him is Home, Sweet Home" and his big car caries him swiftly away from the uptown theater to his home where a reunion with his dear ones awaits him. The boys and girls at Jefferson school, just around the corner, treasure every scrap they can learn of Al Jolson, for he is one of their own, "a Jefferson school boy" through all his healthy, happy boyhood, a marble champion, a baseball player and popular among his mates. ... A million milesSo this is where he would walk a million miles for one of her smiles? also don't know what the shake, rattle and roll refers to on the signs but for sure it isn't very early rock and roll. Brrrrr....Is the coat lying on the bench possibly the cameraman's or did someone just walk away from a nice coat? Also it looks like the woman in the picture is getting ready for a shave! The 3 crosses in the architecture above "713"....were these common for that day? [Those are fleurs-de-lis. - Dave] Woman and screenI love the barely-visible cross-armed woman in the barber shop. She looks so unamused! Also, what's the deal with the screen over the barber's door? It looks like it could be pulled down to cover the whole doorway. [The lady might be cardboard. - Dave] Kiatta vs. TaylorFlyer in Sam's window.... Washington Post, Mar 25, 1927 Kiatta vs. Taylor on Mat George Kiatta, Syrian mat expert will meet George Taylor in a wrestling bout at the Mutual theater tonight. Taylor has recently won victories over Dutch Green and other good middle-weight wrestlers. ThrilledI am absolutely thrilled to find these photos. I am a Jolson fanatic from way back. I am going to share these photos with a friend of mine who is also a Jolson addict. Fixer upperI would have thought that with all his money that Al would have gotten the brick pointing repaired under those first floor windows. Or maybe his father refused the offer to do some repairs because Al's money came from the stage...or have I just watched "The Jazz Singer" too many times? DetailsAnother example of stone lintels, neatly done. Al Jolson's brother was the father of a buddy of mine at college. An interesting family! Shake, rattle etc.Couldn't find much info on the Jones boys. Did find an old Eddie Cantor reference to Archie being listed as a trombone player on a record from early 1920s. Maybe they were the first to shake rattle and roll. ContrastesOstentosa barandilla de fundición junto al callejón de mala muerte... Flores de Lis (?), en todo caso, invertidas. Dave) Heavy TypecastThe guy in the second-hand store looks like he could be typecast as the heavy in any of the period films. I remember seeing......"The Jolson Story" and "Jolson Sings Again" when I was kid. Larry Parks played Jolson. If I recall correctly, they liked to play them on New years Eve. I enjoyed them as kid, but I'll bet they wouldn't play very well today...all that blackface stuff, you know. Four and a HalfJustice Douglas had his opinion of the SW neighborhood and today, 55 years later, I have mine. The redevelopment that took place there may offer residents more plumbing, electricity and other conveniences, but all of the texture, history, aesthetics and character have been destroyed. Today, the neighborhood has all the bland "character" of similar mid- to late-20th century "developments." Every trace of the old place is gone, even the undeniably charming street name of 4½. That part of history will never come back in this neo-wasteland. I'd take Italianate cornices, scary alleys and quirky ironwork any day over the sterile blandness of a fake suburban utopian fantasy. The deal with the screen...The screen is not meant to be pulled down. Rather, it was placed there to fill the void above a screen door (no longer present in the photo). If you look closely, you will see that the door to the barber shop is slightly taller than the average door. The right side of the jamb (below the weird screen) has been supplemented with a vertical board upon which are mounted two hinge halves. It is upon these that the erstwhile screen door (of a more conventional height) hung. A less-charitable view of that blockThis spot is close to the site of the department store at 712 Fourth Street, S.W. where the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Berman v. Parker arose. According to Justice Douglas's 1954 opinion for the Court, "Surveys revealed that in Area B, 64.3% of the dwellings were beyond repair, 18.4% needed major repairs, only 17.3% were satisfactory; 57.8% of the dwellings had outside toilets, 60.3% had no baths, 29.3% lacked electricity, 82.2% had no wash basins or laundry tubs, 83.8% lacked central heating. . . . The entire area needed redesigning so that a balanced, integrated plan could be developed for the region, including not only new homes but also schools, churches, parks, streets, and shopping centers. In this way it was hoped that the cycle of decay of the area could be controlled and the birth of future slums prevented." Shake, Rattle, and Roll, 1919Shake, Rattle, and Roll (Who's Got Me) was recorded by Al Bernard in 1919. Have a listen! It's about gambling with dice. My guess is the event the poster advertises is along those same lines. History of 4½ Street SW"During the late 19th century (when today's 4th Street was named 4½ Street in Southwest), these streets were lined with small shops and were centers of a Jewish immigrant community. A synagogue of the Talmud Torah Congregation opened in 1906 under the direction of Rabbi Moses Yoelson. One of his sons was singing star Al Jolson." "Then called 4½ Street, by 1900 this street was a dividing line between white residents on the east and blacks on the west. When renamed 4th Street between the world wars, both groups joined together and persuaded the city to widen and repair the street, add modern paving, and improve lighting. Community activist Harry Wender reported that the neighborhood commemorated its victory by holding the "biggest celebration in the history of the city" and that "it was the first time that Negroes and whites paraded together in the history of Washington"." From swdc.org Here is what the street looks like today. NeighborsWe lived at 481 G Street SW in an old brick row house that was torn down as part of Urban Renewal in the 1950s. Cold water, no heat and no indoor plumbing, but it was home. (The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Stores & Markets)
Mrs. Baker: 1918
... have survived potty training my toddler without it. The laundry portion of it, come on people... Whippersnappery Ronald ... the Armour meatpacking company then sold to Greyhound Bus Lines as a way to diversify business in the 1960's. Right after Dial sold off ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/06/2012 - 1:56pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1918. From a batch of orphaned negatives whose captions are "No caption." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size. Bottoms upInteresting that in this woman's neat and tidy kitchen, a bottle opener and corkscrew are hanging on the wall. I'd have thought "Mrs. Baker" would have those gadgets nicely tucked away in a drawer somewhere. Big Time That's not exactly a dainty wristwatch Mrs. Baker is wearing. I wonder if it is some sort of kitchen timer or has other special functions. And, should it fail, Mrs. B can fall back on her trusty keywind alarm clock. That's some watchThat's an unusual wristwatch for a lady. She must work in a test kitchen. The ticker on her wristThat's a regular pocket watch with a leather pouch fitted to it-it's ideal if she has trouble seeing a more dainty piece. Also, it'll probably be able to run longer between servicing, because the tolerances aren't going to be as close as a smaller movement. As for the items hanging on the wall, there looks to be a funnel hanging there too, and it strikes me that maybe it was easier to keep those items in easy reach. Her kitchen may not have much drawer space (mine has three drawers, and none are easy to get to when you are working at the kitchen table.) The timeless Mrs. BakerIf you cropped out the shelves on the right with their circa-1918 packages, it would be hard to pin this woman down to a specific decade. She has a sturdy, sensible countenance. what time is it ?Ok her watch says around 11;15 OR SO THE CLOCK SAYS 10;20 MAYBE THE TIME PIECE ON HER WRIST WAS A TIMER FOR BAKING ? [Redrum! REDRUM! - Dave] 20 Mule-Team20 Mule-Team Borax on the shelf -- only 50 years until Ronald Reagan peddles it on "Death Valley Days." Borax?I wonder why the borax was in the kitchen. It's sometimes used as an insecticide, but it's not something you would usually keep with the tea and spices. [It's soap. - Dave] The door opens toward herHow on earth will she escape that corner? Home EconomicsThis lady is a dead ringer for my former boss, who comes from a long line of home economics teachers. I'm going to have to forward this to her and see if it's her great-grandmother or something. In the meantime, I'll just sit here and silently covet those enameled canisters. BoraxYes they do still make Borax; I couldn't have survived potty training my toddler without it. The laundry portion of it, come on people... WhippersnapperyRonald Reagan didn't take over Death Valley Days hosting until 1965 or so. To us Phase One baby boomers, Death Valley and 20-Mule Team Borax will always mean The Old Ranger, played by Stanley Andrews. Borax and other neat stuff20 Mule Team Borax is now produced by Dial Corp., along with other wonderful household stuff. Dial soap was started by the Armour meatpacking company then sold to Greyhound Bus Lines as a way to diversify business in the 1960's. Right after Dial sold off Greyhound they purchased the Boraxo and 20 Mule Team products. Funny how some things are related. Borax-4-lifeThere's a reason they still make 20-Mule-Team Borax: The stuff is amazing! I mostly use it to scrub counters and clean the bathtub, it removes stains like a dream without bleach. And the box has a ton of other uses for it. It's great if you are trying to have a greener kitchen. Ladies like Mrs. Baker probably knew that the only things you really need to clean properly are borax and white vinegar. ManlyShe has a rather manly look, doesn't she? Even her hands look masculine. Egg Beaters and BoraxI have an egg beater much like the one laying on the pastry board, from my father if you can believe it. And I haven't seen 20 Mule Team Borax in I don't know how long. Do they still make the stuff? Wristwatch fadThe big ticker might have been an early attempt at keeping up with the Joneses, given that wristwatches took off in a major way with WWI, all those dashing fellows in airplanes and submarines found them much easier to use in tight quarters and they rapidly turned into a fashion-statement. What's cookin'?This is a lovely, intriguing photo. I wish I knew what she was making and what the rest of her kitchen looked like. She looks like someone you'd like to have for a neighbor. For ErzsiI think you might have confused boric acid with borax since I do know some people used boric acid sprinkled on the floor as an insecticide. They also used it for washing babies eyes and other uses which are now VERBOTEN as that stuff can be dangerous and poisonous. My mom used it to clean wounds (also NOT recommended). No wonder I turned out all warped and twisted. (The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Kitchens etc.)
Best Domestic Coal: 1938
... coal? It that coal in the wrapped packages looking like laundry? Strange. The buildings look more like a factory or warehouse than ... and tackle for moving stuff? Watch out for those power lines! But folks of the day had enough common sense to know that. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/09/2020 - 8:41pm -

November 1938. "Apartment houses with no rear windows. Omaha, Nebraska." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Staying with the hod theme:My guess would be that those packages are bundles of coal briquets. Much easier and faster to stack into a hod than loose briquets. Easier to account for in the whole logistics chain (who would count up to 120 briquets rather than to 12 packs of 10). And cleaner to store than loose ones. Great example of consumer value meets process improvement. One lump or two?How much for all three? Remember Tim Finnegan?Because to rise in the world he carried a hod. That's how the domestic coal typically found its way into the domestic basements. Electric or central heating, anybody? The apartments survived, Best Coal did not. Wrapped packagesThis photo is such a goldmine of intriguing detail, but my attention is drawn repeatedly to those two elevated stacks of wrapped packages at curbside. They look like double reams of photocopier or printer paper, which would amount to 1,000 sheets per package. But can we ever know? The business is a hauling service, so they could be anything. The coalyardBagged up and packaged neatly. Selling some kindling there -- the bucket a day will be heating up nicely in no time. No coke machineCoal and Cola is a missed opportunity. A practical recommendationIf you can't afford the expensive imported stuff, buy the Best Domestic Coal. Coal & IceCoal & Ice companies, like Electric Railway & Light companies, were a way to make money all year long, or around the clock. Size MattersIt appears that the one tiny window in those blank apartment back walls would indicate a kitchen or bathroom. Two rooms that frequently do not have windows. Looking at the front of these apartments (The Madison and Monroe Apartments at 2218 Jones Street) It appears that they have been remodeled and are low-income housing. Interesting that in the remodel, there are still no additional windows on the back on the building. I don't know how to add a google picture to my post but used the address above to see the front of the apartments if you are interested. Fresh wrapped coal?It that coal in the wrapped packages looking like laundry? Strange. The buildings look more like a factory or warehouse than apartments! The narrow doorway on the left may be where the mechanic lives? And the shop appears to have seen better days. ICEAnyone know why the 3D image of what appears to be a woman is on the ICE logo pedestal? And buying ice from a coal vendor who also scraps cars? seems kinda iffy to me, but it is 1938 and seems to be a lot of apartments directly behind. Busy A very interesting photograph and there’s a lot going on here: a half-hidden woman on the back stairs, figureheads under the “ice” signs, the front half of a car frame in the shop, reams of paper on the milk crates (possibly electioneering posters like the two in the shop windows?), bundles of firewood, a bag of coal, and a portable “no parking” sign. What else did miss at first glance (and WHAT might 50 cent-and-up pick-up be)? Truck ID1933 Chevrolet (the front of which is a copy of the 1932 car) Coal & IceWhen I was an urchin all coal companies sold ice and all ice companies sold coal. One product for the summer and the other for the winter. View from the other sideA Google Street view shows the front side of the apartments. Based on the front entrance view I think that each floor has a central hallway running from the front to the back. The main entrance to the building is on the front and probably a stairway to the upper floors. The Shorpy image shows the back of the building with the central hallway ending in a door to the fire escape stairs. Each building probably has four apartments per floor. The "Madison" building in the Google image also appears to have a side entrance but looking at the others that entrance seems to be missing, The one small window on the back of only one building on one floor is a mystery. JAckson-2159If you wondered what the exchange name was for Tom Bessey's telephone number, I found it through NebraskAccess. A Collection of Fascinating StuffThanks again to John Vachon for another amazing photograph of Americana, and thanks to Dave for bringing it to us. My appreciation to the fans for the remarks about coal and ice synergy and for showing the present day view. I wonder about the tiny white storefront shack to the left, and what could have been going on in there. It reminds me of a very small barber shop that is in an old suburb of my city, but there is nothing on the front of this little place in Omaha to indicate what kind of business it is. Black Ice anyone?Using the same trucks to deliver coal and ice might have coined the term 'black ice'? The apartment buildings invoke curiosity. It appears the fire escapes had screen doors. Back in the day they had the good sense to orient buildings to take advantage of prevailing winds. I notice in current photo the doors are fortified as necessary in our changing world. The doorways and windows have arched tops, as I have noticed in 1800's construction, which gave way to square tops after turn of century. The mystery window, square top, shows signs of brickwork indicating it was later added. also filled in the mystery 'black square' below it. Have no idea what the mystery squares are, would be about waist high, so not structural tie-bolts, anyone have ideas? Not likely clothes dryer vents! haha! Just to the right of the uppermost fire escape landing is a beam jutting out. Perhaps a davit to attach block and tackle for moving stuff? Watch out for those power lines! But folks of the day had enough common sense to know that. "Central" HeatI find it interesting that in Kozel's back view of the apartment buildings only one building had a chimney, perhaps the middle building in a group of five buildings? That one building would have had a boiler that provided steam, or hot water, to all five buildings for heat in the winter. Coal for that boiler would have been delivered by truck into a chute that led into the basement. (The Gallery, John Vachon, Omaha, Stores & Markets)
Rooms for Rent: 1936
... and litter was not a stranger back in the day, but clean laundry was still important! Wonder Wonder how they managed to get the washing on the high lines. Step ladder. Trapeze artist. Magic! [Or just by standing on the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/29/2017 - 6:55pm -

February 1936. "Mission District. Slums of San Francisco, California." 4x5 negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. NostalgiaAll was not beautiful in days of yore. Unpainted buildings, dirt, and litter was not a stranger back in the day, but clean laundry was still important! WonderWonder how they managed to get the washing on the high lines. Step ladder. Trapeze artist. Magic! [Or just by standing on the balcony. The lines are on pulleys. -tterrace] Fancy BollardThat bollard-like post seems out of place with the studs, wonder how & who did it? And in 2017$3000 per month. $3000 per month is a conservative numberAverage rent for a 1BR in the Mission District as of 5/17 is a hair-raising $3,935.00. Whoa. Edit: "Solved!" <Trash can or horse post?>I (was) waiting for Shorpyites to identify the two-foot round thing in the lower-right of this picture. It looks like it has rivets on it. Is that another one, farther afield, without rivets? Edit: Further research indicates that the objects are *re-purposed* water heater expansion tanks, usually filled with concrete, and used to protect private property from stray vehicles. Yes, bollards! I'm always learnin' something on Shorpy! (The Gallery, Dorothea Lange, Great Depression, San Francisco)
Neighborhood Wash: 1938
... up TV antennas. How? I'v always wondered how these lines between apartment buildings worked. (Not literally, I know how pulleys ... fabric softener, or anti-static spray, yet I bet their laundry smelled just fine. South Pacific? The two "sailors" in the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/11/2013 - 6:52pm -

July 1938. "Housing conditions in Ambridge, Pa. Home of American Bridge Co." Photo by Arthur Rothstein for the Resettlement Administration. View full size. Regarding the antennas-Most radios didn't have built-in antennas in the '20s & '30s so it was common to have wire antennas strung about roofs. As a boy in the 1950s there was a house near where I lived that still had such an antenna running between the chimneys though I doubt it was used any more. That was a time when everyone was putting up TV antennas. How?I'v always wondered how these lines between apartment buildings worked. (Not literally, I know how pulleys work.) Did there have to be agreements among the disparate apartment owners that tenants could attach lines? Were there municipal laws that stipulated attached lines as city amenety? A little song, a little danceMaybe it's the sheets hanging on the line like a curtain but I just get the feeling that right after the shutter clicked they all broke out in a song and dance number. Shiny Happy PeopleJust think, no dryer sheets, fabric softener, or anti-static spray, yet I bet their laundry smelled just fine. South Pacific?The two "sailors" in the picture look like they're about ready to start a dance routine from South Pacific. Now which one of these darling ladies would be Bloody Mary? Community antenna radio?Any ideas what is going on up there on the wires and insulators long poled above the roof line? One wire attached to the 'antenna' long wire drops down to the rightmost ground floor window. AntennasThose are indeed what's called a dipole antenna. Each looks like one apartment wide with the insulators so they don't interact with the mast and building. These would be for AM broadcast radio but I use one across my yard to receive shortwave broadcast or distant AM stations. Ambridge memoriesThat is Marshall Alley in the 1930's. The little barefoot boy sitting on the curb is my dad. (The Gallery, Ambridge, Arthur Rothstein, Kids)
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