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Rockaway Bungalows: 1910
... My parents belonged to a group called FROGS- Far Rockaway Ocean Goers. The Bungalow owners, Mr. and Mrs. Herman, would let my Dad come ... bridge and see the top of the roller coaster and the ocean beyond. In a few minutes we would be at our bungelow in Highland Court, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/04/2012 - 3:56am -

Vacation bungalow colony at Rockaway, Queens, c. 1910. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection. Note "front yards" of sand decorated with seashells. Sand in QueensI wonder if any of the buildings are still standing. Since they are tract of small bungalows, I wonder what company supplied that lot for workers to live in. Sand in...Queens?! Wow. [Never heard of Rockaway Beach? - Dave] BungalowsWere these for living or vacation rentals? They sure are cute. Does anyone know how far from the water they were? Rockaway[Never heard of Rockaway Beach? - Dave] Well I've heard of Rockaway Beach here in Oregon. :) Re: BungalowsThe were seasonal at first. More info at the Beachside Bungalow Preservation Association: By the 1920s, Rockaway Beach was the poor man's Riviera. It had a six-mile long boardwalk lined with amusements, and thousands flocked to the beach every summer weekend. Many families rented tents for the entire season, while those a little more affluent rented small bungalows. The concept of the bungalow in America was well established by this time as they were built for summer communities on both coasts. The plans could be purchased from catalogues and were designed in numerous styles. This last remaining bungalow colony was built by Richard Bainbridge in the 1920s. The one and a half story houses all have front porches and pitched roofs. The design and style vary from street to street. Some of the bungalows are in a Spanish Revival style of stucco with wood trim and green the roofs, and others are in an English Tudor of brick. Lacking heat, they were closed for the winter months. The lanes leading to the beach have permanent easements for common access. As development pressures change the Rockaways, this small district has become endangered. But it would be appropriate to preserve and restore this remnant of past summer amusements. The yards are super.The yards are super. Send the kids down to the beach to bring back sea shells to decorate with! Talk about a family project. Rockaway BungalowsI'm pretty sure these are not there anymore. In fact Rockaway Beach today is quite run-down. If you take the A Train out there, these must have been between the tracks and the water, where there are now streets with no houses. Only weeds. Sadly, most of theseSadly, most of these bungalows are gone, as Doug points out above. There are only a few left, and they face demolition by developers who want to turn the Rockaways into yet another bland housing development. These were vacation homes for folks in Manhattan and the other boros, not company houses for factory workers. How close were they to the beach? How does less than a city block sound? In the Rockaways, as at Coney, Manhattan, Brighton, and other New York City beaches, the streets are set up perpendicular to the beach and are only a few blocks long. The last block actually ends at the boardwalk. Across the boardwalk is the beach. The Ramones were from the Rockaways. Beach 29th streetMy family rented a bungalow on Beach 29th street until I was around 12 years old. As soon as school was over, my parents would pack up a van and off we went until Labor Day. It was the most amazing summers of my life. No locks on doors, showers in the backyard, fireworks Wednesday nights. My parents belonged to a group called FROGS- Far Rockaway Ocean Goers. The Bungalow owners, Mr. and Mrs. Herman, would let my Dad come before the season to fish. The last time I was there was about 36 years ago. It was so sad to see the destruction of these amazing bungalows. Ours was white and green, and all the furniture inside was painted a sticky tacky gray. My Grandma and Nana lived a few blocks up in a rooming house. It was very sad to watch as these homes burned to the ground. Such a day-gone-by era. Beach 29th StreetHi! I am very curious exactly where on 29th Street the bungalow was. I lived on 29th just off Seagirt Blvd. It was a year 'round dwelling. The area was VERY crowded during the summer and VERY empty from after Labor Day until Memorial Day. Do you have any pictures from there? I would love to see them! Thanks, Marc Far Rockaway refugee now living in Bayside, NY Rockaway BungalowsThere was nothing better than spending the summer in Rockaway. Most of your family members rented bungalows in the court. Everyone was out every night. The beach was just a few steps away. Fathers came out only for the weekends, even if you lived in Queens... Beach 107 StreetMy aunts, grandmother and uncle would whisk us away to Rockaway the minute school closed for the summer. We would stop at Weiss's for fish and chips, then drive over the old Cross Bay Boulevard bridge and see the top of the roller coaster and the ocean beyond. In a few minutes we would be at our bungelow in Highland Court, the second one in. We thought we had arrived since we had a hot water heater. It was a great place for kids to grow up. Every day my sister and I would open the window with the sun shining down on us. We would get into our bathing suits and run to the beach, riding the waves until we were dragged out by our relatives. Beach 106 StreetBetween 1951 and 1958 or so I stayed with my good friend Donald Sullivan and his family in bungalows on Beach 106 Street. I don't remember the court name - if it had one. I do seem to remember Highland Court but this was centuries ago and memory may play tricks. Sand in QueensA similar group of bungalows still exists in the Breezy Point Coop and Roxbury in Queens. Many have been expanded and converted to year round use now, though some are still used only for the season. They refer to Breezy Point and Roxbury as the "Irish Riviera" due to the strong Irish presence. B. 29th bungalowsI know EXACTLY where you were. My grandmother too had a bungalow, about 5-6 before the boardwalk ramp. They were on the left side, because on the right side was a parking lot or a building (I can't remember it exactly). But up the block was two hotels - the Regency and another one. They were both owned by the same people - Mr. and Mrs. Hecht, german/lithuanian-jewish folks. If you remember, there was a wooden bridge that connected the two buildings, and the courtyard was shared by the two. The showers were both underneath the front of the buildings behind the, lattice and then common showers/bathrooms in the hallways. There was one public phone on each floor and a television on each floor. When my grandmother could no longer stay in the bungalow (either they were sold, torn down or condemned), she went into the Regency Hotel. She was in the basement which was very cool in the summer. They dodn't need air conditioning. The last party of the season was Mardi Gras. My grandmother, being on the heavy side, loved to wear blackface makeup and put her hair up with a tied kerchief - she was "Aunt Jemima." I only wish I had a place like 29th street to bring up my children in the summers. We ended up renting cabanas in Atlantic Beach from when they were little, then moved to Atlantic Beach, but retained memberships at the beach club. We can't get the sand out of our shoes! Belle Harbor's Bungalows I was searching for a picture of Weiss's Restaurant and stumbled across this site. I found one taken before the war, but was hoping to find one more recently, like late 1950s or early 60s. Looking at the group of bungalows, there were similar ones along the beach 2 rows deep at B129th Street in Belle Harbor, Rockaway. They looked very similar to the ones in the pics if memory serves. I was there last year and although they still occupy the same footprint, most have either been completely reconstructed or torn down and replaced with more modern ones. I recall every summer going to the beach and seeking out the "city" kids here for a few weeks. We made lots of new friends every summer. Then there were the bungalows out on RockyPoint/BreezyPoint. My mother spent her childhood summers, probably right there in that picture. Her parents owned their own bungalow. I have a picture of it from around 1941. Mom's 83 and I'll have to print this off and show it to her. Maple Court, Beach 28th st.I've been searching for info on Far Rockaway. I've been strolling down memory lane thinking about my wonderful summers there. My family rented, and we stayed for a total of five summers. The last two were in Maple Court, which, I believe, was on beach 26th or 28th Street. Before that we were in B Court and A Court on 28th. I agree with the posters who spoke of these summers as paradise! I felt truly free there. And yes, nothing was locked up. There was no schedule to keep. Just pure fun. My last summer there was in 1969. I remember this because of the moon landing. We returned home from the fireworks display on the beach and watched it on TV. My grandparents owned a fruit store on the main street, and they stayed at a wonderful hotel called the Manor. My happiest memories from my childhood are from Far Rockaway. Maple Court bungalowMy family purchased a bungalow at 29 Maple Court in 1969 when I was 9 years old. I too had the greatest memories there. We took so much for granted thinking everyone lived as we did. Now I realize how lucky we were back then. Being able to stroll down the street to the boardwalk, watching the fireworks Wednesday nights, and winning prizes at the arcade games are fond memories. Do you remember the pizza shop on the corner? Because the bungalows were so small and cozy, to this day I prefer smaller spaces. Thanks for letting me relive those memories for just a short time. The EmbassyWe stayed in the Embassy on 29th Street (right next to the ramp to the beach). Many of my friends were in the bungalow courts between 28th and 29th. We stopped going in 1967 but those were the best times -- those summers were magical. My husband and I went back in 1998. There is a school where the Embassy used to be and nothing much else. I went down to the beach and I cried. Who were your grandparents?Carolyn, my parents owned the Manor at 2400 Seagirt Blvd (beach 24st). My last summer on Rockaway Beach was 1967 just before I entered the Army. My parents and I moved to South Florida shortly there after. I was 6 miles from the DMZ in Vietnam when we landed on the moon. Fruit storeCarolyn, if memory serves (pretty fuzzy by now), your grandparents were the Lebowitzes. The fruit store was on Edgemere Avenue just off Beach 24 next to Willy's Market. If I am right, I am amazed. The EmbassyMy family had a bungalow on B29th Street on "the ramp" from the 1950s until around 1970. I got thrown out of the Embassy by the owner because we didn't live there. I bought ice cream at the candy store under the porch of the hotel. I saw the school, it was a bummer. I remember Lenny's, skee ball, Jerry's knishes, Sally & Larry's pizza, movies on the boardwalk, Dugan the baker, softball games, basketball in the parking lot. I used to sell lemonade to the ball players on hot days. Memories ... I remember a girl named Cherie or Sherry. She had a boyfriend, Arnie. I used to hang out with Arnie's brother Marvin. lmc2222@aol.com Far RockawayI also have childhood reminiscences of Far Rockaway. My family lived in a small bungalow rented for a group of Russians in 1970s (yep, I am Russian, living in Moscow now). I was 3 or 4 years old at that time, so I do not remember much. What I know is that these are one of the brightest memories of my early childhood. My pa said the house was really small. I do not know what street it was on, or if it still exists. What matters are the snapshots of my memory: me sitting on a porch on a rocking chair, and the arches of the porches, of the same form and shape, go all the way down to the ocean. Me playing in sand, building garages for toy trucks, with other children running from waves that seemed - wow - so really huge. And above all and around all, the salty smell of Atlantic, which is different from any other seaside smell. Great pity the place is devastated today. Hope that everyone who has ever had good times in Far Rock keeps his own memory snapshots of the place, where it looks as it really should. Fruit StorePeter, you have an incredible memory! My grandparents were the Leibowitzes. That's such a specific memory. Did you know them personally? I would love to hear about any memories you have of them or the store. Were you a child at the time? The EmbassyCheri, I can understand your crying. I went back many years ago and was also upset to see the area so demolished. At that time, it seemed the only bungalow left standing belonged to a lady we were all so afraid of on Maple court. She seemed to hate kids (probably we just annoyed her mercilessly!). But going back as an adult, I saw her situation quite differently. The bungalow was all she had, and so she stayed there while everything around her seemed to be destroyed. Maple Court BungalowLillian, we must have known each other since we were there at the same time, and we were around the same age. I was in the first bungalow on the right, facing the main street. You might remember the pile of junk in front of the house (left by the owner, which we were waiting for them to take away!) Where in the court were you? I remember a girl named Elena, and a boy everybody had a crush on named Eddie. The ManorWow... your parents owned the Manor! What an interesting and exciting experience that must have been. If I recall correctly, there were an eccentric bunch of characters staying there. Carolyn! What a great happening!Hi Carolyn, Glad you found me on Facebook. Your ability to put me together with my earlier Shorpy post was remarkable, so I am posting this for the benefit of "Shorpy page readers." Your recollections and mine from the 1960's certainly attest to how great having the internet and pages like Shorpy's are. (Shorpy..thank you!) The fact that I remembered your grandparents is somewhat unique cause I can't remember anyone else's grandparents from way back then, other then mine. I must have really liked them and was destined to cross your path again. I remember sitting and talking with them on porch of the Manor in one of those green rocking chairs. They were "grandparent" types, had a European accent like most grandparents back then, and easy to be comfortable with. Just to put things into focus, I am now 63. That was back when I was 16 or 17 and younger, but your grandparents returned to the Manor for quite a few summers in the 1960s. How could I have remembered your grandparents' name? I too am amazed and flabbergasted. Memories of Far RockawayYes, this website is truly wonderful for allowing us to stroll down memory lane and recall the sights, smells and feel of Far Rockaway... and what an extra treat for me to find someone who actually knew my grandparents. Thank you Shorpy's for allowing us this exchange of information and memories... and thank you Peter for your kindness and your very sharp memory! Far RockawayMy sister directed me to this site. We stayed in the Jefferson Hotel, right between Beach 29th and 30th, next to the Frontenac. My good friend Faye's grandparents, the Kratkas, owned the Embassy and both Faye and I worked the concession stand which her parents ran. The memories of the boardwalk are still strong. Not only did we have the luxury of a fantastic beach at our doorstep, we also had nighttime fun. Cruising up and down the boardwalk -- eating pizza at Sally & Larry's, or Takee Cup (originally called Tuckee Cup until the owners got disgusted of painting out the alternate name it always received over the winter months) and listening to Eddie, with his ever-present songbook, sing requests. All added up to good, clean fun. I left in 1968, went back from time to time, but haven't been back in years. Unfortunately, you can see enough from Google Earth. My two auntsMy father's two aunts had a bungalow in Rockaway Beach in the late 50's early 60's. It had flowered wallpaper and a musty smell, but it was the most interesting home I have ever been in. I was allowed to leave and explore without my mother's glare. I cannot tell you what food we ate there. I have no memory of meals which is odd. I do remember being bitten by my aunt's dog, which scared me for a long time. I think their names were Bernice and Ruth Cohan. If you have any thing to share please do. thanks, Mary Donaldson neversynvr@aol.com Twin HousesThe houses with the bridge were known as "the twin houses", possibly the Claremore & Edgewater, both owned by the Hechts. I spent the happiest summers of my life there! Like Cheri, I've wanted to return, but haven't as I know how sad it would be. Better to revisit in memory, sometimes in dreams. I probably know Cheri (from Arnie & the Joey days) and Les rings a bell, as does singing Eddie... Marcy Sand in my shoes on Beach 107thMy mother's family went to Beach 107th in the summers of 1917 through 1929. After the Depression hit they couldn't afford it. I still have photos of that period. In 1951 our family went down to the Rockaways and rented a bungalow for the season. The courts I remember were Almeida and Holmenhurst. My dad came only for the weekends, arriving Friday evening. The first thing he did was put on his trunks and head for the beach with me. When he hit the ocean you could see all his cares and worries leave. At night the parents would gather on the porches and play cards, drink a Tom Collins or have a beer and just have a good time. As a 10-year-old I wondered what was so much fun doing this every weekend. It occurred to me many years ago that boy, did they have it made. Sitting on a porch with a nice summer drink, a cool ocean breeze along with good friends to talk with and play cards with. Life was so laid-back and simple then. Does anyone remember the doughnut shop Brindle's or the bakery Dudie's? What about Nat's Ice cream shop, where you could get a walk-away sundae. Bill's Deli had the best salads and cold cuts. Wonderful summers that will always keep me warm in the winters of my aging mind. Beach 28th Street & A B and C CourtsI too remember the pizzaria on the corner of Beach 28th street. I remember my friends Randy, Shmealy, Risa, Brenda and Jody. I don't remember Shmealy's given name, but I remember he was hyperactive and a lot of fun. Made up a song from the commercials of the time for Halo Shampoo. "Halo Sham-poo poo, Ha-a-lo! Jodi's mom didn't want me hanging around Jody because I blinked my eyes too much. Oh well. HEY: Jody from Beach 29th street who wrote a post here on 11/12/2007 - I wonder if you're the Jody I remember!? I hung around with Risa a lot. I still have a photo of us and my dog Suzie on the porch of my Bungalow. I once disappeared into the Courts of Beach 28th street while walking my dog. I ended up talking to a boy for 2 hours, not knowing my parents had called the police and had an all-out search for me. My father finally found me. I was the talk of the town that day! I hope someone remembers these people or IS one of these people, or remembers the lost girl incident and would like to contact me at orangechickens2@aol.com. It would be wonderful to hear from you!! Anyone remember dogball?My dad wrote about playing dogball on the beach at 110th Street on his blog at willhoppe.com. I'm going to show him all of your comments later tonight. The BungalowsI was born in Far Rockaway in 1942. I lived there for 16 summers. My dad owned a small grocery on B 28th street. It was the best time of my life. Maple Court faced 28th. To me it was a very exotic place. The renters/owners vacationed there, my dad was a workman. We lived in roominghouses with a bath on the floor. One year I begged my dad to live in Maple Court and we got a small apartment in the back of a bungalow there. The bungalows were the BEST. Rockaway native from HammelsBorn in Rockaway in 1941 at Rockway Beach Hospital. Went to PS 44, JHS 198, Class of '59 from Far Rock. Worked as a locker boy at Roche's Beach Club in Far Rockaway. For two summers I worked in Rockaway Playland. I lived on 90th, where my parents rented out the bungalow in the back of our house every summer. My father at the end of his years as a waiter worked in Weiss's dining room, and the Breakers restaurant on 116th Street. I met my wife in 1965 at McNulty's on 108th Street. She was from Woodhaven and Breezy Point. We got married in '68. I am writing this on the back deck as we are still enjoying the summer weather here at Breezy. We both still have sand in our shoes. Our 1940s summersA group of Bronx families spent the summers of the early '40s in a few bungalows. Sundays the working fathers would appear for a community breakfast. We celebrated V-J Day with a parade on the boardwalk. Takee Cup was a part of our diet. A noodle cup to be eaten after the chow mein was devoured. The ultimate hand held food treat. Beach 25th StreetI grew up in Far Rockaway in the 1960s and 70s. We lived in the Bronx and rented every summer on Beach 32nd Street (now two big apartment buildings -- Seaview Towers). When I was 9 or 10, we moved to Beach 25th year-round. The summers were great -- we didn't wear shoes most of the time. Every Friday night, "Bingo Al" held a game in the court behind the bungalows, between 25th and 26th. One summmer he had a "Chinese auction" and dressed up in an oriental robe and Fu Manchu mustache and beard. Many of the residents got seltzer water delivered in bottles at their back porch. They would gather in the evenings out in front of the bungalows and talk and joke. I would lie in my bed, with my ear pressed against the window screen, trying to listen, and also trying to stay cool -- no air conditioning. Sol "The Cantor" Gerb would play his little electric organ as people sipped their drinks, chatted or played cards. It was like a different world from the rest of New York. I read where one commenter talked about the bungalows rented for the Russians. This was on Beach 24th Street. They worked at the United Nations and rented a block of bungalows. Every Monday morning passenger vans would show up to take them to work at the UN. We played with the Russian kids. They were a good bunch. I stayed over at one of their bungalows and we had crepes for breakfast. I had no idea what crepes were! I learned to play chess, as the Russians were crazy about it. I recall one time when members of the Jewish Defense League blew up a small BMW belonging to one of the Russians. The news came out and I was in the background, behind the reporter. A sad time for Far Rockaway. One of the amazing things was the backgrounds of the bungalow residents -- former concentration camp prisoners, Russians, Irish, Jews, some Italians and Greeks, but we all got along so well. A great place to grow up! At the FrontenacMy family spent summers at the Frontenac from the late 40s until 1957. When I describe it to my daughter, I have to confess it was really more like a boardinghouse. My mother, father and I shared a room that was also the kitchen. Bathroom on the floor, showers were out back for when you came back from the beach. It was great community. Juke box for dancing, card room for gin and mah jongg and the television on the porch. I loved Jerry's cherry cheese knishes. I remember the movie theater on the boardwalk in the 30's (it could barely be called indoors) I bought the News and Mirror off the delivery trucks for 2 or 3 cents and sold them for a nickel. My parents would pay the guy who ran the first aid station under the boardwalk to hold our beach chairs overnight so we wouldn't have to "schlep" them back and forth. We played softball on the blacktop parking lot on 29th street right off the boardwalk. My wife, who I did not know then, stayed with a friend's family in a bungalow on 29th street. I think her best memory was playing Fascination. Best summers everI used to stay at my grandmother's bungalow on B 28th st. in the mid to late 60s. Those were the very best summers ever! Walking just a few yards to the boardwalk and beach, pizza from the store on the corner, hanging with Howie and the crowd there. Playing Fascination for a dime, huge french fries in those cone cups. If anyone knows the whereabouts of Howie Young I'd love to get in touch with him. My email is belongtoyou@hotmail.com Hugh McNulty Hotel, Rockaway BeachI am trying to learn about Hugh McNulty's Hotel. I am not sure what street it was on, but there was also a bar in it. Hugh was my mum's uncle and her father came to stay with him and work for him. The time period may have been 1924-1930. I know the hotel was still in operation in 1953, as my grandmother visited him at that time. Any help is appreciated. libtech50@comcast.net Edgemere memoriesMy family lived many places in the Edgemere section of Far Rockaway (I don't know the exact boundaries of Edgemere, if there were any), but my memories centered on Beach 48th Way and Beach 48th Street. Fantastic place to spend the summers and escape the hell of the South Bronx. I had wonderful Jewish friends and I worried that they would go to hell because they weren't Catholic. Now I laugh as such perverted theology, but back then it was serious stuff. I loved the beach, the ocean, the starts, the jetties, playing every group game known to humans, going over the the "bay side" to play softball with the "project people" -- those who lived beyond the marshes and spent the winter there. No doubt about it, the best part of my childhood was Rockaway. Too bad it was taken away from us and to my knowledge, still is just a bunch of sand with no houses where we used to live, right near the boardwalk. Beach 48th Way, RockawayIn the early 1960s there were two brothers that were lifeguards when my family was there, Dennis and Tom Fulton. Anyone remember them? Also there was a man named Warren who would feed pigeons at the end of the block every day. My parents would rent a bungalow in the summer months to get us out of Brooklyn for awhile. Great memories. Rockaway, a kid's dreamI remember growing up in Rockaway. We had two boarding houses on Beach 114th Street. When my mom was a kid, Carroll O'Connor, his mom and brother Frank stayed with them. He returned to see my parents back in the mid-eighties and I received one of his last e-mails before he died. I worked my way bartending at Fitzgerald's on Beach 108th and Sullivan's on Beach 116th (1967-1970). You could leave the house at 7 years old, walk to the beach without crossing the street and never had to worry one bit. The neighbors looked out for everone's children. Great memories and thanks to Shorpy for an incredible site. Brilliant job! Cohen's CourtThe picture above is very much how I remember the bungalow court where my parents rented in the summers of the early 1950s. I think my mom said it was Cohen's Court. Ours was at the end of the court on the left. I don't remember too much, I was really little. But I think there was a center row of garden where parents hid treats for us to hunt. I remember a corner candy store we kids could walk to and my mom confiscating a tube of plastic bubbles I bought. I guess she thought the fumes would get me high or something. There was a little girl across the court who would stand on her porch in a towel and flash us once in a while. And I have a memory of being on the beach with my parents, I in the sand and my mom in a beach chair, and my dad taking me into the water. I went back with my parents in the early 60s because they were thinking about renting it again. But it was so musty and dirty and ramshackle that they decided against it. I had a girl friend with me and I have to say I was embarrassed about the way the place looked and smelled. Too bad, that bungalow was a great summer getaway for a working class family from Brooklyn. Elisa on B 29thWas your grandma named Bessie? I lived in the Claremar, one of the twin houses, and I remember her. Did you have a brother too? My sister, parents, grandmother and baby brother and I all lived in two rooms in the basement. I remember Crazy Eddie and his huge black book of songs. Tina and Elise ... Elliot ... Donna ... Jackie ... smiling in memory! Palace HotelThe last place my family stayed at for quite a few years was the Palace Hotel on Beach 30th Street right near the boardwalk. Those were the days my friend. All the arcades and food places on the boardwalk, Cinderella Playland for the little kiddies, the Good Humor man , Ralph was his name. Life was simple. No internet, cell phones or video games yet we had great times and wonderful memories. We played board games and cards and rode our bikes. The guys played baseball in the parking lot adjacent to the Palace Hotel. The team was a mix of every race and ethnicity and everyone managed to get along and looked forward to playing together the next Summer. The beach was the best. Dads could go to work and come back every day rather than only on weekends as they do in the Catskills. Such a shame that this no longer exists. The last summer I went there for a few weekends was in 1976. The JeffersonMy grandparents rented a place in the Jefferson for many years. I have great memories of the place, the back stair cases, the porch, and the beach just a short walk away. Does anyone have relatives who stayed there? Rockaway summersI spent virtually every summer till the age of 22 in Rockaway. We stayed on Beach 49th till they knocked them down, then kept moving to the 20's. Best time of my life. My family was unique -- Italians in the Jewish neighborhood and we came in from Jersey! My mom grew up in Brooklyn and her family started coming in the '40s! Wish I could connect with friends from back then. If I sound familiar please let me know. You would be in your mid to late 50s now. Rockaway Beach Bungalows on PBSI received a message, last night, from my girlfriend who stated that "The Bungalows of Rockaway" was on PBS @ 8PM. I started watching at 8:30 and to my surprise I could not stop watching. I was born at Rockaway Beach Hospital and I am a lifer. I never lived in a Bungalow but I have always wanted to purchase one. I was taken aback by the fact that there were at least 6,000 bungalows and now there are approximately 300 (big difference). I also found out in this documentary that there is hope that the bungalows can be landmarked and I hope that it happens. The bungalows are a unique attraction to this area and I hope that the 300 remaining can be preserved. Elisa on B. 29th Street - the hotelsTo Anonymous Tipster on Fri, 08/13/2010 - 3:15am - YES! My grandmother was Bessie. I do remember your family - your grandmother, parents and the little ones. Your mom wore glasses and had blonde hair. She always wore her hair pulled back and up on her head, curlers in the evening. Also, Harry and Dottie lived in a large room in the corner of the basement of the hotel. I have 3 brothers and one sister. My Aunt Rose and Uncle Leo used to come to the hotel as well to visit with Grandma Bessie. Please e-mail me @ medmalnursing@msn.com Sally's Pizza and the Lemon & Orange Ice StandI spent the best summers of my life on Beach 28th Street. Coming from a Bronx apartment, it felt like our own private house. Our own family doctor came out to Rockaway every summer and stayed on Beach 24th Street. I now wonder what happened to his patients during July and August. How come nobody has mentioned Sally's pizza, on the boardwalk around 32nd Street? You couldn't forget Sally-- with her bleached blond hair, tight pants, and backless highheels. Near Sally's was the fresh lemon and orange ice stand with the fruit stacked against the wall. The ices even contained pits. No artificial coloring or corn syrup in those ices. Grandmother's bungalowsMy grandmother owned 10 bungalows on the beach on 35th Street from the 1930s thru the 1950s. They were the ones nearest the water. I loved going to help her get them ready each spring and clean them up each fall. Playing on that wonderful empty beach at those times of year with no one else in sight. We lived in Far Rockaway at 856 Central Ave., so going to the bungalows was not a long trip. Great memories. Mom's RivieraMy mother loved Rockaway so much that we called it "Mother's Riviera." She couldn't have cared less about the beautiful beaches across the ocean in France or Italy, for Rockaway Beach was her greatest joy. We spent many summers in a bungalow court on 109th Street and my grandmother and her sisters also spent their youthful summer days in Rockaway Beach. So our family goes back generations loving Rockaway. Every Memorial Day the court always had a party to celebrate the beginning of summer and the courtyard inhabitants were usually Irish. The courtyard came alive with Irish songs and jigs and reels. Of course, the people of the courtyard always chipped in for a big keg of beer. It was repeated on Labor Day as we all said our goodbyes to our neighbors and to our beloved Rockaway Beach. Saturday nights in Rockaway were spent at the closest Irish bar and some nights the local boys slept under the boardwalk after having a wild time. They always managed to get themselves together for Sunday Mass or otherwise they would get holy hell from their families. Sands of TimeI spent every summer in the Rockaway bungalows from the fifties until the mid eighties when we were forced to leave because of the deteriorating situation. I was a child on Beach 49th and remember George's candy store where you could get a walkaway sundae for 50 cents. Sue, I remember the Fulton brothers, who were lifeguards. Handsome devils, had a crush on Tom when I was 14. Times were safe. There were a thousand kids to play with. We went from 49th, 40th 39th, 38th, 26th and finally 25th Street with my own kids trying to hold on to that wonderful way of life. Unfortunately it disappeared. Some of the best days of our liveswere spent on Beach 25th. When I was 12 (1936) until I was 17, we stayed every summer at my grandmother's at Beach 66th Street. Those were glorious days on the beach. The boardwalk at night was wonderful, too. We played pinball, and games of skill for 5 cents to collect prizes. Bottled soda and ice cream were 5 cents then, too. We used to run up to the boardwalk to eat the delicious knishes. My summers at Far Rockaway were the most unforgettable of my growing up. Tuna fish and bologna sandwiches on a roll never tasted as good as it did at the waterfront. In 1961, when I was married with children, we rented a bungalow on Beach 25th and loved it! It was a rainy summer and we spent a lot of time in Far Rockaway shopping, eating and going to the movies. Every sunny day, however, we quickly rushed to the beach to enjoy it with family and friends. The Jefferson, Beach 30thI stayed with Grandma and Grandpa every summer for years in a small room at ground level. Grandpa would take me to the beach in the morning, then off to the stores on 24th Street. The back patio was for dancing on Saturday night and the concession inside had bingo. The porch! As I grew up to teenager, I met Ronnie Schenkman and family on the second or third floor (used the back staircase). I don't remember where Eleanor stayed. Crazy Eddie and his songs. Hal and his girl of the night. Warm nights and days. Very sexy! As a working girl I still took the RR to Far Rockaway, then the bus to Edgemere. Took my children to visit Grandma when it was becoming sad looking. Then went to the area years later and found a burnt shell with a wicked fence surrounding it. Took pics and had a good cry. We are all lucky that we were able to experience the wonderful warm sun and sultry nights. Belle Harbor BungalowsI think the two rows of Belle Harbor bungalows on Beach 129th to which another person referred were probably the Ocean Promenade Apartments. I have very happy memories of living there in the mid-i950s in the winter. Beach at 37th streetWhat a trip to see all of the these comments. I grew up and lived year round on Beach 37th until 1950, when we moved to Bayside. Takee Cup was a treat as well as the movie theater on the boardwalk, Italian ices and of course the arcade. For a penny you could get great photos of famous cowboys and movie stars. Rockaway in 1958My family spent the summer in Rockaway in 1958. Most of our friends were in the court, but we were outside it on the main street. I don't remember the street, but I suspect it was around Beach 45th, as the El was right on the corner. We had a bungalow with a porch. I was climbing on the outside of it, fell when I saw a neighbor's dog that I wanted to play with, and broke my wrist on broken concrete. Today, one would sue the owner. Back then, we just made do. Later that same summer, I ran across the street to get Italian ices from the local candy store, but looked the wrong way crossing the one-way street and almost got hit by a car. I didn't think that much of it, but the woman driving was hysterical. I also remember a movie theatre on the Boardwalk. In those days, an 8-year-old (me) could feel safe walking the boardwalk without an adult present. The back of the theater opened up at night so you could sit outside. I saw "The Colossus of New York" there, an incredibly bad "monster" movie. Most of the bungalows in the Rockaways were destroyed by Hurricane Donna in 1960. So-called "urban renewal" took care of the rest. Now some sections of the Rockaways, especially those facing the ocean, are filled with expensive new condos. The Jefferson 1950s I stayed at the Jefferson in the 1950s. It was far far away from the Bronx. Our father worked two, sometimes three jobs, so my brother and I could escape the Bronx and spend each summer --the whole summer-- in Rockaway. Dad took the train to work every day. We turned brown by July 4th; skinny brown kids always running, scheming, cunningly evading the watchful eyes of Jewish mothers. We played softball in the parking lot by the beach in the early mornings before the cars showed up. We played kick the can in the street, ring-o-lerio (sp?), off the stoop. And then there were the long long days on the beach, hopping on hot sand from blanket to shore, waiting the magic 45 minutes to go in the water after eating lim and sandy salami sandwiches, early versions of body-surfing, acting like we couldn't hear our mothers calling that it was time to come in from the water. Crawling into the cool dark sand under the boardwalk. Some kid named Howie always had a piece of fruit in hand, juice dribbling down his chin. And then there was a kid whose own family called him "Fat Jackie" -- at least that's how I remember it. Once in a while we were treated to Takee cups or lemon Italian ices, and chocolate egg creams. Always sneaking off with so much watermelon that your belly ached, and sand -- always sand -- in your bed. Jumping off the wooden steps to the beach, higher and higher, until you dared to jump from the railings along the boardwalk. I think it was Friday nights we would go to the boardwalk to watch the fireworks display from Playland. Flying kites over the surf when the weather cooled, and sneaking out to the Boardwalk to watch, awestruck, huge summer storms -- was it hurricane Carol? Evenings with men playing pinochle, women playing mah jongg. Ping Pong, hide & seek around the Jefferson. Costume parties with fat hairy men wearing grass skirts and coconut shell brassieres, and mothers with painted mustaches and sideburns, wearing huge hipster hats, chewing cold cigars. Then, dreaded September, back to school and insanely diving under your desk to practice for the upcoming atomic war, or wondering whether you were one of the kids who got the fake Polio vaccine. But somehow, during those summers at the Jefferson, there was nothing to fear. Nothing at all. Beach 45thDoes anyone remember Scott Whitehill or Laird Whitehill? If so, please e-mail me at scott@scottwhitehill.com Moe's Grocery Store on Beach 28thBarbara posted a comment earlier about her dad owning a grocery store on Beach 28th Street. The name of the grocery store was Moe's, and they carried lots of things for a small store. I lived in bungalows on Beach 28th and Beach 29th Street. These were the most memorable times of my life. I only wish that I could go back and see and relive these wonderful times. Beach 49thMy family and many of my relatives owned bungalows on Beach 49th and Beach 48th Street. We spent every summer there until the city condemned the properties. My father brought one of the first surfboards there in the early 60s. I have many fond memories of the beach and the friends I made. (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, NYC, Travel & Vacation)
Under the Boardwalk: 1906
... the beach People went to the beach to get a view of the ocean and enjoy the breezes. Some people went to the beach to go into the ... Stock Brokers," if anyone is interested. Young’s Ocean Pier The Stratford Restaurant was at Kentucky and the Boardwalk. The ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/20/2012 - 10:23am -

1906. "The Beach, Atlantic City." Detroit Publishing glass neg. View full size. Beach shadesWith half an acre of hat why did the women need parasols? And why go to the beach when you're wearing more cloth than the sails on a ship of the line? ParasolsFrom what I understand, it was not at all fashionable for a woman to have tanned skin. Even to the point that when they did, they would be thought of as being part black. Super size me!Any chance at seeing a much higher resolution scan. I want to get in my time machine and dig deep into the photo. [Click here to download the full-res reference image. (154 mb; nine times the size of the Shorpy image.) - Dave] Wonderful!I love this photo. What do you suppose the donkey cart was doing on the beach? [Photo op prop. - Dave] Casual dressCompared to our modern day where jeans, shorts, t-shirts and halter tops as well as very skimpy swim suits are common sights at the beach, it's amazing seeing all the shirts, ties and jackets and long gowns worn back then. There seems to be no difference between formal wear and casual beach side wear in 1906. And one has to wonder how the women endured the summer heat under all those layers of clothes. SignsGet you tintype photo right on the beach! The juxtaposition of the beach wear and the dress clothes on the beach is quite amazing. Also a sign that says Jim Key on the pier. The Beautiful and Intelligent horse? Lots more detail I'll have to study! Proto-beatnikAnd look at that cool cat near the far left, rockin' the shades, cap and stance The future's so brightExcept for the aforementioned "Cool Cat" I cannot see anyone else wearing sunglasses. Looking at the Shadows and lack of cloud cover it was apparently a bright sunny day, and a similar view today would have 99% of the people wearing sunglasses. Were sunglasses not popular in the early 1900's, possibly signifying blindness, or did people not recognise that dark glasses can protect your eyes over long periods of exposure to bright light? Wearing clothes on the beachPeople went to the beach to get a view of the ocean and enjoy the breezes. Some people went to the beach to go into the water. Nobody went to the beach to bake their skin. Lots of people did not own a bathing suit, but would rent one when they wanted to go in the water. However if you were visiting Atlantic City, you might just want to take a pleasant stroll along the beach - and that is what people are doing. The ladies are using parasols to keep the sun off their faces and preserve their complexions. Chatting Her UpI notice that two parasol-carrying ladies, one of them middle-aged, seem to be impatiently waiting for their female companion, who has stopped to chat with two young men. Is the younger waiting female jealous? Is the older one disapproving of such immodest public intercourse? Meet my sonI think the two men talking to the single woman are father and son. The man with the mustache has a ring on his left hand and the other seems to be ill at ease. The woman in black is probably the mother of the two women.The woman talking to the men is not young, but is middle aged. She may have recognized the man and son and her mother and sister did not. Her sister wants her to come back under the umbrella before she tans. Shall I go on? Where it isDoes anyone know what cross street this is near? Is the pier in this photo in the same location as the recently redesigned mall/pier? Integrated crowdThere is a black family in their best clothes in the foreground. And the sign in the background definitely says "Jim Key" -- the talking horse -- is appearing on the Boardwalk! Oh, for a time machine. Thanks Dave!I'm having a great time "walking around" in the super high res image. The two ladies aren't even looking at the lady talking to the two men. However, they are casting a tsk-tsk look to someone out of view. I don't think it would take much for these two to disapprove of anything. 154 mb of breathtaking beautyThanks a lot for linking to the high res image! I'm a stickler for high resolution, high quality images, but they're incredibly difficult to find, even more so when it comes to old photography. My Library of Congress searches only yield low res results; is there any way to find more photos like the one you linked to? [To download the reference tiff you need to query the Number field of the Catalog Search page of the LOC database with the filename of the image, minus its one-letter suffix (usually a "u" or an "a"; also do not include the "jpg" file extension). So for this photo (whose filename is 4a06303a.jpg, which you can find by right-clicking on the image) you would enter 4a06303 in the yellow "Searching Numbers" field at the bottom of the Query page and click Search. Then click on the image thumbnail. Then look for the link that says "Highest resolution TIFF." As for your finding only low-res results: Most of the Detroit Publishing online images are low-resolution only. Finding the high-res ones basically means looking at every image in the collection, or looking at many images to find a few high-res ones. On an average Shorpy workday I might go through around 2,000 images in the various collections, which are constantly being added to. - Dave] In a MirrorThe backward signs way off to the right read: "Ye Dairy Farm," "Henry the Fourth Havana Cigars" and "Haight & Freese Co. Stock Brokers," if anyone is interested. Young’s Ocean PierThe Stratford Restaurant was at Kentucky and the Boardwalk. The pier is Central Pier. Back then it was known as Young’s Ocean Pier. BowlersA guy can look pretty snappy in a bowler, if it's worn right. If hats were to come back, my vote would be for bowlers. ParasolsLadies of this era believed if you had tan skin you were a servant or worked outside a lot. The rich wanted their skin lily white to show that they never worked outside. It was a status sign. Freckles were practically a crime! I can almost see my grandmother there!What a great photo in full size. I see the exact bathing "dress" that my grandmother wore in one photo I have. Socks covered with sand sitting in the sand next to her brother. And there are also several tintypes of her and her friends. This photo gives me a more exact date of my photos. Thanks. (The Gallery, Atlantic City, DPC, Swimming)
Modern Kitchen: 1940
... this kitchen is so symmetrical, it's driving me crazy! Ocean rust When I finally got to visit the house of my Atlantic City great ... and to a prairie-born guy to be so close to the Atlantic Ocean in a house was extraordinary. The Best Electric Appliances Made ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/18/2013 - 7:29pm -

April 17, 1940. When enameled steel was sexy. "Electric Institute of Washington. Display of ranges in lobby at Potomac Electric Power Co. building." 8x10 acetate negative by Theodor Horydczak. View full size. That large shinyarea, on the surface of the range, left rear, was a burner that could be lowered into a pit beneath itself. We had a stove like that when I was a kid, but I never saw Mom or Dad use it. Was it for deep pot stewing, maybe? I remember reading the owner's manual, and the glorious descriptions of how to use the timer to prepare meals automatically, while you were out shopping, or doing other chores, were funny. The instructions always cautioned not to leave foods that needed refrigeration to prevent spoilage too long in the oven, before the timer activated it. Flameless CookingMy first thought was, "What a Truly Modern Font." Washington Post, May 26, 1941. Do You Want Fast Cooking? There was a time when Electric Cooking was slow. And, so were automobiles, trains and airplanes. But modern engineering and science has changed all that! Today, Flameless Cooking is as fast as any other method—faster than most! You need only snap a switch and modern Electric Range units instantly provide intense, radiant heat. The more than 20,000 satisfied users of Flameless Cooking in this area would never go back to old-fashioned methods. More and more families swing over to the Flameless Way. Join this Swing — Electric's the Thing! Potomac Electric Power Company, Matchless Service Sexy is as sexy does!Ooh. My grandmother had this kitchen, or something quite similar, installed in her historic house in Plymouth Meeting PA. To me it was utterly wonderful, although quite old bu the time I came on the scene. -- I still long for cabinets that click closed like those did, and her stainless steel sink and countertop was to die for. Like something from Buck Rogers and the 21st century. I especially loved that cool enameled General Electric logo in gold and red under some sort of special Lucite protection on her dishwasher. And those smooth sliding drawers -- I am envious to this day! Dishwasher questionSo Speechless, it looks like this dishwasher loaded from the top, right? Are those dummy doors in front of it, just to match the other doors? From the perspective of this picture, it looks like a narrow oven. And are those drawers in the stove for pots and pans, or another baking place? And it's all metal!so no matter which appliance shorts out you are sure to get electrocuted. ControlsI'm going to make a start on identifying the controls above the stove; I expect others who are better informed will correct me. Going left to right on the controls: warming oven, timer clock, broiler, small oven, large oven, and then an electric plug above a light switch for the large oven? Beneath the central controls looks like a slider switch of some sort; what would that have been for? Or perhaps there's no warming oven or broiler oven and instead the controls go like this: hour timer set, clock, minute timer set, small oven, large oven, electric plug and light. Then the slider could be for an integrated broiler somehow? (I really hope someone will correct me, because I'm awfully curious.) 1949 GE Electric SinkHere is video on youtube of a similar dishwasher in action Dated by the linoleumApart from that, this kitchen wouldn't look out of place today. Still around in '56My current house was built in 1956. The man who lived here from 1958 to 2000 redid the kitchen sometime around 1970 (based on the harvest gold American Standard Fiesta sink and matching rotary phone.) He had the forethought (or frugality) to mount the enameled steel cabinets in the garage when he put in the new kitchen cabinets. They are fantastic. Well built and still look basically new. I'm sure I'm not the first to say on Shorpy that they just don't built things the way they used to. Baroque BackgroundThe baroque decorations lurking in the shadows at the top give one an idea of just how daring this kitchen was. By 1940 Americans had seen a lot of modernity on the movie screen, but their everyday surroundings still had more to do with the top of this picture than the bottom. Come the 50's, all that would change. Good stuff!I like enameled steel More kitchen thoughtsSorry Aunt Jess, she had a free standing Roper stove, but it had the double oven with a broiler on one side and warming pan below on the other. As for the dishwasher, her's was a different model, it opened from the front, a deep pull down door, with about a 6 inch inner metal flange to keep the water from spilling out. Few things ever felt as substantial and well fit as that dishwasher door when it was closed. It worked well too! But on New Years eve, every year the lights would go out when she'd run the dishwasher and the coffee maker at the same time. Oh the drama, so close to midnight! Electric SinkI remember selling those combination Dishwasher Sinks back in the 1950s and 60s. They were also available from Kitchen Aid, Hotpoint, Youngstown and I'm sure there were others. We didn't sell a lot of them but, at the time, if somebody had a 42" sink this made a great replacement because of the dishwasher and in the case of the attached GE magazine ad, a garbage disposal unit as well. SymmetryWill someone please go over there and lift the handle on the right side of the dishwasher door so it is level with the other handle? Everything else in this kitchen is so symmetrical, it's driving me crazy! Ocean rustWhen I finally got to visit the house of my Atlantic City great aunt, on S. Troy in Ventnor City, in 2000, I immediately noticed the original enamelled metal cabinetry in her kitchen. I'd never seen a rusty house before. She was only half a block from the boardwalk, and to a prairie-born guy to be so close to the Atlantic Ocean in a house was extraordinary. The Best Electric Appliances MadeAnd I also spy a Model 5 Mixmaster with the juicer attachment, hiding in the corner behind the fridge. Stove is a Work of ArtWe are looking for an old stove like that for our farm house but unfortunately folks now understand the value of them. I mean, even the light is a piece of art! Enameled Steel CabinetsThey look for all the world like St. Charles cabinets, made in St. Charles, Il. They had an identical small pivot hinge at the top and bottom of each door. I worked for them for several years. They were bought up by Viking, the appliance maker, and still made the enameled steel cabinets as late as spring of 2012, but sadly, they've been discontinued. Rust and dents couldn't stop them, but the economy could! http://retrorenovation.com/2012/04/18/viking-discontinues-st-charles-ste... Dutch OvenThe shiny device in place of the stove's rear left burner is a built-in Dutch oven. It'd be a forerunner of today's electric crock pot; great for slow cooking stews, etc. The pot could be lifted out of the stove for cleaning. Missing?Backsplashes on the countertops. The extra doorsElectric stoves did come with doors and drawers for storing pots and trays beside and below the oven. Gas stoves often had the broiler under a larger oven. An asbestos lined pad was useful if hot pots were to be placed on the flat surface to the right of the burners. Our cabinetsOur cabinets are still going strong 60 years out. We never got around to renovating our circa 1953 cabinets. They're holding up well after several coats of paint. They're magnetic too, which is a plus. Truly Modern EnvyThe lovely enamelled metal looks so long-lasting and easy to clean. And the look is timeless. Substitute a gas stove and I'm happy. (Technology, The Gallery, Kitchens etc., Theodor Horydczak)
Dancing Queen: 1942
... by Freddy Martin No. 8 is "I Threw a Kiss in the Ocean" by Benny Goodman (Peggy Lee vocal) Famous company WurliTzer of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/28/2022 - 1:47pm -

September 1942. "Local dance hall in Richwood, Nicholas County, West Virginia. Photos document U.S. Department of Agriculture efforts to recruit adolescents and adults as farm labor to relieve manpower shortage for harvesting New York State crops." 4x5 inch acetate negative by John Collier for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. "Leeks are for geeks"... might have been a good slogan for the USDA to lure Wallace, Ferrell and Josephine or their fellow foot stompers from their mountain home, 'cuz Richwood is home to the longest continuously running festival celebrating America's native wild leek, the ramp. (As if you didn't know!) The Festival seems to be a Spring affair, so they might just be looking for something new anyway. (We know the juke box never left town...much to its eventual regret) That look --Her song just came on! If not rockSince rock 'n' roll would not become a thing for more than 10 years, I am wondering what those teenagers were dancing to. Bebop? Swing? Swing Out SisterI would guess that her biggest problem is catching her breath between dances. I can't imagine her sitting out many numbers. p.s., It's easy to dance to swing music, just about impossible to dance to bebop. 1941 Wurlitzer 850 PeacockIt appears that this 78 rpm jukebox was one of the most technically advanced of its time, according to this collector. Save the last dance for meFrank and Joe Hardy taking turns with Callie Shaw. Iola Morton, the pleasantly plump sister of Chet Morton, is not a happy camper. Only song title I can make outFirst row, bottom: "The Nickel Serenade" by Les Brown (misspelled as "Less", I think). Amazing Images From Our PastI have been a member of the Shorpy community for many years. During this time I have been amazed of the variety and quality of photos that came from the Depression years. This collection of photographs exist because several US Government agencies actually paid photographers to document the country during that time. What we now have is an incredible and diverse collection of photos that record our country during the most difficult economic times in our history. Some of these photos have become quite famous, but the rest which Dave has shown us I find endlessly fascinating. I am thankful the politicians at the time had the vision to fund this, and most of all the photographers who brought them to us. [Also the Library of Congress, repository for this vast collection, whose contractors and employees are still busy scanning the negatives. The ones we've been seeing on Shorpy were digitized and uploaded only days or weeks before being posted here. - Dave] Selections #2, 6, 7 and 8The second one down is "Midsummer Matinee" by Russ Morgan. No. 6 is "Ev'ry Night About This Time" by The Ink Spots. No. 7 is most likely "Abraham" by Freddy Martin No. 8 is "I Threw a Kiss in the Ocean" by Benny Goodman (Peggy Lee vocal) Famous companyWurliTzer of course not only made iconic juke boxes but also their mighty theater organs, some of which are still in operation. (The Gallery, Agriculture, John Collier, Music, Pretty Girls)
East Boston Tunnel: 1906
... subway in the world to run underneath a section of the ocean. It was built in 1904. The building is still there and houses Boston's ... of a streetcar line that was the first to pass under the ocean. It is now the Blue Line subway, and the Court Street station ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/10/2023 - 6:50pm -

Boston, Massachusetts, circa 1906. "Court Street, Ames Building, Young's Hotel." Plus a subway entrance. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Court StreetI love this photo, I know this area and it's its history well. The Ames Building is still there, the adjoining building, with three facades is still there, but only underground. In the 1920's, the building was gutted and a Bank was built. It later became a Veterans Administration Clinic and in 1993 The New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans. If you were to go in the sub-subbasement of of NESHV, you wold see the original foundation of the 1906 building. The building on the right, marked East Boston Tunnel, was the original site of the beginning of the Blue Line, which ran from Court Street to now Maverick Station. The East Boston Tunnel was the first subway in the world to run underneath a section of the ocean. It was built in 1904. The building is still there and houses Boston's Department of Neighborhoods. On a side note, the fare from Court Street to Maverick was 1 cent. Old State HouseMost of the buildings shown here are gone. The Ames building, on the left, is now a hotel. The two closest buildings on the right are gone and the small building down the street is the Old State House, famous for being the site of the Boston Massacre. On March 5 it will be the site of the annual reenactment. East Boston TunnelActually, I believe the building on the right (with the East Boston Tunnel signs) is still extant, just with some modifications. The East Boston Tunnel used to be the terminus of a streetcar line that was the first to pass under the ocean. It is now the Blue Line subway, and the Court Street station pictured here was closed in 1916 when the terminus was moved to Bowdoin Street. You can see from the vents that the tunnel still passes below this location today. Old State HouseI didn't even realize that was the Old State House until I looked closer. I had thought the English monarch's unicorn and (unseen here) lion had been added during a later restoration, but it seems they were placed there in the 1882 reconstruction. At least the building is in great shape today, though it is now surrounded by glass towers instead of stately stone buildings. Green and OrangeThe two buildings immediately behind the Old State House are still there. Behind those buildings, however, is a new (1990s) glass skyscraper. So from this angle, you can now see an 18th century building, in front of a couple of 19th century buildings, which are in front of a 20th century building. Makes for an interesting photograph. Today there isn't a subway entrance exactly where the one depicted in the photograph is. I'm guessing it was for the Green Line, which today has a station at Government Center, essentially behind the Ames Building. The Orange Line has a station right below the Old State House, but I don't think there was an Orange Line in 1906. Great picture!! Traffic postJust in front of the Old State House are the intersections of Court, State, New Congress and Washington streets. That was my old traffic post when assigned to the now defunct Traffic Division of the Boston Police Department. As an aside, the State Street subway entrance was built right into the lower section of the Old State House. The historical significance of the building meant nothing. +107Below is the same view from June of 2013. (The Gallery, Boston, DPC, Streetcars)
Iowa City: 1940
... entire state of Iowa was indistinguishable from a lake or ocean. Iowa City quiz Ow! I just got hurt patting myself on the back. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/19/2007 - 1:07am -

February 1940: The main street in Iowa City, Iowa. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. Iowa CityI'm not sure, but this may be East Washington Street again, facing the opposite direction from the earlier photo that included the Englert Theater. The buildings in the background behind the trees are part of the U. Of Iowa campus at South Clinton Street. (There will be a quiz on Iowa City geography and landmarks tomorrow.) 300 block of Washington St.occnumber10: You could be right. My mental map of Iowa City has faded with time, and for the life of me I can't remember what's across Washington from Gabe's other than the old Press-Citizen Building that's just out of view to the right. If this is Washington at Gilbert, what are the big buildings behind the trees? Iowa CityI'm curious where this is as there is currently no Main Street in Iowa City. Perchance it is what is now College Street? [Could be. Maybe he was using the term generically. Actually he didn't capitalize the "street." I've changed the caption to reflect that. - Dave] WeatherRather narsty weather that day! 300 block of Washington StreetSome research suggests that this is the 300 block of East Washington Street--facing east with South Gilbert Street as the visible cross street. http://downtowniowacity.com/files/historic_downtown.pdf Boerner's seems to be where Gabe's/The Picador now sits. 3) Ridge Road?As a former/current part time cab driver, I'll start with number three. Ridge Road would make the most sense, as you can access it via the relative high ground of Whiting Avenue. Iowa City100 block of East Washington Street, facing west. I scoped this out downtown today, and scribe's first call seems to be right. The university building in the background would be Schaeffer Hall. Basically this shot is 180 degrees from the one posted earlier. I'm looking forward to the quiz on IC landmarks! Ridge RoadYep, Ridge and Whiting, plus a lot of zigging and zagging on streets I've forgotten. It felt like one had to go five miles to travel those four blocks, or half way to West Branch. Iowa, Illinois and Missouri got pummeled by Mother Nature that summer. It was quite impressive, to say the least. I remember seeing a contemporary satellite image showing ground saturation, and the entire state of Iowa was indistinguishable from a lake or ocean. Iowa City quizOw! I just got hurt patting myself on the back. ;) Just kidding on the landmarks and geography quiz, but what the heck: 1) Besides "Field of Dreams," Iowa City author W.P. Kinsella wrote a fantasy novel called " The Iowa Baseball Conspiracy." What famous landmark played outfield exceptionally well? 2) In 1927 and 1929 an Iowa graduate was the only black player in the NFL? A U of I building is named after him. Who was he? 3) It's 1993 and much of the town is under water because the Iowa River flooded for several months. N. Dubuque St. from Park Rd. to Mayflower Residence Hall was closed. How would one drive the four blocks from Park to the apartments at 1122 N. Dubuque (adjacent to Mayflower). Warning: this is nearly a "you can't get there from here" question. Have fun. Iowa City locationThis is Washington Street, camera facing west at the intersection with Clinton Street. The building behind the elm trees is Shaeffer Hall -- the SW corner of the University of Iowa's Pentacrest. Behind Shaeffer is McLean Hall. I've lived in Iowa City for 49 years, and I work at the University. Cheers [Thanks! You what would be great? A current photo taken from the same spot. - Dave] Current pic upcomingI'll do that Dave, Thursday morning! - Jeff [Thanks Jeff! - Dave] 67 years laterHere's a pic of the same location taken 12/20/07. [Wow. Amazing. Thanks so much! - Dave] +83Below is the same view from May of 2023. (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Cars, Trucks, Buses)
Coleman House: 1906
... I believe it occupied a block at 6th Avenue and Ocean Avenue. [It was at the corner of Asbury & Ocean Avenues .] No blurs? I know very little about photography of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/19/2012 - 8:52am -

Asbury Park, New Jersey, circa 1906. "Coleman House." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. A balmy afternoonNice time for a cherry phosphate or chocolate ice cream soda at the Coleman House Pharmacy. Fill 'er up.I like the arrangement of piping and fire hose attached to the fire hydrant. Since the streets are unpaved, I would suggest this was a convenient way for filling a tank wagon equipped with sprayers to keep down the dust on dry days. I notice that in many views of unpaved streets in this period there is usually a solid walkway (wood, concrete?) at an intersection to provide solid footing when the street turns to mud. [A similar pipe seen here, in Boston. - Dave] Caught in the webLooks like a giant Spider has spun her web over the town! Street LightingEvery time I see one of these pictures that show the carbon arc lamps that were used for lighting it amazes me that I had never considered such a type of illumination in public areas. It was never taught to me in history, I had never seen pictures like these, and none of my family ever said anything about methods of lighting in earlier days. I just supposed that everyone used oil or kerosene lamps until Edison invented the modern light bulb. What a revelation. Thanks Dave. [Carbon arc lamps were used for street lighting long after the advent of Edison-style incandescent bulbs. Gaslight was also popular well into the 20th century. -Dave] Watch your step!The railroad tracks in the street surely turned many an ankle if a person didn't take care. Today they would probably want to sue, back then it was your own careless fault. From the overhead wires it was probably an electric railway. Possibly the Asbury Park & Sea Girt Railroad. Carbon Arc LampsFrom my scant knowledge of carbon arc lamps, I know that the carbon rods slowly burn off and must be advanced to maintain the proper gap distance to keep the arc from failing. Were there small motors in these street lamps to accomplish this? Coleman HouseAnyone know if it's still there ? [Torn down in 1934 for a parking lot.] Ridin' Down KingsleyAt the extreme right edge of the picture, on the telephone pole is part of a sign is shown that says "Kingsley". This is a name Bruce Springsteen fans will be familiar with, as it is mentioned in songs by him. Coleman LocationI believe it occupied a block at 6th Avenue and Ocean Avenue. [It was at the corner of Asbury & Ocean Avenues.] No blurs?I know very little about photography of that time (as you will soon found out), but why is it that the people walking when this photo was taken are not blurry ghosts? Was this taken with some sort of state-of-the-art camera? [By 1908, dry plate emulsions capable of stopping motion in daylight had been around for several decades.] Nothing Left but a MemoryI dropped into the Asbury Park Public Library yesterday. The Coleman House was at Asbury Ave. and Kingsley near the water. I took this photo from what I believe to be about the same location as in the original photo. If you look at the far right of the original photo, you can see a "Kingsley" street sign nailed onto a wooden pole. All that is in this location now is a parking lot and a cheap hotel that caters to the gay community. AutoAnyone know what type of car that is in the driveway? (The Gallery, Asbury Park, DPC)
Ellis Island: 1911
... gigs of computer memory. Drives my wife insane. Ocean Border, Land Border I'll bet that if there had been a land border ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/01/2012 - 5:43pm -

New York circa 1911. "Inspection room, Ellis Island." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. A new beginning, or maybe notImagine what this room must have been like when all those benches were full. Such emotion, such optimism, and likely, such fear. I can only wonder how the immigrants felt who were directed to the door behind the officials on the left. This Room WasA Cathedral of Hope for so many thousands. Ellis Island KidsSince all four of my grandparents came to America through the gates at E.I., I took my kids to this sacred place many moons ago. We toured all the floors, the museums, the infirmary, every inch of it, it was riveting to me. They have exhibits of authentic luggage and possessions carried overseas, actual clothing that was worn, photographs of many of the immigrants with their personal autobiographies on headphones (if you are curious) and it really puts one back there in time. One of my young sons could not believe how very poor so many people were, having written that they came with just coins or a few dollars or even nothing in their pockets. He was totally immersed in the photos and in so many of them, the kids' faces were blurred out to blankness like the child with the lady on the second floor. Anyway, at one point my tearful son said "This boy is so poor, he doesn't even have a face." It took us a minute before we 'got it' but has provided much laughter in the retelling; maybe you had to be there. I'm grateful every day that my ancestors' decision to become Americans was a priceless blessing for all their descendants. Ellis Island is unforgettable. God bless America. DetainedMy grandmother was detained (coming in from Poland) due to an eye infection. Her two younger siblings and mother waited for three days with relatives in new York. Once Grandma was released they left to settle in Chicago. Stairway to HeavenI made a special trip to New York from Colorado just to see Ellis Island. It was one of the most moving places I have been as both sides of my family passed through there. My favorite spot was the stairs leading out after you passed inspection and were granted entrance to America. They're about 15 feet wide and you can see and walk in the indentations made by the millions of feet that have worn down the steps. I couldn't help but think of my grandparents who walked down the same stairs. It was worth every penny spent to restore Ellis Island. And I recently heard from a friend who's a project manager for the National Parks Department that the other buildings at Ellis Island will begin restoration soon. My GrandmotherMy grandmother arrived at Ellis Island as a young woman (12 or 13) after traveling by ship from Greece with her father. The mother she barely knew met them there and on the ferry back to NYC, threw my grandmother's precious belongings into the river and told her she was in America now and would start over. That story used to break my heart when I was a girl; I guess it still does. My family and I visited a few years ago and it really does feel like a sacred space. Like OTY here, I am so thankful my grandparents left their Greek villages and became Americans. Mine tooMy grandmother came through Ellis Island with her parents and siblings. My father and his family came from Eastern Europe via Canada to the USA. It's worth noting in these present times that my family and millions like them waited in line and came to the USA legally. Everyone who does otherwise, regardless of the country from which they come, disrespects the sacrifices made by millions of honest immigrants from around the world. RootsBoth my parents were immigrants. My father, his mother and three siblings came through Ellis Island in 1922. I was able to find them on the Ellis Island Web Site. My mother's family came here in 1923. Eastern European immigration just about ended in 1924 because of the so called "Red Scare" laws. Interestingly , I found my Mother's mother (my grandmother) and my mother's 2 younger sisters and her only brother on the Website but not my mother, an older sister or my grandfather. They left Southampton, England in 1923 but don't appear on any Ellis Island records. My mother lived 103 years and I could hold a conversation with her up to about a year before her passing. She always insisted that she came into "Castle Gardens" but Castle Garden stopped receiving immigrants in 1892 and turned the job over to Ellis Island. I sort of believe she may have come in to Boston or Philadelphia but just didn't remember. Every so often I start searching for the records again but with no tangible results. In any case I'm one grateful guy. They endured enormous hardships to get here and they just made it. God Bless America. +99Same view from August of 2009. When I immigratedForty-seven years later, I arrived at Idlewild (now JFK) on Pan Am (now extinct) with $75 in my pocket (now spent). It was certainly a more pleasant way to begin the new life, but the excitement felt by the Ellis Island immigrants could not have been any higher than mine. How do you do it?timeandagain, have you simply been visiting the sites in the LOC photos and reshooting them or are you n cahoots with Dave and know a couple years in advance what he's going to post? Plaster JobLooking at the post +99 from timeandagainphoto and one that I took when there this summer, it looks like they plastered over all of the block walls and tile ceilings in that building. Unless they added that in the restoration--which would seem strange. Lost And FoundSeeing that lone bag on a bench makes me wonder if they had a lost and found. If so, the abandoned/lost bags might be part of the exhibits mentioned in another comment, with their own tales to tell. WartimeWhen the US entered the First World War, Ellis Island became the mobilization centre for Red Cross Nurses heading overseas. My ex-husband's grandmother. Charlotte Edith Anderson was the first Canadian Indian to be trained as a nurse, though no hospital in Canada would train her. She trained at the New Rochelle Hospital. Edith (as she preferred to be called, wrote in her wartime diary about her arrival at Ellis Island from New Rochelle where she had been working as a Public Health nurse, visiting New York City before heading overseas and her departure. I was pleased to have transcribed her wartime diary but sad that I didn't get a copy before my husband and I divorced. https://www.shorpy.com/node/7764 Re: How do you do it?I've been doing comparative shots of identical views since the mid-1980s. When I moved to DC almost 20 years ago I started using the photographs from the collections of the Library of Congress (they were only available in physical files at the library then). I research specific cities and place them in separate files along with maps where the shots were taken. When I visit those cities, I take the appropriate files with me and take current shots from the same perspective. I have hundreds of sets and thousands of shots of cities throughout the country in several lateral files as well as on several gigs of computer memory. Drives my wife insane. Ocean Border, Land BorderI'll bet that if there had been a land border between Europe and the United States, a lot of European immigrants would have slipped across, too. The sacrifice was in taking the risk and the leap of faith to come here. I'll also bet that many immigrants without documentation would gladly become citizens today. To my mind they should be given the chance. Guastavino Tile CeilingJuly 1916, an explosion occurred on Black Tom Island, a loading facility just a few hundred yards off Ellis Island. The blast caused $400,000 in structural damage. As part of the repairs, the Guastavino Brothers installed a new tile ceiling over the Great Hall. Dad DetainedMy father came through Ellis Island in 1920 with his father, mother and two younger sisters. They came from Greece. He was a boy of 8 and he had some sores on his head. He had to be detained. They wrapped adhesive tape on his head. If you remember the old adhesive tape,if you didn't have sores before they put it on your head, you certainly would have sores afterward. They also changed his first name from Evstrathios to Charles. He was very proud of his heritage and he was glad they made a monument out of Ellis Island. Isle of TearsListening to Irish Radio, couldn't help thinking back to this photo. Guastavino Tile Paul39 mentioned the repair after the nearby explosion. That answers my question of how they made plaster adhere to the glazed tiles that I saw when I visited a few years ago. The original substrate was probably terra cotta. The oyster bar under Grand Central Terminal has a wonderful example of Guastavino tile ceiling which is hard to find now. Grandma on the LusitaniaMy grandparents on my father's side came through Ellis Island from Russia. My grandfather arrived sometime in the final decade of the 19th century, and just this evening, after seeing this post, I have done a search at ellisisland.org on my grandmother (who I have more information about), and may have discovered documentation of her arrival on the ship's manifest! Thank you, Dave and Shorpy, for pointing me in this direction! I have contacted a cousin who hopefully will be able to verify or discount my findings. Here is an image of the manifest which has me so excited. Please scroll down to Line 14. Finding relativesThis is a wonderful photo, and I can easily imaging my grandparents sitting there as children around 1904-1906. Mr. Mel, frequently immigrant names were not spelled as we think they should've been. You may want to try searching the Ellis Island database via a different search engine: http://stephenmorse.org/ (first item on the page). Mr. Morse, the inventor of the 8086 computer chip, created this site soon after the original EIDB went public, because their own search engine was so pitiful. He has since improved it. It will enable you to search by sounds-like, just the first letter, and more. There are FAQs to help use the search engines. (I highly recommend many of the other search engines on that page - amazing!) CSK, congratulations! But there's a whole second page to your passenger list, which will have even more information. So go back to where you found your page, and click on "Next" or "Previous" (sometimes the original microfilms were rolled backwards on the reels). beachgirl2, it was very rare that officials at Ellis Island changed names, this is mostly a myth. They had to match the names to the departure lists created in "the old country", and there were plenty of translators for the languages brought over. (These departure lists still exist for Hamburg and some ports in England) But sometimes a recent immigrant wrote back home, and told them to use his new name, now that he was American. Or they Americanized them soon after arrival, to blend in. Or a schoolteacher couldn't pronounce the birth name. ... So if you research, you should be able to figure out when your father changed his name - before he left Greece, or very soon after the family arrived. But probably not on Ellis Island. Great photo - and new version too! Explosive AlterationsI was told by an archaeologist who works at Ellis that most of the interior (including the ceiling and walls) had to be redone after the building suffered blast damage from the Black Tom explosion of 1916. A website for Jersey City history notes that: "the Statue of Liberty sustained $100,000 in damages from the spray of shrapnel, and newly-arrived immigrants at Ellis Island had to be evacuated for processing at the Immigration Bureau at the Battery in New York City." Also, the buff-colored "stone" of the walls in the current photos is actually plaster with incised and painted joints (an accurate restoration of what had existed following the Black Tom incident, or so I am told). (The Gallery, DPC, NYC)
U.S.S. Onondaga: 1864
... in fact, this happened to the Monitor herself on an open ocean passage on the last day of 1862. The objects dangling over the rail ... Island, she sank on December 31, 1862 in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. 16 of 62 crewmen were lost in the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/09/2012 - 5:20pm -

1864. "James River, Virginia. Monitor U.S.S. Onondaga; soldiers in rowboat. From photographs of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy." Wet plate glass negative. View full size. HangersDoes anyone know what the three objects hanging over the side of the boat are? Appropriate HeadgearFor once, someone's wearing a boater in a boat. . . . Low in the water.It would not take much to swamp this ship. Questions? Why were they built to ride so low? What is in those little bags tied next to the oars on the sides of the rowboat? I suspect the older man with the pipe at the stern using a rough stick is acting as a rudder. Interesting snapshot of life! How Low Can You Go?Not a lot of freeboard on the good ship Onondaga. [The Onondaga was, as noted in the caption, a monitor or ironclad. - Dave] historical shipI looked the Ol' Onondaga up and she had quite a history. She was built in New York and sent to Virginia where she saw several important engagements. She was decommissioned in 1865 and sold to the French navy and refitted with rifled cannons of just over 9 inch. Replacing the 8 in smooth bore guns of American vintage. She was scrapped in 1902. Pretty impressive! Buffers-low in the waterMonitors were built very low in the water in order to present as little as possible of a target to an enemy gunner. They were very useful in inland waterways, on the open seas, in any bad weather, they would be in serious danger. My guess on the three bags on the launch is they are buffers to keep the wood of the boat's side from getting banged up when it is up against a wharf or another vessel in wavy water BumpersThose, probably leather, bags over the rowboat's side are fenders/bumpers meant to protect the sides of ships when docking. Today we use plastic fenders which are plastic and much larger (shaped like a serious hot dog). Ride So LowMonitors were river craft essentially floating gun platforms. They are not ships in the normal sense. Their freeboard (distance between the main deck and water line) was very small so they would present less of a target to opposition fire. Heavily armored above the main deck, they could withstand direct hits from the guns of the day without serious injury. Boat FendersThe small round objects hanging over the side are boat fenders, used to prevent damage to the rails when the boat is moored alongside something like a dock or the Onondaga. These are probably made of leather, and if they contain anything, it's probably more leather padding or perhaps a disk of soft wood. According to Wikipedia ....The good ship Onondaga was built in 1864, near the end of the Civil War and was sold to France after the war. She continued in service in the French Navy until 1903. The delivery cruise to France must have been terrifying. Interestinghttp://americancivilwar.com/tcwn/civil_war/Navy_Ships/USS_onandaga.html Across the waves.The Onondaga was sold to France after the war. How did they deliver it? Surely they didn't sail her! OnandagaThe bags on the longboats are probably bumpers, designed to keep the boat from being damaged when at a dock, or tied up alongside a ship with a low freeboard. Monitors were designed by Ericsson to sit low in the water to improve stability by bringing the mass of the turret down, and to make them a far more difficult target to hit. The hull was protected by the water and it was hard to strike below the waterline. This made them maneuverable and hard to hit but could make them very unseaworthy in bad weather. Monitor - Ericsson's original "cheesebox on a raft" sank off Cape Hatteras in a 1862. Other monitors were designed to be more seaworthy. Onondaga hull was built entirely of iron rather than wood like earlier monitors. As for Onondaga, she was sold back to her builder in 1867 and then sold to the French where she served as a coastal defense ship. She was scrapped by the French in 1904, making her the longest lived of the Civil War monitors. Those hanging thingies ...look like bumpers to me. They are all at the right height. Low FreeboardThe very low freeboard on this (and every other) monitor was designed to make the ship very hard for another ship to hit with cannon fire. When the monitors were "cleared for action", everything but the turrets were stripped down and stored or thrown overboard. The rigging and life boats were eliminated, and the ship was steered from a small armored box only a few feet high. Even the funnel (chimney) was dismantled so that only a small stub protruded from the deck so as to present the smallest target possible. Monitors worked fairly well in protected estuaries, bays, and navigable rivers, but monitors were notoriously poor sea-going ships. Many foundered and were lost, often with all hands, in heavy seas. In every other nation, the monitors were regarded as a design fluke and were not widely copied. The U.S., however, continued to use monitors well into the 1880s and beyond....mostly because Congress refused to fund a modern navy. Does anyone know what the three objects hanging over the side ofThey are fenders. Why so low?Why were they built to ride so low? To make a small target. Great in battle. Not so good at sea, as the original USS Monitor proved. What is in those little bags tied next to the oars? I was curious about that, too. I couldn't Google up an answer, but my guess is simple oarlocks. Place the oar in the slot, then flop the weighted line over the shaft. The high-tech nature of the civil war continually surprises. Even though it was still a time of cavalry and slavery, there were also ironclads, telegraphy, balloons, Gatling guns and railroads. Freeboard or Lack Thereof...If you look up the U.S.S. Onondaga on Google you will find that after the war it was decommissioned and then transferred to the French navy. With so little freeboard how did they get it to France? I can understand the low freeboard patrolling the coastal rivers, but even there it probably had to enter the Atlantic to get from the northern ports to the southern ports. How dey do dat? Could the three objectsCould the three objects hanging over the side be fenders? That is: padding for when the bout bangs alongside the mother ship? Lil' bagsThose little bags are in fact bumpers to protect the side of the row boat from damage. FendersThey be fenders to protect the boat's planking when coming alongside I should think. Those wooden things on theThose wooden things on the side of the boats are most likely to prevent scuffing and other damage, when the boat is moored. Unfortunately I have no idea, what is the proper English word for those. these days they are made of plastic, and resembles big, straight sausages.... Hanging ObjectsI think they are cushions, to keep the side of the boat from banging directly against the side of another vessell when boarding, disembarking etc. FendersBoat fenders, that is, is what the little bags are. Hangers maybeI'm thinking those are clean drinking water for the rowers. I'd suspect the guy to theI'd suspect the guy to the left of the guy smoking a pipe is the one who actually has a hand on the tiller. As far as the three objects handing over the starboard gunwale, they might be fenders, although they do seem small. As far as the freeboard goes, it is very low in the water. The Monitors were susceptible to being swapped as evidenced by the original USS Monitor, which went down in a storm off the coast of North Carolina. FendersThe objects hanging over the side of the small boat(s) are probably fenders, meant to keep the painted wood from grinding against the edge of the larger boat - which would be particularly punishing given the low iron deck of the Monitors. Hangers@GeezerNYC Bumpers Nautical KnowledgeThe hanging things on the boat are fenders, aka bumpers, that prevent rubbing and damage when alongside other boats and docks. They are still required gear for boats of all sizes, though of different design. The gent with the pipe is probably putting his stick in the water. The tiller is more likely in the hands of the soldier in the aft. The boats in the background have rudders and tillers, so this should one as well. Barrier?In the background, are those sunken ships forming a barrier? I'd rudder not bump, if you don't mind.Following exhaustive research efforts, our crack Civil War historical artifacts team members have reached a somewhat tenuous conclusion. After sometimes heated discussions, it has been narrowly decided that the device held by the pipe smoking gentleman in the above photo should be rightfully placed under the "P.S." category of 19th century naval devices. In layman's terms the P.S. would simply designate this instrument as a "pushoff stick." Either that, or the man was an utterly misguided landlubber with a proclivity in providing great mirth to the more nautically savant. In regard to the mysterious pouch-like objects hanging from the sides of the launch, the less than timorous artifacts team has proffered the suggestion that these would likely be called bumpers in today's parlance. Please note that our team does take all our suggestions quite lightly. On monitors and freeboardsMonitors, throughout their history (Roughly the U.S. Civil War to WWII), were built to be coastal ships. A large freeboard (which means more ship to build, and a larger target) was not necessary because the ships were never intended to leave inland waterways or shallow coasts. This also worked well with U.S. foreign policy which was more concerned with its own waters. I'm sure many people are familiar with the story of U.S.S. Monitor (the original monitor) which was swamped and sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras. Monitor FactoidsThe "monitor" was a radical new warship design by engineer John Ericsson during the US Civll War. The standard high-sided wooden warship with its "broadside" of guns was still designed for sail power and to repel boarders. He conceived a fully mechanized ironclad "ship-killer" that presented a much smaller target and had several much larger guns housed in heavily armored rotating turrets. This proved quite deadly against wooden ships especially in breaking through blockades. Although not totally seaworthy, most waves washed harmlessly over the low deck. The concept gradually evolved to larger more seaworthy battleships with "real" armor-plated hulls, but the large, turret mounted guns became the new standard. The "canteens" alongside the rowboat are fenders to keep its hull from scraping against the sides of the ship. IDing the ObjectsThe things hanging over the side of the boat are called bumpers, buoys, or fenders. They're to stop the sides from hitting and scraping other boats and docks. Hangers...Id say these are used to draw wather from boat. Sorry for my poor enlish :/ The Objectsare bumpers. Coiled rope inside tarred leather to keep from scratching the boat or the ship. Much like the rubber ones we have today. She was a river monitorRiver monitors were not designed with high freeboard because it was needed. They were not supposed to put to sea, and the lower the freeboard the better because it made less of a target. HTH Re:HangersMy best guess is they are bumpers to protect the wooden sides of the rowboat when along side a ship or wharf. Notice the other rowboats pictured have them as well. What I see here is the bumpers were fitted for the average ship or dock and the ironclad, being so low in the water, caused the scraping and damage to side of this rowboat below the bumpers. Built low for a reasonWonderful photo! One of the ideas behind the Union's ironclads (called "Monitors" after the archetype U.S.S. Monitor) was that if little sticks above the water, there is little to effectively shoot at. Hence, the only things that are exposed are the (heavily armored) revolving gun turret(s). Note that this ship has two revolving turrets, in contrast to the U.S.S. Monitor, which just had one. Needless to say, though, these monitors were not the greatest thing to be used in rough open seas -- that's how the U.S.S. Monitor was lost. The Confederates took an entirely different approach (as with the C.S.S. Virginia, née Merrimack). Their ironclad vessels were heavily armored structures built upon traditional wooden hulls. Because most of the Confederate ship stuck out of the water, it would have to employ a lot more armor plating which added weight and made it much less manueverable and less able to be employed in shallow areas. Low FreeboardIndeed, as earlier comments note, this monitor has unusually low freeboard (not sure if they all did; certainly, all monitors had relatively low freeboard compared to "normal" ships.) The function of this feature was to reduce the target area that could be hit by shellfire, both to make hits less likely and to reduce the weight of armor required to cover the vertical side. (The deck was also lightly armored, since the technology of directing long range fire made a plunging, high angle hit very unlikely; the deck armor was enough to deflect a glancing hit whose angle of fall was only a few degrees). What was neglected in this design compromise was the fact that there was hardly any reserve buoyancy...a leak too big for the pumps to control would result in the deck edge going under and the ship sinking in a rather short time...and in fact, this happened to the Monitor herself on an open ocean passage on the last day of 1862. The objects dangling over the rail on the boats (both the manned boat in the foreground and the empty boats tied up to the ship) are probably fenders, although they look rather small for the purpose. Needless to say, protecting the side of a small, lightly built wooden boat coming alongside a vessel armored with iron was quite important. Re: Hangers (@GeezerNYC)I'd think that the objects on the boat are fenders, to keep the boat from banging into docks or the ship. MonitorThe Monitor-class ironclads like that in this photo were designed to offer as little a target to Confederate artillery as possible; most of their hull was kept below water, and practically the only structures above it were the chimney (those were steam-powered ships) and two revolving, armored turrets. The most famous of these ships, the U.S.S. Monitor (which gave its name to this class of vessels) took part in the first battle between "ironclads", or ships made or covered on metal, which took place on march 9, 1862, and is known as the Battle of Hampton Road. Quoting from an excellent article on Wikipedia: "...While the design of Monitor was well-suited for river combat, her low freeboard and heavy turret made her highly unseaworthy in rough waters. This feature probably led to the early loss of the original Monitor, which foundered during a heavy storm. Swamped by high waves while under tow by Rhode Island, she sank on December 31, 1862 in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. 16 of 62 crewmen were lost in the storm." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Monitor Rubber Baby Buggy Boat BumpersMy guess on the 3 objects hanging off the side of the rowboat (and visible on some of the other rowboats in the photo) is that they are "Boat Bumpers" a.k.a. "Dock Fenders". These prevent the side of the boat from coming in direct contact with another boat or the dock when the boat is tied up. FendersI took those things hanging from the gunwale of all the small boats in the photo to be fenders, used as a cushioning bumper when tied up against a dock or another hull. Modern versions: http://tinyurl.com/m4jgzu Somehow it crossed the Atlantic!According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Onondaga_(1864) after it was decommissioned in 1865 it was sold to the French navy and here's a photo of it in Brest http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cc/USS_Onondaga_60211.jpg I can't imagine it out in the Atlantic, even on a very calm day! objects on side of boatThey look like typical boat bumpers of the small variety.. Hangers Answer?Ballast, or bumpers. It's a monitorYes, it would be easy to swamp this ship- it was designed for inlets and calm waters; it is a double turreted descendent of the Monitor- the famous ironclad that did battle with the Merrimack/Virginia. It sits so low in the water so as to be an extremely difficult target. The turrets, along with relatively petite size allowed the monitor vessels to be extremely maneuverable and effective- although the crew had qualms with living below the waterline- which is why there are so many canopies on deck. Johan Eriksson, the designer of the original Monitor was one of the first developers of the propeller, and on his signature ship he patented hundreds of brilliant inventions from a then state-of-the-art ventilation system, to the rotating gun turret, and the first operable marine toilet. HangersCould be to scoop out water eh? three objects"Does anyone know what the three objects hanging over the side of the boat are?" Bumpers. Re: Hangers, et al.The 3 little bags visible near the oars are the Civil War-era version of fenders. They were generally filled with corncobs or sawdust and served as spacers to prevent the wooden boat from brushing against the ironclad and becoming damaged. Of more interest is the canvas coverings over parts of the ironclad. These signify that the monitor is in Union-held waters as they would never be used where there was a risk of battle. Ironclads were just that, iron plates laid over a wooden hull and still vulnerable to fire. The Answer: Fenders!The bag-shaped objects are fenders, or as you land-lubbers would say, bumpers. You hang them over the side to save your paint job when you're tied up to the dock or to a ship. I'm guessing they're made of leather or rubber. The Onondaga sits low in the water to decrease her vulnerability to enemy artillery fire -- by design, not by accident. Re: U.S.S. Onondagathose little thingys are bumpers for pulling next to a stell ship with a wooden boat. This was definitly a 'Lessons Learned' device From a River Far Far Away . . .The two circular towers that have awnings on them - they remind me of Jabba the Hutt's sail barge in Return of the Jedi. I'm just saying. Monitor designThe design of the USS Monitor and follow-on ships such as the Onondaga were revolutionary for the time. The idea of mounting one or two guns in a rotating turret versus rows of guns along the sides of a ship enabled monitors to bring more accurate firepower to bear more quickly, and most importantly, independently of the direction of the ship's travel. While some earlier ships had turreted weapons, I believe the USS Monitor was the first to rely on its turret as its only weapons station. Monitors were low to the water to provide a smaller silhouette for the enemy gunners. Most shipboard cannons at the time would have had rather low, flat trajectories, which would have slammed into the sides of opposing ships rather than higher trajectories which would have sent plunging fire through the decks. Obviously a ship that sat lower in the water would have presented a much more difficult target for other ships--it practically didn't have sides to hit! It also made them difficult to see--in the days before submarines, these were the original stealth ships. These ships were generally designed to work in what are now called "littoral" operations, close to shore, in bays or rivers. In those environments, heavy sea states that would cause a problem with the low freeboard design were not a major concern. Riverboat steamers had similarly low freeboards. As for the items hanging along the gunwales of the rowboat, the look like bumpers to protect the rowboat and its mothership from bouncing off one another. Today they're a rubbery plastic, but I don't know what they would have been back then, maybe cork inside a waxed canvas bag? Re: Hangers>Hangers >Submitted by GeezerNYC on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 10:29pm. >Does anyone know what the three objects hanging over the >side of the boat are? They look to be bumpers. All the boats in the background have them, or some form of them, too. Low in the waterTo answer Woodchopper's question, Monitors (originally intended for harbor defense as floating batteries) were designed to expose as little of the ship above the waterline to minimize the target available to enemy gunners. With less to see, there is less to hit. While naval architecture changed over the years, this design is coming back into vogue with naval designers in examples like the DD(X) programs. BumpersUpon reading ALL the comments and not finding a clue and after a thorough and painstaking research I have come to the conclusion that those three objects hanging over the side of the boat are bumpers! Now hold down the applause. You can thank me later. More if you haven't googled yet...http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/onondaga.htm (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Civil War)
Lifting the Nets: 1910
... was. My best guess is that it was a chance to get some ocean-breeze relief from the muggy heat of a cloudy-bright summer day. ... Kelly was nice. I took a dive to the bottom of the ocean in a diving bell. This disappointed me for I had expectations of being in ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/26/2023 - 2:59pm -

The Jersey Shore circa 1910. "Lifting the nets -- Young's Million Dollar Pier, Atlantic City." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. That's entertainment?Large crowd out in their Sunday best. To watch as some conspicuously empty nets are raised from the Atlantic. Better than watching grass grow, no doubt, but still ... There's something missing here: context, to put it in the 21st-century way. This is an oddly interesting photograph in need of a 1910-ish caption that explains what the attraction was. My best guess is that it was a chance to get some ocean-breeze relief from the muggy heat of a cloudy-bright summer day. [Did you not click on the link in the caption? "All manner of fish plucked from the deep spilled onto the deck, as the crowd leaned on the wooden railing and gawked." - Dave] What the?What the heck is going on here? All those lines, and all those people? Looks chaotic! A Magical DayAtlantic City was the go-to destination in the mid 1950s for my family and the Million Dollar Pier was another must-go-to attraction. I saw Pat Boone in person. He was a little bland for my taste (Little Richard rocked the songs Boone covered much better) but Mom and Dad enjoyed him. After Pat Boone we saw a first run of an all-time classic Western, "High Noon". Dad and I loved it and Mom and older sister thought Grace Kelly was nice. I took a dive to the bottom of the ocean in a diving bell. This disappointed me for I had expectations of being in the middle of a giant aquarium with schools of fish dancing in front of me. All I saw were a few unknown fish swimming in muddy water. There was a smaller scale fishing-net raising then shown on the pic but still neat. Being an avid fisherman I never understood why the just lowered the nets and let all those fish go. Pier Day ended with trip to the end of the pier to see a very good comic vaudeville skit with expert divers doing zany acrobatic ocean diving somewhat akin to a Marx Brothers At Sea movie. After that came the famous diving horses. I was impressed by both the horses and the ladies riding the horses. (I was a teen with raging hormones.) That was almost 70 years ago but it remains seared in my memory so that it seems I can taste the frozen custard and saltwater taffy I had that day. (The Gallery, Atlantic City, DPC)
Revival: 1900
Ocean Grove, New Jersey, circa 1900-1910. "Interior of auditorium." 8x10 inch ... back in the summer of 1947. The acoustics were amazing. Ocean Grove, just south of Asbury Park on the north Jesrey Shore, along with Ocean City on the south Jesey shore, and Oak Bluffs, on Martha's Vineyard, were ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/05/2012 - 4:24pm -

Ocean Grove, New Jersey, circa 1900-1910. "Interior of auditorium." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. A Magnificent AuditoriumThe is the wonderful auditorium where I was lucky enough to once see a production of Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance" back in the summer of 1947. The acoustics were amazing. Ocean Grove, just south of Asbury Park on the north Jesrey Shore, along with Ocean City on the south Jesey shore, and Oak Bluffs, on Martha's Vineyard, were popular Methodist summer camp grounds and resorts and probably still are. You could not drive on the streets of Ocean Grove on Sunday. The locals hung chains across the roadways into the community to prevent cars and trucks from disturbing the tranquility. Wooden you know itSo that's what happened to Noah's Ark! And the Spirit movedThey meant business during that turn-of-the-century Holiness revival. And I'll bet deodorant hadn't even been invented. Electrifying SermonWith a stage show and gear like that I'd have to guess it's Billy Sunday. No? Re: Wooden You Know ItThanks for the hearty laugh I got from your comment. Wheres Waldo?Post Rapture? Just imagineThe heat in that place on a July Sunday Say Amen sombodyLooks like a Revival setting up. How many trees did it taketo create a marvel like that? All that wood must have smelled wonderful - until half the occupants lit up their cigars. Maybe smoking wasn't allowed for being sinful, not to mention the tremendous fire hazard. A wonderful space, anyway, complete with full orchestra. Fireproof ConstructionThis place gives new meaning to "Burn in eternal damnation." Beautiful BuildingInteresting building, looks like it's still standing too. View Larger Map Holy cow!An esthetic nightmare! Elmer Gantry Lives!Where are Burt Lancaster and Jean Simmons? Praise the LordFor your viewers who are city slickers and sophisticated lifelong residents of either American coast, they might not realize that these revivals are still going on to this very day in the Southern states of the U.S. on all levels, from the big entertainment shows in huge church auditoriums to the local small scale "tent revivals" which are precisely as described, various sizes of simple tents with assortments of metal or plastic folding chairs or even B.Y.O.C. venues. There are both ordained ministers or simple country preachers and everything from full orchestras to a single rinky-dink used piano. Elmer Gantry comes to mind as individual cardboard fans are distributed by the local funeral homes. Having grown up in Connecticut, I really enjoy my current residence in the south, sometimes I feel like I'm living in a moving picture, but the people have stellar strength of character which I find intriguing. I didn't know what I was missing growing up as a Yankee. Sitting in judgmentI hope the revivalists provided seat cushions. Ouch. Pre-individualismReligion on an industrial scale. Amazing. A lot of woodI was thinking the same thing......a lot of wood was used to build this place. The downside is places like this burned down fairly easily. Not to mention being on the coast, you would assume the wood was more subject to corrosion & rot. FiretrapToday's fire marshal would be horrified with this seating arrangement and building materials. Say What?They must have had some sort of amplification system in use, but I can't imagine what it would be back then. [It was called "oratory." - Dave] High reachI bet all those little light bulbs hanging from the ceiling were pretty lit up but it must have been a job to replace them when they burned out. In the Sweet By and ByThe roof had to rise up off its rafters or beams as the choir, pipe organ, orchestra and congregation raised their voices in the great 19th century hymns! Would loved to have heard them! None of the pathetic little 7-11 songs of today where they sing the same seven words over and over 11 times in monotonous drudgery. Then it was five full verses plus chorus each time! Still standingI live in the area & was visiting Ocean Grove & Asbury Park which is right next to Ocean Grove. Tony Bennett was playing the Great Auditorium, as it is known, & you can actually hear the concert in the next town over! Here is a current photo of the auditorium, not much has changed. Here's some videoFireproofDespite the fire hazard of all that wood and all that hellfire, the 1894 auditorium is indeed still standing, and its surroundings seem unchanged as well: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeruny/4323388065/ I've been there. It's magnificent. An interior shot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/humbleland/2570769421/ The tent houses still stand also: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sloppydawgnj/536085078/ Ocean Grove is well worth visiting--it's almost like a little time capsule. BurnoutAs an Electrician, I would hate to have to be responsible for re-lamping this building back then. Today I would rent a articulated lift to get so high up above the seating, but back then, I imagine the best option might be scaffolding. Unless there was access above the ceiling. Either way it would be tough. The prototypeThe Auditorium at Ocean Grove was patterned after the Amphitheater at Chautauqua Institution. The leaders of Ocean Grove perused the Amp, and designed a building that was a copy to a great degree. The Ocean Grove Auditorium took the outer rows of seats from the Amp and turned them into a balcony. It was completed a year after the Chautauqua structure. Both buildings are still going strong and are terrific venues to enjoy music. They have exquisite acoustics, like being inside a giant cello. https://www.shorpy.com/node/7257 Fond Memories of Graduation Graduation ceremonies from Neptune High School in 1957 were held here. Much better than an outdoor stadium. I wonder how many graduations were held after that. (The Gallery, DPC)
Zines & Beans: 1938
... make sure that the oysters are the kind that grow in the ocean and not around Omaha, Nebraska, if you please. Top to Bottom Sam ... Travel Rule #1 Don't order the seafood when the nearest ocean is 1000 miles away. Or do, but eat it with a side of Imodium. What ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/12/2017 - 4:07pm -

November 1938. "Capitol Avenue storefronts, Omaha, Nebraska." Medium format negative by John Vachon for the Resettlement Administration. View full size. Oyster stew!It's been forty years since I've made oyster stew! I'll bet mine was better, because I used oysters we picked up off the beach, at Dabob Bay, on Washington's Hood Canal the night before, and opened that day. In Nebraska, I'll bet they had to use canned! I'd even settle for canned right now, though! Hurry up!I don't know what that third car from the left is, with the 1-1813 license plate, but I want it and I want it now. I also want 45 cents worth of oyster stew, with some of them teeny little saltines and some Tabasco. And make sure that the oysters are the kind that grow in the ocean and not around Omaha, Nebraska, if you please. Top to BottomSam in 1616 and 1616½ has you covered from one end to the other. Spotted car1-1813 is a 1935 Oldsmobile top of the line sedan . Spotted Car1-1813 is a 1935 Oldsmobile L-35 touring car as seen here. No longer thereThe buildings have since been torn down. A Doubletree hotel sits in its place. Don't know if the restaurant serves oyster stew or not. FlawedThe adulation for that Oldsmobile would vanish quickly when one of its pistons blew --- - common problem for the 35s and 36s. Mine failed leaving Jackon Hole, Wyoming in 1948. Had to limp over the mountains and down into Salt Lake City where the second piston failed necessitating an engine tear-down in a parking lot. Before Parking LinesHave the feeling the 2nd car from the right, is going to be a little upset when it's time to back out. 1-1990 must have squeezed into that parking spot. Even after parking lines, he's probably still parking like that. Precursor?I favor the funky one fifth from the left, with the interesting back door. Anybody know what it is? Maybe it is my fondness for VW buses in my youth, but it looks intriguing. Travel Rule #1Don't order the seafood when the nearest ocean is 1000 miles away. Or do, but eat it with a side of Imodium. What Kind Of Oysters?As a son of The Land Of Pleasant Living I have always been leery when traveling of restaurants advertising oysters. If a restaurant isn't within 50 miles of a major oyster producing body of water I won't order them since my preference in oysters run to the Chincoteague style and not the Bull Durham variety. Precursor?The Funkymobile is a 28/29 Ford Model A Sedan Delivery. Very rare and desirable to the restorers and hot rodders alike. I'd choose it over all the cars in the lineup Rear door1929 Ford Sedan Delivery Current prices begin around $30,000 Oysters in Omaha? You betcha!Just a few blocks south of 1610 Capitol Ave (Now the Doubletree Hotel and First National Bank) lies a great seafood joint called appropriately 'Shucks' with a great oyster stew and all sorts of the succulent bivalves on the half shell - from both coasts, and even occasionally from the Choctawhatchee Bay in the Gulf. I've lived in Omaha for 31 years and vouch for the freshness of the seafood offerings here in our fair city. (Also has pretty good beefsteaks, as well!!!!) Can't say I've ever seen that 1935 Olds still around, though we like our classic cars here as well. Salty roads in the winter have been the ruin of many a fair classic, including my old '71 VW Westphaia. Shorpy and history.My son hooked me up to the Shorpy site years ago. Have just recently gotten the nerve to register and leave a comment. I really enjoy all the photos, the depression era by Dorothea Lange, And the photos of the old cars. Keep up the excellent work Dave. Shop to right?What is the shop between New Capitol Bar and Dean Lunch? I can only make out the word "Falstaff", and the objects in the window give few clues as to what they sell. [It's part of the New Capitol Bar; Falstaff is a brand of beer. -tterrace] Half-Seen Zine StoreA big bunch of people on FictionMags, an invitational Yahoo group I'm in, have been fascinated by the "zine" shop on the far left, and what the kid visible in the window is reading. Other images of magazines and especially newsstands here on Shorpy, for instance the recent 1938 Omaha newsstand, have been widely dissected. Falstaff BeerThe Falstaff brewery was south of downtown Omaha near 25th and Vinton Streets. Another Omaha local beer (also defunct) was Storz. Of course, there are numerous craft beers now brewed locally - and those have much more flavor than the old locals! Try 'Lucky Bucket' if you can find it. TrunkThe second car from the left is a 1932 Ford sedan with an aftermarket trunk mounted on an aftermarket support made by Kari-Keen or possibly Potter. Queued CarsFrom left to right: 1. 1937 Ford Tudor or Fordor (slant back) 2. 1932 Ford V8 with non-standard bumper 3. 1935 Oldsmobile L-35 4. 1936 Studebaker, likely a Dictator 5. 1929 Ford Model A Deluxe Delivery 6. 1936 Ford Deluxe Tudor Touring Sedan 7. 1933 Plymouth coupe (Business Coupe?) 8. 1937 DeSoto S3 Touring Sedan Note the partial reflections of the cars in the store windows. Bygone 'Zines DealersShortly before this photo was taken, the "Zines" store had been one of two news dealer stores of Charles C. Savage. This one, at 1618 Capitol Avenue, was being run by his daughter Hazel Lydia Savage. Two of her brothers both worked at the main family store at 1260 S. 16th in 1938. Hazel married Paul Colgrove on November 6, 1938, moved to Bandon, Oregon where she spent the rest of her life, and had a daughter, Colleen. The couple divorced in 1966. Hazel was born on September 12, 1917 in Omaha, and died January 15, 2011 in Bandon. After Hazel Savage, the store on Capitol Avenue became the business of Paul William Lehn. His last name can be partially seen in the window. He was born in Nebraska to George and Madeline Lehn in 1920. Less than a year after the photo was taken he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps on June 19, 1941. After WWII he became an accountant, and he remained in Omaha at least through the late 1950s. He died on Chrismas Day, 1971 in Los Angeles, California, but he was buried back in Omaha. Re: Error in descriptionThe information that I provided in regard to the store is easily found in the Omaha city directories from 1936, 1938, and 1940. I have attached extracts that verify the information that was provided. Perhaps Hazel's daughter was simply just never told how her mother ran a news store prior to being married, and that her uncles also were clerks in their grandfather's store. Not a traceThe street was redone sometime in the 1950s. The Edward Zorinsky Federal Building was originally completed in 1958 as a home to the US Army Corps of Engineers. It's been modified a couple of times, most recently completed as a post-9/11 security and environmental retrofit in 2008. It is an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly and sustainable building. But I'd do anything to sit in Sam's Barber Shop shown in the original image and listen to the stories drift in and out with each customer. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Eateries & Bars, John Vachon, Omaha)
Côte d’Azur: 1954
... Are those ... ... swings and rings dangling over the ocean for acrobatically getting into the water? If so -- yeow! It looks ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/08/2023 - 12:37am -

August 1954. Antibes, French Riviera. "The Sporting Look -- Beachwear. Sunbathers at the Eden Roc, Côte d'Azur." 35mm Kodachrome slide by Toni Frissell. View full size. Sun protectionGeez -- no place to stick your umbrella in the sand. Bond, James BondI embigulated and looked for Sean Connery everywhere but couldn’t find him. Bird is the wordThere are a lot of budgies getting smuggled there. Bond, James BondI think I found him. Missh Moneypenny, let me get your legsh for you. Are those ...... swings and rings dangling over the ocean for acrobatically getting into the water? If so -- yeow! It looks très really niceHere is the hotel to which the swimming pool belongs. The pool has been enlarged and the steps reconfigured. Too bad it was empty when the Google satellite passed over. Click to embiggen Bikini scarcityThe bikini, a postwar sensation of French design, is rather scarce here. I count two. For the Rich and maybe famousThe Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc is booked solid until October 2023. Even then, get your wallet out. The wonder of KodachromeKodachrome, now an obsolete format, never ceases to amaze in its dazzling rendition of color. I have a very large collection of National Geographic Yearbooks, and one of the joys of looking through the pages is the incredible Kodachrome photographs, taken by very talented photographers. Kodachrome can be considered the equivalent of moving pictures' Technicolor, although a different production process is used, the effects are similar. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Swimming, Toni Frissell)
Death Avenue: 1910
... Building , a block-long warehouse looking like a stylized ocean liner, with train tracks from the pier leading right into the building ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/10/2012 - 4:16pm -

A detailed circa 1910 Manhattan streetscape of rail cars at West 26th Street and Eleventh Avenue, known as "Death Avenue" for the many pedestrians killed along the New York Central's freight line there. View full size. Removal of the street-level tracks commenced on December 31, 1929. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. Update: Click here for the largest version. A Freight TrolleyI think this is one of my favorite photos ever. There's so much going on here that is representative of the time that I could spend hours scrutinizing it. I'd never even heard of there being freight trolleys that would rumble down city streets (I know, I need to do my homework). All the activity and storefronts and normalcy of it all. Simply incredible. "How do I get to the Susquehanna Hat Company?" Re: Freight TrolleyHere's a closeup of the engine. The coal seems to be in a bin on the front. Bain took several photos of this rail line and the freight cars. I'll post some more in the coming days. Any railfans out there who can tell us more about the 11th Avenue line? What's she holding?Out of all the details in this picture, there is one that has drawn my attention. On the left side of the street, about in line with the front of the train, there is a woman holding something white. Can someone with a better monitor tell what that is? I'm thinking large dog (though I think it's unlikely that a dog that large would be carried--unless maybe it was scared by the train?) or squirming child, or possibly a massive sack of flour (not that likely, I admit.) Anyone? [Looks like a bundle of packages wrapped in paper. - Dave] Freight Trolley?I don't think so, at least not by most definitions. A trolley draws power from overhead lines and I can't see any power lines above the tracks or the necessary connecting wires (and their poles) to keep it in place. I do see a steam engine [Coal-powered. See photo below. - Dave] of a fairly specialized type and in the distant background a line of freight cars crossing the street. Given the proximity of the location to the Hudson River (it's near what is now Chelsea Docks) it wouldn't surprise me if this wasn't a New York Central spur line to connect the docks to a main line, in the period before most of the rail traffic in New York City went underground. There is a street car in the shot, but I'm guessing that it's a horse car (pulled by at least one horse). What I find really interesting is that there's not a motor vehicle in sight, just horses, and the sheer amount of what the horses left behind (to put it euphemistically). "Freight Trolley"The engine, as noted below, is clearly not a trolley. It appears to be a "steam dummy," a small locomotive, largely enclosed, often looking like a streetcar so as not to frighten the horses. A conventional locomotive, even a small one, with large driving wheels and flashing connecting rods, would certainly frighten the animals. Mounted FlagmanI guess the guy on the horse on the foreground is also a mounted flagman... he is preceding the steam train to protect pedestrians! Remember... "2000 killed in ten years" on the Death Avenue (Eleventh avenue)! ----------------------------------------- Funimag, the web magazine about Funiculars http://www.funimag.com Funimag Blog http://www.funimag.com/photoblog/ Guy on the roofDid you see the guy on the top of the roof of the third wagon? I am wondering what he is doing! Maybe watching pedestrians!!! Incontinent horse!Did you see the incontinent horse?!!! Gash...! What a big river!!! That picture is really fantastic!! Re: Guy on the RoofThe man on the roof is a brakeman. Riding a car roof is better than hanging on a ladder on the car side. Horse-drawn tramJust to the right (our view) of the "train" is a horse drawn tram car being drawn along the track in the opposite direction. BrakemanPlease note that there are no brake hoses on the locomotive. All handbrakes, so the brakeman rides on top because the staff brakes are on the car tops. to stop the train the engineer signals the brakeman and he starts ratcheting down the handbrakes How fast?I'm wondering just how fast these trains were barreling through the street to hit so many people? If they were being preceded by a guy on horseback they couldn't have been gong all that fast. And yet people still did not notice them coming? How does one not hear a steam locomotive? Tank DummyPerhaps the locomotive is one of these (scroll down to the bottom of the page): http://www.northeast.railfan.net/steam22.html The sheer amount of detail in this is incredible.E.g. the kids' chalk scrawls on the sidewalk. I'd imagine that a lot of the deaths occurred at night or in bad weather. My favorite partMy favorite part is the kid running down the sidewalk on the lower left. Perhaps he's trying to outrun the train? He reminds me of the drawings of Little Nemo. [Lower left? Or right? - Dave] The beer wagonIncredible photo! The detail is fantastic. I like the beer wagon (wishful thinking?) in front of the train. I am just amazed.... CrutchesWhat about the guy on crutches on the right. I wonder what the story is behind that. 26th and 11thI went and looked up the intersection on Google maps, and the whole right side is a parking lot now. Triangle Shirtwaist FireThe worst factory fire in the history of New York City occurred on March 25, 1911, in the Asch building, where the Triangle Shirtwaist Company occupied the top three of ten floors. Five hundred women, mostly Jewish immigrants between thirteen and twenty-three years old, were employed there. The owners had locked the doors leading to the exits to keep the women at their sewing machines. In less than fifteen minutes, 146 women died. The event galvanized support for increased safety in the workplace. It also garnered support for labor unions in the garment district, and in particular for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Much material was provided by several websites, but two in particular I want to call attention to, the first for an overall exceptionally presented look back at this tragedy and a stunning presentation of the labor movement. Truly a brilliant multimedia presentation. The Triangle Factory Fire – Presented by The Kheel Center, Catherwood Library, ILR School at Cornell University. and National Public Radio ... I can not recommend those two sites too highly. They are top-notch. And on YouTube, The Cloth Inferno. 11th Avenue TrainBeneath the "dummy" shroud, it's actually a two-truck Shay locomotive, a type of geared power popular on many logging and industrial operations with sharp curves and steep grades. High LineThis rail line was replaced with an elevated line that entered the warehouses of the west side on their upper floors. It continued to be used into the early 1980s mostly for boxcars of produce. The boxcars shown are refrigerated for perishable items. The roof hatches are for loading ice into bunkers at the ends of the cars. The elevated rail line still exists but is now owned by the city which is rebuilding it into an elevated linear park in Manhattan's Chelsea district. 11th Ave trainIf you look at the largest version you can see that it says 11 on the front which would make this an 0-6-0, class B-11. The Shays also show the offset boiler. Great photo. 26th and 11thWest 26th & 11th is the location the fabulous old Starrett Lehigh Building, a block-long warehouse looking like a stylized ocean liner, with train tracks from the pier leading right into the building and up the freight elevators. Its time was past before it was even finished in 1931 as the trucking industry eclipsed rail freight. Funky old place to wander around if you ever get the chance. 26th & 11thThe right side of 11th Ave & 26th St will be the terminus of the 7 Train extension from Times Square. (last station will be 11th Ave and 34th) . They are currently boring down to the bedrock. NY Central dummy engine>> Beneath the "dummy" shroud, it's actually a two-truck Shay locomotive It seems the NY Central Shays weren't built until 1923-- so looks like he's right about the engine being an 0-6-0 beneath the dummy housing. N.Y. Central ShayA city ordinance required that a horseman precede the rail movement, and that the locomotive be covered to look like a trolley car so as not to frighten horses. When the line was elevated it was electrified, I believe with locomotives that could also run on batteries to access trackage that had no overheard wires. At that time the Shay locomotives were put to use elsewhere on the New York Central system. Here is a photo, from my father's collection, of one of the Shays in service near Rochester, I believe. The spout on the left is not part of the locomotive but is on a water stand behind it. Not The Sound of Silence!Just try and imagine the sounds here! The shod horses clomping down the brick street. The wagons creaking along as the wheels roll on the bricks and dirt. The various bells (church, train, etc) pealing, the subtle sounds of conversations and pedestrian footsteps, the whisk of broom bristles as the street is cleaned! Much preferable to the honking, boom-boxing, brake-screeching, muffler-rapping scenarios we endure today! 10th AvenueAnother pic shows what 11th Avenue north from 26th St actually looked like; someone mislabelled this negative of 10th Ave. Building Still ThereAccording to a post here, this is actually the intersection of 10th Ave and W 26th Street. I looked up this intersection on Google Maps and it appears that one of the buildings in the old photo is still there. It's way down the street..behind the train, the 3rd building from the end on the left side of the street. (The windows look like there is a white stripe connecting them). I think that is the same building on the northwest corner of the intersection of 10th Ave and 27th Street. Just thought I'd throw that out there :) 29th StLooks like you're right, that bldg is still there, but it's on the NW corner of 29th St and 10th Ave. In the Google streetview it's about a twin of the bldg at 28th St. At the left edge of the Shorpy pic you see 267 10th Ave, which means the engine is about to cross 26th St. The train moved from the yard onto 10th Ave at 30th St. Pic of 11th Avenue https://www.shorpy.com/node/12859 (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, Horses, NYC, Railroads)
High Society: 1960
... it’s less gross to flick an unfiltered butt into the ocean than a cigarette with a filter. Since Shorpy is a wholesome family site, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/25/2023 - 2:45pm -

June 18, 1960. "Rowing, Harvard-Yale Regatta. Crew race at New London, Connecticut." Man overboard! 35mm Kodachrome slide by Toni Frissell. View full size. Pinch Me!"I must be dreaming" Shipshape and Camel fashionIt appears the Captain doesn't mind getting a little ash on his yacht. Tom?I'm getting a Talented Mr. Ripley vibe here. UnfilteredI guess it’s less gross to flick an unfiltered butt into the ocean than a cigarette with a filter. Since Shorpy is a wholesome family site, I won’t say what we used to call unfiltered smokes. 1960 in reviewHere is a list of 1960 events and births. A few which stand out to me include: February: Greensboro, NC -- four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. March: The United States announces that 3,500 American soldiers will be sent to Vietnam. April: The United States launches the first weather satellite, TIROS-1. June: A smoking hot, shirtless man doesn't mind having his lack of body fat admired by a woman on a yacht during Harvard-Yale Regatta, New London, Connecticut. July: Following the admission of the State of Hawaii as the 50th state in August 1959, the new (and current) 50-star Flag of the United States is first officially flown over Philadelphia. August: The newly named Beatles begin a 48-night residency at the Indra Club in Hamburg, West Germany. Let me just ... oh my!She's trouble! Pieces of ice on her finger aside, she might be having a moment inspired by her second (more likely third or fourth) G&T, and the day watching the races. She's sizing up the evening's potential as only her circumstances allow ... she'll meet everyone for dinner at a select spot, and certainly grab a seat next to him. Lively conversation to follow above the linen, with perhaps more exploration below deck. Those Vassar women -- [If they were all laid end to end ... - Dave] Privileged WorldI grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in the 1970s in Groton, which is the land you can see in this picture. These people might as well have been on the dark side of the moon to me. I heard about the regatta yearly in the papers, but it just wasn't anything of significance to lower middle-class folk. Gold Star Memorial BridgeI`ve personally been over it a few times, fantastic structure(s). The original span was "twinned" in 1973, and now carries northbound I-95 traffic. New London's BridgesJudging by location of the Gold Star Bridge and the Thames River Bridge in this photo, the Versatile is just off the shore of the US Coast Guard Academy. Both the Gold Star and Thames River Bridges are still there and very busy. The Gold Star Bridge where Interstate 95 crosses the Thames River is now a two-span bridge having the southbound span added on in 1973. The Thames River Bridge is owned by Amtrak and was converted from a bascule bridge to a vertical-lift bridge in 2008. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Boats & Bridges, Toni Frissell)
Night Lights: 1905
... night a fantastic city all of fire suddenly rises from the ocean into the sky. Thousands of ruddy sparks glimmer in the darkness, limning ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/20/2014 - 6:46pm -

New York circa 1905. "Night in Luna Park, Coney Island." A veritable wonderland of incandescent illumination. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size. Thanks DaveI would crawl inside this photograph if I could. The Luna Park CircusAs if the architecture wasn't enough, the cafe mezzanines overlook a "floating" circus ring supported on arched trusses over the central lagoon. In the Shorpy image, Ring No. 1 is set up for a trapeze act. Here's a tinted postcard of a performing horse act on the same elevated platform. Ooh.I would have given anything to spend a night at the old Luna Park. The blurred figuresbring this photo to life! I love this website!!!! Ethereal glowI really like how the camera captured an aura around some of the lights. Even today this would be considered a beautiful display of lights. I can't imagine how magical it must have been to people who grew up without electricity in their homes and still may not have had it. I think that people too easily forget about some things in the past, like the original Ferris Wheel, and Coney Island in its prime. Modern day designers would do well to learn from these works of engineering art. WOW.They didn't waste any time taking advantage of electricity, did they? FWIW, I found this site yesterday and it is the most glorious corner of the Internet I've yet found. Just incredible. You have a new fan for life!! I was originally looking for Lewis Hine photos for a lecture ... and found more than I ever could have imagined! Keep up the good work! [Aw shucks. Thanks! - Dave] Job security!Can you imagine having the job of changing the burned-out light bulbs there? I imagine it'd have to be done after dusk so you could see which ones were out. Wonder if they bulb arrays were rigged so they could be lowered to the ground for maintenance, or if the poor workers had to scale the heights! GorgeousBut hardly a surprise it burned down. What a Sight Even the most staunch Victorians were impressed with this -- actually "awed" might be more appropriate. I've read a lot about Luna Park but don't remember anything about those elephants. Glowing praiseOne of your best choices yet -- an amazing photo. Oriental FantasiesThere's never been anything quite like the hallucinatory grandeur of the architectural mashups seen in amusement park and exposition buildings in this period. The primary quotations appear to come from Cairo minarets and Mughal Indian archways, but these have been all mixed up with motifs from Chinese pagodas and old Russian church spires, Venetian balustrades and Italian baroque shields on the balconies. Then there are the what-the-heck details like the phoenix-head fern planters erupting from the bases of the flagpoles all around the upper deck. What shall we call it all -- Electro-Moresco-Sino-Baroco? Lights - actionI have seen a number of photos of Luna Park, and they are all astonishing. It must have been a fabulous place! Hey, Dad!Can I borrow the time machine tonight? I want to head on over to Coney with the gang. What an unbelievable shot. You've done it again, Dave. Sadly, about all that is left of the old Coney Island is the Cyclone and Nathan's. Disney's inspiration?The attention to detail is amazing. I have (happily) wasted a half an hour on this picture and still find new details! AC/DCWhat makes this photo truly remarkable is the fact that even in 1905 there still wasn't an electrical standard. Was the power Edison's DC or was it Tesla's AC? I'm betting on AC. My grandfather, born in 1875, would regale us with stories of Coney Island. He would weave these almost impossible sounding stories about the grandeur of the place. Now you have to remember, the Coney Island of the 1950s and the 60s and then into the very depressing 70s was a very far cry from his experience, so it was almost as if he was telling fairy tales. It really must have been something else back then for the blue-collar worker. Working six days a week, up to 14 hours a day and taking your only day off to go to Coney Island. We have gained so much, we have lost so much. Few places I'd rather bethan Luna Park and Coney Island in 1905. What an interesting, fascinating and exciting place it must have been. HauntedI watched Ric Burns' documentary about Coney Island several years ago and it was so haunting and eerie that I can't look at this photo without getting chills. The 1903 footage of a Coney Island elephant being electrocuted for the "crime" of attacking a handler who threw a lit cigarette in her mouth still haunts me. Time machine pleaseIf I had a time machine, I'd take it back, throw a huge blanket over this place and tell them that they couldn't touch it for another 100 years, when they could appreciate the grandeur of all that is here. Those architectural details! Today's buildings are just squares and rectangles. No pomp! No curlicues! No flourishes! How amazing it must have been to see all this electricity in one place. All that light. Must have been like they imagined the future would be. Where do you think we live, Luna Park?!While growing up on the Lower East Side of NYC in the 60's and 70's my grandparents and parents were always admonishing us kids to "turn off the lights when you leave the room!" If they ever had to turn the lights off after we carelessly left them on they would always say, "Where do you think we live, Luna Park?!" Or, my father's favorite, "the place is lit up like Luna Park!" Now I see what they meant! Fascinating photo. Thank you. Luna ParkMaxim Gorky's remarks about Luna Park fit this photo perfectly: With the advent of night a fantastic city all of fire suddenly rises from the ocean into the sky. Thousands of ruddy sparks glimmer in the darkness, limning in fine, sensitive outline on the black background of the sky shapely towers of miraculous castles, palaces, and temples. Golden gossamer threads tremble in the air. They intertwine in transparent flaming patterns, which flutter and melt away, in love with their own beauty mirrored in the waters. Fabulous beyond conceiving, ineffably beautiful, is this fiery scintillation. NicopachydermI must correct Mattie below. The elephant was certainly electrocuted at Luna Park, but not because a handler threw a lit cigarette into her mouth and she killed him. She was killed because she had killed three men in as many years. While it was true that she was abused by patrons and had in fact been fed a lit cigarette by someone, that incident was some time before and her handler was neither whom she killed nor who fed her the lit cigarette. Luna in filmI was just flipping through the channels and Turner Classic Movies is showing a silent film called "The Crowd" that features a montage of the lead characters enjoying the sights of Luna at night. The shots were just as spectacular as the photos of Luna park here at Shorpy. (The Gallery, Coney Island, DPC)
Amex: 1910
... (Mount Lowe), a mile above the sea, to the south coast ocean resorts, and penetrates all the valleys in the beautiful country adjacent ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/02/2012 - 5:23pm -

Circa 1910. "American Express Co., Main and Sixth." Just steps away from the Aseptic Barber Shop. Who can tell us what city we're in? View full size. Pacific Electric Building, Los AngelesThis is the Pacific Electric Building (or Huntington Building) at 6th and Main in Los Angeles, California. You can see intertwined Ps and Es in the column capitals at the cornice. And, amazingly enough, still there! Main & SixthIt's Sixth Street, not State, but I have no idea what city. On state streetthat great street, I just want to say, they do things they don't do on Broadway. Chicago? [I goofed in typing "State." Should have been "Sixth." - Dave] It's the Huntington BuildingIt's the Huntington Building in Los Angeles. "W.M.Garland & Company" was the clue." Pacific Power and LightPortland? Amex 1910 locationThe lampposts ("5-Globe Llewelin") indicate downtown L.A., unless the design was used elsewhere. But I don't believe so. West CoastI would guess Los Angeles as there is a Pacific Light and Power sign on one of the windows in the building. Dual gauge in L.A.It's Los Angeles. The tipoff (for me at least) is the dual-gauge streetcar track -- 3'6" for the city streetcars of the Los Angeles Railway; standard gauge for the interurbans of the Pacific Electric. I'm going to guess Los AngelesWe're on S. Main Street. Pacific Light and Power Company in one of the windows is a clue we're on the west coast. The real clue are the offices of W. M. Garland Company Real Estate. Mr. Garland was a commercial developer in Los Angeles. He was instrumental in bringing the Olympics to Los Angeles in 1932. That's my final answer. Los AngelesI believe this is the old Pacific Electric building on Sixth and Main. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Electric_Building In Los AngelesThis is the Pacific Electric Building in Los Angeles. Lazy AnswerMy limited research leads me to guess that the city we're looking for is Kingston, New York. Still There Too!Here it is today. City Of AngelsDowntown Los Angeles. The actual building was called the Pacific Electric Building. AlohaI'm going to guess Honolulu based on the "Pacific Power and Light" sign in an upper window. That Toddling TownI gotta say it's Chicago. InterurbanPacific Electric Building in Los Angeles, CA American ExpressThat building, I believe, is the one on Broadway in NYC. Los AngelesI think this is L.A. Could it besunny Los Angeles? The Magic 8 Ball saysLos Angeles. My bet is on San FranciscoThis is obviously just a local branch office, and a window on an upper floor says "Pacific". And, the number of streetcars. Los AngelesCorner of W. Sixth and S. Main, Los Angeles. All three buildings still there. We are in Los AngelesSixth and Main, Los Angeles. That is the Edendale streetcar line. Los AngelesThe building is the Pacific Electric headquarters at 6th and Main, in Los Angeles. More here. Sitting downBet there isn't a bloke sitting on a stool in the intersection now. More importantWhy is there a man who appears to be holding a newspaper sitting on a chair in the middle of the street? Perhaps the officer is telling him to "move along now, nothing to see here." Trolleys left their markThe attachments where the various wires and cable were are still visible on the building. View Larger Map Follow the trolley toEdendale. AlwaysWonderful to know where you are! But who is that sitting on a stool, in the middle of the interesection, next to the policeman? And why? Pacific Electric Railway Terminal The National Magazine, 1908 The Huntington Interests The lines operated by the Los Angeles Railway Company, the Pacific Electric, the Los Angeles Inter-Urban Railway Company, the Los Angeles & Redondo Railway Company, The San Bernardino Valley Traction Company and the Riverside & Arlington Railway Company, which comprise the Huntington system, is undoubtedly the greatest system of street and inter-urban railways in the world. It consists of over 500 miles of standard gauge line, reaching from Alpine (Mount Lowe), a mile above the sea, to the south coast ocean resorts, and penetrates all the valleys in the beautiful country adjacent to Los Angeles. … The Pacific Electric Railway was the name adopted by the corporation managing the suburban electric lines of the Huntington system, Mr. Huntington having acquired the line to Pasadena and outlining the plan for an extensive system of suburban railways reaching out from Los Angeles in every direction. Since then there have been completed electric railroads to practically every city and town of importance in Southern California and to the thriving beach resorts tributary to Los Angeles as a center. … One of the most enduring monuments to his public spirit and enterprise is the mammoth Pacific Electric Building of Los Angeles, a building of nine stories, with eleven acres of floor space and which is the terminal station for the wonderfully perfect inter-urban system. This is the largest structure of its kind west of Chicago, and was completed in December, 1904. The American Architect and Building News, 1908 The Pacific Electric Building, and the Jonathan Club Roof Garden, Los Angles, Cal. The rooms and roof garden of the Jonathan Club, on the upper stories of the Pacific Electric Building, at Los Angeles, were an afterthought. At the time the external character of the building was determined by Mr. Thornton Fitzhugh, the architect, the contracts let and the construction work well advanced, no thought had been given to the adaptation of the upper floors for club purposes. This problem was therefore a most difficult one, not only because the changes involved were many and complicated, but owing to official dictation and limitations imposed, the result is one in many respects quite at variance with what would have been accomplished had the architect been allowed freer rein in his work. None the less the Pacific Electric Building presents characteristics that would entitle it to some measure of recognition if built in the largest cities. Its proportions for a city the size of Los Angeles are unusual and its equipment such as will meet every condition of a first-class office building. The building stands on a plot 285x211 feet, and is nine stories high. The total floor space is more than twelve acres, and exceeds in area the Broad Exchange Building in New York, which is 21 stories high. The structure was erected for the Pacific Electric Railway Co. The basement has a clear floor space of 58,000 feet and is designed for use as a freight depot. The main floor ceiling is thirty feet high, supported by cement columns. Through an opening sixty feet high, spanned by a cement girder eight feet deep, the cars enter the building. The upper stories from the second to the sixth inclusive are devoted to offices. There are ninety-nine offices on each floor, or a total of 594 in all. No office is less than twenty by fifteen feet, and they range in size to a maximum of sixty by thirty feet. All three still there!the building on the right looked very modern in 1910, all simple and light. Another vote for LAThe streetcar on the left side of the image says, "Edendale," which was a neighborhood in old Los Angeles. Imagine an LA with ..."completed electric railroads to practically every city and town of importance in Southern California and to the thriving beach resorts." I'll think of that during my commute. Familiar!It looks very much the same today, though I doubt the chap on the stool in the middle of Main Street would find his perch as comfortable today. Before the credit cardWhat was American Express' main line of business? [Express is short for "express mail." Express companies like Adams Express and American Express were businesses similar to UPS or FedEx, relying mostly on the railroads for speedy delivery. American Express specialized in services to travelers -- travelers checks and money orders. The window gives some clues. - Dave] The loneliest man in the worldI love it when a shot of an old building includes a person looking out a window. This one's a classic. You should see insideI worked on a couple of movies in the late '90s inside the abandoned Pacific Electric building. What an amazing space. I wandered all through the building and stumbled into what I was told was Huntington's private office -- awesome, massive, with unbelievable marble stairways. In "Gang Related" worked on one scene right around where the streetcar is shown here coming out of the garage. In the scene was Tupac Shakur, who appeared to be somewhat inebriated. It wasn't too much longer after that that he was murdered in Las Vegas. Yay LAIt's great to see a photograph of Los Angeles on Shorpy. I will have to take a look at this spot this weekend and stand at this corner. There's a great restaurant down the street on 4th and Main called Pete's with great Mac and Cheese. No Traffic ControlWow, no stop sign or anything. I also like the seat on the front of the trolley on Sixth. Does one pay extra to be out in front? 610 South MainIt is indeed the PE Building, later the Southern Pacific’s general offices in Los Angeles. I worked there in the late 1970's and early 1980's when the Red Cars were long gone and the street-level station was turned into a parking lot. Our disptaching office controlled traffic betweeb Yuma, AZ and Fresno /San Luis Obispo, CA. Downstairs it was interesting to park one's car next to marble-covered columns. Working rotating shifts I sometimes had to step over a local citizen or two sleeping on the sidewalk. The building closest to the viewer on the left was the Santa Fe's offices and across the street out of view to the right was the Continental Trailways bus depot. The top floors of the PE building housed a handsome two-storey atrium - perhaps Mr Huntingdon's offices. We had a “Watch Inspector” (a man who sold and serviced approved railroad timepieces) in the building and I bought a Ball Trainmaster wristwatch from him for about $120. Years later it cost that much just to have it cleaned. Understand the neighborhood is much nicer now and this building is a condominium. StillWanna know what's up with the seated person in the middle of the intersection! (The Gallery, DPC, Los Angeles, Streetcars)
Pressing the Flesh: 1940
... newfangled digital film, then? Washrooms? Oh, the ocean. (I'm assuming it's there somewhere.) Special event? That can't ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/22/2016 - 9:11pm -

New York, 1940. "Crowd at Coney Island." Gelatin silver print by Arthur Fellig, the press photographer known as Weegee. View full size. Fourth of July WeekendI was 8 my that year & mom had taken me to Coney Island beach since I was an infant. If this was the Fourth of July it marks the last time she put up with the crowds that were there (weather permitting) most every week end in July and August. After that it was Sunset Park Pool across the street from our third floor front apartment at 4109 7th Avenue in Bayridge, Brooklyn. No need for trolleys, subways and body odors. Kids who today think Woodstock and rock concerts in Central Park were huge should see this photo. I demonstrated in four "marches" on Washington and they couldn't hold a candle to this loony mass of humanity. In Living ColorA colorized version of this photo would be nice. Anyone up to the task? Where is WaldoBlack-and-white version. WoodstockThat was my first impression upon seeing the preview. Okay, Harry, where do we set up the tent?My one day spent at Coney Island Beach in 1958 or so was enough for a lifetime, and our subsequent outings to the beach at nearby (Jacob) Riis Park were far more pleasant, although I never became a big fan of beaches anywhere. The ride home on the bus and subway while still encrusted in sand and salt was truly the low point of every trip. Reminds me of:Where's Waldo. Yogi Berra's Quote“Nobody goes to Coney Island anymore, it's too crowded.” Small wonder, and he actually may have said it. However, he also is said to have said, “I never said most of the things I said.” Auntie Mary and cousin Joe in the tenth row back?How many megapixels to get that level of detail on this here newfangled digital film, then? Washrooms?Oh, the ocean. (I'm assuming it's there somewhere.) Special event?That can't have just been the regular Tuesday crowd, right? There had to have been something special happening that day, to have so many packed in like sardines .... It was so very hot on that day.None of the rides were open and Mister Handwerker ran out of red hots. Me?!?!jobaron I am somewhere in this picture. I grew up in Coney Island and, since this was taken on the Fourth of July, 1940, I most certainly am somewhere here. No way I wasn't on the beach that day... Anybody find me? :-) How many humans?Wow. Do that many people ever get together in one place any more? I know I have never been in a crowd that big in my life! Does Coney Island still get this overcrowded? Is the entire meyro NYC there all at the same time? to heck with Where's Waldo.Where's the water? It will take all day to find it. Show Us Your PitsI'll just show myself out now. No ExitSometimes it's nice just to get away from it all and go to the seashore Watch the birdieThe trick here seems to be: How do I get them to look at me? The Wonderwheel still stands and operates, as does the Cyclone, as far as I'm concerned the finest wooden rollercoaster in use. I once got paid to ride it for an audio experiment, and made 23 trips around it with a 24 pound tape recorder in my lap. I was a huge bruise the next day. They said my headphones flew off at one point and I calmly reached into space and grabbed them. What a great day. So Ralphie said"Why don't we go to the beach and get out of this hot, crowded city?" SunblindnessSomeone could have made a fortune selling sunglasses to this crowd... I only count about a dozen or so folks wearing eye protection. Today you'd only be able to count a dozen or so NOT wearing sunglasses! What a crowd! I'm getting claustrophobic just looking at the photo! A sea of humanityWonder what the occasion was? It's hard to believe there's enough room for anyone there to enjoy a peaceful day at the beach. Must have been a change for Weegee -- shooting live subjects, that is. Most of his photos I've seen are still life (or, more accurately, still "death") "Let's Go Down On The Sand,""It has to be less crowded than this boardwalk is...." My Dog Filmed a Short Film on that BeachMy dog filmed a video on the boardwalk and on the beach in this photo. We rode the Wonder Wheel together and also had our photo taken in a photo booth. He died on Oct. 18, 2015 at age 15. RIP Clancy :( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_CaQqDSRu4 Listen Without PrejudiceI always wondered where this picture was from! George Michael used it for the cover of his "Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1." and I always thought the woman in the center in the black bikini looked like my English teacher. Clearly, she was not; I'm not quite that old. East Coast For Sure!You can count the blondes on one hand! Good dayto head out to Flushing Meadows to the World's Fair! J. Edgar HooverMr Cool in the lower right corner cracks me up; he even wears fedora and sunglasses in the shower. Any open space will doWhere can I lay out my towel? Has anyone seen my flip-flops? What kind of drive would one have to go to such a place where you could hardly breathe? Like someone said..."where's the water?" Where Are They?So how did those folks find their blanket after the photo? That is one huge group of people. Was Coney Island Segregated Then?I see only shades of white and sunburned. Re: WoodstockYep, pretty close! This might make a good source for colorizers, too... Oh, the Humanity!My guess is 600 to 700 thousand people framed in the pic. About enough to fill 9 football stadiums. Ideal PlaceIf you ever wanted to lose a kid this would be where to do it! Anyone who's gotta use the washroomraise your hand. July 28, 4 p.m.Which was a Sunday. (Found with reference to a 2009 exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas which included this photo.) THE RIDE HOME?!!!!!I will NEVER complain about a crowd and traffic again. I have never seen anything like this before. The comment volume..........is proportional to the amount of exposed skin. Of course, there is also a female coefficient to factor in when applicable. Where are Mom's shoes?I was born in Coney but went to neighboring Brighton Beach. On one of those hot days, with blanket touching blanket staking our space, a crowd started to gather as someone was drowning. After things calmed down my mom discovered that someone took her shoes. I was about 12 but remember it as if it were yesterday as she walked to the train without shoes. Oh the memory that this photo stirred up. Thanks Looking back.Imagine the heebie-jeebies this gathering would now conjure, with the pandemic we're facing. Social distancing 1940 style. (The Gallery, Coney Island, NYC, Swimming)
Greetings From Asbury Park: 1914
... "Asbury Park, New Jersey." The North End Hotel on the Ocean Grove side of the boardwalk circa 1914. George Grantham Bain Collection. ... This brought me back to 62 years ago. I spent a week in Ocean Grove with a family of neighbors while my dad was on a business trip in ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/23/2012 - 6:44pm -

"Asbury Park, New Jersey." The North End Hotel on the Ocean Grove side of the boardwalk circa 1914. George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. "In the Beautiful Seaside Air"That's the title of a Victor record by Billy Murray and the Peerless Quartet, circa 1915. My late Grandma's favorite vacation spot was Asbury Park, and I'm glad that she didn't live long enough to see the boardwalk fall into ruin. One of the large buildings (the Exhibition Hall?) once had a museum of player pianos and mechanical music boxes, which all worked. I wonder what happened to them? Postcard View Trim and FitA fantastic picture. Caught in mid-conversation, everyone seems so animated, even the onlookers on the benches. The men, as always, were in ties, sport coats and hats, even though it was probably summer. But what is really astonishing is that absolutely everyone in that picture is trim and fit, no fatties in sight anywhere that I can detect. Ninety-five years later, another picture taken in the same area would undoubtedly yield a broad selection of suburban New Jersey heavyweights. In case of fire -- run for your lifeThe lace on each of those dresses is gorgeous, and the expressions on the faces make you feel that you were really there. But on the far right is a bucket labeled for fire. If you tried to put out anything larger than a burning napkin with that little bucket you would be in sorry shape. There is no apparent supply of water with the bucket. What did they expect you to do, run off the boardwalk, over to the waves, and run back, one bucket at a time, to splash the fire out? [Weren't fire buckets usually full of sand? - Dave] Fourth of July, Asbury ParkGossip overheard on the boardwalk this day: "Did you hear, the cops finally busted Madam Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do?" Feels like I am right there.I love that you can get all the root beer and ginger ale you want for 5 cents! A Derby?Guy at bottom right: "You're on holiday, man - where's your straw boater?" DynamicsWhat a wonderful negative. I marvel at these treasures, some of which are well over 100 years old. I wonder how well our current generation of digital images will fare over this same time. My fear is that most of them will be lost forever. (I've already heard people bemoaning the loss of pictures they were to "busy" to transfer from an old computer to a new one.) But I digress. This picture is a wonderful microcosm of American society. There are dynamics at work here. A father and his "soon-to be flapper" daughter just exiting the bottom of the frame. Three young girls walking up the boardwalk, one of whom seems to be casting an eye back ... to what? (a rival?) Not far away is an animated discussion between three men. A little farther up, a family (?) of six females and two small boys, stretched out in a line. A man all alone, suffering from a cold (?) and on and on. Until up on the right, most disturbing of all, a small knot of men clustered at the swimming pool fence. Ansel Adams had the Zone System. I'm working on the points system. First I points it here, and then I points it there ... So Many ScenariosOne need not walk into the "SCENARIO" entrance to see them. For free, a lot of them are playing out right here. Here are some favorites: The Prohibition is clearly in force here. Against smiling. What a grim bunch of happy vacationers. The man talking in front right to the other two - he is flashing "East Side," homie. I hope he got the right sign back, for the sake of the man in the bowler. The man, dead center, blowing his nose. Look at the wide latitude he is given. No wonder. A runny nose in 1914 was fearsome. I give up trying to see what the young girl, front bottom center, is turning around to spy upon. If a young man is returning that gaze, about 20-30 people might be alive today as a direct result. The Summer of '47Wow! This brought me back to 62 years ago. I spent a week in Ocean Grove with a family of neighbors while my dad was on a business trip in Europe. High spots of the time there was at the Carousel on the Asbury side of the lagoon, going for the brass ring, and seeing a performance of "Pirates of Penzance" in the huge old wooden auditorium. Ocean Grove was an old Methodist tent-meeting resort back then, like Ocean City farther down the Jersey Coast, and Oak Bluffs up on Martha's Vineyard. At Saturday midnight, chains were put up on all streets entering the Grove to prevent any auto traffic on Sundays. I wonder if they still do that there. And thanks for putting up the old postcard to reorient me. Everyone is so thinin a good way. "By the sea........by the sea, by the beautiful sea, you and me, you and me, oh, how happy we'll be..." I don't know the rest of the words but it seems to precisely describe this photo of the halcyon days of 1914. Looks like a "barbershop quintet" of five similarly dressed males who just might be entertainers. Wish I was there. Oh, the clothes!I know, I know. If all we talked about in Shorpy comments was clothes, we could still be here all day. But this is one of my favorite fashion eras, where the elaborate styles of the nineteenth century were enjoying a happy marriage with the simpler, more practical ones of the twentieth. I could spend hours just poring over the lace insets the black-hatted lady in the lower right is sporting on her summer frock. The bemiddied teen girls at center are adorable, yet comfortable enough to play with the boys. And every man is Maurice Chevalier! Re: Can you hear me now?Is that person serious? You get a lot of comments like this, Dave? [No comment. - Dave] Can you hear me now?This is such a detailed recreation, it almost had me fooled. The man with the cell phone gives it away as a fake. He is about even with the man blowing his nose, a few paces to his right. Clever, Dave. But not clever enough :-) [Seeing as how his hand is empty, he's probably not chatting on his cell. - Dave] It was a jokeUm, I was joking. I guess I sounded too much like some of the genuine comments that insist Dave is trying to pull the wool over our eyes in some fashion. I'll try to be more obvious in my attempt at humor from now on. Love the site, and this picture in particular. Sunday DriversBob, sorry but they no longer put up the chains across the roads on Sunday. It ended back in the Seventies. Someone from New York, vacationing in Ocean Grove, complained that a Newspaper Delivery man was allowed to enter the Grove in the early hours on Sunday to deliver the Sunday paper. A lawsuit ensued and now the chains are gone. At one time nothing on wheels rolled in Ocean Grove on Sunday. Not bicycles or baby carriages. Everyone walked. Even cars had to be parked either in garages or out of town. Not on the streets of Ocean Grove. Most everything in Asbury Park and Ocean Grove, from that time, is gone. Even the carousel that had the brass ring is gone. I was born in Neptune and raised there about 60 years ago, and still live down by the beach. (The Gallery, Asbury Park, G.G. Bain, Sports)
Automobilists Welcome: 1910
... behind you, Lexington still disappears into the Atlantic Ocean. Hesperus Avenue Named, I believe, after the Longfellow poem "The ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/03/2023 - 3:51pm -

Magnolia, Massachusetts, circa 1910. "Autos at entrance to the Oceanside." At the intersection of Hesperus and Lexington avenues. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size. The modern view is a bit of a letdownStreet View: For those who darenot try to pronounce Gloucester, "Magnolia" seems like a safe substitute (I've heard said that none of the letters are silent, but you have to pronounce the ones that aren't there) But if you look into the distanceI agree with alex_shorpy about the modern view of the intersection being a letdown. But I'm pretty sure the same house is where you see Lexington form a T-intersection with Norman Avenue. Even better -- if you look behind you, Lexington still disappears into the Atlantic Ocean. Hesperus AvenueNamed, I believe, after the Longfellow poem "The Wreck of the Hesperus". GloucesterPronounced "Gloster" The word "cester" is the Roman name for city or town. Hence many English named towns end in cester. Man , Wor, etc. The county of Gloucestershire in the UK is home to the Cotswolds a series of beautiful lands and the home of the Lake District. When dad joined the RAF he was stationed at Fairford for a while. Googly eyesI've been waiting for someone to identify that car. I haven't been able to find it. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, DPC)
Well Urned: 1906
... a separate town to the north, whose main street was named Ocean Boulevard ( I think that's what we're seeing here, looking west). The two towns later merged, and Ocean Boulevard was renamed Seabreeze Boulevard, while Seabreeze Avenue seems ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/15/2022 - 1:12am -

Volusia County, Florida, circa 1906. "Palm avenue, Seabreeze." At right is Wilman's Opera House, with a sign advertising the real estate business of opera house manager Charles Burgman. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Two highest points in FloridaThe street eclipsed only by the sand dune on the right. May you never run out punsNot there is any sign of it. Planters?Okay, I’ll bite: what was the actual purpose of these urns? To be public planters? I wonder who would tend them. Nowadays they’d be filled with empty cigarette packs and butts. Streets of Confusion"Seabreeze" was both the name of major street in Daytona Beach, and a separate town to the north, whose main street was named Ocean Boulevard (I think that's what we're seeing here, looking west). The two towns later merged, and Ocean Boulevard was renamed Seabreeze Boulevard, while Seabreeze Avenue seems to have been renamed Main Street. Questions? A similar shot from further east on the grounds of the Clarendon Hotel - the town seemed to have something of a battlement fetish! - with the building three long blocks distant. The two Wilmans' buildings that straddled Pine Grove Avenue Florida real estate boom in the makingAn elegantly accoutered but unpaved, partially-overgrown "avenue" with elegant building on one side and (possibly) nothing on the other: welcome to the fantasyland of Florida real estate, then and now. [Indeed. The partly obscured sign at the entrance reads "[Burg]man and ***sden Real Estate." - Dave] The best known Florida real-estate bubbles were in 1926 (see the Marx Brothers' 'Cocoanuts') and 2008 (see 'The Big Short'). Seabreeze--now a historic district of Daytona Beach--probably had the lucky timing to escape. I have seen later postcards where a similar wide be-urned street was labeled "Ocean Boulevard" or "Seabreeze Boulevard." Urn AvenueJust, WHY? Well urned, not well postedWhy? They are for leaning your bicycle against, as somebody did with the fourth urn back on the right. But what's that unusual short post with the hole in it near its top by the second urn on the left used for? [Parking your horse. - Dave] (The Gallery, DPC, Florida)
Titanic Survivors: 1912
... how hard it was for them to go back to Europe on another ocean liner... The older boy Michel is holding what looks to be a glass ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/29/2008 - 5:07pm -

April 22, 1912. Our second look at Lolo (Michel) and Edmond Navratil, survivors of the Titanic disaster whose father went down with the ship. View full size. Lolo, the last remaining male survivor of the Titanic sinking, died in 2001. Titanic TotsSo cute! They look like Cabbage Patch dolls! Lolo and MomonInteresting article on the brothers at Encyclopedia Titanica. Imagining what they've seenI am deeply touched by this photo. The way the youngest one is holding his toy-cat makes the photo for me. What they had been through. Thanks for posting it. ToysThe little stuffed cat is amazing--the detail shows you every bit of fuzz and hair! But what is the bigger boy holding? At first I thought it was just a ball, or maybe a snow globe. Gotta love that curly hair! The brothersWow, that's quite a story -- thanks for posting the link. Those poor boys, caught up in family drama and then this disaster. I wonder how hard it was for them to go back to Europe on another ocean liner... The older boyMichel is holding what looks to be a glass paperweight, probably of the millifiori type. T-TotsWow. So much to be read between the lines of their parents' story. Wow. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Fires, Floods etc., G.G. Bain)
Seabreeze: 1904
... relief from the Florida heat on this day at the beach with ocean breeze and cool surf while dressed in corsets, long dresses, fussy hats, ... Well harumph!! I'm certainly not going swimming in the ocean after that pig has been in it! Horseless carriage on Daytona Beach? ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/08/2013 - 3:01pm -

        UPDATE: This is perhaps the earliest known example of a pig photobomb. See the comments for details. Circa 1904. "The beach at Seabreeze -- Daytona, Florida." Open-air showcase for the latest styles in bonnets, bathing-costumes, self-propelled runabouts and light rigs. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Watching the pig?I wondered what all their attention is focused on. Is it the small pig out by the water line? Slight chop on the beachI was wondering why everyone was looking away from the camera until I spied the renegade pork chop down by the water. Is that a pigdown by the water, or just a big dog? Seems to be attracting a bit of attention. And Pigs?Sure looks like a porker at water's edge! Dog daysIt sure doesn't seem that one would get any relief from the Florida heat on this day at the beach with ocean breeze and cool surf while dressed in corsets, long dresses, fussy hats, woolen suits, starched shirts, ties, stockings and hard shoes. The most comfortably dressed one in this picture is the dog. [Florida was a winter resort. These people wouldn't have been at the beach in the summer. - Dave] GreasedAre all of these people chasing down a lost pig? What a pig!I mean the one about to take a dip with four legs. Pulled PorkLooks like a pulled pork dinner is likely. Pig has his nose in the water. Is he going to be brined? Optical illusionJust happened to notice that the carriage or buggy on the extreme right toward the middle of this photo has turned the horse into a centaur, as the horse's head blends right into a man's beach costume. Now I will look for a unicorn. Sea PigThe elusive Sea Bovine is drawing quite a bit of attention from the crowd. And not one person is trying to take a picture to post on Instagram! How will we ever know it actually happened? Strange CreatureWhat kind of animal is in the surf right, center in the distance? It looks like a pig or boar. Maybe just a fat dog? I think I see a SegwayLooks like the idea of a personal transportation vehicle wasn't a modern idea. Or is that the forerunner of a dune buggy with the two standing riders? Feral PigObject of attention. A pig?That's a rather novel focal point at the beach! Hogfish?Is that a pig I see in the surf?! Dont let the pig distract youFrom watching where you step! There are quite a few horses on the beach you know. Wilbur said"Frankly, Orville, the breeze up at Kitty Hawk seems a lot better." "Daytona 500" Origins"Mom! Dad! There must have been 500 people at Daytona Beach today looking at that pig!" AnimalsThis would be a GREAT Pink Floyd album cover. Don't Mess With Me!says the expression of the man in the full length striped bathing suit in the lower left corner. If I were wearing that, I'd be angry at myself, too. Was life that slow 109 years ago?I imagine not but I DO love the idea that the whole town turned out in their winter finery, riding bikes, carriages or just coming on foot to watch a pig take a swim. Proof of centaursI am surprised that so far not a single person has noticed the centaur pulling the carriage at the right side. These are very rare beasts but the proof of their existence is in this picture. PrequelJaws: The Phantom Menace. Starring Ham Solo as the bait. Daytona Concours d'EleganceLittle did they know what they started. Centaur!I noticed it right after I found the pig, then I felt compelled to make an account to find out if anyone else noticed -- and you did! Pigless PokeThere appears to be a Poke more or less centered, minus its Pig. Well harumph!!I'm certainly not going swimming in the ocean after that pig has been in it! Horseless carriage on Daytona Beach?It appears that the vehicle in the middle foreground (with the people standing on the seats) is some kind of powered vehicle. Note the horn on the steering tiller and the lack of any kind of hitch for horses. [Or as the caption terms it, a "self-propelled runabout." -tterrace] Sea Creature Captured On FilmThe ever elusive mer-pig, about to disappear beneath the waves once again. An Alternate ViewAnother view here of what may or may not be Mr. Piggy. MythicalNot only is that a centaur, but he's pulling a wagons with Santa Claus in the back. Don't look, Ethel!Is the guy on the right at the water line, naked? Maybe everyone is watching the hog so they don't see the... AutoIt's hard to tell, but the vehicle looks like a curved-dash Oldsmobile, the first American car to approach mass production. Rowing failThose people in the rowboat (left side, near the rear of the beach) aren't going to get very far! Plus they'd better watch out for that Edward Gorey creation wandering toward them. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, DPC, Florida, Horses, Swimming)
Wish You Were Here: 1905
... when someone makes a comment about the beauty of the ocean, Burt Lancaster says, "Yeah? You shudda seen it 25 years ago, kid." ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/25/2012 - 3:10pm -

The Jersey Shore circa 1905. "On the beach, Atlantic City." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. That '70s BookI've seen this photo before, in a 1970s series of books published by Time Life called "This Fabulous Century" with one book per decade. I remember this photo because so many of these people seem so modern, especially the couple in the middle -- our great-grandparents. Fun loving peopleWhat a really great human element picture this is, I like the guy in the center joking with his girlfriend maybe wife. I would of done the same with my friends or they to me in the photo. Best closeup of people enjoying themselves at the beach, ever. Used to think people back then were more serious, this photo shows them like us nowadays. Most instructive picture on Shorpy Possibly the finest and most instructive picture ever posted on Shorpy. Rather than showing the denizens of a far distant time as stiff, alien black & white beings standing and staring uncertainly into a camera, we see that the people of 1905 were pretty much exactly like the people of today, merely clothed differently. This could be any modern gathering of people having fun. Yesterday and TodayLike so many others before me I am always very intrigued with the folks that display themselves and lives so well in these photos. Changing dress they could be of any era and time, going back forever, I think. We Humans have enjoyed play and communal affection since we first discovered one another. The need for this sociability remains timeless. Let's hope that this never ends. "Wish you were here"In another 105 years we *will* be partying with these folks -- dead and completely forgotten! I can't look awayA particular keeper from Shorpy: I feel as though I should recognize at least five people. The context is that the Civil War was within the experience of one or two of them, while cars, flight, public health, education and endless political upheaval would make their world unrecognizable. In a word, moving. What a cast of characters!Mario (from Nintendo) is in the center left. Peter Lorre is brushing close to his left shoulder. There are even a pair of jailbirds in the center right. One of my favoritesJust a great picture, it really captures the humanity of these people, who are now all long gone, but immortalized in a single moment here. Lots of fun, and a good reminder to smile and enjoy things while they are here. Stockings and bulgesIt's interesting how our ideas of what needs to be hidden have changed over time. In these old photos women had to wear shoes and stockings even at the beach but men often show quite conspicuous bulges that would be taboo today. Gangs of New YorkLooks like Bill the Butcher (fourth from left, behind the other mustache) is keeping a sharp eye on young Amsterdam Vallon to make sure he doesn't recruit those two even younger whippersnappers right in front of him. Thank youMoridin, you said exactly what I was thinking, but in a far more eloquent way than I could have ever written. Well done. And many thanks to Dave, as this picture just became my favorite on the site. And one other thing..."...we see that the people of 1905 were pretty much exactly like the people of today, merely clothed differently." And with inferior dentistry. No legs showingWow... all the women are wearing stockings. What elaborate swimsuits. And... so do I! '05One of the most charming and moving photos I've seen here. "Like the people of today"?I don't know about that. I'd bet none of these men would be stupid or vain enough to refer to himself as "The Situation." FlirtingI absolutely adore the guy and the girl in the center who are one of the first subjects I've seen on this site who are showing genuine human emotion. I also get the distinct feeling that they aren't classically together as girlfriend/boyfriend, but they are certainly flirting with one another. I get this from his body language-- he's stepped away from her at a distance to appear respectful, but his touching her indicates that he is most definitely interested in more. This might actually be a wee bit scandalous ... and I love it. WonderingThis is exactly what I search for on Shorpy! Some tend to either romanticize the past and others seems to vilify. Enamored by the stately homes, the fine dress or what seems to be the "simpler times," while others are appalled by the stench in the air and the very real hardship of life. However, even for the humblest of viewers, one could view this photo and become philosophical about the past towards the here and now, death, what to live for and "what does it all mean?". I often wondered what would history be viewed like if photography existed a few hundred years ago or a few thousand. Then again I should just enjoy the picture and move on. Well I beBack in the day I had a body like those young men. As I have aged I wouldn't mind a swimsuit like theirs. TimelessUsually we see images of buildings and landscapes long departed. "Not a brick left standing" is the phrase that often occurs in the comments. But here we have a landscape that could have been snapped at any time in the past 105 years ... even the buildings in the background (is that the Chalfonte, erected 1868?) would have probably been there for most of the past century+. The nature of Americans hasn't really changed during that span, either and not just in their smiles and pleasures. What percentage of the people over 30 in this photo were actually born in the US? It's an important question, considering all the present debate over immigration and the nature of being an "American." Take a group shot on most of the New Jersey beaches on any July afternoon. The numbers won't be that different. Much gratitude, Dave, for your beautiful gifts to us. Every image only makes me cherish the beauty and Gift of the Now even more. A pair of glasses and a smileOne of my favourite pictures on Shorpy. All ages so relaxed in front of the camera, even the older folk who you would imagine would be a bit more wary. I'm sure I've seen him before on this site but that must be Harold Lloyd surely? From Then to EternityIn the movie "Atlantic City," when someone makes a comment about the beauty of the ocean, Burt Lancaster says, "Yeah? You shudda seen it 25 years ago, kid." The center of it allIt looks to me like the girl is "with" the guy behind her, since he is very close to her, and has his left hand on her left arm. The fellow grasping her head looks like the brother of the guy behind the girl. Oh, and is that a corpulent man on the left? Don't see many of those folks in these old photos. Comment on immigration and being AmericanThe people in this wonderful photo may have been recent immigrants, but they all came through Ellis Island, legally and had full intention of assimilating and speaking English. Like my great-grandparents in 1904. Today, we have a debate about illegal immigration by people not so interested in assimilating and becoming Americans, Without a Hyphen. Great picture of people having fun and not worrying about who is American. They all were. What I Spy with My EyeI love the different interpretations of what is happening in the photo. I see a woman who doesn't want to be photographed yet her brothers (friends, cousins, schoolmates? But I think family, look at those lovely choppers!) hold her in place. One holds her arms to keep her from using her hands and scarf from covering her face while the other holds her head to the camera. At least that's what I see. Rich Pictures like thesePictures like these, that strip away the years between "me" and "them," make me so melancholy. "Margaret, are you grieving over goldengrove unleaving?" Yes. Yes, I am. Uninhibited by the breachThe two women smiling in the right portion of the photo. Enjoying themselves snaggletoothed and all. Great frozen moment of time for us to study. Could be todayOne of my favourites on Shorpy. The younger ones look so relaxed, one could mistake it for a modern fancy dress party. I love these people shots, yet they make me feel melancholic knowing they are no longer with us. Ignore me! It's 01:27 in the UK and I must go to bed. LuckyI feel so lucky to live in the era of photography and often wish/imagine I could look back much farther into the past - I'm just fascinated, and reassured really, that humanity churns on, day after day, before me and after me. The way we have lived and adapted to change over the years, slowly as far as biology goes but quickly when it comes to fashion and social change...I can get lost in this and other photos here for a long, long time. Sorry I can't articulate it very well, but thank you so much for this lovely snapshot. And thanks to the poster who reminded me of those Time Life books. I remember those! Interlocked M&SI know this is a bit of a bump, but does anyone know what the interlocked M&S on the two kids just to the left of the happy threesome stands for? From their ages I would guess a school. I also want to echo the sentiment of how moving this image is in connecting people 105 years ago to us today. [M&S is probably the initials of the bathhouse or hotel that rented the swimsuits. - Dave] (The Gallery, Atlantic City, DPC, Swimming)
Brooklyn Bridge: 1903
... pleasures, religious steeples and domes, the smells of ocean and fumes and foods all mingled together and offering an endless buffet ... 
 
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)
S.S. Rotterdam: 1910
... from my time as a frequent passenger on the last of the ocean liners from 1963 to 1972. The painting crew is doubtless waiting for the ... having the black dust settle on their work and ruin it. Ocean liners were the queens of the ocean. Their brass was always polished and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/28/2012 - 7:28pm -

Hoboken, New Jersey, circa 1910. "S.S. Rotterdam at Holland America docks." The full panorama made from three 8x10 inch glass negatives. Landmarks of the Manhattan skyline include the Metropolitan Life tower. View full size. This Pano Blows My Mind!And with 8x10 glass plates you say?! I do not have the best eyesight in the world be I tried unsuccessfully to find any hint of joining or places slightly out of register. This is fantastic to me because I can't imagine how it was done. [They're combined using Photoshop's Photomerge tool, which does most of the heavy lifting. But there are discontinuities and rips in the fabric of spacetime that must be repaired with something called Puppet Warp. With tweaking, it took me about an hour. - Dave] Before FrankieThis pier was at the foot of 5th Street, northeast of Hudson Park. Today, instead of a pier, you would see Frank Sinatra Park and (on the far left) Frank Sinatra Drive. This particular SS Rotterdam sailed between 1908-1916, and 1919-1940, with a self-preservation break to avoid mines and u-boats during WWI. Rotterdam IVRotterdam IV was built by Harland & Wolff Ltd for the "Holland-Amerika Lijn," as the Dutch company is called in the Netherlands. Completed in 1908, she made her maiden voyage in 1909 from Rotterdam to New York. During World War I the ship carried soldiers and weapons from the US to France. Because of the Dutch being neutral, Germany did not suspect. She was scrapped in 1940 in Rotterdam. Coaling ShipAt first I suspected those men dangling over the side on platforms were painting the topsides -- they could definitely use a fresh coat. However, more careful scrutiny revealed the barges alongside are piled high with the period's favorite fuel. In fact, the crew is getting the stuff into the ship's bunkers, by all accounts a laborious, dirty process. Even zoomed in as far as my equipment allows I'm not able to see the details of how they get the coal into the scuttles on the ship's side, but my guess is from there it just tumbles down a chute into the bunkers. The white superstructure, high above the waterline, is being painted with the mop-like devices I remember from my time as a frequent passenger on the last of the ocean liners from 1963 to 1972. The painting crew is doubtless waiting for the coaling to be over so they can start applying the darker color to the topsides without having the black dust settle on their work and ruin it. Ocean liners were the queens of the ocean. Their brass was always polished and their brightwork always flawless. This photo reminds us why they needed such big crews. Where to BeginWhat a great image this is. Add color within the mind and actually be there, in 1910. What's astounding is how much the Rotterdam resembles much more contemporary vessels. Then look over to Manhattan and see -- shocked: only three prominent towers, which are the Plaza Hotel (1907), the Times Building (1901), and the Metropolitan Life Tower (1909). You'd have to wonder how the Dressed Meat Company delivered fresh meat in that wagon to the passenger shipping lanes, from its "model abattoir". And how did the wagon get to Hoboken from 11th Avenue in Manhattan -- ferry boat? Berwind's Eureka Coal King's Handbook of New York City, 1892. The Berwind-White Coal Mining Company was incorporated in 1886. … The company own and operate extensive coal-mines in the Clearfield and Jefferson County [Pennsylvania] regions, and are mining what is known as the Eureka Bituminous Steam Coal. The Berwind-White Company own 3,000 coal cars and a fleet of 60 coal barges, used exclusively for the delivery of coal to ocean steamships in New York harbor. The coal is of the highest grade of steam coal, and is supplied under yearly contract to nearly all transatlantic and coasting lines running from New York, Philadelphia and Boston, among these steamship lines being the Inman, the North German Lloyd, the Cunard, the Hamburg, and the French lines, whose gigantic and palatial ocean greyhounds have a world-wide reputation. What a Great Picture!The Pennsylvania RR tug, the sidewheeler in the river, the coaling operation -- stuff, stuff and more stuff. Could study this picture for days and keep finding interesting tidbits. Great find. Good Job Dave!Ok, I got it now. What "blew my mind" was I thought printed this way a the time! Whew, what a relief, you really had me going. Again, nice job!!! [A century ago, the people at Detroit Publishing combined these images into panoramas the old-fashioned way. I wonder what they would think of Photoshop. - Dave] Former HAL headquarters in Rotterdamis now called Hotel New York. "Trolley" TracksThe tracks in the street and the box car sidings with overhead wires are not for passenger trolley cars, but for the Hoboken Manufacturers' Railway, later the Hoboken Shore RR, which hauled freight until about 1976, using electric locomotives until about 1947. (Panoramas, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads)
Gentlemen Will Not Get Gay: 1925
... East Coast, the "Laughing Sal" who used to reside on the Ocean City, Maryland, Boardwalk is currently on display at the Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum. She's no longer mobile and they have ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/03/2012 - 11:56am -

Funhouse at the Glen Echo amusement park in Maryland circa 1925. Note the many cryptic signs. View full size. National Photo Company glass negative. Ride it, too!There is still one of these operating at Luna Park, which is right on the Harbour in Sydney, Australia. Leave it to the Australians to take litigiousness out of the equation--have you seen how little padding their footballers wear? "The Nauseator"Boy, that ride looks truly thrilling. Human RouletteWashington Post May 21, 1911 A New Glen Echo Outdoor Amusement Grounds Present Many Attractive Features With the opening next Saturday afternoon of the Glen Echo Park, which under its new management of local business men, has been practically rebuilt in the last few months, the Washington summer outdoor amusement season will swing into full stride. No single department has been slighted in the complete rehabilitation of the Glen Echo Park, in which 50 attractions will be in operation when the gates are open next Saturday. Important among these is a new open air dancing pavilion, ample enough in area to permit of its use by 500 persons at the same time, and this is only one of a dozen structures recently erected to house the newest devices to provide fun and merriment in summer amusement parks. The spacious interior of the amphitheater has been entirely remodeled into a new midway, in which have been placed ten of the latest contraptions with which to defy the trials of the "dog days," including a "human roulette wheel" and a "giant slide-ride," said to be the largest in the United States. Other attractions include a novel marine toboggan, the "social dip," a thrilling topsy-turvy ride, Ferris wheel, modern miniature railway, a new boating pavilion at the canal bank. Some Observations1. It is awfully loud in there - See the kid lower-center. 2. Gentlemen Still Do Not Get Gay - 2008. 3. The Carneys are as well dressed the patrons. 4. Sometimes the Bull Moose isn't so fun - It's at those times that it may be necessary to actually shoot the Bull. Was this ride called the Bull Moose by chance? Don't Shoot The Bull meant don't loiter after the "ride" is over?? [Also, who can tell us which building this is. - Dave] Dangerous ridesWhen I see photos of old amusement park rides I'm always amazed how dangerous they look. They use the throw people around like rag dolls. They would never have such rides nowadays. Maybe people were tougher back then- or maybe they didn't have good personal injury lawyers! Sign, SignEverywhere a sign. 1. Sit down on the wheel don't stand up. 2. Do not get on or off roulette wheel while in motion. 3. Last night we hung one rowdy. The rope still works. 4. The operator is a bird. He is perched high just to make the wheels hum. 5. Forget your cares. Be a kid if only for an hour. 6. Gentlemen will not get gay. Others must not. 7. The bull moose is for fun. Don't shoot the bull. 8. If you find a four foot round square please hand it over to ru---. 9. Rowdyism is the birth-mark of a rough n---. 10. The answer to the question "Why is a mouse when it spins" is the higher the fewer. Human roulette wheelNo doubt Dave will remember the "human roulette wheel" from the Fun House on the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, CA. It was a great ride except for flying off and smashing into someone else or being smashed into. Funny but we all had a great time, survived, and didn't feel a need to sue anyone for a few bumps and bruises. [I think you mean tterrace. - Dave] High Ladder to slide....Look how high the children climbed to get onto the sliding spiral....that must have been half the thrill climbing up that high... Getting GayBased on one OED definition of gay: Forward, impertinent, too free in conduct, over-familiar; usually in the phrase "to get gay". U.S. slang. I'd translate the sign from 1925 slang: "Gentlemen will not get gay. Others must not" Into current vernacular as: "Real gentlemen won't act like jerks. Others had better not." Spinningtterrace does indeed remember a fun house ride like this, but at San Francisco's Playland at the Beach rather than Santa Cruz. Not sure what the official name was; I called it the turntable. It was smaller and less elaborate than this, and just one of many things in the Fun House. Know what the best thing was about these things? They were made of wood! Highly-polished (in large part by the posteriors of the fun-seekers) hardwood, like this one. The giant slide was, too, as well as the tumbler, a big revolving cylinder. Those were the days when falling on your keister was fun. Fun houseI spent many a fun filled hour in the late 1950s in the Fun House. The slide was a favorite and the long climb in the narrow, steep stairs was kinda cool also. Do you remember "Laughing Sally"? Laffing SalI didn't realize until I just now did some searching that it's "Laffing," not "Laughing" Sal, and that the automaton was not exclusive to SF's Playland at the Beach, but a standard fixture of old-style amusement parks since the 1930s. Additional surprise: the Playland Sal is now ensconced at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Man, if they only still had that giant clown face, what a then-and-now pic that would make, but they shut the fun house down in 1971 for liability reasons. Why is a mouse when it spins?I'm pretty sure the sign at the far right says "Why is a mouse when it spins?", not "house." This is a pretty well-known example of an "anti-joke" (others are the classic "Why did the chicken cross the road?" and the shaggy-dog story "No soap, radio"). There are various different "punch lines," but Google suggests that "the higher, the fewer" is the most common. I'm sure a historian of humour somewhere would be interested to find this documentation of the joke from 1925. [Yes it should be mouse. The joke is mentioned in an 1899 newspaper article ("Mr. Scullin' connundrum"). - Dave] Rowdyism and ReminiscencesThe one sign must be "Rowdyism is the birth-mark of a rough neck." Here in the Twin Cities, we had the Excelsior Amusement Park (on Lake Minnetonka) up until the early 70's. It was built in the early 20's and replaced a park that had been on Big Island in the middle of the lake. Excelsior Park had a fun house with similar attractions. The "roulette wheel" was rarely operational by the time I was around (in the 60's), but I do remember riding it once and staying on it until the operator gave up (I was near the center, didn't weigh much, and had sweaty palms). There was a revolving barrel, which they later built a catwalk through and decorated the interior with fluorescent paint and black lights. Apparently they got tired of rescuing people who fell down trying to walk through it. There was a giant slide, and one of those obstacle-course-like things with sliding or jumping floorboards. It was equipped with air jets, presumably for blasting ladies' skirts into the air, but no one was ever operating them in my day. There were a couple of other attractions in the fun house as well. I also remember that they had "Report Card Day". You could bring your report card, and for every A, you got 3 ride tickets, for every B you got 2, and for every C you got 1. Very nice of them. Other attractions included bumper cars with metal bumpers, a rotted wooden roller coaster that occasionally jumped the track (my folks never let me ride it), a little train that took you out on a pier over the lake and many of the usual rides - ferris wheel, scrambler, tilt-a-whirl, etc. The carousel was a work of art by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. It's the only part of the park that survives and is now an attraction at Valleyfair - the modern-day, sanitized theme park in the Twin Cities. Here's a link to a picture of the carousel: http://www.nca-usa.org/psp/ValleyfairPTC/001_34.html You can see others by clicking Previous or Next. Where's Sal?I thought Playland's Laffing Sal lived at the Musee Mechanique now (http://www.museemecaniquesf.com/). The SlideLongtime visitor, first time commenter ... love Shorpy. Anyway, there's a slide almost identical to this, from the same time period, in my home town of Burlington, Iowa. You can still go on it, and it is indeed terrifying climbing up those steps -- you don't realize how high it is until you're about halfway up. I have a photo but am not sure how to post it. [First, register as a user. Then log in and click the Upload Image link. - Dave] Re: Laffing SalHere is the Laffing Sal at Santa Cruz. As seen on the Silver ScreenI've seen this ride in a silent movie -- if I recall correctly, it was "The 'It' Girl" with Clara Bow. Looked like fun -- if I ever make it to Australia, I'll have to check it out! Looks boring for the womenNot much a woman of the time could have had fun doing there, modesty ya know. OopsYou're right, Dave, that was tterrace: https://www.shorpy.com/node/3695 No matter, thanks for stimulating so many great memories. Doug Playland-Not-at-the-BeachI am enjoying the posts about the old Fun House at Playland-at-the-Beach. In our Playland-Not-at-the-Beach museum in El Cerrito, California we have many artifacts from the beach amusements. A few points I would like to correct: 1.) The Fun House was not demolished in 1971. It was torn down after September 4, 1972 -- the date the whole park closed and was demolished to make room for condominiums. 2.) At San Francisco's Playland she was named Laughing Sal -- the variant spelling "Laffin' Sal" was used in many other parks across the country. She was also known as Laughing Lena and many other names. The Sals were mass produced and purchased by amusement parks out of a catalogue. 3.) The Laughing Sal that is now at Santa Cruz was the final Sal at San Francisco's Playland. There were earlier ones that wore out. Santa Cruz purchased her from the John Wickett estate for $ 50,000. Wickett had purchased her for $ 4000 decades before. To learn more, visit our website: www.playland-not-at-the-beach.org, or better yet, visit our museum for the time of your life! Richard Tuck Playland-Not-at-the-Beach 10979 San Pablo Avenue El Cerrito, CA 94530 Website is www.playland-not-at-the-beach.org email: Richard@playland-not-at-the-beach.org (510) 232-4264 x25 for reservations (510) 592-3002 24-Hour Information Line Does anyone else rememberDoes anyone else remember the "disembodied head" versions of this Laffing Sal thing that were a gift-store fad in the late '70s-early 80s and scared the crap out of me( and probably most other small kids) at the time? They don't seem to have stuck around very long, for obvious reasons. The WheelThe wheel at the Fun House in SF which I used to frequent in the early 40's I remember as having a low fence around it into which you slammed when you were eventually swooshed off the platter. Am I misremembering? This one looks a bit hazardous for passersby. Scariest thing for me? Those big padded spinning wheels you had to walk between to get in the place. My friends were usually well on their way before I worked up the nerve. Laughing Sal - East CoastFor those of us on the East Coast, the "Laughing Sal" who used to reside on the Ocean City, Maryland, Boardwalk is currently on display at the Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum. She's no longer mobile and they have her enclosed in a glass case, but you can push a button to hear a recording of her laugh. In fact, if you click here, there's a (not very good) photo of her at the bottom of the page, and a sound clip of her laugh will automatically play, so turn up your speakers! Going UpSimilar slide in Burlington, IA: http://www.nolamansour.com/images/Thanksgiving07-08.jpg It is scarier going up than down. Crapo ParksI was born in Burlington & grew up in a neighboring town. I know I've gone down that slide but it's been years and I can't remember if the slide is at Dankwardt or Crapo Parks. (For those not familiar with the area, yes Crapo is an unfortuante name for a very pretty park. Pronounced "cray-po"). At Crapo, there are two artillery guns (I don't know exactly what they were - they had seats & long barrels). They were up on a bluff and I remember sitting on them and shooting imaginary shells to Illinois. Chautauqua AmphitheaterAccording to the historical marker at Glen Echo, this building was the original Chautauqua amphitheater built in 1891. It opened as the fun house in 1911 and operated till 1948. In 1956 the termite ridden building was burned to make room for a parking lot. Attractions in the building included, the Rocking Pigs, the Whirl-i-gig, Crossing The Ice, and the Barrel of Fun. The Anonymous Tipster (07/25/2008, 4:36pm.) is remembering correctly: the roulette wheel was later altered by sinking it into the ground resulting in a low wall around the edge. Thank YouI appreciate the translation, I've been sitting here (in our current Internet vernacular) going o_O trying to figure that one out, ha. (The Gallery, Natl Photo, Sports)
Celery Cola: 1908
... to national and than international prominence out of this ocean of syrupy stimulation may in part have been due to Pemberton's special ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/10/2011 - 1:37pm -

John Howell, an Indianapolis newsboy. Makes 75 cents some days. Begins at 6 A.M., Sundays. Lives at 215 W. Michigan St. August 1908. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. This is as close to a Hine self-portrait as we've seen. Who can tell us about Celery Cola? Celery ColaMy guess is that is was similar to Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray, a celery flavored soft drink. http://www.bevnet.com/reviews/drbrowns/ Celery flavored ?Yuk! Celery SodaYou can find it in any deli in New York; I believe it's a regional treat. Dr. Brown's is the most famous. Here's the Wikipedia entry on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cel-Ray Celery Colasounds to me like blow cola i found this little paragraph at: http://www.greenparty.org/coke.html The birth of Coca-Cola can not be properly understood without knowledge of its broader historical-pharmacological background. With the coming of capitalism, workers were forced into long hours of hard and tedious employment. As a reaction, various stimulants and narcotics began to find a mass market; tobacco, coffee and tea first and then in the 19th century opium, morphine and cocaine. By the 1880s, many cocaine laced soft drinks had become popular, drinks with names such as Celery Cola, Pillsbury Koke, Kola-Ade, Kos-Kola, Cafe-Cola, and Koke. The reason Coca-Cola rose to national and than international prominence out of this ocean of syrupy stimulation may in part have been due to Pemberton's special "secret recipe, but more likely it was superior marketing; a job done by others who followed him. Another interesting one: http://www.sodamuseum.bigstep.com/generic.jhtml?pid=10 -cheers www.donkeyrunner.com/blog VeggieApparently, like many colas back in the late 1800s, it had cocaine in it. The USDA filed suit against the company because the company did not label that it had both cocaine and caffeine in it. You can read about the USDA's interesting cocaine crackdown in soda (circa 1910) here - http://www.bottlebooks.com/Cocastory/coca_mariani.htm Celery Cola Cont'dA couple CC newspaper ads I found from 1926. Click here and here for the full-size versions. Celery ColaGoogle produced a number of results for " celery cola" "formula" - here are the two most relevant results from the first few pages: www.southernbottles.com/Pages/Mayfield/Mayfield.html (lots of info, but no recipe or formula...) www.sodamuseum.bigstep.com (only a passing reference, in the history of Coca Cola) There may be more but my library time is up. Enjoy! :-) Celery Cola origin...Uh, why not just Google :Celery Cola Bottling Co., Danville, Virginia" and see what comes up? That's what Google is for after all. (You'll find it on the Danville site.) Happy Sunday. E=Mcee-flared...Richard Laurence Baron, www.signalwriter.blogspot.com [The page you're referring to is about Porter Brewing in Danville, and how it switched from beer to Celery Cola. But it doesn't have anything to say about the origins of Celery Cola. This was just the local bottler for that part of Virginia. - Dave] Celery ColaI have nothing to add to the above, but notice how similar the branding (font) is to later Cola-Cola. [True. Although Coca-Cola was earlier, not later. This photo was taken in 1908; Coca-Cola got its start in 1885. - Dave] Celery ColaCelery Cola was invented by James C. Mayfield in the early 1890's and first sold at the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition in 1895 in Hutchinson stoppered bottles. Mayfield was a partner with Coca-Cola inventor John Pemberton in the 1880's and became president of the Pemberton Medicine Company on the old doctor's death. Mayfield was involved with the Wine-Coca Company of Atlanta and Boston in the early 1890's before venturing out solo with Celery Cola and Koke. He opened a factory in Birmingham in 1899 and soon had branches at St. Louis, Nashville, Richmond, Denver, Dallas and Los Angeles. Celery Cola was sold across the US, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and as far away as Australia by 1906. Mexican General Pancho Villa was a fan of the drink bottled by a local franchisee in Vera Cruz. In 1909 Mayfield formed the Koke Company in Louisiana. By 1911 it was reorganized as the Koke Company of America and Mayfield's Cola was sold extensively under the trade names Koke and Dope. Coca-Cola claimed ownership of both Koke and Dope even though Mayfield owned both registered trademarks. The two rivals wound up in the US Supreme Court in 1920 and Koke was declared an invalid trademark. Mayfield continued to sell Celery=Cola and Dope and introduced other soft drinks throughout the 1920's. I am working on a book on Mayfield and his various enterprises and would appreciate any new information. celerycola@yahoo.com Very nice siteI am the great-grandson of James I. Thanks for your site. Warmest regards, James C. Mayfield IV Celery Cola bottlehello, i cant help you with info about Mr. Mayfield, i was actually hoping you could tell me more about celery-cola bottles, i found one yesterday that says it was bottled in danville, va?.......-brad Celery ColaI too am a great-grandson of James C. Mayfield. If you would be interested in contacting me for further details my e-mail is jrukenbrod@nc.rr.com. Rgds, Joe Koke and DopeNever realized there had been a soda called Dope. When I moved to Tennessee in the 80s, some of the folks there referred to Coke as "dope." The first time the guy at the convenience store asked this kid from Baltimore if he could put my dope in a poke, I was completely confused. Celery ChampagneI have a copy of a circa 1898 photo of the Dr. Pepper Company in Dallas. The picture shows a wagon in front of the building, both the wagon and the building have advertising on for Dr. Pepper, Zuzu Ginger Ale, and something called Celery Champagne. I googled "Celery Champagne" but there was no match. Could the champagne be similar to Celery Cola, and what is celery cola?? This picture sits above my desk at work, so it catches my eye dozens of time a day. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could satisfy my curiosity on the whole celery champagne/celery cola thing I'd appreciate it. Celery Cola CapI was reading the various comments regarding Celery Cola when I remembered I had seen a small newsie wearing a cap with the Celery Cola logo. He is first row, second from right, next to that poor cross eyed boy in this photo. Don't some of these pictures just break your heart? Origins of promotional headgearIt struck me that the most American thing I can think of which nobody ever mentions is the advertising ballcap. This paperboy is a prime example from 1908 and I bet it wasn't new then. You'd think his paper would have outfitted him and his confreres with caps with the paper's name on it, for goodness sake! Celery Cola with a direct ripoff of Coca-Cola font was his lot. In a crowd at going to work or leaving work times, it would seem these diminutive boys would have benefited from having a cap with the paper's name on it. After all, anyone in the police, military or fire services had hats that identified them and had for a good century one way or the other. I grew up in England before my parents took my family to Canada in the late 1950s as immigrants. I was used in the UK to a cap for my school that had a logo sewn into it. Cricket caps, which were not much different, had similar logos, and had origins going back to the 1700s, so the baseball cap as such wasn't an American invention. But using it purely as an advertising vehicle was. Can't say there was a whole bunch of promotional ballcaps in Canada in 1959, but a decade later it all started in earnest when the super-cheapy adjustable holed headband was invented. After a visit to the UK in 1993, I sent a big package of different advertising ballcaps to my grandnieces and nephews. This was met with a dull thud of indifference, and the adults gently told me they regarded advertising hats as a bit crass. Five years later, that opinion had changed as times changed over there, and my by now vintage caps were "just the job". Yes, I searched for the history of promotional headgear, but it seems to be a topic nobody has paid much attention to. Makes you wonder. (The Gallery, Indianapolis, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Miss Illegible: 1921
... CITY (NY) - Virginia Lee NEWARK (NJ) - Margaret Bates OCEAN CITY (NJ) - Hazel Harris PHILADELPHIA (PA) - Nellie Orr ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/22/2022 - 12:25pm -

        UPDATE: This is the lovely Miss Nellie Orr! Washington, D.C., circa 1921. "Nellie [Illegible], Miss Philadelphia." Perhaps someone out there can put a last name to this winsome face. View full size. Like some kind of sea creatureWhat a fantastically weird hat. Nellie OrrI think it was Orr. http://www.misspa.org/past.htm Up in Here"Why are ya'all up in my grill?" Actually,she's the cutest beauty pageant contestant ever. Miss Nellie OrrMiss Nellie Orr, Miss Philly 1921 and one of only eight contestants in the first (1921) Miss America pageant in Atlantic City. http://www.pageantopolis.com/international/America_1920.htm Nellie looked "spunky". Miss Nellie OrrThe Coshocton Tribune (Ohio), 10 September 1921 (via NewspaperArchive.com): SHE'LL REPRESENT MISS PHILADELPHIA IN BEAUTY REVIEW Miss Nellie Orr of Philadelphia was chosen in the recent beauty contest to represent the Quaker City in the beauty review to be held in Atlantic City some time in September. Literally winsomeNellie didn't have much equipment even by the standards of that day (teeth didn't matter, shape did!) but something in her look tells me she would have been a formidable competitor in anything she chose. She certainly didn't get the scarred lip and broken tooth from tea parties or knitting. Miss Illegible: 1921The girl was Nellie Orr. See this link for list of Miss Philadelphia winners. http://www.misspa.org/past.htm Whoa NellieMISS AMERICA 1921 1921 September 7 8 entries Result 1 WASHINGTON DC - Margaret Gorman Remainder CAMDEN (NJ) - Kathryn M. Gearon HARRISBURG (PA) - Emma Pharo NEW YORK CITY (NY) - Virginia Lee NEWARK (NJ) - Margaret Bates OCEAN CITY (NJ) - Hazel Harris PHILADELPHIA (PA) - Nellie Orr PITTSBURGH (PA) - Thelma Matthews Miss Orr: 1921Looks to the future and tells herself: "I'm gonna be the best Miss Philadelphia ever and with my winnings I'm gonna buy another letter or two for my pathetically short last name!" Near Miss In 1921 Nellie Orr competed as Miss Philly in what would soon become known as the Miss America Pageant, where out of 500 contestants in the "bathers' review," she finished second. Something must have been stuffed -- either the ballot box, or ... Heeere she isIn the Racine Journal-News, same great hat Poor PhiladelphiaFlat as a pancake, foul teeth! My God! I wonder what her contenders looked like. Prosthodontically speakingMiss Orr seems to be sporting a none too artfully fashioned porcelain jacket crown. Or is it an inlay? Her nameYes it was Orr, and she was my great-grandmother on my mom's side. From what my grandfather has told me about her, she was very spunky and outspoken. He used to tell me I reminded him of her! Nellie OrrNellie was my mother's older sister. My mother is 82 and still lives in Haddon Heights, NJ. I hope Heaven is far awayOtherwise, she's still embarrassed every time someone looks at this picture. She's probably saying something on the order of, "Of all the photos taken of me, how did this get to be the one people are still looking at? Now that it is on Shorpy, I will never live it down!" Equipped Just FineMiss Nellie is actually built perfectly for the standards of the day. By 1921 the flapper era was in full swing, emphasizing an almost boyish look with bobbed hair, flattened breasts and few visible curves. It was a reaction to the Victorian style of very long hair and fairly extreme curves accentuated by a corset. It's no surprise she would finish second in the "bathers' revue." (Full disclosure: my grandmother was a flapper. Her hair had never been cut until 1919 at age 12, when she got a bob. She told me her father didn't speak to her for weeks!) What Happened to Miss Philadelphia 1921 Nellie Orr?Does anyone know what became of Nellie Orr? I am researching all eight of the 1921 Miss America Contestants from the first contest and located info on all except for Nellie. Looking for her parents names, Nellie’s married name and when she passed away. Many thanks! You can contact me at NRFB59@aol.com Nellie Orr at Miss America 1921Here she is in her black taffeta swimsuit. (The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo)
Skyscraper: 1909
... appeared to be moving toward me like the bow of a monster ocean steamer, a picture of new America still in the making. The Flat Iron is ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/28/2012 - 10:52pm -

New York circa 1909. "Panorama of Madison Square." This glass plate, part of a nine-exposure panorama, affords yet another view of that enduring architectural icon, the Flatiron Building. 8x10 dry-plate glass negative. View full size. SprintLast time I was there in 2005, Sprint occupied the first floor of the Flatiron Building. Kind of sacrilege, really. 6 E. 23rdThe FDNY suffered its largest loss prior to 9/11 on the site of the Bartholdi Hotel. On October 17, 1966 a fire spread from an adjoining property on 22nd street to the basement of 6 East 23rd street. Twelve firefighters were lost that night when the floor of the Wonder Drug Store collapsed. http://nyfd.com/history/23rd_street/23rd_street.html Manure guyIn the foreground, white uniform, big shovel. Awful AwningsBeautiful building, but the aesthetic is somewhat spoiled by the awning obsession of the era. S.S. FlatironWith that puffy plume at the top, it looks like it's steaming up Broadway. Deja Vu All Over AgainWe return to Madison Square Park (bottom left) and the back of the statue of William H. Seward, he of the folly. Also we see the Hotel Bartholdi, named after the Statue of Liberty sculptor. The corner storefront of the Flatiron Building appears to contain our old friend the United Cigar Store. On the next block, East 22nd Street, the corner is occupied by the VanGaasbeek Oriental whatever. That corner now houses a usually deserted Restoration Hardware, which appears to be in the original building that we see in the photo. 1 of 9Please don't leave us hanging; we want to see all 9 negatives! As always, thanks for this. And I wouldn't describe it as an awning obsession, more like a necessity on those hot New York August afternoons. Ahhh summer!I am sure that the awning helped to keep the stores and offices cool in the summer. All the open windows (at least even one with a curtain blowing in the breeze) in skyscrapers! How odd to today's eyes of closed up buildings. That sign selling cordial sure gave me a start. Look at the TimeThe first thing that stuck out to me was the standing clock, which is very recognizable. It still stands there today. Also interesting is that that 200 Fifth Avenue, or International Toy Building (to the right of the Flatiron, next to the clock), was just built in 1912. It recently underwent an interior overhaul. Awnings were a necessityThis was long before air conditioning was prevalent so awnings were a common method used to cool down a building while still maintaining the view out the window. 23 SkidooLegend has it that the unique winds created at this intersection (Fifth and Broadway at 23rd Street) would lift many a lady's skirt, much to the delight of the male audience that would congregate here (at least when women still wore dresses). Awnings againThe main advantage of awnings (as opposed to, say, shades or venetian blinds) was that they let you keep the window open in the rain. Open windows were necessary probably as much for ventilation as keeping cool. [Although they do seem more prevalent on the sunny side of the building. - Dave] American ParthenonAlfred Stieglitz also saw the Flatiron as a kind of steamship: "With the trees of Madison Square covered with fresh snow, the Flat Iron impressed me as never before. It appeared to be moving toward me like the bow of a monster ocean steamer, a picture of new America still in the making. The Flat Iron is to the United States what the Parthenon was to Greece." 98 Years AgoIn the great span of history, 98 years isn't really all that long, and the march of history in centuries past wasn't all that brisk. But here we have a 1912 street scene from midtown Manhattan, less than a century ago (almost), within living memory of at least a few souls still among us, and the horses still outnumber the motor vehicles. I'm guessing that in another five years, by 1917 or so, the cars would outnumber the horses, and that in 10 more years -- 1927 or so -- the number of horses would be very small indeed. This is really a glimpse at the very last days of the pre-automobile world. We haven't lived with these infernal, gas-guzzling contraptions for very long. M&L Hess Real EstateSign was still somewhat visible as of 2003. http://www.14to42.net/20street1-2.html From 1 to 9, slowly.If I look at the panorama too quickly, I may get dizzy. Hotel BartholdiI am fascinated to find that this is the location of the Hotel Bartholdi. A few weeks ago I posted an image in the members gallery, of an electric charabanc parked, I assume, in front of the hotel. The streets are full of peopleThat's something you don't see these days. People are afraid of speeding cars. I assume that horse-drawn carriages weren't quite as dangerous. EntrancesComparing this picture with StreetView, the building entrances in the middle of each side seem to have been remodelled. Instead of the pillars supporting the canopy being proud of the main building, they are now just a relief on the surface. White WingThe Department of Sanitation's "White Wing" sweepers did their level best keeping those NYC streets clean. I don't know if white was the best color for their uniforms though! Google Clock ViewView Larger Map The streets are full of streetcars, too!Including the blurry end of one on the extreme left, and off into the distance, I count no less than 20 streetcars. Is it 1912 rush hour? OmnibusOk, I'm the first to spot the motorized bus! It looks more like someone chopped the back off a 1920s bus and shoved an open cab on the front with an engine. Neat! Also, notice the peculiar way of routing with a lampstand in the middle of the open street and ropes and posts in a line from it. The clockWho maintained it? I know there were lamplighters during the times when gas lamps lit city streets, but the clock must have been mechanical. Did someone wind it, or were they electric even back then? Pach Brothers StudioIf you look close at the building behind the Flatiron you can see a billboard (on the roof) for Pach Brothers Studio. I took portrait classes from the last owner of Pach Brothers, Oscar White. When he closed the studio it was the oldest operating studio in North America. He had an amazing archive of famous clients' images. President Ulysses S. Grant was involved in getting the studio started. Re: S.S. Flatiron and American ParthenonSomething as glorious as this had to appear sooner or later. (The Gallery, DPC, Flatiron Building, NYC, Streetcars)
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