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Street Clams: 1900
... The photo is full of charm, but this Lower East Side tenement neighborhood of immigrant Italians was generally regarded as ... Street; the neighborhood is the infamous Five Points -- a tenement slum known mostly for its Irish and Italian gangs, along with murder, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/20/2012 - 10:21am -

New York City circa 1900-1906. "Clam seller in Mulberry Bend." Detroit Publishing Company glass negative. View full size. Can anyone identifythe two objects in the lower right corner of the photo to the left of the watermelons? [Two bottles. Maybe reflecting the photographer. - Dave] Just behind. . . the two boys are posing for Lewis Hine. Fast FoodI love how the patrons are just eating them right there at the cart. Mosco at MulberryThanks to a NYT news item on Cuneo the Banker. [Fascinating. So it looks like Mosco street used to cross Mulberry where the park is now. The pharmacy was where the basketball court is. - Dave] View Larger Map Awesome picMy father is always telling me stories about what they used to sell on the streets from the carts. I love it! Mulberry BendThe photo is full of charm, but this Lower East Side tenement neighborhood of immigrant Italians was generally regarded as impossibly dangerous by middle and upper class New Yorkers, all too often with ample good reason. The photo might have been taken by Jacob Riis (1849-1914), famous for his documentary photos of poverty and gang life in the Bowery, Five Points and other less fashionable neighborhoods in New York. [The picture was taken by a photographer under contract to Detroit Publishing. The Riis photos are a separate series. - Dave] Charmingpicture of street life circa 1900. Notice the two boys, one's arm around the other off to some boyhood adventure. I can hear Jimmy Stewart saying, "Hot Dog!" Danger ClamsI hope there is a lot of ice we can't see. Judging from the clothes, it is warm weather and clams spoil quickly. [Actually there is a lot of ice we can see. - Dave] Clam WarfareMosco is the former Cross Street; the neighborhood is the infamous Five Points -- a tenement slum known mostly for its Irish and Italian gangs, along with murder, disease, and poverty. Al Capone was a member of the Five Points gang. The name comes from the intersection of Orange (Baxter) and Cross (Mosco), with Anthony (Worth) connecting diagonally. Little Water (no longer extant) and Mulberry were the boundaries. This is the neighborhood where the Scorsese movie "Gangs of New York" was set. Mosco, er Cross, er ParkAt the time of the photo, Mosco Street was called Park Street, and was indeed much longer. Cuneo's bank is listed as being at the intersection of Mulberry and Park. Cross is another old name for the same street. Though the building is still there, Cuneo was already gone. He died in 1896, not long after his run-in with San Francisco authorities. At one time, it is said that he owned more than half the buildings in the Mulberry Bend area at one time. The bank building in the photo was seen as a cornerstone of the neighborhood. Ironically (or maybe not), it's now in the middle of Chinatown. Cold and ClammyLet's trust the honesty and the competence of that pedlar. Just look at how soaked is the road slope under the cart. But, again, why bother of the sanitary conditions of a trade whose customers are extinct by now? Family Air.I'm Italian and the moment I opened this page I perceived a strong feeling of familiarity, which was later explained by what I read in the previous comments. The three personages into focus could have certainly been my compatriots a century ago, although from very distant regions of Italy but only an exercised American eye could ascertain, making a fair guess, if the two younger one were Second Generation Americans or not: stances of the body mean a lot. Instead, about the racial appartenance of the personages in the background I can say very little. They are dressed as we were dressed in Italy in those same years, only better of course! But, taken for granted that all the bystanders were Italians, I can vouch about their collective and individual respectability; that is not a mob. ArtistryLook at that wonderful stained-glass window in the upper right! SanitariaI always read with interest comments about how quaint or unsanitary (the latter probably deservedly) such food carts/stalls are. Yet if one were to visit many parts of the modern world such as Asia, Africa and the Middle East, such gastronomy is still very much alive. In fact, sanitary conditions in some places make this street look like a hospital, yet we don't die and rarely become ill. Analogously, Americans marvel at how wonderful "new" fruit and meat markets are (like the one in Lancaster a few days ago) yet even in modern Europe, they thrive as they have for centuries. Just like I like themI used to eat clams like this right off the street at Haymarket in Boston. I'd grab 3 or 4 very Friday on the way in to work at 8am. The seller had a cart and a mustache just like this guy, but with the addition of a stubby cigar. Phew!I, for one, am glad we don't have online smell-o-vision. I can only imagine what this hard working peddler smelled like when he arrived home at the end of a long day in the sun with his clams. I wonder if he relocated his cart to take advantage of the shade ... [Hello? He's already in the shade. - Dave] (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Stores & Markets)
Third Avenue El: 1910
... office and residential buildings. Many of the original tenement structures, built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, still ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/09/2011 - 6:16pm -

New York circa 1910. "Looking toward City Hall. Third Avenue 'L.' " 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. OtherworldlyThe large view is quite rewarding. Quite otherworldly. Interesting sign claims a business is in its 106th year at same location. LongevityCowperthwait & Sons in business since 1804. Wow. Third AvenueI used to work near here. The municipal building visible in the upper right still exists. I have been inside only once, when my wife and I were getting our marriage license. The domed building to the left, also extant, sits behind City Hall. I am pretty sure that the eastern wing of City Hall is the rectangular building visible between the cigar company and Cowperthwaite, to the left. The tallest building in haze in the back is, of course, the Singer Building. That's one of the most famous architectural silhouettes of all time, even though the building was torn down in the 1960s. Easy PaymentsCowperthwait & Sons pioneered installment credit at their Third Avenue store at about the time this picture was taken. They sold Singer sewing machines to their most reliable customers for scheduled payments. This was the forerunner of credit cards. Previously if a store allowed charge accounts, the entire balance had to be paid in 30 days. Chatham SquareThis was the Chatham Square stop. In 1910 that was quite a seedy part of Manhattan. Third Avenue ElIf you're interested in the Third Avenue El, check out this vid: Third Avenue El VideoThis was very well done. Occasionally I would take the Third Avenue El from the 169th Street Station, in the Bronx, to City College on 23rd Street. I remember the RR tracks overhanging the sidewalk in some places only 2 or 3 feet from the buildings on Third avenue. You could get a glimpse of the old tenements that housed working families, and the noise from the trains was deafening. The El in Manhattan came down in the early 1950s and Third Avenue became a business center with highrise office and residential buildings. Many of the original tenement structures, built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, still survive, and the apartments that are no longer rent-controlled command outrageous prices but have no problem attracting tenants. Chatham Square, 3rd Avenue El1950s views from the El at Chatham Square. In 1878, a ride on the El. Cowperthwait & Sons, since 1807Cowperthwait & Sons was founded in 1807 and grew along with New York City "to supply household requisites to all classes of homes as they multiplied over and over." It was one of the earliest stores to actively cater to and serve the black population in NY from its Harlem store on 125th St. In 1907 they published the Cowperthwait Centennial March, with words and music by Abe Holzmann for their 100th anniversary 1807 to 1907. So this might be in 1913. Cowperthwait TodayThe row of buildings including Cowperthwait and the cigar company may be on Park Row. In which case, I would guess about half of them still remain, mostly housing various branches of the J&R electronics empire (JandR.com). The Cowperthwait building in Harlem has been demolished and is currently an empty lot awaiting the official rezoning of 125th street before it can be developed. The planned building would be 630,000 square feet, and Major League Baseball would be the anchor tenant. Domed buildingThe dome with the flag was the New York World Building, yet another one of those structures that were once the tallest in the world. It was torn down in the mid-1950s and Pace University now occupies part of the site. I will have to walk through the area - now largely occupied by government buildings - to see whether any of the foreground buildings remain standing. "L" trainthis has got to be one of my all-time favorite photos. So beautiful! The damage to the negative actually adds to its impressionistic quality. Cowperthwait & Sons I just found a six inch ruler that was used by Cowperthwait & Sons as a means of advertisement. It lists the addresses of all three stores on front and lists what they sell on the back with a line about installment payments. I am interested to learn more about this store and when they ceased operating. Cowperthwaite UpdateI know this is really late to the game, but if you look at this map, and zoom into the top right end of Park Row, you'll see Cowperthwaite and Sons owned a few buildings. All of these building on both sides have been demolished, to make room for Federal court, Manhattan correctional facility and Police Plaza. Also ramps off the Brooklyn bridge. While it doesn't show the Cowperthwaite building exactly, my grandfather took a pretty nice picture of Park Row on a location that would have been just about in front of the store, give or take a block or two. Tarrying in Mulberry Shade... beneath the disused City Hall spur shared by the 2nd and 3rd Avenue elevated lines. By the time of Frank Larson's shot, the branch was out of commission and being dismantled. He took this shot directly in front of what had been Cowperthwait's, where Mulberry joined Park Row. In the window of the first building, the fractured reflection of Cass Gilbert's 40 Centre Street is cleverly captured. The four-story second building was also part of the store, sitting at the widely advertised 193-205 Park Row location. The fire escape hangs upon a taller third building, 191 Park Row. Although it sported the big sign, it was not part of the store. What follows is slanted to rail heads, but helps to confirm Larson's position. The Bain shot shows a section of Chatham Square station serving exclusively the City Hall spur. The four-track, two-platform section was part of an extensive set of elevated-line service improvements that went into effect in early 1916. Untangling an awkward junction, enabling 2nd Avenue el trains for the first time to serve City Hall station, and eliminating the infamous bridge that had been used by transferring passengers -- the Chatham Square work was a major reconfiguration. On the left platform in the photo were the 2nd Avenue trains - uptown on the outside, downtown on the inside - serving the remodeled City Hall station on its upper level. Third avenue trains ran on the lower level using the platform on the right; uptown on the inside, downtown on the outside. Bain's photo captured but a portion of the station, and although it may look like it dates from the Pierce administration, showed things as they would not have looked before late 1915. Note track workers on the outside 2nd Avenue tracks, occupied near a signal. The signal is the precursor of a more elaborate one whose platform's skeletal remains protrude from the partially dismantled el in Larson's shot. Back TrackThanks to TJ Connick for all that information about Cowperthwaite and the elevated line to the Brooklyn Bridge, it's much appreciated. Living in New York, I often wish I could jump back in time, where one of the things I would surely want to do is ride some of the Manhattan elevated lines. As you know I'm sure, we still have them in Queens and Brooklyn, a few, but as far as I know, none in Manhattan (perhaps way uptown, I'm not sure about that). 3rd Ave. El Chatham Sq StationMy father worked as a station agent and station master at this Chatham Square station, among many others on the four Manhattan El Lines. The fare control area at that station was in a large mezzanine under the platforms and tracks. There were two Chatham Square stations. I rode 3rd Ave El trains to and thru both of them many times in the 1950s. The photo shows the 4 track, 2 island platform City Hall branch line Chatham Square station. The left (south) portion 2 tracks and one platform were for 2nd Ave El trains, that El which closed and trains stopped running in June 1942, and that side remained abandoned but still intact thru late 1953 as it was structurally attached to the 3rd Ave. operated side. The right (north) portion 2 tracks and one platform were used by 3rd Ave El Trains up until the City Hall branch was closed in late 1953. The entire huge station complex was torn down thru to the City Hall Terminal station a few blocks S.W. along Park Row. The other adjacent Chatham Square station was a double-decked structure over St. James St. The lower level was for 2nd Ave El trains to South Ferry and the lower level station and track ways were abandoned in mid-June 1942 with the closing of the 2nd Ave El. The upper level was for 3rd Ave El trains to South Ferry and was used as a thru station until the South Ferry branch line closed in November 1950, and structure removed in 1951 just below that double-decked Chatham Square Station. The upper level 2 tracks and single island platform became a secondary, and a terminal, station at Chatham Square in addition to the adjacent Chatham Square station for the City Hall branch. After the City Hall branch closed in late 1953, the former South Ferry line Chatham Square upper level station, 4 stories above the street, became the new and only remaining southern terminal for all 3rd Avenue El trains, until that El closed for good after 7PM, Thursday, May 12, 1955. All 3rd Ave El structures in Manhattan were removed by February 1956. (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, NYC, Railroads)
Brooklyn Wading Pool: 1942
... are common---what exactly is the difference between a tenement and a housing project, and is a tenement just the same as a cheap, seedy apartment? Why should one be more ... 
 
Posted by Ken - 09/08/2011 - 6:48pm -

Children play in a wading pool at a play center at the Red Hook housing development, Brooklyn, New York. The charge to use the pool is nine cents for children, 25 cents for adults. Photograpy by Arthur Rothstein, June, 1942. View full size. Wonder what it looks like today...Instead of water, that pool is likely filled today with empty crack vials and shell casings. Actually...I assume this pool was in Red Hook Park, but It's not there at all now. I ride my bicycle through this area all the time and haven't lost a tire to empty crack vials or shell casings. Or maybeit has to do with that the original poster believed it to now be a high crime high drug use area.(shakes head as well) It looks like trees and some kind of play areaA satellite view of the area shows some dark square areas surrounded by trees, possibly basketball courts? The apartment blocks are still there, southwest of the park but still on the same block. I suppose the "crack vials and shell casings" comment has to do with the fact that the neighbourhood, which was once white, is now mainly black. (shakes head) better satellite viewCharlene, the satellite view you used is off by a few blocks. The pool is still there but a few blocks east. the mixed blessing of public housing projectsIn 1942, when this picture was taken, we as a society, still thought that we could solve poverty by creating consolidated housing projects like the one shown. At their best, resources like this pool were available to kids who might otherwise be swimming in the polluted waters of New York Harbor. But sadly, in the 65 years since, we have discovered that this sort of project actually tends to foster more crime, and can create more abject forms of poverty than the tenaments they replaced. Hence an earlier poster's "crack vials and shell casings", which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the color of the people living there. I think Red Hook is pretty racially mixed right now. PoolI was born in Red Hook in 1944 and lived there for several years. My aunt lived until sometime in the 70s or 80s. I recognize the look of the building in the background, but neither I nor my older brother remember the wading pool. What street was it on? We lived on Henry Street. We also remember a regular pool very close (I think on it was on Lorraine Street). There was also a park with a pool with sprinklers. Anyone remember the Clinton Movie theatre? Go Ahead...Shake your heads all you want, and keep telling yourselves that the inner city of today is a wonderful place to be. Should you actually drive through it--as I do daily in places like Trenton, Jersey City, Newark, and Paterson NJ--you might think differently, should you choose to take your blinkers off, that is. The locals, I'm sure, would love to make your acquaintance. Possibly dumb questionFor those of us who've not lived in an area where such things are common---what exactly is the difference between a tenement and a housing project, and is a tenement just the same as a cheap, seedy apartment? Why should one be more prone to foster crime than another? Red Hook TodayThe wading pool is gone. There is no mention of it in the NYC Parks Department web site. The Red Hook swimming pool is still a going concern. It is not filled with broken glass, litter, crack vials, or shell casings. Lost World, I don't know where you're from, but I can tell you that Red Hook today bears almost no resemblance to the red Hook of 20, or even 10 years ago. The projects are still there, and yes, they still suck. The rest of the neighborhood is fast becoming quite the desirable residential neighborhood. Red Hook PoolCan't help you with any information about the wading pool. The Red Hook Swimming Pool is still going and is on Lorraine Street. Filled with waterThe Red Hook pool that is under discussion here (not the wading pool shown above) today is not filled with some of the things that were asserted below. Rather, it is filled with water. Clean water. And people. A diverse group of families, to be specific. Say What?Apparently no one has been to Red Hook lately, which boasts both an Ikea and the upscale Fairway Market. Inner city neighborhoods in New York City have become gentrified, you'd have less trouble buying an excellent key lime pie in Red Hook then getting either crack or ammunition. Wading poolThat wading pool was in the park on Clinton Street across from the much larger Red Hook Pool. When I lived there as a young boy in the 80's it was still there minus the water. I used to ride my bike in that space. It's now filled in and part of quickly disappearing history of Red Hook. Hooverville in Red HookWe are two norwegian authors writing a book about the big Hooverville in Columbia Street, in the area where the park is, beside the big grain elevator. if someone knows some old people who lived in Brooklyn in the 1930s, please send e-mail me! Kvarog@hotmail.com This Wadding Pool LocationIt is no longer a wadding pool. It was filled in then made into a track. You can see it right across the street from the Red Hook Pool today. I have lived in THE HOOK for 37 years and i remember playing in it and remember it used to be open in the late 70's early 80's. [Red Hook Pool -- full of wadder, I'll bet. - Dave] Clinton Street movie theaterI was born in 1943 and lived in the Red Hook housing projects until 1954 when we escaped to suburbia. I have wonderfully fond memories of those days at the pools, at the stadium, at the docks and definitely at the Clinton Street movie theater. I went to P.S. 30. The Clinton Theater played two features, five cartoons and a serial (Flash Gordon, Tim Tyler's Luck) each Saturday from 11 to about 4. I learned to ride a bike at Coffey Park, was mugged there, skated and went to see the Yo-yo man each summer when a new yo-yo was introduced. I'm writing a YA book detailing the life and times of three young boys who live in the housing project during the time of my youth (about 1953). Hope to finish it this winter and publish it as a Kindle book. It's still there.....I'm sure the wading pool was there because of the picture. Just as well as the movie theatre. However, it looks like it is the home to a reconstructed track and 4 new basketball courts for all the ball players and future Carmelo Anthony's of RED HOOK. It's also the home to the classic ball games that many come to from all around to watch. It also has a nice sized playground for the children that caters to the ever growing diversified population of people making new memories. Crack doesn't even exist in RED HOOK anymore. If it does you do not see it. I know I don't. And RED HOOK POOL... it's still there! If RED HOOK is such a bad place to live in and it is so full of drugs and corruption and all the negativity that people are quick to judge and whom obviously doesn't have a clue because they are not from there, then why the sudden urge to move in? (Arthur Rothstein, Kids, NYC)
Making Pansies: 1912
... The object of his ire here is the use of child labor in tenement home work, specifically the assembly of artificial flowers: "Julin, a ... month. That's a lot of paper pansies. [I visited the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side a few weeks ago and part of the exhibit ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/09/2011 - 10:09am -

January 1912, New York City. View full size. To the untrained observer this might be a pleasant domestic scene; to the eye (and lens) of social reformer Lewis Hine, however, it is a diorama of decadence and moral decay, with peril lurking in every detail. The object of his ire here is the use of child labor in tenement home work, specifically the assembly of artificial flowers: "Julin, a 6-year-old child, making pansies for her neighbors on top floor (Gatto), 106 Thompson St. They said she does this every day, 'but not all day.' A growler and dirty beer glasses in the window, unwashed dishes on the stove, clothes everywhere, and flowers likewise." Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. (NB: Growler = beer pitcher.) Pansy MakersThe glasses look clean and put away (upside down) to me. These people may have had it better than some in the garment industry did during this time. Hardly the drama being described. Foy Razor StropNotice the razor strop hanging on the widow frame ... You kids get to making posies or you get the strap. 21st Century Rent100 years later the rent on this apartment in West Soho, NYC is probably hovering around $2000 per month. That's a lot of paper pansies. [I visited the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side a few weeks ago and part of the exhibit is an actual tenement flat in a century-old building. And everyone's first reaction seemed to be "Wow, these are pretty nice!" Special notice taken of high ceilings, plank floors, interior windows, etc. - Dave] Is that a map on the wall?The old country? What was it? The MapThe map is of the Mediterranean, but the part in dark - presumably the focus of the family interest - is Italy and its newly acquired (in 1912 as a matter of fact) colonies of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. In 1934 the two would be united as Libya. I hate to say it, but Hine sort of comes across as a sanctimonious complainer. He gives us a picture of these people but then complains about their cleanliness and their supposed drunkenness, at a time and circumstance where the safest thing to drink might have been the beer. (As for the razor strop near the window, the man undoubtedly shaved using a straight razor near the only dependable source of light in the whole place, the window.) Hine's MotivesOh I do agree that Hine was a propagandist for his cause, and that it was a good and noble cause. I guess that any problem I have is with his attitude in this case. The family in this photo (with little Julin, the neighbour girl) are almost made to seem like villains of the piece when in all likelihood they were being exploited almost as much as the child. It is doubtful that they were small entrepreneurs who paid the little girl a pittance and far more likely that they were piece-workers who were paid a pittance by a company. Child labour was and is an evil thing but the real blame didn't lie with these people who are being painted as the height of moral decay (a growler for beer, dirty dishes, clothes everywhere). Family TogethernessThe father is talking, they must be having a nice conversation, this almost seems like a nice family hobby. I know that in my home if myself, my wife and mother-in-law sat around the table chatting and making paper flowers, you can bet my two young boys would be begging us to let them make some. And in keeping with other comments as to conditions, I see clean laundry hung up to dry, some folded towels on the bureau, and roughly folded clothes on the chair. Let's face it, these guys didn't have Maytags. I also agree that Hines comes across as a crabby nit picker in his narrative here. Re: Family TogethernessYou have to remember that Lewis Hine had a goal (ending child labor) and an audience he was trying to sway to achieve it (members of Congress, who would see these photos as part of the report of the National Child Labor Committee). So he may have painted things as being bleaker than most people might feel is warranted. Also note that little Julin is not part of this family; she's a neighbor child. We don't know if she was being paid to help out. GrowlerGlad I read the whole thing. In Yorkshire, UK, Growler = Pork Pie. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, NYC)
A Most Amazing Room: 1910s
... a pulley clothesline similar to those seen stretching from tenement to tenement. Parasols, Chinese lanterns ... ... not to mention what appear ... 
 
Posted by Fredric Falcon - 02/28/2019 - 3:49pm -

This room from well over a hundred years ago in Pawnee City, Nebraska, looks to have been the personal space of a boy or teenager. It's filled with weird little items a teenage boy might have found worth collecting. A handwritten sign on the wall says "WHO ENTERS HERE - LEAVE HOPE BEHIND". A large Punch and Judy puppet is mounted on a chair with a warning not to handle it. Playing cards decorate the walls. The scrawled message on the heating stove says "Sacred to the Memory of a Fireman - He has gone to his last fire". An American flag covers the ceiling. Browse around the room and see what you can find. It's his own private museum, the Voynich Manuscript of Victorian living space! Scanned from a 4x5 glass negative. View full size. Animal House 1.0Has that frat-house parlor vibe. BeachcomberThere are at least two horseshoe crabs on the wall. Nothing unusual for the Jersey shore but not really abundant in Nebraska. Eclectic and eccentricHe certainly had the eye and sensibilities of a collector, as well as a gift for design -- especially collage. I love how he ran out of room on "leavehopebehind" but didn't bother to do it over. All he left out was the hashtag. Could be BertThe sign on the right wall could say Robert's room or Herbert's room. How did he get up to reach the laundry hanging over the sign? I see nothing other than a few rickety chairs and something like a pulley clothesline similar to those seen stretching from tenement to tenement. Parasols, Chinese lanterns ...... not to mention what appear to be old helmets from the Franco-Prussian War, and a halberd. There's also a miniature human skull in a tiny shadow box. Some of these things might even have been stage props. I wonder if this room is in the same house where we met the baby on the floor the other day. If so, a darned interesting family must have lived there, and I'd love to have met them. His rocker is off its rockersI see the notches in his chair legs and the rockers are across the arms. I love his Prussian military helmet collection. It is a great room -- looks like mine when I was about 12. The door must have a STAY OUT sign. Mad Magazine, ca. 1910OK, I know William Gaines's father was only about 16 in 1910, but these guys were operating on the same wavelength. This is an extraordinary picture in that it shows a view of life wholly unlike anything we customarily encounter from this era, e.g., the cityscapes peopled by a formally attired citizenry as they navigate the Main Streets of an ascendant American economy. A picture-book world with everything properly in place. But looking at Junior's lair, it’s comforting to see a sensibility on display that I believe will be readily familiar to almost any reader of this blog, although perhaps a bit rough-hewn. I can’t speak for today’s (what are we calling them now?), but to this child of the Fifties, it looks really cool. My mother, however, would never have countenanced such rococo anarchy, which is probably why I think it looks cool. A truly amazing find. Map of FranceAt far left. Old Eighty-EightsI spied with my little eye a couple of things with "88" on them.I wonder what significance that number holds. Perhaps it was the year he was born, or graduated. Who knows? At any rate, I could waste all day looking at this photo! I love it! My guessI have to guess that the owner of this room was the child of one of the more eminent citizens of the town--worth noting is that Pawnee City produced Nebraska's first governor, David Butler. My guess, though, is that the banker's son is most likely--someone who had traveled as a young pup. PrivacyI bitterly resent the posting of this picture of my college dorm room. I Spy. . A rifle stock (probably a .22) sticking out from behind the cloth above the fire place he's hanging all his tchotchkes on. There isn't a stovepipe from the wood stove. The fireplace behind it is too low. The fireplace is also covered with a piece of cloth. Kind of a fire hazard. The Pith HelmetThere's a pith helmet with a plume in the picture and it looks like and I'm wondering where that might be from or what campaign. I can't seem to readily find a British one like that or any other. According to wikipedia, "The US Army wore blue cloth helmets of the same pattern as the British model from 1881 to 1901 as part of their full dress uniform. The version worn by cavalry and mounted artillery included plumes and cords in the colors (yellow or red) of their respective branches of service." It doesn't look quite like one of those though. Theater of the absurdThis looks like it could be the set of some kind of very weird stage play. Wonder RoomTrue, the preponderance of the materials (and the sign) point to a young man, but the more feminine touches make me wonder: The Chinese parasols, the girl cutout, the many hand fans, the Chinese lanterns, the necklaces, and the bonnets. Perhaps a would-be museum curator? Possibly he spent some time in Asia. As for identity, besides the "_bert"s Room” sign, the letter on the mantle mantel looks to me to start with a large flourish "Dear Robert." The banner partly obscuring one horseshoe crab and the one on the wall next to Punch both show "88," presumably 1888? That together with the "College" sign at far right could make him (and the photo) a bit older than we think. The map of France appears to be the 4 provinces of ancient Roman Gaul (except for the added bit of Basque territory I can’t find an equal to). A fire down belowIt looks obvious that stove vents through the back with a hot pipe passing through that piece of cloth over the fireplace if BillyB is wrong. If so ... Adding all that fabric pinned to the walls and mantle mantel, with all the paper and cloth flag hanging from the ceiling, it's amazing that the whole place didn't go up in flames on the first cold morning of the year. So that fireman may not have "gone to his last fire" after all. Typical Schoolboy's roomThis looks like thousands of old photographs of dorm rooms from colleges and prep schools, although an excellent example of the genre. The boys (and also girls, who however were often neater) would gather all the family castoffs, military campaign souvenirs, photos of actresses, weird signs, and college banners from brothers, fathers and uncles. As you imply, kids could recreate this look in their family homes if necessary. An Old Man Sits Collecting StampsIn a room all filled with Chinese lamps. He saves what others throw away, says that he'll be rich someday. -Cake, "Frank Sinatra" Well ... maybe,but I was a "frogs and snails and puppy dogs' tails" boy, grew up with three brothers, and raised three sons -- and I don't quite buy the interpretation here. It's just too arranged, too goofy, and just a tad feminine. There's a weird artistic sensibility in evidence here, and maybe a little derangement. What's up with the playing cards on the back of the door? I hesitate to go further, but it just doesn't look quite like an untampered-with boy's room. Some observationsFirst, the Chair That Is Not To Be Handled is a rocker, perhaps intended to be convertible, perhaps just partially dismantled. Second, the helmets (save that with the plume or feather) may be firefighters' gear, ceremonial if not quotidian; metal helmets of a military appearance were common for firefighters in France, Britain, and many other countries. Coupled with the legend on the stove, this suggests that the paterfamilias may have been a fireman, though how such exotic items came to be in the Cornhusker State is not obvious … maybe something to do with the map of France? Human beings seek to discern patterns, as much mentally as visually, so my reach may well have exceeded my grasp here. Re: I SpyHere in Maine, I have seen many stoves plugged into a fireplace cover. The stovepipe exits in the rear near the top (about opposite from where the word "Sacred" is) and goes straight into a hole in the top of the fireplace cover. It's hidden in this photo. Likely it is a coal stove, not a wood stove, although that is not certain. I do see a piece of wood leaning against the mantle mantel front next to it but coal stoves need kindling wood to get them going, so who knows? Also I don't think the fireplace cover is fabric. What looks like a wave in the face of it continues on up over the mantle mantelpiece, leading me to believe it is a stain on the original photograph. [That's the shadow of the fringe hanging off the M-A-N-T-E-L. This is scanned directly from the negative; a stain on it would show light, not dark. - Dave] I have seen a number of these fireplace covers with painted designs on them. They are made of metal. Still, with that fringed curtain hanging low off the mantle mantel top, it is indeed a fire hazard. Like the country folk here, hopefully the photo was made in summer and when the cold winds blow, the combustibles were moved a distance away from the heater. Penrod would have killed for this room.To KimS, This is exactly what a boy's room of the period looked like, perhaps neatened a little for the photo. The playing cards were in fact de rigueur -- a broken pack would have created tons of material to put up, and especially for a schoolboy, but also for college students, implied the "naughtiness" of forbidden adult gambling. Attached is part of a photo from my own collection showing a room in Springfield College from 1903 decorated with playing cards. [Subtle! - Dave] --Sorry if I was a bit didactic, but old dorm room photos are one of my collecting specialties. Also, I do not know why the attached photo did not appear. I checked, and it was not too wide (437x291 pixels). [Click "Edit" at the bottom of this comment. Browse to your photo, click "Attach" and then "Post comment." - Dave] Pawnee City remote, but not isolatedAt the time, Pawnee City was at the junction of two rail lines that likely brought a lot of visitors from across the country and with them, bringing curiosities from both coasts that would be attractive to a curious young person. The town is also in extreme southeastern Nebraska, not far from Missouri River traffic and the 'big cities' of Omaha and Kansas City. These photos are so fascinating and wonderful. Thank you! Andrew W. Roberts Norfolk, VA [We don't know for certain that this photo was taken in Pawnee. - Dave] (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
302 Mott Street: 1911
... 1911. Family of Mrs. Mette making flowers in a very dirty tenement, 302 Mott Street, top floor. Josephine, 13, helps outside school hours ... Where's the dirt The notes state, "a very dirty tenement." There are some things like a wash-tub and a scrubbing-board that ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/09/2011 - 10:29am -

December 1911. Family of Mrs. Mette making flowers in a very dirty tenement, 302 Mott Street, top floor. Josephine, 13, helps outside school hours until 9 P.M. sometimes. She is soon to be 14 and expects to go to work in an embroidery factory. Says she worked in that factory all last summer. Nicholas, 6 years old and Johnnie, 8 yrs. The old work some. All together earn only 40 to 50 cents a day. Baby (20 months old) plays with the flowers, and they expect he can help a little before long. The father drives a coach (or hack) irregularly. View full size. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. DirtRobert, You need to click on the full size option. The floor is dirty, the door has small child "art", the table cloth is dirty and has numerous holes. I'm sure they are doing their best under who knows what type of circumstances. Where's the dirtThe notes state, "a very dirty tenement." There are some things like a wash-tub and a scrubbing-board that are in plain view. Maybe those thing cold have been stowed a bit better. But the wall cabinets have lites you can see the shelves inside and the insides seem to be in order. The floor is clean. The women's clothing seems to be quite nice. Those boys look fine with their jackets and even a scarf on one. The only thing that shows something a bit out of order is the dark blotches on the oil cloth. Most likely holes. The house keeping looks great to me. Making flowersI've seen other flower photos here... who do they make the flowers for and what are they used for? Hats maybe? Also, are they real or silk? Must be fake right? [Probably made for clothing manufacturers in the garment district. I'm not sure how they made artificial flowers back then. Although we do have some photos of real roses being dipped in white wax. - Dave] Dirt If you look at the wall by the mirror you can see the "dirt" on the wall. My guess is that it is from smoke from a cook stove or coal heater. People used to scrub down their walls every spring to remove the grime accumulated from a winter of heating and cooking. I guess the comment of "very dirty" spoke to the grime on the walls as much as anything else. Actually if you look at the table and other furniture in the room they seem pretty ornate. A family fallen on hard times? Dragging once nice stuff from place to place, each place a little more worse for wear than the last. Not DirtyPoverty is not the same as being dirty. The linoleum on that floor may be a wreck from being where one enters the house. Perhaps they don't have the money to go out and replace it. The baby's high chair may also be putting black marks on the floor as it gets dragged around. They also might have to haul some coal upstairs for the stove. These folks lived in a world of maybe 10 people in an apartment the size of the average kids bedroom these days. They are so poor that the entire family including kids is working to keep their heads above water financially. These weren't the days of handi-wipes and swiffers and vacuum cleaners and kids laying around all day playing on their computers and listening to their ipods. BTW, the kids clothes all look very clean. Any mess on a baby is because it's a baby. There's no washer and dryer sitting nearby to pop the kid's jammies in every time they get a little mess on them. If you're ever in New York, you can get an eye opening introduction to how how immigrants to America lived down on "the lower east side" by going to this museum. I've been there. Take the tour of a real tenement which was purchased and "saved for historical/educational purposes. http://www.tenement.org/ Go read the works of Jacob Riis and look at his photos. It's a testament to the human spirit that these people left their homelands to come to a new country to try to get a better life for themselves and their kids. This is the story behind Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. It's the story behind the American dream. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Riis Dismissing things as dirty misses the point. Thanks for sharing the photo, however. It's appeciated. [The captions describing these photos are by photographer Lewis Hine, written around 100 years ago. "Dirty" is his description, not ours. - Dave] Re: Not DirtySomething we mention every now and then: The captions describing these tenement photos were written by photographer Lewis Hine almost 100 years ago. "Dirty" is his description. It helps to remember that he is trying to paint a bleak picture for his audience -- the U.S. Congress -- in his organization's effort to end the practice of child labor. StagingSomething to remember about Hine's photos is that they are not "candid" photos. At this period of time, taking a photo like this required a big heavy camera on a tripod, and a flash powder apparatus. Probably the table had to be moved back toward the wall and sink to "get it all in." Since it is a "staged" photo, I'm sure Hine controlled what was in the photo to get his story across. [That would be posed, not "staged." Big difference. - Dave] Dirty TenementsThis is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. Hine had a habit of commenting about the cleanliness and neatness of his subject's houses or apartments. I suspect that it might have just been a value judgment based on his own preferences. Perhaps he was very fastidious, maybe picking that up from his mother when he was growing up in Wisconsin. We can't assume that he was just trying to exaggerate for effect. I did research on a woman who was photographed in her house in Leeds, Mass. She was putting bristles on toothbrushes. Hine's caption, in part, says, "putting bristles into tooth brushes in an untidy kitchen." I interviewed the woman's granddaughter, who had never seen the photo. When she saw the caption, she said, "Untidy kitchen? Gramma was spotless. You could eat off her floor." Point Taken DaveGood point, Dave. Thanks for clarifying that. [One of my many pet peeves. I could start a zoo! - Dave] Dirty? Untidy?Thanks for the great insight, Joe. It sounds like Mr. Hine had a few quirks of his own. Don't we all? BeautyThey may be poor but they do have a gorgeous opalescent vase standing on the shelf in the upper right hand corner. I lived there302 Mott Street, 5th floor. Small apt, typical for NYC. great location. Miss the city. EurekaMrs. Mette was Maria Auletta/Avoletti Motta, who lived with her husband Joseph and eventually with their nine children born between 1896 and 1920. By the time this photo was taken Maria and Joseph were naturalized American citizens who had spent most of their lives in the US (after being born in Italy). Oldest daughter Lucy is not picture or mentioned in the caption. Baby was Daniel, born in 1910. Joseph died in 1919 at the age of about 50, while the children eventually married and mostly moved to Long Island. The family lived at 213 Mott Street in 1905 and 105 Thomson Street in 1915 (no 1910 listing). (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, NYC)
Elizabeth Street: 1912
... and realized I'd missed something. Obviously, this tenement holds something dear to those who have lived there & I smacked ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/11/2020 - 2:49am -

March 1912. "Row of tenements, 260 to 268 Elizabeth Street, New York, in which a great deal of finishing of clothes is carried on." 268 Elizabeth Street, in Little Italy, is now a "luxe sweater bar" called Sample; 258 (Kips Bay) is a handbag boutique called Token. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. ClaustrophobicSeems like a real fire hazard. updateI love this building– it's remained very much the same. The small building at left is Cafe Colonial. I posted an update photo. AmazingI live on Mott Street. From my living room window is right across the street from that building. When I first saw this picture I wondered exactly where on Elizabeth it was and then I noticed the distinct fire escape. Amazing. It's like riding a time machine. Fantastic find, I live in this buildingWhat a fantastic shot. I live in this building that extends from 260 to 268 Elizabeth Street. Aside from new storefronts and loss of light fixtures, it looks very similar today. The small building on the corner still exists, but but the Kips Bay structure and the building housing the Cafe on the northeast corner of Houston Street are long gone. I've tried to find a good, historic image of this building for years, but didn't think I'd come across something that also reflects the vibrance of the neighborhood. [Thanks so much for the info ... a current photo taken from the same vantage would be interesting! - Dave] Elizabeth street update photoI had posted a photo update from the same(ish) vantage point several months back: [Link] I want to know what the inside is like! The entire BLOCK at the extreme left is gone-- a casualty of street widening. I believe that is the middle of Houston Street now. 260-268 Elizabeth StreetYou really can find out about old building through the New York Times! 1883- Listed as a residence in arrest report 1900 - An alleged gambling house 1901 - Raided by police 1902 - 1908 - It was a marionette theater operated by a Senor Parisi 1910 - It was a saloon owned by Francesco La Barbera that was bombed by the "Black Hand". Query No sign of Steve Spinella, though! Kips BayAnyone have any idea what the Kips Bay building was then? Or who Steve Spinella is? 126 Elizabeth & StatueGreat photo! When my Grandfather, Calogero Sacco, first arrived from Sciacca, Sicily on Columbus Day 1899, the ship's manifest said he went to live at 126 Elizabeth St. I'm told that building is also still standing with a statue of Madonna del Socorso in the window at street level. Anyone know if that is true, and/or have a photo of the building or statue? ElizabethStreet@spenceburton.com I lived here I lived here in the 70s. There were no locks on the downstair doors so late at night, I had to step over people sleeping in the hallways in boxes. THere were 2 apartments per floor. One faced the front on Elizabeth Street and the other faced Bowery. It was an amazing experience living here at 268 Elizabeth as we had artists mixed in with local Italian families. I grew morning glories on the fire escape. On feast days, the parade would come up the block on Elizabeth and I would throw down money for the church. I love this photo. 260-268 ElizabethSince I lived here in the 70s, the buildings were painted grey. They were white. Someone here said it would interesting to see this buildings now. I took this photo in 1999 on one of my many trips back home to NYC. Shouldn't be so judgmentalI was actually going to write that the 1912 street scene made me wonder why anyone would want to leave their country and come to America. Surely things in Italy and Sicily couldn't be this bad. And then I read all the comments and realized I'd missed something. Obviously, this tenement holds something dear to those who have lived there & I smacked myself for being so judgmental. 198 and 200 Elizabeth St.Great picture. I have been looking for circa 1900 pictures of 198 and 200 Elizabeth St. NYC(just a little bit further up the street). My family had a fruit stand/market and lived at the 198 address in 1897 and the 200 address in 1900. Does anyone know where I might find pictures of that genre and location?? (The Gallery, Horses, Lewis Hine, NYC)
Liver & Lights: 1942
... was a phone in the candy store on the ground floor of the tenement and in an emergency the owner would send someone to tell us to come ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/24/2013 - 4:25pm -

February 1942. Detroit, Michigan. "Sign in a grocery window in the Negro district: 'chitlins and hog maws'." Not to mention Taystee Bread. Medium-format nitrate negative by Arthur Siegel for the Office of War Information. View full size. HasletsMy dad, who was reared on a farm and sold gasoline and diesel fuel to farmers for 40 years, really raked it in when "hog killin'" time came around. We all loved country ham and tenderloin, but he really enjoyed chittlin's and haslets (liver and lungs) he'd get from the farmers. He wasn't the of the race that would refer to "soul food", but I know this stuff meant the same thing to him. Re: Lights"Lights" (i.e. lungs or other organs) cannot be sold raw, nor can they be used to manufacture food items in the United States; however they can be part of a shipped food that has already been cooked and imported to the U.S., such as Scottish Haggis. Say, do you have Prince William in a can?Let him out, he can't breathe! I also searched on "liver and lights", and now I regret having done so as it is very near dinner time. 1936 FordNosing its way in. My, My, MY, My, My!Making a virtue of necessity, traditional soul food -- like all cuisines particular to the poor -- took parts rejected by the privileged and prepared them in a delicious but deadly way. Here we see advertised the elements of many fatally alluring dishes, including that key ingredient, lard. The smoking tobacco seems almost superfluous. Of course, soul food had many rivals in that regard. I fondly, though with a shudder, recall my Pennsylvaina German grandmother frying pork chops in lard and, in memory at any rate, mighty tasty they were! "Lights"Another name for lungs, usually calf. If I'm not mistaken they are no longer considered edible in the United States and cannot be offered for sale. Pretty far Northfor a selection of Southern vittles. [Followed the workforce. - tterrace] I would starve there.Not one thing I would care to eat. Offal or Awesome?My Mom was born Italian, in northern California, in 1909. When she was a youngster, an aunt, uncle, and cousin immigrated to join the family. Grandma sent the cousin into town (a mile or two), to pick up a grocery and meat order. Dino came back with the order, but also dragging a gunnysack as big as he was, shouting, "Mama, look what they were throwing away!!" Full of the finest treasures - kidneys, hearts, tripe, and probably yes, lungs. It's all in one's perspective. Just don'tIf liver and lights made you uncomfortable, don't google Hog Fries. In a canIt's Prince ALBERT! Beyond Prince AlbertDoes the person who answers the phone also have pig's feet? I mean, are his hooves cloven? Winter FrontThat '36 Ford has a partial winter front on the grill to help with engine warm-up, a common accessory at the time. Taystee BreadWas baked in Flushing, Queens, NY - not far from where I was born. Prepared there until 1992, when it was bought over by Stroehmann Bakeries and moved to Pennsylvania. This NY Times article details its demise: http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/11/nyregion/taystee-bakery-closes-bittern... Good Bread, too! ToastI agree with Vintagetvs, not one thing I would care to eat that's advertised on the windows, except for the Taystee bread. Let's make toast! Hog Fries & MawsHog fries were the parts that were cut from the young male pigs. They were soaked in water over night, then sliced, breaded or battered, and fried. Some people made sandwiches of them. Hog maws referred to the lining of the pig's stomach. One popular way to prepare that was stuffed with sausage and potatoes and sometimes cabbage. It was baked, whole, and sliced. I have a recipe for pig's liver and lights, from The Black Family Reunion cookbook. It calls for slicing the liver and lungs and layering the slices with potatoes, bacon, onions, fresh parsley and sage. Other recipes include stewed kidneys, several for pig's feet, and chicken feet stew. I'd be game to try everything, with the possible exception of the last one. African American women took the parts that others didn't want, and skillfully turned them into tasty and nutritious meals for their families. I, for one, am in awe of them! Some of It is Pretty GoodI would agree that much of this food was not meant for human consumption. However, if you cut calves kidneys in half lengthwise, season and grill in the oven, they are delicious. Chitlins can also be pretty good as long as they aren't overly salted, which is often the case. In either case, enjoy these delicacies with a side of greens cooked with a little fatback. Yum! Had by my DadA '36 Ford, which he sold before I managed to wreck it, unlike his next two cars (please see my profile). His Ford's winter grille cover was a rubberized canvas with several zippered panels that provided various levels of protection depending on the temp. The one shown here is a bit different but does have two panels open. No one's mentioned tripe yet but in the same vein (sorry), long before I was ruining my father's cars he and I used to listen to boxing matches on the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports on the kitchen radio while we munched on pickled pigs' feet. Gnaw might be the better word. Today when I walk pass the jars of that, um, delicacy in stores I look at their jellied, pink mass and realize that once upon a time I was brave, very brave. Correctly Apostrophized.Chit'lin's is a shortened spelling of Chitterlings. The Bell System Couldn't help noticing the Bell Telephone sign hanging off the side of the building. I would say there was a coin operated telephone in the store that allowed many of their customers to make as well as receive calls. A telephone in 1942 in any working class or poor neighborhood was a luxury that then became scarce during the war years. My family did not get a phone until the early 1950s. I once asked my mother about it and she said we really didn't need the phone because very few of our extended family or friends had one anyway. There was a phone in the candy store on the ground floor of the tenement and in an emergency the owner would send someone to tell us to come down. Those calls rarely brought good news. No HaggisAlas, the importation of Haggis from Scotland is still banned due to the lung/lights content. There are imitations made, without the lungs, but they taste like imitations. See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8480795.stm Michigan Avenue at RooseveltThis was easily found and almost certainly the same location. Michigan Avenue is my favorite road - Detroit to Chicago. (The Gallery, Arthur Siegel, Detroit Photos, Stores & Markets)
American Gothic: 1940
December 1940. "Children in the tenement district, Brockton, Massachusetts." These houses, which look to have ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/05/2017 - 4:02pm -

December 1940. "Children in the tenement district, Brockton, Massachusetts." These houses, which look to have been built in the 1890s, must have been imposing in their day. Note the elaborate woodwork and intricate system of gutters and downspouts. Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. View full size. American Gothichard working people doing the best they could. American GothicJust wanted to say how much I appreciate someone sharing these awesome pictures with the rest of the world. Thanks! The HouseI am totally in love with this house..I just can NOT get enough of these incredible colour pictures of the 40's. I think they appear to have better quality than the photos of today. I'd so love to live in this era. My HouseI lived in a house like this one in the 50's but it wasn't in Massachusetts. They tore it down and built a hospital which greatly distressed me. I hate it when old houses die. Red RyderThis look like a scene from the film "A Christmas Story". DetailsThe kid all the way to the right is clearly some sort of weisenheimer. Looks like he's adopting a purposely artificial pose or something. There is another little kid peering out the window all the way to the left. Little boys have been playing in dirt, as evidenced by the lovingly molded dirt mound replete with tunnel for the toy truck to drive through. There is an old can, perhaps for a game of kick the can...? It must have been around Christmastime, as there are wreaths in the windows. The proud fellow in the red and black jacket could be Terry Malloy in another fourteen years. Love that there is a sense of love and protection coming from the parents. I get the idea that though the kids didn't have much they knew they were cared for and didn't feel sorry for themselves. Thanks for indulging my ruminations and thank you for this gorgeous website. I love it to bits and pieces. Cue boiling oilThis reminds me of the Charles Addams cartoons from the old New Yorker magazine. Just needs a punch line. "I'm sorry, Ollie"The kid on the right seems to be doing a Stan Laurel impression. The street nowWhat Was There offers a nifty view of what this street looks like now. Is it possible half the house is still standing? (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Brockton, Dogs, Jack Delano, Kids)
Ocey Snead: 1907
... the furnace at a building where Ocey lived -- a Brooklyn tenement dubbed "house of mystery" and "baby farm" by the neighbors.) One part ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/30/2019 - 9:47am -

"Mrs. Ocey Snead, in bed, baby in arms," December 1907 or January 1908. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. Ocey, who was found dead in an East Orange, New Jersey, bathtub in November 1909, drugged and emaciated, was at the center of scandalous murder case involving her mentally unbalanced mother and a spinster aunt who starved herself to death while awaiting trial. Along with a third sister they were thought to have conspired to drug and starve Ocey to collect $32,000 in insurance money. Ocey had two children, one of whom died in infancy. (Coverage in the New York Times noted the discovery of small bones in the furnace at a building where Ocey lived -- a Brooklyn tenement dubbed "house of mystery" and "baby farm" by the neighbors.) One part of the mystery is how two photographs of Ocey, very much alive, ended up in Bain News Service collection of glass negatives at the Library of Congress. (The other photo is dated 12-21-07). Are they are family photos obtained in the course of covering the trial of the sisters? Or is there some reason GGB would have photographed Ocey well before she died? (Cue organ music.) OceyOcey's husband was her first cousin, Fletcher Snead, the son of Mrs. Mary Snead, who was both her aunt and mother-in-law. The existence of these photos is indeed puzzling. Could it be that Mrs. Snead and her sisters hired a photographer in order to send photos of Ocey and the new baby to Fletcher, then living in Canada? Fletcher insisted his mother and her sisters loved Ocey, but their behavior indicated just the opposite. More details of this strange case can be found here: http://www.njhm.com/eastorange1.htm OceyVery interesting story. Very strange family. Beautiful girl ... just look at that hair! OceyHaving read the New York Times articles as well as the East Orange link, I still don't understand why her photo would have been taken by a news service two years prior to her death! Does anyone have any ideas? This story, and the story of the "Black Sisters" (any photos of them??) are ripe for further investigations. [Just because the photo is in the Bain archive doesn't mean the news service took the picture; it could be a family photo. - Dave] Ocey, RIPAs noted above, you can follow the entire story in news articles at the New York Times archive. I just discovered that amazing site. This is really a very interesting story, too bad for Ocey though. I grew up in Bricktown, New Jersey, so this little story really hits home for me. Thank you. That pictureCan anyone identify the photo/print on the wall behind her? For some reason my wife and I are heartached over this story and photos. It would make a good movie from the perspective that her family was indeed evil. Was her long hair an indication of her long isolation? The "Black Sisters" also are a legend in VirginiaI grew up in Christiansburg, where the "Black Sisters" are said to haunt the middle school. There were mysterious deaths when they ran a woman's college there at the turn of the century. There were always strange occurences at the school. I have seen Virginia Wardlaw's tombstone. Broken in half and lying on the ground, it's inscribed SHE IS NOT DEAD. That always gave me chills. It is local tradition to visit the grave on Halloween. Ocey's hairThe length of her hair is actually pretty typical for the times, and has nothing to do with how long her family had been keeping her close. Just think about the classic Gibson Girl upsweep for a moment; it takes a lot of hair to create the styles that were in vogue even after famed ballroom dancer Irene Castle started a trend by bobbing her hair short. Since the length and thickness of a woman's hair was directly linked to perception of her beauty (and was about the only vanity that women were allowed to indulge), most women wore their hair as long as they could grow it. Hair that couldn't be coaxed past one's waist -- or worse, thin hair -- meant resorting to 'rats' and other padding devices to add volume. There was a booming cosmetic trade in thickening solutions and hair growth tonics; many manufacturers sponsored contests for "longest hair" (and often used the photos in their ads). Women would also keep a "hair receiver" on the vanity, and yes, it's exactly what it sounds like -- when you cleaned out your brush or comb, you put the hair in the receiver so that you could later make false curls, the aforementioned rats, falls, braids, or other things to supplement your 'do. Remember also that jewelry either incorporating or made from a person's hair was exchanged as a personal memento; mourning jewelry of the period often features a lock from the deceased. Ocey's hair looks to be about knee-length, and quite thick; in other words, a bit longer than average, but hardly extraordinary. Famous beauties of the time had hair that was calf-length, or even longer; some were photographed with their hair loose and dragging the floor behind them. The photos here were probably taken before her mother began really starving her, as that would have caused a great deal of thinning. It says something about how the standards have changed, as my hair is considered quite long, but it's only hip-length. And I'd love for mine to still be as thick as the unfortunate Ocey's, but a bad perm when I was 11 (not my idea, I might add) changed that for good. Remembering OceyI first read about Ocey in our local library, in 1976, Pittsfield, Mass. The book was called "The Bathtub Murder." All during the reading all I smelled was blood. She has never really left my mind, though I couldn't remember her name. Finally did search for her on Google, something like "bathtub murder NYC 1910" to hopefully find her and sure enough, there were sites devoted to her. I reread the book. I cannot state loud enough that she needs to be remembered, memorialized, and so I tell her story to all who would listen, as well as sending out links to her story. Yes, a movie in black and white, with actress who looked like her would be excellent, as long as it doesn't go the way of all fact-based movies, and hire actors who cannot fully express the times, the life, and the horror of her tragedy. (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, Portraits)
White House Hotel: 1912
... quite. Schrank rented a $2 room at the White House. The tenement he inherited was at 433 East 81st Street; the saloon he ran was at 370 ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/11/2011 - 8:31pm -

October 15, 1912. "White House Hotel." The building at 156 Canal Street, New York, where John F. Schrank lived prior to his attempted assassination of Teddy Roosevelt the day before. Bain Collection glass negative. View full size. John F. Schrank, landlordAccording to the ever-trustworthy Wikipedia: "His parents died soon after, and Schrank came to work for his uncle, a New York tavern owner and landlord. Upon their deaths, Schrank's aunt and uncle left him these valuable properties, from which it was expected he could live a quiet and peaceful life." So I assume that he didn't mere live at the White House Hotel, he owned and operated the hotel and the tavern. [Not quite. Schrank rented a $2 room at the White House. The tenement he inherited was at 433 East 81st Street; the saloon he ran was at 370 East 10th Street. - Dave] My kind of placeI like a hotel where you enter through the bar. It all fits.This looks like exactly the kind of place an early 20th century assassin would hole up in! Hotel entranceThere's a separate doorway to the left of the bar with "Hotel Entrance" lettered on the glass above it. A similar one on the right is the entrance to the sign shop. I could be wrong, but this looks like the Jewish part of town. Canal StreetI don't think it was a a Jewish neighborhood but a commercial street and many of the merchants were Jewish. Today it's Chinatown, Jake. Hmm.I wonder what sort of business N. Shapiro was in. The White HouseThe replication of the Presidential Seal on the top of the building is interesting. Pretty fancy for that neighborhood. But then, it is The White House. Canal Street To-DayChinatown, indeed! View Larger Map Architectural LossesThe contribution by the Anonymous Tipster of "Canal Street Today" strikes a sad note in my heart to see the architectural loss of the facade of the old White House Hotel. While the neighboring buildings have mostly retained their character (cornice and windows), the facade of the White House Hotel has been stripped to complete sterile bareness. Undoubtedly, this reflects the priorities of the renovations over the years: the original opulent Second Empire styling would certainly have been expensive to maintain. Nonetheless, the Now-Then comparison is a worthy example of the need for historical preservation districts, IMHO. Slice of heavenWow, a real slice of Americana! +97Below is the identical view from May of 2009. Many of these buildings' neighbors were razed for the Manhattan Bridge, which begins one block to the east. (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, NYC)
We Roll Our Own: 1909
... boy rolling papers for cigarettes in a dirty New York tenement." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. ... as the Olinskys, Russian immigrants who live in a tenement on Cherry Street. They have four children. Mr. Olinsky is a button ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/12/2011 - 5:18pm -

March 1909. "Widow & boy rolling papers for cigarettes in a dirty New York tenement." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Obviously -- They intend to fill them with Opera Chocolate Low rollerI just know the little one on her lap is going to reach for that glass and the whole day's work will come a-tumbling down. Not Quite the SameMarch 1909 began on a Monday; March 2009 began on a Sunday. Same Calendar as 2009Kind of eerie but the days and dates of the calendar on the wall match the March 2009 calendar, this is exactly 100 years ago, I wonder if it was Sunday. My mother would have been one month old, having been born in Feb. 1909. Low TarWhere is the tobacco? [Not here. They're just rolling the papers. - Dave] Piercing InsightThe woman appears to have pierced ears. Did they HAVE pierced ears in 1909? It seems like such a modern adornment. [How many nanoseconds will it be before someone points out that pierced ears go back to the time of the [random ancient culture]? - Dave] Little ChampionA child's smile is so precious! That little guy looks exactly like my son and that looks like something he would also enjoy doing. When I see the photos here of children contributing to their family's upkeep I feel very proud of them. It's been a whileSince I've seen an oilcloth on a table. Sure can remember the not too enjoyable aroma that wafted off a new one for months. Pierced EarsI've been told that in that era, pierced ears were considered distinctively Jewish. Can anybody confirm that? Mike Rockwood ChocolatesDoes anyone remember the candy bar commercials from the 1950s? (sound of wood block percussion) "Knock wood for Rockwood, that scrumptious chocolate. Knock wood for Rockwood, the best that you can get." OK, so Lorenz Hart it's not. No Daughter of Mine . . .Most of the the women and many of the men around the world may have had pierced ears in 1909, but in many of the tribal subsets of mainstream Middle America (that is, er, White Anglo-Saxon Protestant America), pierced ears were looked down upon as an "ethnic" thing that branded a woman as a member of the low-down immigrant classes, and/or Catholic. My mom, born in Kansas in 1925, was not allowed to get her ears pierced for that very reason. Although by the 1960s she sometimes regretted it, because most clip earrings hurt like hell and some of the prettiest styles required pierced ears, she never got them pierced as an adult for pretty much those same unquestioned reasons. Re: Pierced EarsSeeing as my great-grandfather told all his granddaughters that pierced ears were a sign of slavery in the Torah, I'm betting that he would not have thought that pierced ears were "distinctively Jewish." Russ The OlinskysThis photo was used as an illustration in "Toilers of the Tenements," which appeared in the July 1910 issue of McClure's Magazine. The family is identified as the Olinskys, Russian immigrants who live in a tenement on Cherry Street. They have four children. Mr. Olinsky is a button hole maker. Mrs Olinsky is paid 10 cents a thousand to roll cigarette wrappers. The boy in the photo is named Joe and helps his mother with the cigarettes. The article also claims that Mrs. Olinsky is under observation as a possible case of tuberculosis. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, NYC)
Neighbors: 1935
... Ave., Cincinnati." The next photo down shows the same tenement with a train behind it, plus, in the upper left, the "big house" we ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/16/2016 - 6:44pm -

December 1935. "Hamilton County, Ohio. Cincinnati slum dwellings." 35mm negative by Carl Mydans for the Resettlement Administration. View full size. Manor on the hillInteresting comparison between the falling-down, unpainted houses at the bottom of the hill and the castle at the top. We were so poorWe couldn't even afford a tire for the spare wheel! Eastern Avenue, 1400 BlockJeff's comment below gives the clue that solves the mystery. The Mydans photo below is captioned "House at 1400 Block, Eastern Ave., Cincinnati." The next photo down shows the same tenement with a train behind it, plus, in the upper left, the "big house" we saw here at the top of the hill. Workshop alfrescoThat boxy looking contraption beside the little potbellied stove is a home built table saw, for cutting wood. Most likely it ran via belt power supplies by hooking a belt to a wheel of one of the vehicles. You can see the "belt pulley" coming out the side nearest the camera, but there's no other drive mechanism visible. Vanhorne AlleyThis was one in a series of pictures that Carl Mydans took along the now-vanished Van Horne Street (previously seen here on Shorpy -- scroll down to the comments), in what's now the Queensgate section of Cincinnati. [In which case this may have been the area circled in red below, east of the Price Hill Incline. Click the map to enlarge. See the entire map here. - Dave] Holy CrossThis is a view of Bucktown, a segregated and now demolished African-American neighborhood on the eastern edge of downtown. The hill in the distance is Mount Adams, and the large building is very likely the old Holy Cross Roman Catholic monastery. [Below, the big house compared to the monastery and Immaculata Holy Cross. Doesn't look like either one. - Dave] Not Sure Where This IsThis one has me stumped. The building on the hill looks sort of like some of the incline houses, but it doesn't match up with any of them, or with the Holy Cross monastery or the art museum. We're already starting to climb up the hill where the photographer is standing, so this isn't Van Horne Street. Based on the density and type of buildings, I would guess this is somewhere around the base of Mt. Adams or Mt. Auburn, or it could be in Mohawk/Brighton near McMicken Avenue, but I can't find a record of any buildings that look like the one on the hilltop in those areas. It could also be somewhere in Lower Price Hill or Fairmount too, with some old hospital or hotel/resort type building up top. Many of Mydans' other photos are of areas along Eastern Avenue, so this could be any one of several streets that parallel it and back up to Columbia Parkway, with a Hyde Park or Mt. Lookout mansion above. Dave beat me to itThe other photos of the same area gave a good clue with the railroad being in the background. Interestingly, the little neighborhood off Eastern Avenue that these houses were in was completely wiped out before 1956, and not even the roads remain. The house on the hill is a mansion that was part of Edgecliff College. That was absorbed into Xavier University and much of it was demolished in the late 1980s for construction of a new high rise condo building. Because of the house's setback from the edge of the cliff (har har) we can only see the second story and the roof, but you can definitely see what it is in the aerial shot I attached. More maps!Thanks to Jeff J. for pinpointing the location. This would be just east of Eden Park. Click below to enlarge. ExactlyWhy I find SHORPY so interesting: the research and analysis that sorted out the location of the subjects and the mystery mansion on the hill! Well done all! Proof that coming back later is always of value with Shorpy. A great educational tool. Source for maps?I was wondering where the Cincy map was found in hopes I could find others for my area. [There's a link to the Rumsey Map Collection in the Vanhorne Alley comment below. - Dave] Our Lady of CincinnatiThe big house on the hill belonged to Our Lady of Cincinnati College (later Edgecliff College). It looks a little like Emery Hall. Edgecliff College (Our Lady of Cincinnati College)To the two folks who attached the pictures of Edgecliff (overview of the campus from Jeff and the postcard from Anonymous), can you let me know where I could obtain copies of these? I'm trying to assemble an archive of the old school. Thanks. LemminPie@aol.com (The Gallery, Carl Mydans, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Cincinnati Photos)
Bustling Baltimore: 1917
... shows a Baltimore that was still a vibrant city. Note the tenement homes, in good shape, interspersed with a variety of industry and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/20/2012 - 7:18pm -

Baltimore, Maryland, circa 1917. "Union Station showing Charles Street and Jones Falls." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Kind to pedestriansLove that railroad viaduct. What Is Their Purpose?Toward the right side of the photo there are some rectangular blocks on top of a building behind the Union Station building. Two of them are up against the windows in a sort of wavy manner. They look sort of like warped mini-roofs. What is their purpose and why are they wavy and slanted as opposed to flat like the other ones? [Wavy things: roofs over stairways. Flat things: skylights. - Dave] Flour, Yeast, Studebakers and CokeWhat else can you possibly want? Don't forget the ice!Sign behind and to the left of Union Station. It's Penn Station nowand still in full daily use, including as a main stop on the Amtrak high-speed Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston. Still vibrant on the eve of WWIBaltimore was my childhood home. This view, dated 1917, shows a Baltimore that was still a vibrant city. Note the tenement homes, in good shape, interspersed with a variety of industry and transportation. Home to the country's first railroad, Baltimore was the second largest port on the East Coast. The streets are clean and there are landscaped areas to be enjoyed by the residents -- a bit of elbow room to make life bearable. Thirteen years earlier, downtown Balto had suffered a major fire. The Baltimore of today is but a shadow of its former self, having suffered substantial economic and social decay. This photo evokes a sad nostalgia of a bygone era. Bawlmer -- where do I start?You'll need the hi-def version to follow me here. The freight yard across the top of the photo is the Northern Central Railway, and since 1912, the Pennsylvania RR Bolton Freight Station. My great grandfather was likely working there this day, as he would until Bolton Street was closed. Just off photo to the distant left is B&O's Mount Royal Station, the tracks of which are below grade behind the PRR yard. The Studebaker/Garford shop was known as Zell Motor Car Company; my grandmother's brother-in-law was a highly regarded mechanic there for many years. The prominent arch-windowed building behind it on Charles Street is now part of University of Baltimore, where I attended classes for a time. The beautiful massive stone structure in the distance with two stacks was a water pumping station, removed for I-83 construction in the 1960s. Directly in front of that building is North Avenue "NA" Tower; it's dark because it is painted in B&O's red color. NA Tower protected the crossing between the two track line seen crossing Jones Falls, and the B&O main line, which isn't visible here. Note locomotives on both sides of NA tower. The water course in the middle is Jones Falls (the name being a peculiarity of the region; instead of Creek or Run, sometimes a channel was called a Falls). The most distant bridge is North Avenue Viaduct, built in the 1890s and still in use. Close behind the viaduct is B&O's bridge over the Falls, not visible here. At the right end of the viaduct, above the Morgan Millwork sign, can be seen the B&O mainline to Philadelphia and where I labored four decades. Finally, great big Union Station isn't the only downtown passenger terminal in view. Just left of Morgan Millwork and above the City Ice sign is the peaked roof of the Maryland and Pennsylvania (Ma & Pa) RR's Oak Street Station. Beautiful shot. Thanks, Dave! Slow TrainI commuted from Richmond to Baltimore twice a week during the gas crisis of 1973-74. Taking the train was, at times, a pleasure but it was anything but "high speed." Railway Express & OystersIn the mid '60s I worked for Railway Express and each weekday night we would make a run from our depot on Calvert & Centre to Penn Station. The usual cargo was mainly express packages and barrels of oysters and boxes of soft shelled crabs fresh from Crisfield on the Chesapeake Bay headed to Philadelphia and New York. We would drive down that ramp to train track level and transfer the barrels to those high-wheeled station carts, which were pulled by a small mule (automotive variety). As the train entered the station we would drive alongside as it came to a stop so our carts were lined up with the messenger car. We had ten frantic minutes of rolling the barrels into the car until the train pulled out. Thankfully we never hit a passenger or dropped a barrel onto the tracks. That was always the best part of our night since after that we would take our time getting back to the depot so we got there just about time to punch out and head down Calvert Street to Susie's for an after work beer. So if sometime you stopped in an Oyster Bar in Philly or New York and had either some soft shell crabs or oysters and remarked about the freshness of the same it might have been me who got them there for you. Another InspirationI wish I was a kid again. What a grand sight this would be in H.O. Scale! Morgan Millwork Co.Morgan Millwork Co. was the eastern warehouse and showroom for the Morgan Sash & Door Company. Architectural Record, 1910. Correct Craftsmen Style Morgan Doors are noted for correctness and originality of design and finish. Their construction is guaranteed to be absolutely faultless. Morgan Doors add wonderfully to the permanent value, comfort, beauty and satisfaction of the house. Morgan Doors are light, remarkably strong, and built of several layers of wood with grain running in opposite directions. Shrinking, warping or swelling is impossible. Veneered in all varieties of hard wood — Birch, plain or quarter-sawed red or white Oak, brown Ash, Mahogany, etc. Any style of architecture. Very best for Residences, Apartments, Offices, Bungalows or any building. Each Morgan Door is stamped "Morgan" which guarantees highest quality, style, durability and satisfaction. You can have Morgan Doors if you specify and insist. The National Builder, 1915. Morgan Sash & Door Company Department A-22, Chicago Factory: Morgan Co., Oshkosh, Wis. Eastern Warehouse and Display, Morgan Millwork Co., Baltimore. Displays: 6 East 19th St., New York; 309 Palmer Bldg., Detroit; Building Exhibit, Insurance Exchange, Chicago. Looks like the early 1920’sby the look of some of the cars Corpus Christi Church and MICAThe tall pointy steeple in the upper left corner is Corpus Christi Church, and the white building to its left is the Maryland Institute College of Art where I went to college. (The Gallery, Baltimore, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads)
Thompson Street: 1912
February 1912. "Rear view of tenement, 134½ Thompson Street, New York City. Makers of artificial flowers ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/15/2012 - 8:31am -

February 1912. "Rear view of tenement, 134½ Thompson Street, New York City. Makers of artificial flowers live and work here." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Tough ChildrenNow that's the ghetto. ghetto?The back streets in China are like that now. 134 Thompson StreetHere it is now (light building in the middle of the photo, looks like they painted over the bricks). Someone go down that alley with a camera and send us a picture! DistressingThis photo is distressing. When I see the oh-so-ugly physical conditions the children live within, it makes my heart heavy. So much for the "good ol' days." However, at the same time, when I look at the two boys I can't help but feel a camaraderie between them, and I'm surprised (and elated) to note that the younger boy appears to be reading a book. If that's true, at least he has another world to escape into. 134½ ThompsonI live at 124 Thompson Street and am a local history junkie. What a find! Currently 134 is home to a pet food store and a men's clothing store called Sean. I might just have to show them this picture! Still on the hunt for a decent photo of my place - I live on the ground floor of what used to be a bakery (if the stories are right). Circular object?What is that large circular object underneath the right-most 2nd floor window? It looks like the bottom of a metal trashcan, but that doesn't seem right! [Washtub. - Dave] Thompson Street - NYCI currently live at 68 Thompson Street, and I was so excited to come across this photograph of the old 'hood! I am always looking for old photos of SoHo, and especially Thompson Street. I would love to know who lived in my building way back in the day. When I moved in (1981), there wasn't even a phone line connected to my apartment because the previous tenants (who had lived here for decades) never saw the need for a telephone. If these old buildings could talk ... Thanks for sharing! Same thing different people. I work real estate in the area and I have to say that many buildings still look a lot like this, the difference is the people that actually live in there now, not many families or factories. lots of trash and darkness on the back face of the buildings. Thompson St.I was born and raised at 79. We used to have parties on the roof top. I used to roller skate down the ramp of the tunnel garage. Inquiry re: 87 ThompsonThis pic is great. My all-time favorite. My grandmother grew up at 87 Thompson. She was 4 when this pic was taken. I visit the block often. 87 is now Vesuvio Playground. Anyone have pics of 87 Thompson before it was a park, or any other pics of that block? Or around the corner on Sullivan Street? Again, great pic. Thanks for making it available. 75 Thompson streetHello, One of my Ancestor (named Domenico Di Camillo) went to live in 75 Thompson street in 1906. He was 29 and he was from italy. He going to live in his brotherinlaw home in 75 Thompson streeet in 1906. In Ellis Island documents there are all of these informations. I am looking for further information. I would like to know if he had sons or daughters. Who knows! Maybe I could find some information. Thank you. Bye. (The Gallery, Lewis Hine, NYC)
A Typical Group: 1910
... St. I "went there" on Google Maps and discovered that the tenement they'd lived in was no longer standing. I shrugged my shoulders, moved ... another look. While its certainly true that my family's tenement had long since disappeared, there were plenty of old buildings still ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/12/2011 - 11:25am -

New York, July 1910. "A typical group of messengers at Postal Telegraph Company's main office, 253 Broadway. During hot weather they wear these shirtwaists. (A Suggestion for the other companies.)" Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Library of Congress. View full size. Bless their Arbusy little heartsIt's a gnome convention! Have you ever seen so many weak eye muscles in all your life? The eyes have itLadies and gentlemen, we have the largest collection of "deer in he headlights" ever seen on the web....especially those two guys on the left!! Yeowww! Either that or somebody just hit them over the head with a blunt object. Ethnic kidsThis seems to be what the "ethnic" kids were doing - working for a living instead of going to summer camp with the wealthy blond boys. QuestionWhat were or are "shirtwaists"? [A shirt. As opposed to the suit coats that were the standard messenger uniform. - Dave] Please keep the Hine photos comingLewis Hine, with his unique mixture of an artist's eye and a social worker's concern, left us an endlessly fascinating, provocative, and touching picture a world that is far away but also the past of us all and the family heritage of many of us. Seeing a Hine photo on Shorpy is always a treat. . . . And Dave, please give us bigger versions of those three images you added as comments here! [They are on my to-do list. - Dave] How old?How old do you suppose these boys are? They look short in stature but their faces have such a mature look to them. Like old men faces on little boy's bodies. DishonestIt is dishonest for Shorpy not to publish my comments on the "ethnic kids". It preserves history as a venue for gatekeepers, no matter how talented (or untalented) they are. While the site is undoubtedly remarkable for its inquiry into the past, the gatekeeper, "Dave", is a pedant of some sort who makes his comments from the safety of a black box. The results are predictable: as the site becomes a sentimentalized view of the past it will become less interesting. [Actually I'm just trying to spare you comments like this. - Dave] SpiffyNice ties! Shorpy Has An Upside Too ...In the comment section for the Berberich Shoe Store photo, I mentioned that a downside in visiting this site was the depressive reaction I often have to seeing beautiful, old buildings and then finding out, by calling up their addresses on Google Maps, that they no longer exist. That's been very true for me - and, I'm sure, for more than a few other regular visitors here as well. But there's also a very personal upside for me, too, and I'd like to take this opportunity to mention it. I began studying my family's genealogy about two years ago and in trying to track down my Mother's New York City relatives, I've learned that in April of 1910 her then 16 year old Father was living with his parents and siblings at 512 W 125th St. I "went there" on Google Maps and discovered that the tenement they'd lived in was no longer standing. I shrugged my shoulders, moved on, and forgot about it - until I tripped over Shorpy earlier this year. This site's focus on (beautiful and cool) old buildings got me thinking about W 125th St. again and so I went back there today and had another look. While its certainly true that my family's tenement had long since disappeared, there were plenty of old buildings still standing in that area - and it dawned on me as I looked that my Grandfather, who'd died 15 years before I was born, had once looked at these same buildings and so did my Great Grandparents. Suddenly, the entire half-destroyed neighborhood took on a new meaning for me and I have to thank Dave - you know, the guy who wears white gloves and lives in a black box? - and his wonderful Shorpy-site for that new appreciation. Architectural history in both general and particular has come alive for me and has led me to new appreciations for what I had previously dismissed as irrelevant. I say this now because this current photo, "A Typical Group: 1910," was taken three months after the census that listed my Grandfather way up on W 125th. The guys in this picture would have been the same age as him - and for that reason both he and they come alive for me in a way that never would have been possible before. NaiveteI am charmed by the naivete in these boys' faces. See what a hundred years has done for us? I would be hard-pressed to cast a group of boys with this lack of "knowing" in present day. There were some very simple films but this was a time before the movies like we have today. Before television too. Just the books filled with great literature such as "Moby-Dick," etc., and the Bible and Torah of course. They yearned for and cherished books. Religious families rich or poor sat together and read together. My father did this at the time of this picture as a child. He passed the habit on to us children in the 1950s to the early 60s. [For the messenger boys and newsies of this era there were vaudeville and burlesque houses, the nickelodeon, gambling, "movies," tobacco and of course drugs and the red-light district as sources of diversion. Which isn't to say that the boys in our group portrait didn't all have library cards. Below, more Lewis Hine photos from 1910 and 1914. - Dave] Naive??It's today's kids who are naive -- the only vice most of them will ever see is on a video screen or newspaper page. But these boys who were growing up in New York in 1910, they saw it and lived it firsthand. This was the world of Hell's Kitchen, the Bowery, Damon Runyon. What a time it must have been! RefreshingSort of refreshing to see young men who kept their trousers pulled up. I bet even plumbers hadn't yet gained their reputation as crack workmen in 1910. "Nip it in the bud!"Front row left: It's Barney Fife before he was deputized! Shirts and ShirtwaistsI'd never seen the term "shirtwaist" used to refer to men's clothing, so I did a little research. In the 1897 Sears catalog all the men's shirts, from fancy dress shirts to laborer's shirts, were pullovers with a front placket so they buttoned only halfway down. Sears offered a few male shirtwaists (shirts with buttons all the way to the hem) but only for small boys. In the late teens Sears called button-to-the-hem shirts "negligee shirts" and by the '20s they are "coat style shirts." I don't understand, however, why Hine considered this sort of shirt superior to the standard pullover style of shirt. The collar isn't the issue -- it was possible to get pullover shirts with soft collars, and it looks like a few of these fellows are wearing detachable collars on their shirtwaists. Yet another minor Shorpy mystery. [Hine's point, as noted below, is that the boys don't have to wear coats as part of their summer uniform. - Dave] Woolworth's253 Broadway is where the Woolworth building is today. [253 Broadway is the Home Life Building. The Woolworth Building is 233 Broadway. - Dave] Working kidsIf this was one of the more menial jobs for children in New York, how come there are no black kids among them? Did the races not mix? I'm from England by the way. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, NYC)
East Side Story: 1905
New York circa 1905. "Exterior of tenement house." Another view of the building on East 40th Street seen here ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/21/2012 - 12:00pm -

New York circa 1905. "Exterior of tenement house." Another view of the building on East 40th Street seen here. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size. I like the carriagehouse next doorIt's been gone for decades, I'm sure. The few remaining carriagehouses in the city are hotly contested real estate. People love the huge doors, I guess. New York ObserverCould that woman in the window above the entrance be the lady in the previous shot of this building? [Note that there are at least three upstairs window-gazers here. Kind of a theme for today's posts! - Dave] Trading StampsI didn't know that Green Stamps dated that far back. I always thought they were a new thing in the 1950s and '60s. Another lost artNot much call for Ornamental Plasterers any more. Family and Unescorted WomenI noticed the FAMILY ENTRANCE. I found this mentioned in a couple of my travel guides of Chicago during this era. From what I was told this was because unescorted women and children were not to use the front door. The main entrance would be on Main Street and the Women's and Family Entrance would be on a side street. Yoo hoo, Mrs. GoldbergReminds me of the early 50s television sitcom (arguably the first ever) "The Goldbergs." Who can ever forget the refrain of Mrs. Kramer, calling out to her neighbor through open windows, "Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg!" One has to wonder about the utility of the balconies on the center building as a means of escaping fire. They have no stairs or ladders to the street. Not Here NowI have to say this of 40th Street and 2nd Avenue. There isn't a Saloon on any one of the 4 corners. Present East 40th StreetDoesn't appear that anything is left S&H Green StampsS&H Green Stamps (also called Green Shield Stamps) were trading stamps popular in the United States from the 1930s until the late 1980s. By the way: I love your "titling capacities" Dave! Lofty Rental I am wondering what those lofts were going for back then and what they would go for today if they were still there. At 1625 square feet of floor space they would bring a pretty penny today. Old BillI wonder if that is Bill Inwood suspecting that Green Stamps are maybe not the way forward after all! LocationI'm guessing that that is the 3rd Avenue El that can be seen at the extreme right edge of this photo, which would place this block between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, and probably shows the south side of the street. If so, I believe that an access street originating from the Queens Midtown Tunnel now empties its traffic onto East 40th at just about the same location. It is just two blocks west of what is now Tudor City. Have I got the geography correct? [As noted in comments under the other photo, the grocery is 308 East 40th Street. - Dave] Ouch!Ouch! what's that lady sitting on by the grocers? HoneymoonersI fully expected to see Ralph Kramden looking out one of the windows. Apropos of nothingI seem to be at that stage of life where, on some days at least, the front page of Shorpy seems far more relevant than the front page of the New York Times. Everything But MoneyLove this photo as it reminds me of Sam Levenson's great memoir, Everything But Money. There's a whole neighborhood in one building. Since We're CountingI believe I see four window-gazers, although two could be ghosts! Look at Me NowThe building below, as seen from First Avenue & 40th Street, is 300 East 40th Street, also known as the Churchill. This high-rise stands on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and East 40th Street, where 308 East 40th Street, the subject of this Shorpy image, used to be. It is a co-op building with some apartment prices ranging in the multiple millions. It is one of the few apartment houses in the city with an open air Olympic size swimming pool on its roof. (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Stores & Markets)
Clothesline Canyon: 1900
"New York tenement yard c. 1900-10." A washday wonderland in this uncropped version of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/11/2011 - 6:59pm -

"New York tenement yard c. 1900-10." A washday wonderland in this uncropped version of yesterday's post. Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size. Spidermen?I'd like to see that guys that crawled up the poles to hang the lines - now THAT'S talent! ClotheslinesI haven't seen clothes hanging on a clothesline in years. Even here in Florida with plenty of sunshine people use electric dryers. Hitch's inspiration?This reminds me so much of the set of "Rear Window." Without the laundry, of course. Really cool photo. [Indeed. In fact I think I see Thelma Ritter ironing. - Dave] Disgracing the familyIn the small town where I was raised, washday was Monday and you can be sure that everybody definitely DID look at everybody else's laundry when it was hung out on the line. My mother really worked hard to get the whitest whites and the brightest brights and some residents would actually criticize the ladies who hung out "tattletale gray" whites and dull colors. If a new red dress was accidentally washed with whites, of course all the whites turned pink. And blue denim work clothes ran into and ruined other colors. Stains that were not scrubbed out meant the homemaker did not take the time to clean them properly. As long as my mom lived, she preferred clotheslines, never owned a dryer, and even on frigid winter days, her gnarled, knotty hands still hung clothes on the line and often brought them inside frozen solid so they would stand up by themselves. I won't mention any names (Mrs. Landowsky) regarding who was considered slovenly because her laundry was always stained and grayish. Of course nobody took into consideration that she had seven kids and probably could not afford bleach. Talk about "airing your dirty laundry in public," it was once a fact of life. And I still get nostalgic over clothespin bags, which were my only toys when I visited my grandmother. Soap operasIn the 1930s and 40s daytime radio was soap operas. If you listen to those programs today you will hear commercials touting the benefits of each and every brand of soap. White, white, white was the goal, and disgrace to any poor housewife who had gray laundry on washday. Airing the family's clean laundryI grew up hanging clothes out on the line on washing day--though our clothesline was in a backyard and could only be viewed by a limited number of neighbors. We had a set order to our loads--we always did the towels and linens first so that when they were hanging on the line they blocked the sight of the second load--underwear. This order is so ingrained in me that I still do my laundry towels and sheets first, then underwear, then the rest of the clothes--even though I haven't had a clothesline in years. Drying with fresh air and sunshine!I live across town from Google headquarters in what is as high-tech an area as you can find, but I still prefer to hang the clothes on a line. I have a half-century old metal folding unit which has begun to sag a bit, although it rarely is folded up or moved. For those who don't know, it's like an X stuck perpendicular to the top of its support pole when erected, with straight bars on two opposite sides (attached to the X ends) and the lines running between those bars. Anyone know if these are still being made? Fire escapesReminds me of hot summer afternoons at my grandparents house, sitting on the fire escape with my legs dangling through the bars, hoping for a cool breeze. ClotheslinesTo the person looking for a news clothesline: Google rotary clothesline or Hill's Hoist. I grew up with a rotary and prefer the T-bar type myself -- drying is more even. Coping with laundry must've been difficult then for women who worked outside the home and couldn't afford a laundry service or servant. We may roll our eyes at the old Christmas displays promoting a washing machine as the perfect gift for the "little woman" but I bet women who grew up doing laundry by hand would have been thrilled to receive one. All That Underwear...Nothing found that looks like Victoria's Secret! A traditionI lived in a house without a dryer for 14 years. I loved hanging the clothes on the line, except of course during the winter. It always made me feel like I was carrying on a tradition. My mother, grandmother and great-grandmother did likewise. CastleCan anyone identify the castle-like building in the distance in the middle of photo near the two smokestacks? (The Gallery, DPC, NYC)
Dream Kitchen: 1920
... bungalow next door are preferable to the sooty bricks of a tenement airshaft. 1920's stoves on legs! This is my dream kitchen! ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/07/2012 - 1:36am -

"Washington Times. Interior, Hamilton Street house" circa 1920. View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative, Library of Congress. Home DepotImagine this in the kitchen setups they have at your local Home Depot or Lowes. The Modern KitchenI bet it was described as "sanitary." PerspectiveThis lucky housewife was probably thinking how good she had it over Mama, who still pumped her water and heated it on a woodstove. Back panel to the spider burnerslooks like it folds down to cover them, a griddle perhaps, but I suspect not with that white finish. Back PanelI believe that panel folds down to provide more counter space. Can you imagine trying to cook for a family with that setup? Marlor StoveThe Washington Post reports the sales of several "Bungalow Homes" on Hamilton Street at this time. To me, the simplicity of this kitchen suggests the modern utility associated with the Arts & Crafts bungalows, as opposed to previous stodgy Victorian designs. What I find most curious about this photo is the complete absence of ready information regarding Marlor Stoves. Neither the internet nor Washington Post archives return any relevant info. Anyone out there know any background on Marlor Stoves? Gas in the KitchenI may be totally off the beam here (as it seems most of my comments here are), but is it odd to anyone else that the furnace is so close to the stove? The stove alone could heat up a kitchen, but maybe a family just wouldn't run both at the same time. I lived in a 1920's era house that was still heated by room furnaces, and the kitchen had a very small one on the opposite end of the room. [That's a radiator for steam heat. Not a furnace. You'd heat your kitchen with a gas range or gas oven? Someone call 911. - Dave] Heat efficiencyNote how the dish drainer is located directly over the radiator; perhaps merely serendipitous, as opposed to deliberate positioning, but the heat would hasten drying. Nice StoveIn my first apartment, I had a stove very much like that. The back panel doesn't move, it's just a backsplash. Which was much needed with my cooking abilities. You had to light the burners with a match, and the oven wasn't the best thing in the world and barely held anything bigger than a duck. Nice view...I suppose the shingles of the bungalow next door are preferable to the sooty bricks of a tenement airshaft. 1920's stoves on legs!This is my dream kitchen! Love that in the 1920s everything was on leg so you could clean under the sink and stove. I grew up in a New York City apartment with a very similar 1920s enamel stove. It had four gas burners over a gas oven. The lid served as a backsplash and could be folded down over the burners when not in use. (The backsplash on the stove pictured here is simply a backsplash.) It was pretty and extremely functional. Work space was provided by a table, which doubled for family dining. A built-in floor-to-ceiling breakfront, with glass-doored shelves above and a closed cupboard of three shelves below, was sufficient storage for dishes, canned goods and appliances. There was also a hand-pulled dumbwaiter for garbage pickup and a Murphy ironing board. A huge porcelain-enameled cast-iron double sink on legs featured a porcelain drainboard cover that slid between a shallow dish sink and a very deep laundry sink. A pull-down wooden laundry rack hung over the sink. The gas refrigerator was also on short legs. My mother turned out magnificent huge meals in this kitchen and I learned to cook in it. It was extremely efficient and easy to keep clean. One wall was breakfront, sink, and stove. The other wall accommodated the table and dumbwaiter shaft and ironing board build-out. A western window with a view from Third Avenue to the Hudson made the kitchen sunny and airy. If I could ever build a house, the kitchen of my childhood would be the ideal, but this one is pretty similar and would fit the bill beautifully! (The Gallery, Kitchens etc., Natl Photo)
Vermont Mill Boys: 1910
... small force." At least he didn't say they lived in filthy tenement flats with untidy kitchens and beer-swilling fathers. You can tell ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/24/2012 - 7:04pm -

August 1910. Every one of these was working in the cotton mill at North Pownal, Vermont, and they were running a small force. Dave Noel, 14; Theodore Momeady, 15, working three years. Albert Sylvester, 16, working one year; Eugene Willett, 13, working one year; Arthur Noel, 15, working one year; P. Tetro, 15, working one year; T. King, 14, working one year. Clarence Noel, 11, working one year. View full size. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Mill BoysNot sure what Hine meant by these boys "running a small force." At least he didn't say they lived in filthy tenement flats with untidy kitchens and beer-swilling fathers. You can tell by the lint on their clothes what the air was like inside the mill. I've been inside one. The noise of all the looms clattering away is deafening. The workers wore earplugs. [Hine is saying the mill was "running a small force," i.e. work was slack, not many employees. - Dave] Vermont Mill BoysThis is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. The first child laborer I researched was Addie Card, a girl who was photographed at this mill, probably on the same day. You can see the whole story of the search for Addie at http://www.morningsonmaplestreet.com/addiesearch1.html KidsThe boy third from the left appears to be rolling a cigarette ... and how could they work barefoot all day? [The farther back in time you go, the more kids (and people in general) you'll find without shoes. - Dave] Haunting...I have to admit that the look on the face of the middle boy (the short one) is absolutely haunting. He looks worn out and old beyond his years. Many of the kids who worked in the mills of upper New York state and Vermont were kids of expatriates from here (Montreal) looking for jobs. Dave Noel, Theodore Momeady, Albert Sylvester (Sylvestre), Eugene Willett (Willette), Arthur Noel, P. Tetro (Thétreault) and Clarence Noel are all French Canadian names (some like Sylvester and Willett are Americanized). Pat Noel family of PownalThe Phillip and Rosa Noel family of Pownal (per the 1910 census) have children Lilian age 16, Arthur 15, David 8, Clarence 11, Nelson 8, and Mabel 5. The parents had 7 children so one has died. They are listed as born in Massachusetts and French Canada with all the previous generations born in Canada. The dad is a foreman at the cotton factory and the children include 2 spoolers -- but these are the two oldest. The four younger children are listed as unemployed. ShoelessMy father in law and his brother (both born around 1925 in Oregon) got shoes for Christmas more than one year. That meant going to school barefoot until then, as they'd grown out of last year's shoes by summer. North PownalOur family lives in one of the foreman houses on Route 346, sold by the Berkshire Spinning Mill to Arthur Smith right before the mill was turned into a tannery. My daughter is doing a research project on the spinning mill. Her focus is the daughter of Arthur Smith; her name was Naomi. Wondering if you can provide any more on North Pownal between 1880 and 1930? Vermont Mill BoysI have been down Route 346 and by the mill. My grandfather James Daughton married Vitaline Bechard in 1901 at St. Joachim RC Church in Readsboro, Vermont. They both worked in that mill. One of Vitaline's sister married a Tetro. Could be the boy P. Tetro as shown in the picture. Both families moved to Adams, Massachusetts, and worked at Berkshire Fine Spinning until they died. Their kids worked there too. What an existence working in the mills. My mother worked there at 14. I would be interested in any info you might have on the North Pownal Mill and North Pownal in general during that time. Thanks, Dan Harrington Vermont Mill BoysThis is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. My comment below, dated 1-31-08 included a link to my story of Addie Card, who was also photographed at this mill. That link has changed. It is now: http://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2014/11/26/addie-card-search-for-an-ame... (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Italian Festa: 1908
... where an eternal "To Let" sign hung next to their tenement. Obviously, there were many "To Let" signs within that precarious yet ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 6:58am -

New York, May 16, 1908. "Italian festa. Mott Street decorated for religious feast." View full size. At left is a section of street seen in this post a few days ago. Google Street View. To the left of the white horse, 166 Mott (Buffa & Cianciosi) is now Ken Mable Inc. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. Memories of GrandmotherMy grandmother, upon arriving in America from Naples, lived on Mott Street. Along with her parents, three sisters and a brother, they were crowded into a four room apartment where an eternal "To Let" sign hung next to their tenement. Obviously, there were many "To Let" signs within that precarious yet ambitious time in New York City. Beautiful and sublime image. Thanks. ChickpeasThose strings of roasted chickpeas were some of my favorite treats at the festas in the 1960's. I see larger nuts as well. Are those chestnuts? (Wrong time of year for them.) Also note how the children are surrounding the candy store. FlagWhat's the flag flying next to the American flag on the left? It looks like the Italian flag with a plus sign. [It's the Italian flag, which had a cross in the middle. - Dave] MeowThere's a kitty sleeping on the window sill above the candy store. Cute. [And another kitty crossing the street! - Dave] Every Living ThingEvery living thing in this bustling scene is dead now, I suppose. The picture is so full of life, at that captured moment. Great photograph. Bottled WaterObviously not just a recent phenomenon. (Gentile Bros) Mott StreetI'd give anything to be able to walk into this photo. ItaliaIt's the old national flag by the look of it. Like the present, but with the House of Savoy symbol in the middle. I would also give anything...I would also give anything to walk into this street scene. I would venture to say I'd give up my Blackberry forever to walk into this street scene. Love the little girl in boots...with pigtails, the painted signage on the back of the wooden wagon... I can imagine the sound of this street, children shouting, adults calling down to them. Oh, beautiful. Now it's honking and alarms going off and people chattering in a million languages. But back then, it must have been sweet, the clip clop of horses and the calls of the busy street. InspirationI think this photo gave Coppola his reference for the Little Italy scenes in "Godfather II." Great photo! Thanks for sharing +100The cobblestones and horse-drawn modes of transportation are gone, but the view south on Mott Street from Broome Street is pretty much the same. This is the the same perspective taken in April of 2008. (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, Horses, NYC)
In the Kitchen: 1910
... of being a training location for a school it was in some tenement and occupied by people doing piece-work out of the home? I don't mean ... for this class is not dissimilar in cleanliness to the tenement flats that Hines was shooting and calling filthy. [True. And: ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/31/2012 - 8:18pm -

"Home economics in public schools. Kitchen in housekeeping flat, New York," circa 1910. View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. Popular Dress in the 1910'sI was thinking that this is around two years before the sinking of the Titanic. What we see in this image is the way ordinary people (well, girls in kitchens at least) dressed in those days. It's fascinating to think that this is the sort of hair and wear that a lot of the poor folk involved in that epic sinking bore upon their floundering heads. Also, note the Rob Roy Tomato jar on the upper shelf. Named after Rob Roy (McGregor), he of the eponymous book and movie? I wonderI just wonder what Hines would have said about this flat if, instead of being a training location for a school it was in some tenement and occupied by people doing piece-work out of the home? I don't mean to be critical of him, since his objectives were good, but viewed through modern eyes one might find it difficult to discover much of a difference. [This isn't a Hine photo. - Dave] SorryI know this isn't a Hines photo. The thing is that to my admittedly 21st century eye the apartment used for this class is not dissimilar in cleanliness to the tenement flats that Hines was shooting and calling filthy. [True. And: Hine, not Hines. - Dave] A far cry from my kitchen...From the girls' clean gingham aprons to the row of neatly-labeled jars, everything about this kitchen classroom is tidy. I'm envious! (The Gallery, Education, Schools, Kids, Kitchens etc., Natl Photo, NYC)
Sal the Grocer: 1936
December 1936. "Scene from the Bronx tenement district from which many of the New Jersey homesteaders have come." ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/30/2012 - 10:53am -

December 1936. "Scene from the Bronx tenement district from which many of the New Jersey homesteaders have come." Medium format nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Resettlement Administration. View full size. ChalkedBe interesting to know what kinds of things are being written in chalk on that door at the left, and why. Melting PotIt's really interesting to me that in this photo we see so many different cultures. There's the Italian grocer, an ad in Hebrew and a political poster for someone with the last name Nowak (Polish or Czech possibly?). My great-grandfather was a grocer in the Bronx at this time. I'm not sure if he had a shop like this or if he was more of a distributor to larger markets but this photo made me think of stories my grandma used to tell. Especially the title "Sal the Grocer." She would describe people in terms like that: "Charlie the Cab Driver," "Georgie the Milkman" etc. She also talked about getting milk delivered by a horse and wagon. Clearly that's not what this horse is carting, but it's fun how many stories come to mind from this one photo. Thanks Shorpy! Yiddish postersThe poster on top bears the (now) rather ironic words "6 million symphony." The one below says "The Dishwasher." The first word written in chalk is "flame!" in Hebrew, don't have the slightest clue why. Der DishvasherA Yiddish musical by H. Yablakoff. Semejantes.Interesante fotografía si se la compara con "Bathgate Avenue: 1936." Tienen muchos elementos en común: toldos, abrigos, cochecitos de niños, gente. Inside jobIt would be interesting to see inside Sal's Grocery! UpstairsLooks like a rousing round of tic-tac-toe. CheckUh, guess I'm voting for Nowak. He seems to be the tallest candidate. Jersey HomesteadsIt's interesting to compare this with a photo that Rothstein took in Jersey Homesteads (now known as Roosevelt, NJ), outside one of the "modernist" cement block homes being created for the resettled New Yorkers. SymphonyWeighing in a bit (all right, a lot) late: The "6 million symphony" poster is almost certainly advertising the movie "Symphony of Six Million", starring Ricardo Cortez and Irene Dunne. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023545/ One wonders if there was a print dubbed into Yiddish. (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Horses, NYC, Stores & Markets)
Campbell Kids: 1912
... made by kids their own age, living in poverty. [The tenement families whose kids who helped make the doll clothes were hardly rich, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/07/2011 - 8:03pm -

Children playing with Campbell Kid dolls. New York City, March 1912. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. Made by kids, for kidsI wonder what these little girls would think if they knew their doll was made by kids their own age, living in poverty. [The tenement families whose kids who helped make the doll clothes were hardly rich, but they weren't really living in poverty, either. - Dave] Made by kidsOh for crying out loud. Maybe they would have been glad they were able to have a part in putting a source of revenue in their lives. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, NYC)
I at First: 1901
... Three: Beneath the far-right upstairs window of the brick tenement to the left of the wooden apartment building is what looks like an air ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/01/2021 - 12:51pm -

Washington, D.C., 1901. "Elevated view looking southeast from Randall Elementary School -- I Street at First Street S.W." Note the gas holder, or gasometer, at right; and black bunting or mourning crepe under the rowhouse windows, possibly in the aftermath of President McKinley's assassination. 8x10 glass negative, D.C. Street Survey Collection. View full size. Tall open structure on far leftAnyone have an idea what that could be? It looks like a 'house on stilts' and is probably relatively modern, as that could be metal rather than wood posts. I see a smokestack as part of the structure (and that makes me wonder what they're using for fuel, possibly natural gas?) [There was no natural gas in D.C. back then. The gas used for fuel at the time was coal gas, a.k.a. illuminating gas or "city gas." - Dave] Whose at Second?Someone was going to say it! [Whose what? - Dave] No! What's at third. Who's at second! OleaginousTo answer the question posed by TheGerman, the Nicolai Brothers are listed in the 1901 city directory under "Oil dealers" alongside Standard Oil. Draw your own conclusions. Privy to Your Secret GardenI recall reading years ago a book titled "Washington Goes To War" written by the very talented newsman David Brinkley. In it, he described D.C. at the start of WWII as a very Southern city with many thousands of outdoor privies still in use. Plenty here in 1901, which must have made that back alley splendiferous on a hot summer day. In the distanceThe church at left in the background is St. Matthew’s Chapel. A check of the 1903 Baist atlas doesn’t provide any clues (to me, anyway) about the nature of the “penthouse on stilts” just north (and east?) of it, also on M Street SE. Three units of inquiryOne: Were the brick tenements built so that each unit had two fireplaces (hence two chimneys apiece), or were there two residential units per long narrow section (a front and a back), with one fireplace apiece? I'm inclined to believe it's the former but I'd like to know what other Shorpy sharp-eyes think. Two: There is something standing in the field about midway down the long line of youngish trees. It looks like a horse with its head down, grazing. Do my eyes deceive me, or is it indeed an equine unit with the munchies? Three: Beneath the far-right upstairs window of the brick tenement to the left of the wooden apartment building is what looks like an air conditioning unit. But since those weren't invented until thirty years later (I looked it up), what could it be? Anyone? Not an AC UnitThat is a window planter box and those are most likely cows grazing in the fields. If you wanted fresh milk in 1901 it was best to have a cow nearby. Looking at these photos always make me feel as if I was living there at that time. It looks so familiar. [That biscuit crate under the window is nature's refrigerator. The animal in the vacant lot at the center of the frame is indeed a horse. If you wanted fresh milk, Washington was well supplied with dairies. - Dave] Re: Three units of inquiryOne: My best guess is that there are two fireplaces, one at ground level and one at the first floor. Note that one of the chimneys is not like all the others, there is one much larger chimney to the left of the gas holder at the left end of the building. I wonder what that is for?? Two: Could be, but my eyesight isn't what it used to be. Three: This might be a wooden(?) crate to store milk bottles or food/liquids that require cooler temperatures rather than an AC unit. We are looking to the southeast so this side of the building doesn't get much sunshine in the winter. What I would like to know is what kind of oils the Nicolai Brothers are selling??? Is that oil used for heating, oil (of various density) to lubricate small and large machines or oil meant for human consumption (cooking oil etc.)?? [Nicolai Bros. supplied the District with naphtha fuel for street lighting. This liquid hydrocarbon was a byproduct of coal gasification. - Dave] Re third questionIf my dad were around, he would tell you that it might be an "ice" box. In college in Virginia (pre-WWII), he had one outside his third story dorm room window. He and his roommate built it to keep their sloe gin, beer, and other necessities nice and cool. Worked well in cooler and winter months, not so well in warmer or summer months. (The Gallery, D.C., D.C. Street Survey)
Two Dollars a Week: 1913
... 7 Extra Place, finishing garments in a terribly run down tenement. The father works on the street. The three oldest children help the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/11/2011 - 7:18pm -

New York City, January 1913. "1 p.m. Family of Onofrio Cottone, 7 Extra Place, finishing garments in a terribly run down tenement. The father works on the street. The three oldest children help the mother on garments: Joseph, 14, Andrew, 10, Rosie, 7, and all together they make about $2 a week when work is plenty. There are two babies." View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. Mrs. C.What beautiful needlework on the tablecloth and curtains! And an embroidery hoop on the wall. This lady knew her way around a needle and thread. Extra, ExtraExtra Place on the Lower East Side today in Google Maps Street View. The plywood construction fence is the east side of Extra Place. View Larger Map The CottonesOnofrio Cottone of 7 Extra Place became a United States citizen on Sept. 9, 1920, at New York County Supreme Court; volume 430, page 198 per Ancestry.com. Thank you all Americans. Joseph William Cottone of 7 Extra Place was born Dec. 2, 1898, in Italy according to his World War I registration card. Beautiful but SadWhat a beautiful little girl that is third from left. Such a wistful and sad expression, though. What money cannot buyThis family obviously had very little in the way of material goods, but that mom was "home schooling" before it became fashionable. These kids spent TIME with their mom, and I am certain they all knew one another as few families do today, what with endless hours of conversation and each expressing their likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams and fears. Mom is probably telling her kids all about Italy and how lucky they are to be in America, even though we today see the scene as pretty dismal. (World War I was happening at this time, and hopefully they all were spared that era of European suffering). How many kids today have heard daily stories of their parents' experiences and details of their country of origin? And I am impressed that even though they work at home, each one is DRESSED in real clothing and not pajamas or sweats. When one is a child, there is nothing so precious as your family spending time with you, talking and listening to you, acknowleging your existence, making you feel useful and needed. Yes, they were poor in being without luxuries, but they were very rich to be blessed with such close family relationships and time spent together. Lots of today's kids should be so lucky. ThreadsMy father and his sister were not allowed outside to play. They sat inside and their job was to cut the threads on the purses their mother was sewing beads onto. He does not remember enjoying the activity, but his parents were terrified of losing another child, as their first son was killed by an automobile, part of what was referred to by the local paper at the time as an epidemic. The board of health finally forced my grandmother to let her children attend school when my father was 7 years old. Home schoolingAnd as for the comment about the wonders of home schooling, at least in my father's and mother's families, (both of Italian heritage) once the children appeared to be old enough to do the work, that's what their parents expected them to do. Reading, writing and arithmetic, even with literate parents (all my grandparents were literate) was not taught in the home. They were hungry and poor and their precious time was spent making paper flowers, sewing, beading, whatever piece work their families worked on. Extra PlaceNY Times article about Extra Place, off East First Street near the Bowery. Seems as though there's a dispute about whether or not the byway should be eliminated at the expense of new upscale apartment construction. The back door of the CBGB Hard Rock club exited into Extra Place. Round thing on the wallThat round thing on the wall above the little girl's head on the right hand side of the picture seems to be a wooden flour sifter with a wire mesh bottom. I have one like it for decoration in my kitchen (brought over from Italy). Why it would be so important to hang it in the living room is beyond me unless it might be an Italian custom of some sort (good luck perhaps?). [It's an embroidery hoop. - Dave] Sweet NewsPosted today on Gothamist: "A compact chocolate shop called Bespoke Chocolate opened yesterday on Extra Place, the historic 30' by 120' alley tucked away north of 1st Street between the Bowery and 2nd Avenue. The shop itself, owned and operated by chocolate maker Rachel Zoe Insler and her fiancé, is a tiny 280 square feet, open production space included." Must disagree with Dave, uh oh!An embroidery hoop needs to be "hollow" you cannot embroider if a screen/net is attached to one side. My vote goes is for sifter also. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, NYC)
Abe Singer: 1917
... numerous times - showing families gathered around their tenement tables winding the wax flowers onto stems? Also weren't those pictures ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/24/2011 - 8:18am -

February 2, 1917. Boston, Massachusetts. "Abe Singer, 14-year old helper at Wax Florists, 143 Tremont Street. He delivers bundles, tends the door, etc." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. It's a livingWould Abe get tips? Were they good ones? Did he get to keep them? What did he do with the money? Abe looks like he was a smart cookie. Little Shop of HorrorsHidden Man over on the right -- spooky. And which of these pretty arrangements is Audrey? UnusualWhat a nice job to have. It's clean, nice smelling, not difficult. Perfect for a 14-year-old. Out of character for Hine, isn't it? [Thorns! And then there's Mr. Camouflage Scary Guy. - Dave] My dream jobDelivering flowers, you're always there to cheer someone up. Who doesn't love to get flowers? And when you're not delivering, you're surrounded by natural beauty. I think I've figured out what I want to be when I "grow up." Or retire. Immigrants in the wax flower biz?Aren't those "flowers" similar to the ones that Shorpy has published numerous times - showing families gathered around their tenement tables winding the wax flowers onto stems? Also weren't those pictures created by Hines? It looks like Hine is doing a classic commodity chain including the manufacture and distribution of goods. Sort of early National Geographic. [The flowers at Wax Brothers were real. It's the owners who were Wax. - Dave] Wax Bros.As the photo suggests, the Wax Brothers must have had a very successful business. The 1913 Transactions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society lists them as regular cash prize award winners in the Society's seasonal flower shows, mostly for arrangements for dining tables and mantelpieces. These shows were large and popular, drawing commercial exhibitors like W. Atlee Burpee from as far as Philadelphia, and the cash prizes were pretty large for the time. In the Society's 1913 Autumn Exhibition, the Wax Brothers were awarded a $30 first prize for "Best Mantel Decoration." Dressed UpA lot better dressed than Hine's usual subjects. He looks good wearing a tie, a shirt with a pin collar, his Max Bros. hat, a belted jacket (even with the tear) and a pleasant demeanor. His shoes could use a shine but considering the times he's doing well. He would have been about 40 years old at the beginning of WWII, so he probably didn't have to serve, but he had to survive the Depression. This is a case for Joe Manning. Note the KnickersFrom the days when only men wore long pants. I guess 14 isn't quite old enough to qualify as a man sartorially yet. The Voice Of ExperienceThe best job I ever had in my entire working life was driving a delivery truck for a florist. With the exception of the occasional funeral, every delivery I made was a joy and everywhere I went, people were happy to see me. Some laughed, some cried and some were stunned into silence but all of them had a positive effect on me and, tired as I most certainly was after driving the length and breadth of San Diego County each day, I always went home on a "high." If my wonderful job had paid me more than minimum wage, I'd have probably stayed there forever, but duty and reality, in the form of another job paying a dollar more an hour, called me away and I had no other choice but to answer. That job, a late shift dispensing quarters for the peep shows in a porno store, eventually proved to be my undoing, but the overall happiness I experienced in Flowerland has provided me with a lifetime of good memories to call upon when times get bad. I would be very surprised if Abe Singer wouldn't have agreed. 143 Tremont StreetThis is on Boston Common. View Larger Map ManHas no one noticed the very handsome man standing beside the boy? (The Gallery, Boston, Kids, Lewis Hine, Stores & Markets)
Street Arabs: 1888
... their hair looks combed. I'm guessing they're actually tenement residents whose parents send them out to beg/whatever. Maybe the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/03/2019 - 7:12pm -

New York circa 1888. "Street Arabs in 'sleeping quarters'." Photo by the Danish-American social reformer Jacob Riis (1849-1914). View full size. How the other half poses. Poorly. The kid on the left is peeking. I'm sure of it. I believe the young man is dreamigProbably of a nice hot meal and a clean bed. Sleeping boysSeems to me, that this picture is posed. Look at the smiling face of the left kid. But maybe I'm not right - maybe he's dreaming about warm, clean, cosy bed and pajamas? The Gilded AgeMr. Vanderbilt, Mr. Morgan, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Carnegie -- anyone? Forty wink-winksSure, those three young fellows really fell asleep like that. And there's some oceanfront property in Nebraska you need to check out before it's all gone. Forty wink-winksSure, those three young fellows really fell asleep like that. And there's some oceanfront property in Nebraska that you need to check out before it's all gone. Two-way streetI wonder which way it went in popular lingo: From street arab to street urchin or vice-versa? Nomads Without the CamelsSo Google tells me "Street Arab" is a now archaic way of saying homeless street kid. I had no idea. I bet there was story behind that term, when it was in use. NewsiesThe way these streets urchins survived was to sell newspapers, go through garbage, and even pick up dog feces. The latter was sold to local tanneries. I had a cousin who did this to survive. He became successful accountant. Look at the eyesYou can fall asleep in some of the weirdest places, and I certainly have, but looking at the eyelids, it looks like there is some tension in the forehead that suggests they're squeezing them shut for the picture. I also notice that their cheeks are filled out nicely, as if they're at least somehow getting enough to eat, their hands show evidence of work and dirt, and their hair looks combed. I'm guessing they're actually tenement residents whose parents send them out to beg/whatever. Maybe the photographer took them out for a bite to eat afterwards. I hope he did. What's Real?The clothes, holes and dirt don't look staged to me. Longfellow The Day Is DoneAnd the night shall be filled with music, And the cares, that infest the day, Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, And as silently steal away. James Thurber's mother remembered it as "like the Airedales." A-RabBaltimore once had itinerant street merchants, most with horse and wagon, whom the locals called A-Rabs. They did everything from sell produce to collect rags and scrap, but the term was pronounced with a long A. No doubt an adaptation of the term used in this photo, though I can only guess at the etymology … perhaps the crowds of mendicant children one could observe in the cities of North Africa in former days? [They're "Arabs" because they're nomadic, wandering from place to place. - Dave] (The Gallery, Kids, NYC)
Mulberry Bend: 1905
... park is where they congregate. Has to be better than a tenement. From what I can tell 99% are unsupervised by an adult. Different ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/09/2013 - 9:42am -

Circa 1905. "Mulberry Bend, New York City." The name was changed to Columbus Park in 1911. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. What if you were an UNpopular undertaker?Did that mean you had to take Chas. Bacigalupo's leftovers? The Popular UndertakerPeople must be dying to meet him. Baciagalupo storyHere's a short story on Chas. Baciagalupo's own funeral from the New York Times in 1908: "Charles Bacigalupo, who for thirty years has buried the rich and poor of Mulberry Bend and Chinatown, was himself buried yesterday, and no funeral of such a scale of grandeur has ever been offered to the reverent if color-loving and emotional people of that section. Bacigalupo died in Brooklyn in one of those comfortable, old-fashioned mansions in Second Place... There were more than 200 carriages and seemingly endless processions of Italian societies with banners draped in crepe and bands sonorously sounding dirges that kept the mourners' tears welling to their eyes. "After the services at the house the coffin was brought to the hearse—not the famous automobile hearse, but the finest that was ever built to go behind horses. Then six jet black horses, draped in white netting that flowed over the pavement, started toward the Brooklyn Bridge with six attendants holding their bridles. Behind the hearse were nine open carriages piled high with the flowers that the dead undertaker's hundreds of friends had sent." Mr. Bacigalupobelieved in the phrase it pays to advertise. Apparently he also has his name & addresses etched under a relief at the Most Precious Blood Church. Here's a very good link that gives backround on "The Popular Undertaker". The buildings to the left are all gone, now the Manhattan Detention Complex. The building left of center with the large flagpole on the roof is still there (106 Bayard Street). The Other HalfThis spot is the stuff of dark legends, as mythic a place as exists in New York. It once skirted the eastern edge of the Collect Pond, the fresh water supply of the Dutch and English settlements, and later marked the 12 and 2 positions of the Five Points, with the notorious alleys of Mulberry Bend, immortalized by Jacob Riis, burrowing inward from the street. The efforts of Riis and others brought about the demolition of the entire block between Mulberry and Baxter Streets. The park, designed by Calvert Vaux of Central Park fame, opened in 1897. The manicured ovals are long gone, replaced by basketball courts and playgrounds, but the pavilion remains, nicely restored in 2004. As the signage in the photo indicates, this was part of Little Italy 108 years ago, but is now firmly within Chinatown. It's Chinatown JakeThe parkhouse still stands. The foreground is now mostly basketball courts. The street on the left is Baxter Street. The buildings on the left, on the other side of Baxter, were replaced by the NY County District Attorney's office (1 Hogan Place) and NYC Criminal Court. The street on the right is Mulberry Street. Yup, THAT Mulberry Street. The buildings on the right, on the other side of Mulberrry, are in Chinatown. The buildings in the farground, beyond the parkhouse, are in Little Italy. Little Italy has steadily been shrinking as it is subsumed by the expanding Chinatown. Very close by was the infamous Five Points neighborhood and Collect Pond. Very much a "Gangs of New York" area in the 1800's. The pond was filled in after it became too polluted. The famous NY County Supreme Court (60 Centre Street -- where Chris Kringle had his trial in Miracle on 34th Street) would one day be close by on the left. To this day it has pumps in the basement working 24/7 to keep the water that used to flow into the pond from flooding the basement. So do several other buildings around the old pond site. Five PointsAnd a shot of the notorious Five Points neighborhood, probably the toughest worst neighborhood in America ever, at least in the 19th century. At this point we are around the time of the Five Points Gang war with the Eastman Gang. Johnny Torrio and Al Capone were getting their start with Five Pointers at the time of this picture. Not a school dayI have never seen so many children in a Shorpy photo before. Looks like this park is where they congregate. Has to be better than a tenement. From what I can tell 99% are unsupervised by an adult. Different times: when even small children improvised their own games and entertainment. Keep them assets earnin'Mr. Bacigalupo will rent you his coaches any time, day or night... so long as they don't contain one of his "customers". Apparently a common practice... several years earlier, the couple responsible for the 1897 NYC "murder of the century" hauled away the decedent by hiring a wagon from their neighborhood undertaker. A touch of irony, in that case. RegardlessEven if your comment isn't posted, others might still answer your questions. Glad to see that the pavilion is still there. Shame the park is now converted into so many basketball courts [nothing against basketball, you understand], but it would be nice to have the greenery. SnoozingI notice several gents having a nap while sitting on the benches. When I was younger, I couldn't understand how you could sleep sitting up like that. Now I wonder how you don't. Embarrassing in restaurants. Ahem. All in Chinatown NowThe buildings right behind the park pavilion are all in Chinatown now, and have been since at least when I lived in the area in the 60s and 70s. There were only a handful of longtime Italian businesses and families I knew left there on Bayard and Mulberry Streets. The tourist trap of restaurant after restaurant that is Little Italy now doesn't begin until north of Canal Street, running up Mulberry Street for about a half mile or so. By the way, the building with the flagpole and flag to the right of center is 70 Mulberry Street, formerly Public School 23, and now the Research Center location of MoCA, Museum of Chinese in America. (The Gallery, DPC, NYC)
Small Dwelling: 1939
Savannah, Georgia. 1939 or 1944. "Davenport tenement, small dwelling, Houston and State streets." 8x10 negative by Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size. Potted Tenement or not, someone has gone to some effort to beautify their living space ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/22/2012 - 2:46pm -

Savannah, Georgia. 1939 or 1944. "Davenport tenement, small dwelling, Houston and State streets." 8x10 negative by Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size. PottedTenement or not, someone has gone to some effort to beautify their living space with these nicely kept plants. Take these broken wingsLiving in a place and time where shutters are for decoration only, I find these hard-used disreputable ones delightful. The tiny but lavishly verdant porch pleases me, too. That chimney's getting ready to drop a brick or two into the fireplace, though. I can't approve of that. Neat as a pinThis is obviously a poorer part of town. The house probably dates almost to colonial times. That metal roof has more years left in it than the house it covers. The chimney looks too big for the house it's on. But check out the porch. No money is no excuse for dirt. I've noticed this in modern projects, where house after house is a filthy wreck, and all the sudden, there's a house spotlessly clean with flowers all around the small yard. The lady of this house cared, with flowers to catch the most sunlight and the place neat as a pin inside too, I'll bet. You've got to love the brick sidewalk and cut stone curbing; also from the dim past. Bloom where you are planted!This may be the site of the current Green Palm Inn B & B. That would be the larger structure to which the disheveled cottage is attached. The Inn has similar chimney and window placements. It is using the site of the cottage as a bricked parking area. The house is 1880s era, apparently built to lodge sea captains, according to the Green Palm web site. View Larger Map House snoopingThe homemade gate is quite charming, too, although the porch underpinnings look suspect. The broken window with the curtain rod (?) sticking out imply that maybe all is not well inside, either. Or is that the Savannah A/C system? But take a good look at the siding. Although probably whitewashed, it looks to be pretty much all clear boards (no knots) with the exception of some repairs/replacements. (The Gallery, F.B. Johnston, Savannah)
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