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Yosemite Cadillac: 1919
... touring car at Yosemite in snow." With the Sentinel Hotel in the background. 6½x8½ inch glass negative. View full size. Sentinel Hotel "Near view of the three-story Sentinel Hotel, early 1920s, Yosemite ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/09/2015 - 6:13pm -

The high Sierras circa 1919. "Cadillac touring car at Yosemite in snow." With the Sentinel Hotel in the background. 6½x8½ inch glass negative. View full size. Sentinel Hotel"Near view of the three-story Sentinel Hotel, early 1920s, Yosemite Valley; with three autos parked along street, and valley cliffs in distance." From the San Joaquin Valley & Sierra Foothills Photo Heritage. Artist Beautiful photograph. The talent of the photographer comes through and makes me all that more envious of what was accomplished when considering the materials and processes that they worked with back in the day. [Those "materials and processes" are why the photo turned out so well. Giant glass negatives make better pictures than smaller-format film. - Dave] Medium- and large-format negsChurchkey, in the mid-to-late 1960s, we couldn't use 35mm as it wasn't considered, at least by the folks who ran the newspaper I worked on, as a professional format. I didn't care, as I loved my medium-format twin-lens relex Rolleis and Mamiya cameras. Plus, especially with large-format film like in the Speed Graphics, shooting ball games was much easier than with a 35mm. As long as you pointed in the right direction and tripped the shutter at the right time, the action was somewhere on that big neg. You just cropped tight and were a hero. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, W. Stanley)
Balcony View: 1923
... a street name has its business on that same street. Hotel Monteleone Maybe Royal between Bienville and Iberville, facing SW toward Canal Street? Somewhere around the Hotel Monteleone. 500 block of Royal Street About halfway between ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/10/2014 - 11:23pm -

        Thanks to our commenters, we've zeroed in on the location: the 500 block of Royal Street. Circa 1923. "Street scene, New Orleans." Who can name the street? It has a nice view of the Hibernia Bank tower. Photo by Arnold Genthe. View full size. Looming HiberniaLooks like Chartres near Conti. Canal Street AntiquesNormally the name of a business which incorporates a street name has its business on that same street. Hotel MonteleoneMaybe Royal between Bienville and Iberville, facing SW toward Canal Street? Somewhere around the Hotel Monteleone. 500 block of Royal StreetAbout halfway between Toulouse and St. Louis, looking southwest. Alignment of the Hibernia tower peak with the tower's nearest corner gets you really close, then onto google maps. The buildings closest on the right are largely unchanged. View Larger Map Admiring herselfin a hand mirror perhaps, or maybe reading a letter or small book, the lady in the foreground is leaning against the railing that separates the second story balcony of 526 Royal St from that of 528. Behind her is the sign for the Christian Woman's Exchange, a local women's aid organization and consignment shop at 524 Royal. The photographer is set up on the balcony of 534 Royal. Let us once again thank Shorpy and Google Streetview for making this time travel possible. (The Gallery, Arnold Genthe, Cars, Trucks, Buses, New Orleans)
Night in the Big Easy: 1941
... all of the revelers are off the street. Some to the Jung Hotel, perhaps, now closed (owned by a successor hotel chain) since Katrina. Photo taken by the father of one of my best ... 
 
Posted by Don Struke - 09/13/2010 - 10:26am -

Canal Street, New Orleans, in 1941, and all of the revelers are off the street. Some to the Jung Hotel, perhaps, now closed (owned by a successor hotel chain) since Katrina. Photo taken by the father of one of my best friends. View full size. Jung HotelI stayed in that hotel in 2003. It's 1500 Canal St and was the Radisson when I stayed there. Last time I was by there was this past winter, and it was closed up....it closed after Katrina. This end of Canal St was coming back prior to the hurricane, but it's once again fallen back into seediness. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
Open All Year: 1901
Circa 1901. "Hotel Islesworth, Atlantic City, N.J." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, ... buried beneath the Trump Taj Mahal. Postcard of the Hotel Here is a postcard of the Hotel circa 1910's (The Gallery, Atlantic City, DPC) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/07/2015 - 9:06am -

Circa 1901. "Hotel Islesworth, Atlantic City, N.J." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Location trumpedBeach and Virginia Avenues, now buried beneath the Trump Taj Mahal. Postcard of the HotelHere is a postcard of the Hotel circa 1910's (The Gallery, Atlantic City, DPC)
Satyricon: 1925
... Post, Aug 3, 1921 Shades of the Overlook Hotel Oh boy. Didn't I see this scene in Kubrick's "The Shining?" ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/27/2012 - 3:42pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1925. "Y.W.C.A. Circus." Another scene from the Terrifying Party. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size. No Mice! Y.W.C.A. Circus Tonight Animal Parade, Bearded Lady and Clowns to be Features. All is in readiness for the big Y.W.C.A. circus tonight at the Blue triangle center, Twentieth and B Streets northwest, given by the business women's department. The animal parade will be led by the ringmaster, Miss L.M. Quay. The only animal it is said, which will not appear is a mouse. Mice are excluded by request of the other performers. It is understood that the Masons have kindly given their circus clowns for the evening. Treble voices will be strained in front of each side show tent, depicting in true barker style, the wonders within. Minder readers, fortune tellers, a human glass eater, a bearded lady and a "real fat lady" will be features. In case of rain the circus will be given the first clear night. Washington Post, Aug 3, 1921 Shades of the Overlook HotelOh boy. Didn't I see this scene in Kubrick's "The Shining?" Dog-Faced GirlGirls being girls, I bet the put the best looking one in the sad-eyed dog costume. Love the way standing on the cat's back required some arm flapping for balance that's caught or posterity. Am I deviantfor finding this strangely erotic? NO NO NOOk thats just wrong. Y.W.C.A. FunI paid a couple girls big money for a similar activity just last year. I lived at a YWCAWhen I was much younger, I lived at a YWCA residence. We never did cool stuff like this. Wonder if the dog ate the cat's papier-mache nose, though. Nightmare Fuel!Yes, this is good old fashioned nightmare fuel. Sweet dreams, kids! (The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing)
Boardwalk Empire: 1910
Atlantic City, N.J., circa 1910. "Boardwalk, Hotel Marlborough-Blenheim and Young's Million-Dollar Pier." There are a ... two tall pillars or columns, might serve on the central hotel with the dome and all the gingerbread? They seem strange and lonely. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/20/2012 - 3:36pm -

Atlantic City, N.J., circa 1910. "Boardwalk, Hotel Marlborough-Blenheim and Young's Million-Dollar Pier." There are a zillion interesting details in this panorama made from four 8x10 inch glass negatives. View full size. Just imagineTo be able to take for granted that you will walk outside to such beautiful buildings, a boardwalk where everyone is nicely dressed and you can even walk six abreast, sweeping lawns, spacious streets, peaceful porches to rock on, an almost empty beach to sit on. They probably took much of it for granted and certainly didn't know how amazing and wonderful it would look to me 100 years hence. A Monumental ChallengeDo any of our talented colorizers dare tackle such a sweeping scene? Are any of these buildings still standing?Maybe someone familiar with Atlantic City knows. I've never been there. AmazingThe scope of the shot is breathtaking! From the chimney that needs repair in the lower right corner and the "hidden" clotheslines on that roof, to the confection of the M-B to the Pier and the vistas beyond and the wonderfully random set of tracks throught the sand. These people wouldn't recognize Atlantic City today. Such detail. All in focus.This is a fantastic photo. You might even say it took my breath away. Nice to see an old shot like this and have everything look so new and clean. I'm amazed to see so much built in 1910. I'm going to have to do some research and discover the Atlantic City timeline. I was always under the impression it lagged behind Coney Island, but here it looks as though they were in place about the same time. Amazing DetailThis is just a fabulous image. It's fascinating to study the various hotels (I assume), porches, rooflines plus the people on the boardwalk and beach. It just goes on and on. Mary PoppinsApart from the cigarette ad, it could be a Disney film set. Wonderful photo. Photography and condimentsNice view of another set of tripod legs and camera just below the apparent center view point of this pan. And just to the bottom right a wood headed greenhouse with the little cart of wood right beside the wood heater. Windows of the spice/condiment bays stored neatly behind the hedge in back of the green house. You can almost imagine the year long work of someone to make sure this operation always provides fresh things for the chef. Steve BuscemiAnyone who's watched "Boardwalk Empire" has to believe many of these photos must have been used to create the CGI backgrounds they use for various shots. [The "Boardwalk Empire" production company is one of our print customers. -Dave] A Lot of GasI see at least four gasometers (gas holders) in the photo. The Twin TowersDoes anyone know what purpose two tall pillars or columns, might serve on the central hotel with the dome and all the gingerbread? They seem strange and lonely. Couldn't be elevator works inside, or ... what? [Chimneys. - Dave] Coney & ACConey Island became what it is because of the availability of public transportation. The first subway line or El trains were built in the late 1800s. This afforded relatively cheap rides to the beach. There were hotels but nothing like those in Atlantic City. Although it was a reasonable distance from Philadelphia and NY it still required the railroads to move the more distant customers to the Jersey Shore. I'm sure there were day trippers but many people came to spend their vacations in the luxury of the the hotels. Park PlaceThe park in the front of the photo is Brighton Park. The street between the park and the hotel is Park Place. The Marlborough-Blenheim remained in great condition through the seventies. In 1979, Bally's bought it and replaced it with the Bally's Park Place Casino. Make Room for Bally'sThe Marlboro-Blenheim started construction in 1902 and completed in 1906. In 1978 it was demolished to make way for Bally's Park Place casino. Bally's Wild West Casino now sits where that little park looking thing is and Young's Million Dollar Pier became The Pier Shops at Caesar's in 2006. Wheelchair RampThe hotel at the end of the great lawn had a wheelchair ramp installed after the building was constructed. You can see how it sits on top of the original staircase. I wonder what VIP stayed there to justify building that? [The ramps were for "rolling chairs." Not quite the same as wheelchairs. - Dave] Obviously shot from the Traymore HotelJust as this 1910 postcard picture was obviously shot from the "wedding cake" part of the Marlborough-Blenheim. Some of the same things are visible from the opposite side such as the Y-shaped walkway in the garden-like area and even the greenhouse. Beautiful BuildingsI wish Atlantic City looked like this today. These are gorgeous buildings, unlike the ugly buildings that one sees there now. It must have been a great place to vacation in those days. "Boardwalk Empire" BoardwalkThe set is located at Newtown Creek and the East River, Brooklyn side in NYC. It is surrounded with cargo containers stacked four high hung with blue screen so the background can be matted in electronically. Some blue screen can be seen at the left of the photo on a stack of containers. Google Earth: Dupont and Franklin St., Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY (Panoramas, Atlantic City, DPC, Swimming, Travel & Vacation)
Rest Stop: 1905
... to utter the phrase "Don't make me stop the car!" Hotel burned in 1930 A scenic overlook (a rest stop!) was built on the location where the hotel once stood, and is located along Route 611. View Larger Map ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/28/2014 - 1:21pm -

Circa 1905. "Front piazza of Kittatinny House, Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania." An up-to-date inn catering to the automobilist with such amenities as cafe and public telephone. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size. Lost to HistoryThe name of the first parent to utter the phrase "Don't make me stop the car!" Hotel burned in 1930A scenic overlook (a rest stop!) was built on the location where the hotel once stood, and is located along Route 611. View Larger Map A little backgroundFrom the Pocono Record; click here. Who knew?Never knew we had a piazza - we called it the porch. Wouldn't you rather have a Winton?At least, with the scroll on the body, the odd fender/running board, and handy basket, that's what it looks like to me. Photo is a 1904 model. Note the neatly matching license plate(?) and numbered running light lenses. Also note what looks like a giant windshield frame but is probably just a support for the canopy. There doesn't seem to be any glass in it. License plateNice shot of what is known as a "pre-state" plate, i.e., one produced before states began issuing plates. These plates would be made by the car owner, often using a kit supplied for the purpose [similar plates existed for horse and buggy use earlier], and the plate number would be registered with the local authorities. Most northeastern states such as Pennsylvania had state-issued plates by 1910, but the pre-state plates continued to be used through the 1910s [for instance, our first state-issued plates here in Texas didn't come out until 1917]. Many Texas pre-state plates even had the name of the town or city in addition to the registration number. Ain't Fair!Dad gets to wear that spiffy coat and hat with neat engineer gloves and I have to dress like a reject from Miss Priscilla's Paisley Perambulators. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, DPC)
Broadway Blizzard: 1905
... https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2010/07/1868-grand-hotel-broadway... Times Tower in the Distance In the far distance, ... artificially. The implications are frightening. Grand Hotel is Still There The Grand Hotel is located at 1232–1238 Broadway at ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/11/2022 - 12:18pm -

New York, 1905. "Piles of snow on Broadway after storm." Funny-sign photobomb! 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Sol Young PhotographyInteresting business and family history. http://photo-sleuth.blogspot.com/2009/10/musing-in-manhattan.html Or reading the marquee at Wallack's TheaterThe man at far left is walking on an icy sidewalk while craning his head around to look behind him. My guess is he is admiring the receding woman in the heavy coat. This is Broadway between 29th and 30th Streets, looking north. Brickwork detail on the three-story building, painted white at right confirms this is the Maurice Rogaliner building in the 1905 photograph. Most everything else has changed. Everything on the immediate left is definitely gone; a glass and steel skyscraper is going up in its place. A Sign Planted in a Heap of Irony"Earlaps" on a straw boater -- now that's something I'd like to see. Sarnoff signWhy would you photo-shop the Sarnoff sign in the picture? [Seriously? - Dave] Blow the picture up, and look at the focus compared to the rest of the picture, look at the edges of the sign. I'm not saying you photo shopped it, but somebody did. [Um, no. Click the link below. - Dave] https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016794896/ Well, the evidence certainly supports you. Maybe the current state of the world just makes me overly suspicious ... On Broadway steht ein HofbräuhausEins, zwei, g'suffa! Great Winter Photo!Makes me want to wear a straw hat as I take a stroll through a pile of cold, wet, snow. The man, on the right, driving the horse drawn "cab" is looking at the photographer as he wears a black top hat. Thanks for posting this neat photograph! Hofbrau StarI am captivated by the Hofbrau Haus building with its prominent Star of David on the facade. Would love to know more. Disunswelterized strawThe social standards that led to the Straw Hat Riot seventeen years thence apparently did not exist in 1905. No need for "earlaps" (if they are what I think they are) when your boater is not going to survive past September 15. Hopefully, the attachments were connected by a nice, warm felt or knit beanie to do the job properly. Or you could invest in a Stormy Kromer for winter wear. They've been around since 1903, but were/are likely far too stylish for the average New Yorker. Old even then!Agree with Doug on Maurice Rogaliner. The left side of the street was probably replaced within a decade or two of the photo; 2009 Street View shows all blocky 1920s piles. But there's one other recognizable building in the photo that's still standing -- and it was already pushing 40 in 1905! https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2010/07/1868-grand-hotel-broadway... Times Tower in the DistanceIn the far distance, seemingly standing in the middle of Broadway, is the just completed Times Tower, on the far side of 42nd Street. This Gothic Revival skyscraper was designed by C. L. W. Eidlitz and Andrew McKenzie and built in 1903-1905. When the New York Times moved into its new home, the name of the square behind it was changed from Longacre Square to Times Square. The Times Tower is still standing today but completely unrecognizable. It is best known as the place where the ball drops at midnight on New Year's Eve. DeepfakeI'm assuming that Dave simply doesn't want to spend his time taking the bait, but I'll comment on the putatively photoshopped sign because it segues into a bigger issue that I find very interesting. In this case, one can simply look at the LOC high resolution original to see that the sign has not been photoshopped by anyone. Of course, the LOC could have faked it, but then we could just look at the glass negative to disprove that conspiracy theory. Anyhow, the bigger issue is what will occur in the future (hopefully not in my lifetime) where a faked image or video will be absolutely indistinguishable from a real one, and any controversy such as the one regarding this hat sign will only be solved by a preponderance of opinion. It is already theoretically possible, since digital imagery is made of pixels dictated by binary code, and there is no difference between ones and zeros that are created "naturally" or artificially. The implications are frightening. Grand Hotel is Still ThereThe Grand Hotel is located at 1232–1238 Broadway at the corner of West 31st Street. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Hats for sale?Has anyone noticed that the sign is placed directly across the sidewalk from 1211 Broadway? This is the business of Marcus & Marcus, MEN'S FURNISHINGS. I suggest that would include hats, straw and otherwise. [Directly across 1211 would be a couple of snow-piles to the rear. The Sarnoff Hat Store is out of frame to the left, at 1205 Broadway. - Dave] Re: Sarnoff signI think it’s funny that jepkid thinks the Sarnoff sign was photoshopped into this picture either by Dave or some previous photo handler. The only manipulation of this sign was performed by human hands in 1905 when those hands stuffed the sign into the pile of snow. The only shopping involved would have been at the hat store itself. Actual shopping for photos would have happened at Sol Young across the street. [Below, a closeup of the sign. Click to embiggen. - Dave] Is that Guy Fawkesdriving the cab? SarbucksSeems like the Sarnoff Hat Stores were the Starbucks of their day -- three stores on Broadway within 11 blocks! Voyeur or ne'er do well?So, is the guy on the left checking out the woman he’s just passed hoping for a flash of ankle or is he a ne'er do well looking over his shoulder to see if the man in the double breasted coat and peaked cap is a following policeman (doesn’t look like one to me)? Also - what *is* an ‘earlap’? Google gives me plenty of images of straps and flaps but no ‘laps’. I can’t imagine you’d want earflaps on a Summer hat and a strap usually goes under the chin. I’m imagining little loops that go under the ears - not practical for people without earlobes and probably not comfortable for people with. [That archaic resource known as a dictionary relates the following. - Dave] Brewers StarThe six pointed star is also known as the Brewers Star. It is biblical without being Jewish; King Solomon was a brewer, and many brewers used this symbol branding it on their kegs. It was supposed to represent purity. It didn't hurt that many of New York's brewers were Jewish (Liebmann = Rheingold Koehler = Fidelio) but this place was serving HB - or Hoffbrau House - imported from Munich. In the long run, it just wasn't Kosher! Hofbräu is one of the smallest Munich breweriesHopefully it was the real thing served here and not a locally made ripoff. The real Hofbräu brewery is owned by the Bavarian Government, one of two that I know of, the other being Weihenstephaner (St. Stephens) brewed in Freising, north of Munich. Hofbräu was founded in the 17th century to provide beer to the court of the Elector of Bavaria,and the name means "court beer". Weihenstephaner is a little less straight forward. It's alleged that the beer is the oldest in Germany, originally brewed by monks at the Weihenstephaner monastery in Freising. The monastery may have had imperial immediacy, meaning it was its own microscopic country within the Holy Roman Empire. Certainly, the surrounding Archbishopric of Freising was a good sized ecclesiastical principality. In 1803, the HRE kicked all church princes off their thrones, and Bavaria quickly took over everything, including the monastery and the brewery. The monks were told to leave. Then in 1918, the Bavarian king lost his throne, and the state government took over the brewery and still operates it. Fear NotThe New Grand Hotel proclaims on the side wall signage 'Fire Proof'. Presumably this is referring to the Hotel itself, in which case we can rest assured that it was as safe as the 'unsinkable' Titanic, a few years hence. Interesting left side of the streetThe block between West 29th and West 30th streets, today the site of the Virgin Hotel was home to a prominent theater row. Daly's Theatre started as theater-museum built by John Banvard, where the “Three-Mile Painting”, a gigantic moving panorama of the Mississippi River, said to be the world’s longest painting, has been exposed. Below an image of a moving panorama, in the article "John Banvard and His Panorama" in Scientific American magazine in 1848. (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Stores & Markets)
Duz Does It: 1925
... 1925. "Ford Motor Co. -- Duz delivery car at St. James Hotel." National Photo Company glass negative. View full size. Duz ... are cleaner than four-letter words. The St. James Hotel Was on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue near the old B&P ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/20/2011 - 9:32am -

Washington, D.C., circa 1925. "Ford Motor Co. -- Duz delivery car at St. James Hotel." National Photo Company glass negative. View full size. Duz DishesI remember when I was a very small kid (early '60s) that Duz came with a drinking glass inside each box. You had to buy more to complete the set! It was always fun opening a new box and digging out the glass. Three-letter wordsare cleaner than four-letter words. The St. James HotelWas on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue near the old B&P railroad station. A brief writeup can be found here. "Blondie""Duz" does everything!!!!! (along with sponsoring the old "Blondie" radio program featuring Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake. Looks to expensive to come in a detergentBut it DOES, in DUZ! My mom would never buy it, though. She always used Cheer. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Natl Photo)
Skyscraper: 1909
... largest loss prior to 9/11 on the site of the Bartholdi Hotel. On October 17, 1966 a fire spread from an adjoining property on 22nd ... of William H. Seward, he of the folly. Also we see the Hotel Bartholdi, named after the Statue of Liberty sculptor. The corner ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/28/2012 - 10:52pm -

New York circa 1909. "Panorama of Madison Square." This glass plate, part of a nine-exposure panorama, affords yet another view of that enduring architectural icon, the Flatiron Building. 8x10 dry-plate glass negative. View full size. SprintLast time I was there in 2005, Sprint occupied the first floor of the Flatiron Building. Kind of sacrilege, really. 6 E. 23rdThe FDNY suffered its largest loss prior to 9/11 on the site of the Bartholdi Hotel. On October 17, 1966 a fire spread from an adjoining property on 22nd street to the basement of 6 East 23rd street. Twelve firefighters were lost that night when the floor of the Wonder Drug Store collapsed. http://nyfd.com/history/23rd_street/23rd_street.html Manure guyIn the foreground, white uniform, big shovel. Awful AwningsBeautiful building, but the aesthetic is somewhat spoiled by the awning obsession of the era. S.S. FlatironWith that puffy plume at the top, it looks like it's steaming up Broadway. Deja Vu All Over AgainWe return to Madison Square Park (bottom left) and the back of the statue of William H. Seward, he of the folly. Also we see the Hotel Bartholdi, named after the Statue of Liberty sculptor. The corner storefront of the Flatiron Building appears to contain our old friend the United Cigar Store. On the next block, East 22nd Street, the corner is occupied by the VanGaasbeek Oriental whatever. That corner now houses a usually deserted Restoration Hardware, which appears to be in the original building that we see in the photo. 1 of 9Please don't leave us hanging; we want to see all 9 negatives! As always, thanks for this. And I wouldn't describe it as an awning obsession, more like a necessity on those hot New York August afternoons. Ahhh summer!I am sure that the awning helped to keep the stores and offices cool in the summer. All the open windows (at least even one with a curtain blowing in the breeze) in skyscrapers! How odd to today's eyes of closed up buildings. That sign selling cordial sure gave me a start. Look at the TimeThe first thing that stuck out to me was the standing clock, which is very recognizable. It still stands there today. Also interesting is that that 200 Fifth Avenue, or International Toy Building (to the right of the Flatiron, next to the clock), was just built in 1912. It recently underwent an interior overhaul. Awnings were a necessityThis was long before air conditioning was prevalent so awnings were a common method used to cool down a building while still maintaining the view out the window. 23 SkidooLegend has it that the unique winds created at this intersection (Fifth and Broadway at 23rd Street) would lift many a lady's skirt, much to the delight of the male audience that would congregate here (at least when women still wore dresses). Awnings againThe main advantage of awnings (as opposed to, say, shades or venetian blinds) was that they let you keep the window open in the rain. Open windows were necessary probably as much for ventilation as keeping cool. [Although they do seem more prevalent on the sunny side of the building. - Dave] American ParthenonAlfred Stieglitz also saw the Flatiron as a kind of steamship: "With the trees of Madison Square covered with fresh snow, the Flat Iron impressed me as never before. It appeared to be moving toward me like the bow of a monster ocean steamer, a picture of new America still in the making. The Flat Iron is to the United States what the Parthenon was to Greece." 98 Years AgoIn the great span of history, 98 years isn't really all that long, and the march of history in centuries past wasn't all that brisk. But here we have a 1912 street scene from midtown Manhattan, less than a century ago (almost), within living memory of at least a few souls still among us, and the horses still outnumber the motor vehicles. I'm guessing that in another five years, by 1917 or so, the cars would outnumber the horses, and that in 10 more years -- 1927 or so -- the number of horses would be very small indeed. This is really a glimpse at the very last days of the pre-automobile world. We haven't lived with these infernal, gas-guzzling contraptions for very long. M&L Hess Real EstateSign was still somewhat visible as of 2003. http://www.14to42.net/20street1-2.html From 1 to 9, slowly.If I look at the panorama too quickly, I may get dizzy. Hotel BartholdiI am fascinated to find that this is the location of the Hotel Bartholdi. A few weeks ago I posted an image in the members gallery, of an electric charabanc parked, I assume, in front of the hotel. The streets are full of peopleThat's something you don't see these days. People are afraid of speeding cars. I assume that horse-drawn carriages weren't quite as dangerous. EntrancesComparing this picture with StreetView, the building entrances in the middle of each side seem to have been remodelled. Instead of the pillars supporting the canopy being proud of the main building, they are now just a relief on the surface. White WingThe Department of Sanitation's "White Wing" sweepers did their level best keeping those NYC streets clean. I don't know if white was the best color for their uniforms though! Google Clock ViewView Larger Map The streets are full of streetcars, too!Including the blurry end of one on the extreme left, and off into the distance, I count no less than 20 streetcars. Is it 1912 rush hour? OmnibusOk, I'm the first to spot the motorized bus! It looks more like someone chopped the back off a 1920s bus and shoved an open cab on the front with an engine. Neat! Also, notice the peculiar way of routing with a lampstand in the middle of the open street and ropes and posts in a line from it. The clockWho maintained it? I know there were lamplighters during the times when gas lamps lit city streets, but the clock must have been mechanical. Did someone wind it, or were they electric even back then? Pach Brothers StudioIf you look close at the building behind the Flatiron you can see a billboard (on the roof) for Pach Brothers Studio. I took portrait classes from the last owner of Pach Brothers, Oscar White. When he closed the studio it was the oldest operating studio in North America. He had an amazing archive of famous clients' images. President Ulysses S. Grant was involved in getting the studio started. Re: S.S. Flatiron and American ParthenonSomething as glorious as this had to appear sooner or later. (The Gallery, DPC, Flatiron Building, NYC, Streetcars)
Hatty's Hats: 1943
... View Larger Map Governor Clinton Hotel - 1962 At the age of 8, I stayed with my family in the Governor Clinton Hotel, and was fascinated looking out the window at the men pushing racks of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/26/2014 - 10:42am -

March 1943. "New York. Trucks in the garment district." Medium format nitrate negative by John Vachon for the Office of War Information. View full size. Now and ThenGarment center is now mostly farther west. View Larger Map Governor Clinton Hotel - 1962At the age of 8, I stayed with my family in the Governor Clinton Hotel, and was fascinated looking out the window at the men pushing racks of clothes down the street wreathed in clouds escaping steam. What is the nameon the trailer on the left? It looks like FREUHAUF or is the last letter an R? Freuhauf is the current name so I expect it is an F Looking at these pictures I find it interesting how long some brand names have been around. [Fruehauf Trailer Co. was in business from 1918-1997. -tterrace] Millinery DistrictWest 36th Street in this area was part of the Millinery District. A subset of the larger Garment District, the Millinery District ran between Fifth and Sixth avenues and from 35th to 40th streets. During its heyday in the 1920's it housed over 600 hatmakers with a total of 15,000 employees. It already was in decline by 1943, and today only a few specialty hat businesses remain. The name is still commemorated by the Millinery District Synagogue on Sixth Avenue between 38th and 39th streets, though being on the west side of Sixth the temple is actually just outside the district's boundaries. Railway ExpressThe fourth and fifth trucks in line appear to be Railway Express trucks, the UPS or FedEx of the day. At least they didn't park in the middle of the street like modern delivery services do. The semi on the leftI just love the appearance of that semi on the left. What make was it? InternationalThe first truck on the left hauling the Fruehauf Trailer looks like a 1941 - 1943 International. Most likely it is a 1941, but some civilian truck production continued throughout the war in order to help move goods to market. The model may be a 5-Ton K-8 which was very popular. This model " . . . used a Red Diamond 318 engine and a five speed overdrive transmission with single or double reduction axles (K-8, KR-8) or a two speed axle (KS-8)." The windshield still opened up at the bottom to allow additional ventilation in the cab. Source: International Trucks by Frederick W. Crimson, p. 170 (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, John Vachon, NYC)
The Albion: 1905
... Reading Eagle of Friday January 19 1906. Fairly new hotel but For only being 4 years old it really looks weather beaten. Burned ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/17/2014 - 9:47pm -

Augusta, Georgia, circa 1905. "The Albion." Please watch your step crossing the street. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Wide Open SpacesIt's strange to see the total absence of newspaper boxes, trees, litter receptacles or signage. There aren't even any benches! The ladies on the left are leaning on the enclosure of the Confederate Monument, dedicated in 1878. Watch your step.Is that what trolley cars left behind in those days? Cinematic DelightsA poster on the far right promotes the Annual Tour of Shepard's Moving Pictures. I gather this was a touring movie operation that visited different cities. This advertisement is from the Reading Eagle of Friday January 19 1906. Fairly new hotel butFor only being 4 years old it really looks weather beaten. Burned to the ground November 26, 1921. Until I saw the Station signI wondered what those heavily dressed women were waiting for. My hometownI can't tell if this is on the north or the south side of Broad. When I was a kid Broad St. had no trees and no median, but had parking in the center. Nowadays it's got huge trees and a grassy median in the middle of it. The Augusta Chronicle-Herald building is, I think located behind where the photographer is standing, if this indeed faces north. The early beginnings of what became the J.B. White department store chain can be seen on the ground floor. bicycleNote the shaft drive bicycle. RoughageI believe that horse must have died. (The Gallery, DPC)
Sad Cafe: 1908
... New York, circa 1908. "The cafe, Fort William Henry Hotel." Welcome to the Purgatory Room, with cocktails and dancing nightly in ... moment The cardinal rule of Fort William Henry Hotel Cafe waiters appears to be "When waiting for customers, waiters must ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/21/2012 - 1:22pm -

Lake George, New York, circa 1908. "The cafe, Fort William Henry Hotel." Welcome to the Purgatory Room, with cocktails and dancing nightly in the Limbo Lounge. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative. View full size. An uncomfortable momentThe cardinal rule of Fort William Henry Hotel Cafe waiters appears to be "When waiting for customers, waiters must stare intently into space." The ShiningReady for your closeup, Mr. Nicholson. Largely unsettlingYour description is apt. This photo is super creepy in full size. Creepier than KingStephen didn't have anything on this, with the shadow images, and the second man from the left with four legs and half a head! Lookin' for a good time?Then don't come here! I've been to more upbeat funerals than this. Perhaps they all hate their jobs or the management is too rigidly stuffy. C'mon Henry, let the good times roll! Don't you hate to eat with a lump in your throat? Fire destroyed this place in 1909Wonder which of these guys started it? Look at the floor!You can see the floorboard spacing under the carpet. Im noticing lots of carpet wear, or maybe its just the light. I'd love to live in a house with steam heat again. Radiators make little noises while they operate. Agree, it's creepy, though, at the time, it was probably a different looking place in a normal pair of eyes. Lake George's answer to the Hotel CaliforniaIt had me a little spooked -- and inspired. Cue the Addams Family themeIt's a round of musical chairs for Lurch's relatives! If a little boy walked in ... why do I get the feeling he would begin chanting "Redrum, redrum!" (The Gallery, DPC, Eateries & Bars)
Topinabee Landing: 1910
... wearing back then! Lunch is Served - at the Topinabee Hotel According to this source your trip started in Petoskey at 9:25 AM ... Topinabee (one hour lunch/dinner stop at the Topinabee Hotel Landing), Dodge’s Point/Club House, Hackmatac Inn and Cheboygan. (This ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/15/2014 - 5:35am -

Circa 1910. "Topinabee Landing, Hamill's Inland Route, Cheboygan-Petoskey, Michigan." Excursionists on the dock, just in from an outing. View full size. Top HeavyIt's amazing that those boats didn't capsize regularly. Paging Nick AdamsI always associate Northern Michigan with Ernest Hemingway, who spent a lot of time her in his youth, before the war. Try the venison, I'll be here all weekRemember, ladies, Topinabee is still better than a bee in your top! But seriously, the Inland Waterway in Michigan will still get you (almost) all the way across the 'tip of the mitt' via water, thus avoiding going all the way around through the sometimes treacherous Straits of Mackinac. Oh, my!Margaret waited patiently but it soon became apparent she had gone to the wrong pier. Fancy Hats!Too bad we don't have cool fancy hats like all the ladies were wearing back then! Lunch is Served - at the Topinabee HotelAccording to this source your trip started in Petoskey at 9:25 AM where you boarded a train that went 5 miles northeast of town to Oden, MI where you boarded the Steamer Topinabee. In July of 1907 the stops along the way included Alanson, Sagers/Buckeye House, Columbus Landing, Indian River, Topinabee (one hour lunch/dinner stop at the Topinabee Hotel Landing), Dodge’s Point/Club House, Hackmatac Inn and Cheboygan. (This part of the trip was 39 miles long.) The steamer then went out onto Lake Huron and stopped first at Point aux Pins on Bois Blanc Island, then onto Mackinac Island and St. Ignace before returning home. (This would add another 20 miles or so to the trip.) (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Petoskey)
Manhattan Rising: 1907
... Row building and Brooklyn Bridge. View full size. Hotel Margaret The two pics were taken from the Hotel Margaret, on the NE corner of Orange and Columbia Hts (40.6997N ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/03/2012 - 10:12am -

Manhattan circa 1907. "The heart of New York from Brooklyn." A continuation of this view across the East River. Landmarks include the Singer Building under construction, the Park Row building and Brooklyn Bridge. View full size. Hotel MargaretThe two pics were taken from the Hotel Margaret, on the NE corner of Orange and Columbia Hts (40.6997N 73.9956W). The Margaret is a couple of blocks north of the camera, just right of the Brooklyn Bridge tower, in another view. It's a clear day -- just left of the Manhattan pier of the bridge we can see St Michael's, across the Hudson in Union City. Brooklyn BridgeIt is hard to believe the Brooklyn Bridge was 24 years old in this photo. If you ever get the chance to watch the PBS program on the planning and construction of the bridge, you will never look at that grand piece the same again. It is amazing that they could build such a masterpiece in a horse and buggy and steam powered era. It was started in 1869 and finished in 1883. The Great BridgeIf anyone is really interested in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge I recommend, "The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge" by David McCullough. It is a fascinating story. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, NYC)
Eats, Liquors: 1943
... and then a very circuitous route Eastward. Escalante Hotel nearby Off-camera (behind Delano, to the right) is one of the more notable Harvey House hotel/restaurant/depot complexes. Named the Escalante Hotel, it was constructed ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/01/2014 - 10:57am -

March 1943. "Ash Fork, Arizona. Pulling into the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railyard." With much helpful signage. Photo by Jack Delano. View full size. +71Here's the Liquors building, albeit from a different angle. The well-camouflaged windowless brick building beyond the EATS sign still exists, as well. There is an encouraging amount of tree growth in the last seven decades, making it hard to see which humble bungalows survive. View Larger Map Long climb to WilliamsLooking east toward Bill Williams Mountain, and a little beyond that, the Navajo Army Depot, about a 2,000 foot climb from Ash Fork. The Depot was the prime holding area for munitions heading to the Pacific Theater until it was moved to Nevada later in the War. Ash Fork is known as a flagstone producing and shipping center and its population of 400 is still holding on. The little town that could. Why?This photo reminded me of a question from my youth (1950s) that nobody ever answered. Why do/did boxcars have those horizontal ridges on the ends? Were they to allow shelving? Were they an artifact of manufacturing? Or were they "just there"? Inquiring minds, etc..... Those hills in the distanceare two miles away to the East, the tracks make a swing to the North and then a very circuitous route Eastward. Escalante Hotel nearbyOff-camera (behind Delano, to the right) is one of the more notable Harvey House hotel/restaurant/depot complexes. Named the Escalante Hotel, it was constructed in 1907, and demolished in 1951. Only the boiler smokestack remains. Also to the right is the path of Route 66 through downtown Ash Fork. Grainy - 35mm ?This photo is unlike any other Jack Delano photograph I have seen. Could this have been a "grab shot" with a 35mm camera? [It's from a 2-1/4 square roll film negative, but presented here in greater magnification than many other Delano images shot in that format: 2700 pixels wide vs. 1900 for Women Wipers, for example. -tterrace] [Or you can think of it as less reduced. The full-resolution image is 4252 pixels wide. - Dave] Gulp & BlowIt looks like the 'Eats' shed and the 'Liquors' sign are strictly for the Railroad men - doesn't seem to be any access road around. Another great Jack Delano railroad photoNote the collection of sand next to the standpipe on the adjoining rails. Obviously, steam engines with a train in tow would pull up and stop here for water. In order to get going again, the engineer would have to apply sand to the rails to overcome the inertia of getting his train back in motion. Nothing has changed, diesel locomotives have to carry sand for the same traction purposes too. It's still 'the steel wheel on the steel rail'. Regarding "Why?"These boxcar ends are all steel stampings designed to hold the roof, walls and floor together. The horizontal corrugations were intended to give the end strength to resist the force of the lading pushing against the end. Without them a shifting load might just deform the end enough to break the rivet joints and tear the end out of the car. These patterns all have names to the students of railroad freightcars. These ends on Illinois Central 28465(?) are pretty standard dreadnaught ends (as opposed to improved dreadnaught ends), probably built by Standard Railway Supply. They were a two part end, with the upper and lower halves joined by a rivet strip between them. If you look at the gap just below the tack board on the right (used to tack messages regarding car destination or handling en route), you can pick out the riveted joint. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Intersection in Southern California
... back end of St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral. Palomar Hotel Building in the background was The Palomar Hotel. I read somewhere that Charles Lindbergh stayed there. Below is a ... 
 
Posted by brianvnt90 - 11/30/2011 - 1:09pm -

Another slide from a trip my father and grandfather made to Southern California in the summer of 1967. View full size. Jaywalker!Probably off to take a gander at the Porsche 356B, parked behind the circa 63-64 Caddy convertible like a dinghy. San Diego intersectionI just noticed your posts of several photos from Southern California in 1967, and was startled to recognize this intersection perfectly. This was taken in San Diego on Sixth Avenue looking north at Laurel Street. Sixth is the west boundary of Balboa Park, and Laurel continues into the park to the Cabrillo Bridge, two blocks east of this intersection. The Colonial style building at left was the "Banker's Hill" branch of San Diego Trust & Savings Bank, built on the site of the 1880s mansion of the bank's original owner, Joseph Sefton. Highrise condos replaced the bank's block a few years ago, but the four-story Craftsman style apartment house in the next block is still there at Sixth and Maple, and beyond that a glimpse of the gray back end of St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral. Palomar HotelBuilding in the background was The Palomar Hotel. I read somewhere that Charles Lindbergh stayed there. Below is a postcard of the hotel. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
The Tower: 1937
... visible. Click to enlarge. The Chateau Hotel The address is 1001 Chartres Street. I stay there every year when I visit New Orleans. Amazing hotel right in the heart of the Quarter. I've stayed in the rooms to the left ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/30/2012 - 11:04am -

New Orleans circa 1937. "The Tower, 1015 Chartres Street." 8x10 inch negative by Frances Benjamin Johnston, channeling Jimmy Stewart. View full size. This could inspire a novel!What a courtyard scene - I can make up dramas that would fit here easily! Still there today of course, but now there's a pool in the courtyard. Would love to know the story of this architecture! View Larger Map She is luminousAnd I can't help but stare at her. "Rear Window"Nawlins style. Most sweetThe little white baby shoes carefully placed, waiting on the back steps. Their owner must be in his seventies today. What is wooden figure attached to the upright above the woman's head? Some kind of folk-art? Does it serve a purpose aside from adornment? Stella !! Whenever I see these old New Orleans courtyard scenes on Shorpy. Keep the floors cleanI love the little pair of shoes on the steps outside the door! Laundry paraphernaliaThere are big sinks up on each balcony, too. The tower todayIt's August 11, 2010, the rain is drizzling, the calliope on the steamboat is playing "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" and "The Tower" is still there behind the house on Chartres Street. Photo isn't great because it's from my cellphone, but the copper patina roof is clearly visible. Click to enlarge. The Chateau HotelThe address is 1001 Chartres Street. I stay there every year when I visit New Orleans. Amazing hotel right in the heart of the Quarter. I've stayed in the rooms to the left and the right of the "tower" many times. (The Gallery, F.B. Johnston, New Orleans)
Deadville: 1939
... the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Hotel de Paris on the left This is Sixth Street looking west. Things are ... what you see here. The building on the left is the Hotel de Paris. The lion above the gate is still there. On the other side of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2020 - 1:59pm -

October 1939. "Georgetown, Colorado. Ghost mining town." Medium format acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Hotel de Paris on the leftThis is Sixth Street looking west. Things are still pretty much what you see here. The building on the left is the Hotel de Paris. The lion above the gate is still there. On the other side of the street is the town hall, which still has the bell tower. In the middle distance on the right, the three-story building has lost one of its floors but the expansive cornice and roof are still there. I've been to Georgetown many times. It's a fun old mining town that has been pretty well preserved. And of course there's the Georgetown Loop RR, which is fun to ride. Guanella PassI took a "shortcut" from Grant across Guanella Pass to Georgetown and the big excitement that day was an 18-wheeler that had to reverse all the way down the pass into Georgetown after someone at the local bar told the driver that it was a shortcut to Missouri and pointed him in that direction. We followed him all the way down, he in reverse and us right in front of him. As describeddeemery provided such an articulate description I decided to embed the map: LivevilleNot so dead about 3 yrs ago. It's become quite the tourist attraction especially in the fall when the leaf peepers are heading up to Guanella Pass for the colors. +73Below is the same view from October of 2012. (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Frontier Life, Mining, Small Towns)
The Cumberland: 1906
1906. "Margaret Street north from Cumberland Hotel, Plattsburgh, N.Y." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Another Hotel Up In Smoke It lasted until 1978. Then it burned. As seems to happen ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/17/2019 - 11:23am -

1906. "Margaret Street north from Cumberland Hotel, Plattsburgh, N.Y." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Another Hotel Up In SmokeIt lasted until 1978. Then it burned. As seems to happen with a lot of old hotels that Shorpy spotlights. Do we have a firebug armed with a time machine that reads this site? Good old Plattsburg!Looks so peaceful and quaint. Then I looked up a copy of the Plattsburg Republican from June of 1906 -- SignageHere are the two sidewalk signs, de-skewed and contrast enhanced. The sign on the right is likely "Clinton County Fair". Not sure what words are above it, though. [EVERYBODY GOES. - Dave] Pull up a chairThis is one of those scenes I'd like to step into. Take a chair on the veranda and watch the trolley go by. Uncle Pervy and his evil twinI've been accused of believing there's a bolshevik under every bed, but honestly, to my eye that pair of dudes (who look like identical twins), from their vantage point on the Cumberland's veranda, are positively leering at Baby Jane on the sidewalk. Where's Burghy?I'm an alumnus of the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. I've stumbled -- er, strolled -- down Margaret Street many, many times. And "Burghy" is the school mascot. https://blog.suny.edu/wp-content/mascotmadness2014/MM14-Plattsburgh.html (The Gallery, DPC, Small Towns, Streetcars)
Grand Hotels: 1942
... remains. Built as office space in 1910, now a high end hotel. https://www.colcordhotel.com/about Next is the Warner Theater ... building in the State. Just beyond that is the Black Hotel and the Union Bus Station. Both survived until about ten years ago. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/15/2024 - 12:00pm -

November 1942. "Oklahoma City, Oklahoma -- Hotels on West Grand Avenue." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Office of War Information. View full size. Urban RenewalOn the right, the building with the "Fidelity" sign was known as the Baum Building. It was one of the most ornate and regretted demolitions of the 1970s "renewal". I have a small piece of it. Just beyond it is the Colcord Building, the taller white structure, which is the only thing in this photo that remains. Built as office space in 1910, now a high end hotel. https://www.colcordhotel.com/about Next is the Warner Theater located in part of the site of the current Devon Tower, tallest building in the State. Just beyond that is the Black Hotel and the Union Bus Station. Both survived until about ten years ago. Across on the left is the 28 story Biltmore Hotel. For many years it was the largest structure brought down by implosion. I witnessed that one. Now part of the Botanical park mentioned in a comment on Seed Town. Grand has since been renamed Sheridan. Warner TheaterI see the Warner Theater in the distance. My dad worked there in 1946/1947. Renewed Just before the Warneris a tall white building. It is the only building in the picture that still exists, and is now an upscale hotel. Where the Warner Theater stood, is now an 845-foot-tall building, home to an energy company. I once saw "This Is Cinerama" at the Warner in about 1957. Park-O-MeterCarl Magee of Oklahoma City invented the parking meter. See his great creation at its birth above. In a way he helped the rise of the mall with its free parking and the demise of main street. What a legacy! Ka-BOOM! townNote the Biltmore down the street, a prominent example of a celebrity implosion (right around the time when they became popular as new stories and cities began to search for some prominent, hapless building to be "honored") And to build - no pun intended - on 'Studebaker1913's post: another hapless building (tho not imploded) Among its sins: "I.M. Pei wanted to clear the Venetian Style Baum Building in order to straighten Robinson Avenue." Oh, my. Being HumansOnce again the startling and heartbreaking contrast between the past and the present. Then; a street for human beings. Park where you want, walk where you like. Get a meal, buy a drink, find a room, hock your saxophone, maybe do a little shopping. Be human. Meet other humans doing human stuff. Now; some kind of corporate hell. Nothing to do, nothing to see - drive right through. And how is it that, once again, a black and white photograph looks sunnier and warmer than Google street view? Why so many hotels?Since some of the commenters have personal, historic knowledge of OK City, I'll ask: why are there so many hotels along this stretch of West Grand? I found there were two railroad stations a block or so behind where John Vachon was standing. The Santa Fe station is still there; the Missouri–Kansas–Texas station on East Reno is gone. You can spin the Street View provided by Studebaker1913 around to see the train overpass. The Santa Fe station is to the right. Was there something else in this area to make so many people want to bed down nearby? Today, there are fewer, but much bigger hotels. On the immediate right in Street View there is a Wyndham and a Sheraton. Down the street is the aforementioned Colcord. But I figure they're here because, on the left in Street View is a convention center and then a sports arena on the other side of Reno Avenue. I've got my dancing shoes on, but my wallet is in the carThe Tap Room has "free dancing" but charges for parking. I guess they know a good racket to run! The True Inventors of the Parking MeterWhile Carl Magee had the initial idea for the parking meter and he received a patent for it in 1932, he was unable to make a practical working model until he enlisted the help of two engineering professors at Oklahoma Agricultural & Mechanical College (now Oklahoma State University, my employer) in Stillwater, Oklahoma. They were H. G. Thuesen and Gerald Hale, who perfected the design in 1933. The first batch of 175 parking meters was installed in downtown Oklahoma City on July 16, 1935. Urban Renewal - UGH!Yet another Shorpy photo depicting an American city or town of yesteryear that looks so much better than its modern counterpart in Google Street View. Why Hotels?In response to Doug Floor Plan, I would speculate that this phenomenon was quite common in most US cities in 1942. Today's hotels are scattered throughout metro areas, especially at freeway interchanges. At that time, there were cabin/cottage like motels out on the highways, but hotels were almost always centrally located. In this case, there was even a third rail station (Rock Island) located a few blocks south to further increase traffic. By the 1960s, places like Holiday Inn were showing up on the highways, blurring the lines between Hotel-Motel. For another survivor of the old hotels, navigate two blocks north at the first intersection on my street view link to see the Hilton Skirvin on NE corner of Park & Broadway. We almost lost that one several times. Prior to 1933 the Rock Island station was located directly behind it. The tracks were relocated south to avoid having east-west lines running right through downtown. Many City and County Buildings were developed in the mid 1930s along the former line. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, John Vachon, OKC)
Dearborn Street: 1907
... Chicago." With the base of the massive Great Northern Hotel at right. 8x10 inch glass negative by Hans Behm. View full size. ... to the sign on this wagon. -tterrace] Great Northern Hotel Here's a Shorpy photo taken four stories further up and ten years ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/08/2015 - 12:00pm -

1907. "Dearborn Street, Chicago." With the base of the massive Great Northern Hotel at right. 8x10 inch glass negative by Hans Behm. View full size. Architectural giants in extreme foreshorteningOn the left-hand (west) side of Dearborn Street we can see (from left to right) slivers of the Monadnock Block (Burnham & Root, 1889-1891), the Federal Building (Henry Ives Cobb, 1905, now demolished), and the Marquette Building (Holabird & Roche, 1893-1895). The buildings shown here on the east side of Dearborn are all long gone. Far SlotThe cable car slot in the far track that goes around the Loop hasn't been used since 1906. High WheelerI think the vehicle is a Holsman High-Wheeler. High wheeler cars were really made as rural vehicles, able to cope with high centers and ridiculous amounts of mud; the one in the picture, though, looks to have never been on the wrong end of a cow. Looking northThis is looking north from Adams and Dearborn. I work around here - previous comments are accurate - the buildings on the east side of this photo are long gone. Monadnock is thankfully still here, and the Marquette, while a neat building, isn't as cool as the Monadnock (in my opinion). +100Below is the same view from April of 2007. Paddy wagon?Could that be the tail end of a paddy wagon sticking out from the side street by the Federal Building? [I think those are the last two letters of U.S. MAIL. similar to the sign on this wagon. -tterrace] Great Northern HotelHere's a Shorpy photo taken four stories further up and ten years further back. Thanks...to Bruce Lancaster for identifying the vehicle: my wife and I couldn't figure out what we were looking at. Although my wife did insist it was a car of some sort. (The Gallery, Chicago, DPC, Stores & Markets, Streetcars)
Cameron Hill: 1864
... up there, dominating the downtown. READ HOUSE HOTEL BRICK BUILING IN LEFT SIDE OF PICTURE IS THE READ HOUSE HOTEL. WHICH STILL IN BUSINESS IN THIS SAME LOCATION. IT'S IN A NEWER BUILDING ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/18/2008 - 5:57pm -

1864. "Chattanooga, Tennessee. Adams Express office and the Crutchfield house with Cameron Hill in the distance." Photographer unknown. View full size. Now an insurance companyCameron Hill still dominates downtown Chattanooga, but because of today's buildings it's impossible to duplicate this view, which is generally from the southeast looking northwest. The hill is also thick with trees on the northeast and east sides but the top overlooks the Tennessee River. Until a few years ago the top was residential but now an insurance company is building its headquarters up there, dominating the downtown. READ HOUSE HOTELBRICK BUILING IN LEFT SIDE OF PICTURE IS THE READ HOUSE HOTEL. WHICH STILL IN BUSINESS IN THIS SAME LOCATION. IT'S IN A NEWER BUILDING OF COURSE. MOST OF THE TOP OF CAMERON HILL WAS USED AS FILL FOR A DOWNTOWN FREEWAY,IN THE 1960S. NOW THE HUGE INSURANCE CO. [MANY THANKS FOR TELEGRAM - STOP - MIGHT WANT TO CHECK THAT CAPS LOCK KEY - STOP - DAVE] (The Gallery, Civil War, Railroads)
30 Rock: 1933
... Other noteworthy background details here include the Hotel Edison, and the old NY Times Building, at Times Square, before they went ... to it, with the illuminated sign on top, is the New Yorker Hotel (now Sun Myung Moon's) where Nikola Tesla spent the last ten years of his ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/17/2012 - 10:22pm -

New York. December 5, 1933. "Rockefeller Center and RCA Building from 515 Madison Avenue." Digital image recovered from released emulsion layer of the original 5x7 acetate negative. Gottscho-Schleisner photo. View full size. City of the godsIn 1933, my father was a seven-year-old living up Lick Branch Hollow in the Ozark Mountains. He would read books by kerosene light in the evenings. His family kept butter and milk (and Uncle Linus' hooch) in the cold spring-fed creek outside their house. It's astonishing to think he could have boarded a train and eventually arrived in this city of the gods, only a thousand miles away. Sign of the CrossThe double bar cross was the emblem used by the National Tuberculosis Association. Wonder if the lights were part of the campaign to fight TB. Gotta love those whitewalls!On the convertible by the front door. Double O's. Looks like it's ready to go somewhere in a hurry. Released emulsion layer?Dave, can you explain the technology of this image? How does an emulsion layer get released from a negative? [This is a process used on deteriorating acetate transparencies and negatives when they've begun to shrink. The negative is placed in a chemical solution that separates the emulsion from the film base. The released emulsion layer (the pellicle) is then placed in another solution to "relax," or unwarp, it. It's kind of like disappearing your body so that only the skin is left. More here. - Dave] Amazing viewThe shot is incredible! It looks almost surreal. I love it! Awesome scan job.I only wish I could see an even higher res version. Great work bringing this one back to life. WowI just can't believe how beautiful this shot is. Looks like the view from my New York Penthouse sitting there drinking martinis and listening to that new "jazz" music. High DramaThis marvelous building, reaching for the sky as if erupting from the ground, combines amazing delicacy, impressive size, and a feeling it is built for the ages to admire. SO much more breathtaking than today's typical glass box, although you need a view like this to really appreciate the classical lines and artful massing. A nice complement to the gothic cathedral in the foreground - a true temple of commerce! Churchly And Corporate SpiresThat's St. Patrick's Cathedral on the lower left, probably the only building from the 19th century left on Fifth Avenue, except for the Chancery House that's attached to it. Both styles of architecture are very dramatic. When I was a small child, at Christmas, my family would go to the Christmas Pageant at Radio City Music Hall every year, and then attend Midnight Mass at St. Patrick's. Ever since, I've never been able to separate religion from showbiz. Possibly because they really are the same thing. Take a peekThis picture makes me want to get out the binoculars and look in the windows. "Don't get much better"This image is a about as close to textbook perfect BW as you will find. It contains the complete range of grays from what looks like solid black in a few places to solid white in the highlights. The camera was level and the focus was dead on. As a photographer, I am envious. Old shooter Reaching New HeightsThe skyscraper is 30 Rockefeller Plaza before the RCA and current GE neon signage. Not that it wasn't famous before, but the TV show "30 Rock" has made it an even more iconic. Another claim is the gigantic Christmas tree on the Plaza, between the building and the skating rink, that when illuminated kicks off the Holiday Season in NYC. Hugh FerrissThis is like the photographic equivalent of one of Hugh Ferriss' architectural drawings, coincidentally of roughly the same era. MagicThe quality of this incredible photo captures the magic that New York City always longs for but seldom delivers. King Kong might have had a chance...had he chosen 30 Rock instead. OKLo mismo digo. Gracias. American Express BuildingThat hole in the ground, I believe, bacame the American Express Building. If you come out of the subway at the Rockefeller Center stop, and come up on the escalator in that building, you get an incredible view of St Pat's from below, with the spectacular statue of Atlas in the foreground as well. Very cool. Other noteworthy background details here include the Hotel Edison, and the old NY Times Building, at Times Square, before they went and utterly ruined it in the 60's by stripping all the detail off the skeleton. And check the skylights on the roof of what I think is the Cartier store, in the foreground! Send this to Christopher NolanHere's the art direction for the next Batman sequel. SpectacularWhat a wonderful, wonderful image! I love coming to Shorpy because you never know what Dave will come up with next. Thanks so much! The GreatestDave, this has to be one of the greatest photos you have posted. I work around the corner, and can look out my window at 30 Rock from 6th Avenue... my building wasn't built until 1973. Thank you. Time stoppedIs it 2:25am or 5:10am? Can you spot the clock? What Gets MeLooking at this photo - and it looks spectacular on my new monitor - is the sky. It has a sort of foggy twilight quality that is difficult to put into words but which emphasizes the the "star" of the photo - the RCA Building - and its nearby consorts or supporting cast over the buildings in the background which seem to fad into the mist. The building seems like the height of modernity, and one can easily imagine a couple of kids from Cleveland named Siegel and Shuster seeing this and making it a model for the cities of the doomed planet Krypton. Very neat picture...Can you give us an idea of what it looked like before it was restored? [There's an example here. - Dave] StunnedWhat a totally wonderful image, Sat here slack jawed at the incredible detail and the superb composition. I am amazedThe detail in the spires at St. Paul's Patrick's is fantastic. The amount of work that went into that building must have been enormous. I am very grateful not to have been on the crew detailed to put the crosses atop the spires! The Future Is NowInteresting that this photograph looks into a future in which many of the same buildings are still with us. At far left midground is the tower of Raymond Hood's American Standard Building. Next to it, with the illuminated sign on top, is the New Yorker Hotel (now Sun Myung Moon's) where Nikola Tesla spent the last ten years of his life. At center is the N.Y. Times Building with its flagpole convenient for deploying the New Year's Eve ball. And last, but not least, the Paramount Building topped by a globe and illuminated clock which is about as close to the Hudsucker Building as could hope to be seen. Of these four only the appearance Times Building has changed to any extent. A wonderful slice of time. TremendousTwo of my favorite photos on Shorpy consist of those like this one, showing the immense power of a huge city, even in the depths of the Depression, and those of small towns, especially when patriotic holidays were still celebrated. Samuel H. GottschoI'd never heard of him, but one look at this photo and I'm instantly a fan. This image is nothing short of spectacular. Ethereal, PowerfulThere have been many photos on this site that have impressed and pleased me, but this one is one of my favorites. Absolute magic. It's the quintessence of the power and style of 1930s design. Time machineI admire NY photos of the 1950s. And now I see that many of the buildings in NY I admire already were erected in early 1930s! What a discovery. What a shot. The Singularity of the MomentThis is an amazing photograph. As one earlier contributor observed, the pure technical aspects of the black and white composition are fabulous. The spread of detailed gray shadows and whites make this photo almost magical. It has the qualities of an Ansel Adams zone photograph that makes his work so arresting. But what really makes this photograph dramatic is what it reveals about New York City in 1933. A vision of the future of large cities, bustling twenty four hours a day and electrified. Today visions such as these can be seen on any continent in any large city. It has become the norm. But in 1933 there were only two places in the world that looked like this: New York City and Chicago. One can vicariously put oneself into the shoes of some kid from rural America or from Europe setting on Manhattan Island and seeing visions such as these for the first time. I can only guess it had the same effect as it had on 14th-century peasants in France, visiting Paris for the first time and entering the nave of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Beautifully put!I'm sure Samuel Gottscho would have been very gratified to know thoughtful and eloquent people like Bob H would be appreciating his work in the 21st century. PenthouseIs the Garden Patio still across the street from the skylights? I am in love with this photographExquisite doesn't even begin to describe it. In Your Mind's EyeYou can smell and feel the air and hear the traffic. It may be calm now...I have a feeling that all hell is about to break loose -- this picture was taken the day Prohibition was repealed. I worked hereI worked here in the 1960s for the "Tonight" show unit as as a production assistant for Dick Carson, brother of Johnny Carson. An attractive, dark-haired woman named Barbara Walters was working at the "Today" show at the same time. She is about 10 years older than I am. I also worked with the News department for a time. I was in the elevator with David Brinkley coming back from lunch when I learned that President Kennedy had been shot. We stayed up all Friday night and most of Saturday assembling film footage for a retrospective of JFK's life. When we weren't editing, we were visiting St. Patrick's Cathedral to light candles with others in the crowd. That's an absolutely amazing photo. I'm going to link this to other New Yorkers and broadcasters who might be interested. Thanks for all your work. Cordially, Ellen Kimball Portland, OR http://ellenkimball.blogspot.com 30 RockIs the excavated area where the skating rink is? I've been there once and it is very magical. Right across the street from the "Today" studio. Tipster's PhotoStunning, but in a different way than Gottscho's. It helps when the subject is beautiful. 30 Rock 09 Here's the view today made with a 4x5 view camera, farther back seen through the St. Patrick's spires and somewhat higher than the 1933 photo. Lots more buildings now. I was doing an interior architectural shoot, and went out on the terrace of a wedding-cake building on Madison Avenue. It was after midnight. Not much wind. Strangely quiet. As an architectural photographer I have great admiration for these Gottscho pictures. 30 Rock in Living ColorThat's a lovely photo, and it's nice to see the perspective so close to that of the original. Design Continuum of Bertram GoodhueThe proximity of St. Patrick's Cathedral to the newly constructed tower by Raymond Hood brought to mind two "bookends" to the unfulfilled career of Bertram Goodhue. During his early apprenticeship he undoubtedly worked on the St. Patrick's Cathedral, in Renwick's office, which greatly influenced his early career and success. The tower (30 Roc) represents what might have been...rather what should have been the end result of Goodhue's tragically shortened career (ending in 1924). Hood's career, which began to emerge after Goodhue's death is far better known, but is greatly in his debt. Hood's 1922 Tribune Tower clearly displays this link, as a practitioner of the neo-gothic style. Much of Hood's gothic detail is a through-back to design ideas that by 1922, Goodhue had already left behind. Goodhue was by this time already synthesizing elements of european modernism into an new original american idiom. Goodhue's last major projects were already working out the language of the modern/deco skyscraper; (the Nebraska State capital and Los Angles Public Library the best examples.) Goodhue's unique career was the crucible where concepts of romantic imagery of the Gothic, the sublime juxtapositions of minimal ornament on architectonic massing was being forged with modern construction technology. A close study of his career and work will show that not only Hood, but other notable architects of the era built upon the rigorous and expansive explorations that Goodhue was beginning to fuse at the end of his life. *It is also curious to me that Hugh Ferris is credited with so much of these innovative design ideas; no doubt he was a super talented delineator, his freelance services were utilized by many architects of the time including Goodhue. Some of his famous massing studies (sketches) owe much to Goodhue's late work. Amazing Execution and RestorationI agree with "Don't get much Better" ! This is as good as it can get for B&W. The exposure is so right-on and this in 1933!! Is this a "night" shot.. there is a lot of ambient light. Simply Amazing. I want it! Rock RinkThe not-yet-built skating rink is in front of the building. The empty space became 630 Fifth Avenue, where a statue of Atlas stands. Vanderbilt Triple PalaceA long time since this was posted, but I am surprised no one recognized the southern half of the iconic, brownstone-clad Vanderbilt Triple Palaces in the foreground (640 Fifth Avenue), just opposite the lower edge of the excavated building site. The northern half, with two residences, had been sold, demolished & replaced a long time ago, but the southern half stood until 1947 (Grace Wilson Vanderbilt continued entertaining in her usual style until WWII). The entrance vestibule to the three residences featured a nine foot tall Russian malachite vase, once given by Emperor Nicholas I of Russia to Nicholas Demidoff, now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art a couple of dozen blocks north on Fifth. (The Gallery, Gottscho-Schleisner, NYC)
The Northern: 1907
Littleton, New Hampshire, circa 1907. "Northern Hotel and post office block." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit ... Larger Map An N Model N Ford in the middle. Hotel Burned down in 1924. Looks almost brand new in the photo. (The ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/06/2013 - 1:47pm -

Littleton, New Hampshire, circa 1907. "Northern Hotel and post office block." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Adoption of technologyThese photos from the first decade of the 20th century show how quickly our great-grandparents adopted electrical power and telephones - despite a total lack of infrastructure and limited appliances. We even see a few motor vehicles. Can paved roads be far behind? Actually, yes. Today, we think the emergence of a new social website is a significant achievement. Just think of what it took to bring electricity and phones to a Littleton. My admiration is for an earlier generation. Telephone linesOne set of poles to support telephone, telegraph, and power lines, with the power lines at the lowest level, made the phone/telegraph lineman's job REALLY interesting, I'll bet. Across the street, the combination pool room and shooting gallery must have caused a lot of scratches. Not much remainsOf this block. All I could recognize were the two buildings down the street on the right. View Larger Map An NModel N Ford in the middle. HotelBurned down in 1924. Looks almost brand new in the photo. (The Gallery, DPC, Small Towns)
Easier Living: 1951
... nearest pizza joint. Yoo-hoo Rob? Laura? Not a Hotel Room Wanamaker's was a chain of department stores. I assume even ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/26/2013 - 5:30pm -

October 12, 1951. Great Neck, Long Island, N.Y. "Statton Modern at John Wanamaker. Russel Wright bedroom group. Auerbach Agency, client." Large-format acetate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size. Travelodge, Version 1.0B Tests of this Beta version indicated strong user demand for matching, floral-print bedspreads and curtains. Left bed is widerI count four and a half squares of bedspread/comforter crossing the left bed and barely four squares on the right one. How's that for precise measurement? Peaceable KingdomRousseau's 'Peaceable Kingdom' seems an odd choice of artwork for the wall of such a modern, trendy room. AND it's such a small print, too. It happens to be a favorite of mine, but I would have thought something more contemporary would have been the preferred choice for a model room. But who knows what Wanamaker's decorator had in mind? Next ExitThis example of a room will be the prime design of all the forthcoming motel rooms in North America. All that's missing1. A USB charging port built into the base of the lamp. 2. An antimicrobial-coated remote control. 3. A table card with the Wi-fi instructions, and another with the phone number of the nearest pizza joint. Yoo-hooRob? Laura? Not a Hotel RoomWanamaker's was a chain of department stores. I assume even though it looks like it could be any 50's motel it is a model bedroom on a sales floor. War on men"Hers" and "his" beds? His and Hers?It looks to me that the left side is about a foot wider than the right side. Optical illusion?Doesn't the left twin bed look wider than the right? That saidWhy does the headboard fit the two mattresses perfectly? Was this a precursor to the king? I still don't understand the California king but I'm from the south. ChintzyGenerally I love Russel Wright's ideas. Most everything in this room is appealing. But the chintz finish on the bedspreads is everything people criticize about mid-cent decor. It looks cold and stiff. Horny?Not only is that piece of art out of scale, it is also terribly off-centered. My question is , is it suposed to be symbolic of the person sleeping below it? Horny ["The Peaceable Kingdom" by Edward Hicks. -tterrace] (The Gallery, Gottscho-Schleisner, Stores & Markets)
A Dickey Christmas: 1919
... in DC. Divorced, he was living at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel in Clarksburg, West Virginia. I did not find anyone who might be John in ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/20/2023 - 3:27pm -

"Dickey Christmas tree, 1919." The family of Washington, D.C., lawyer Raymond Dickey. 8x6 inch glass negative, National Photo Co. View full size. It's Not Christmas Without The DickeysAlways look forward to the latest Dickey Christmas picture. If someone made a book of all the pictures I would buy it. They intrigue me, despite their gloominess! I would love to see what they looked like smiling. I read they lived at 1702 Kilbourne NW in Washington DC, it can be found on Google Street View. I wonder what it looks like inside there now. Happier than they look.I would bet they aren't nearly as gloomy as their pictures suggest. Clearly this is a family that loved Christmas enough to get a tree that all out of proportion to the room, decorate it haphazardly and have the most unflattering portraits made of themselves. This is not the picture of a rigid, organized, disciplinarian father with an iron fist. Children of the DamnedI think the younger Dickey boy is attempting to will them out of yet another Dickey Christmas with yet one more rotund tree. Judging from the molecular disturbance around Dad and Sis, I think his efforts at quantum phase-shifting just might be working. We'll know for sure when the gunboat disappears. Well of course they're upsetThats a Marklin "La Dague" Steam powered Torpedo Boat worth between $18,000 and $20,000. And someone has already broken off one of the smokestacks. I would be upset too! Dickeyensian ChristmasThey may well have been the most pleasant of families, but their consistently disturbing Christmas portraits always seem to hint at some dark, Stephen Kingesque, ongoing abuse; something along the lines of "Sybil." Unanswered prayersKid at center: "Please don't let the mold eat me like it has the rest of the -- oops, too late!" Obviously a lawyer ahead of his time.He and his family are already thinking "This will eventually be Public Domain". Good and EvilThe younger brother's Christmas prayer is that his evil sister and her voodoo doll will leave home and never return. While their older brother, Emilio Estevez, keeps his distance from this entire clan huddled beneath the Griswold family Christmas tree. The doll fits in with the family well.The eyes have it. Meet the DickeysDoing a quick Google on Raymond Dickey, I found that there was a Raymond R. Dickey who was a political intimate of William Casey, late head of the CIA and a "Republican Party Stalwart". He died somewhere in the second half of the Twentieth Century (one of the sons?) Also there is a J. Raymond Dickey (grandson?) still practicing law in the Washington area. Marklin ShipActually the ship is a Marklin USS New York. Count the rear portholes at rear; in the picture there are about 6, the other ship proposed has nine visible. What do you mean? Smile? I *am* smiling. Xmas Lesson #1When the tree is too tall, cut at the bottom, not at the top. The weight of the world -- or something -- seems to be pressing down on this family. Is it the tree? The ceiling? Dickey family informationI found the Raymond Dickey family in the 1910 and the 1920 US Census. In 1910 Raymond and Rose lived at 1358 Otis Place NW with two children, Granville and Alice, and two servants, a 33-year-old woman and her 16-year-old son. The son also worked as a laborer in a store. When the house last sold in 2003, it was 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1,776 square feet. In Street View below, 1358 is the house to the right, trimmed in blue and white. In the 1920 Census Raymond and Rose lived at 1702 Kilbourne Place NW with four children (welcome John and Raymond Jr.) and four women lodgers, all in their early 20s, two were sisters. One was a stenographer and three were clerks. When the house last sold in 1996 it was 5 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2,631 sf. In Street View it is the house painted white. Raymond was born in Maryland and Rose in Indiana. Why they chose such an unusual Christmas tree each year is still a mystery. Bah, humbugThe Dickey family's collective ponder of father's comment regarding the cost of photography has been captured for the archives. A good son will pray that he doesn't blur the investment. Remnants of the Kaiser's army may have returned to the toy factory, but shell shock has impacted quality control. Regardless, Marklin models must have been a difficult get in 1919, even for wealthy Americans. The toy museum is worth a visit if you go to Goppingen. I have a treasured photo of my father's Christmas tree circa 1919-1921. The cast iron carbide cannon under the tree now sits on my living room end table. The tree is decorated with dozens of unlit candles in clip-on candle holders. Scary! Six years too early for the Office PartyI thought, by digitally adding some color, that it might would improve their holiday outlook ... but then I realized their real problem. No doubt, they are despondent over the fact that they are six years too early for the Office Christmas Party-1925! Trite but trueI've said it before and I'll say it again, with no judgment or unkindness intended, but merely as an observation: Mrs. Dickey is hammered. More Dickey family informationSome years are a little off, but I think I have the correct family members. Raymond Dickey wed Rose Maxwell in 1901 when Raymond was 23 and Rose was 21. Her father, the Reverend John A. Maxwell performed the ceremony in Washington. Raymond died in 1940 at the age of 62 and is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Prince George's County, Maryland. Rose died in 1967 at the age of 87 and is also buried in Cedar Hill. It appears she did not remarry. Granville was born in 1902. In 1924 he graduated from the College of Journalism at Northwestern University in Chicago, where he was a member of the varsity swim team, and in his senior year was named a member of the all-American swim team. In 1928 he married La Verne Carnes and the couple settled in Chicago where Granville was an advertising manager for a large wholesale house. By 1942 he was living in Maryland and employed at the U.S. Conservation Corps in DC. The move may have been due to a divorce and remarriage. He divorced in 1941 and an Evening Star death notice said Granville’s second wife passed away April 5, 1945. Granville died in 1948 at the age of 45 and is buried in the same cemetery as his parents. His obituary references his surviving sister as Mrs. Alice Beaton. I could not find Alice. Raymond Jr.'s 1981 obituary referenced survivors included his sister, Mrs. John Beaton of St. Croix, Virgin Islands. I did not find a grave or obituary for John. But in the 1940 Census I found a 28yr old J. M. Dickey, attorney, born in DC. Divorced, he was living at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel in Clarksburg, West Virginia. I did not find anyone who might be John in the 1950 Census. He was referenced as a survivor in Granville's 1948 obituary, but not of Raymond Jr. in 1981. Raymond Jr. became a very influential Washington D.C. lawyer. His first law firm was Dickey and Dickey in which he was a partner from 1940 (when he was 22) to 1942. This would seem to be with his father or brother, except his father died in 1940 and his brother was in West Virginia. Married three times, twice divorced, Raymond died of cancer in 1981 at the age of 63. A place of internment was not given. AgonyOur family went thru the agony of Christmas pictures every year. Since we lived overseas, my folks would have the pictures taken in September. That gave my mom enough time to get the prints, write the annual missive, and get them in the mail in October. She mailed them via surface mail (would take just about two months to get to the US) since in those days air mail was too expensive for the number of folks the missive went to. I was so thankful one year that I was going to be leaving home in July. I thought I would not have to go thru the agony. Nope, the folks just took the pictures a week before I left. And the following year, when I was not home, my folks had my grandparents take a photo in July and mail the negatives home. I tried to find out when the Dickey photos were taken. Curious as to whether these photos were taken early to share with friends or taken in December just for the family. Unfortunately, at LOC, all I could find is the year taken, no month. Poor Mrs. DickeyHammered or not, she has to put up with Mr. Dickey. And there’s less speculation about his consumption habits, because we’ve seen the outline of his flask in other years. (The Gallery, Bizarre, Christmas, D.C., Kids, Natl Photo, The Dickeys)
Grand Entrance: 1952
... nearly half of the market in those years. My honeymoon hotel The Mark - where I spent my first night of my honeymoon only 2 years ... back then was an extraordinary amount of $ to spend on a hotel room! We stayed there 1 more time later and they had put in grass on the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/05/2016 - 9:57pm -

San Francisco, 1952. "Fairmont and Mark Hopkins hotels." You'll come for the balustrade but stay for the porte-cochere. 8x10 inch negative. View full size. Those behemoth vehiclesmust be some of the worst designs in American automotive history. General observationThe lady is hiding the silver streaks on the 1948 Pontiac station wagon with "Silver-8-Streak" on the side of its hood. I see several Chevys, a black 1950 Buick in the Series 41 Special trim and a couple of Cadillacs to round out Alfred P. Sloan's "car for every purse and purpose." The only one missing is Oldsmobile. GM really did command nearly half of the market in those years. My honeymoon hotelThe Mark - where I spent my first night of my honeymoon only 2 years after this was taken. We had that suite seen near the top front that has an outside glassed wall garden. I think it was $75 or $100 a night which back then was an extraordinary amount of $ to spend on a hotel room! We stayed there 1 more time later and they had put in grass on the outside garden and put in a safety glass walled heated conservatory room just before the outside garden part - we had dinner on that our first night there looking out over the Bay. The room had phones all over, even one in the bathroom which was really a novel concept back then! (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, San Francisco)
AC: 1900
... [Funny -- they built the pier that way, too. - Dave] Hotel Pierrepont The $50,000 lobby. From an old postcard. Progress I ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/02/2012 - 3:17pm -

The Jersey Shore circa 1900. "Atlantic City from lighthouse." View just to the left of the previous post. Detroit Publishing Company glass negative. View full size. Looks much better than todayI went for the first time a couple years ago, I would have rather had a time machine and gone back to 1900. That place is like a sewer now, I wouldn't go back even if you paid for everything. Pretty neat old buildings here, though. What do you think they offer at the Capitol Sample Room? GloomyThis photo reminds me of the first lines of Don Henley's song "Boys of Summer": Nobody on the road, Nobody on the beach. I feel it in the air, Summer's out of reach. It would be interesting if some of the same shots were taken from the lighthouse during a warm afternoon on a summer weekend. In the WaterThey seemed to have placed the utility poles below the tide line. Is that the way it was done elsewhere? [Funny -- they built the pier that way, too. - Dave] Hotel PierrepontThe $50,000 lobby. From an old postcard. ProgressI don't know about the Jersey Shore being like a "sewer" but it certainly is an overbuilt nightmare now. People are living (or staying) on top of each other. This is a vacation? Not only the shore, but the people as well are very different now than in 1900. (The Gallery, Atlantic City, DPC)
F.A.B.: 1910
... it in April this year. Site of the Fifth Avenue Hotel This handsome Beaux-Arts building replaced the once fashionable Fifth Avenue Hotel, which opened on this site in 1859 and closed its doors in 1908. This ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/16/2012 - 1:34pm -

New York circa 1910. "Fifth Avenue Building at Broadway on Madison Square." Along with its celebrated sidewalk clock, the building now anchors the International Toy Center. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size. Remodel FailMy wife worked in this building in the late 80's, early 90's for Toy Manufacturer's of America and this building had one of the most beautiful lobbies I had ever seen (my engagement party was held in the lounge in the back of the lobby). We took our family back to this building in the summer of 2011 to relive our memories and show it off to the younger ones but found the lobby was not only closed off to the general public but was remodeled to a stark, featureless white room (at least the part we could see). As far as I could tell they completely covered up the uniqueness of this building on the inside. Also, the clock was gone from the street at that time although another comment here indicates they've since returned it. The clockA June 17, 2011 article in the New York Post stated that the restoration of the clock would replace the "Fifth Avenue Building" inscription on the face with "Tiffany & Co." who sponsored the job. But wiser heads apparently prevailed, placing their credit in a plaque on the base of the standard instead, leaving the clock itself as I photographed it in April this year. Site of the Fifth Avenue HotelThis handsome Beaux-Arts building replaced the once fashionable Fifth Avenue Hotel, which opened on this site in 1859 and closed its doors in 1908. This hotel originally included a great novelty - a steam powered passenger elevator designed by inventor Otis Tufts (not to be confused with Elisha Graves Otis or the Otis Elevator Company). This was the second elevator ever installed in New York City and the world, second only to the one installed by Elisha Otis in 1857 at the Haughwout Store, a cast iron fronted monument still standing at Broadway and Broome Street. The Tufts elevator design used a long vertical screw mechanism, rather than ropes and pulleys, to lift the elevator cab; thus it quickly lost out to the more practical designs of the other Otis. (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Streetcars)
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