Category Archives: Old Photos

antique and vintage photos and snapshots

Braunlage, Germany, January 1928

Posted on by
1

Old photo taken in Braunlage, Germany, January 1928.

Price:  $8.00         Size:  About 3 and 5/8 x 2″

The back of this photo is written in German. Thank you to our informed reader (see comment) for figuring out the name of the woman in the photo!

Lotte und ich in Braunlage, Januar 1928….Hans.” [?]  That appears to be the man’s name “Hans” at the bottom right, so translating as:   “Me and Lotte in Braunlage, January 1928.”

And, it’s a beautiful moment captured in time:  a smiling young man whose gaze has met the camera, in beret, plaid scarf and open overcoat and an equally stylish young woman, her smile and gaze caught looking downward, in cloche hat and fur trimmed coat. They’re walking down a snow-lined street in the town of Braunlage.

Boy On Front Stoop

Posted on by
Reply

Divided back, unused, Real Photo Postcard. VELOX stamp box. Circa 1907 – 1917.

Price:  $5.00

A door stoop seems to have been a great place to have a photo taken, and likely we have more of these type already posted, but it would be fun to view them all together. So we’ll make a separate category, thereby creating (yet another – always a good thing) point of interest to look for in our travels to paper fairs and the like. 🙂 The details in the photo, as always, are fun to pick out:  In this one we notice the very worn mat the little boy is standing on, which is atop the stone stoop which looks hand-chiseled; and the bucket on our left; the beautiful circles pattern in the screen door which is swung wide open on our right; and the nice double-breasted coat the boy wears with an anchor on the left sleeve.

Devil’s Canyon From Saddle #2

Posted on by
Reply

Photo, white border, circa 1920s – 1930s. Photo developer:  Hirsch & Kaye, San Francisco, California. Velox photo paper.

Price:  $12.00

The location of this beautiful winter mountain scene is a bit of a mystery. There is, not surprisingly, more than one Devil’s Canyon, or Cañon as it was meant to be spelled in the description on the front. The Spanish spelling was common until more recent decades, just as the word “today” was formerly seen as “to-day” and “puerto” was formerly written as “porto.” But what a breathtaking scene….just imagine yourself in the picture, taking big gulps of the crisp, clean air!

Definitions for the geographic term “saddle” vary somewhat, for details see Wiki’s Saddle (landform).

For guesses for the location of the photo, our best is the San Gabriel Mountains in Angeles National Forest.

The back is stamped:   “PlaTone Print. Hirsch & Kaye. 239 Grant Avenue, San Francisco.”  A city directory ad for the firm of Hirsch & Kaye was found as early as 1922, at this address. Directories and newspaper ads show that they were in the optometry, photo supply and photo and film developing business.

Below, the obituary of Alphonse Hirsch, pioneer optometrist, that appeared in the Santa Cruz Evening News, September 1923. Per the obit, son, Alphonse, Jr., was associated with the firm, Hirsch & Kaye:

Below, a Hirsch & Kaye ad, from the San Francisco Chronicle, September 24, 1923:

A 1938 ad from Santa Clarita’s The Signal:

Sources:  Saddle (landform). n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddle_(landform) (accessed December 15, 2017).

San Gabriel Mountains. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel_Mountains (accessed December 15, 2017).

H. S. Crocker Co., Inc.’s Crocker – Langley San Francisco City Directory, 1922. p. 1956. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.   photo supplies

R. L. Polk & Co.’s Crocker – Langley San Francisco City Directory, 1941. p. 1687. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.  optometrists

“Death Claims Alphonse Hirsch.” Santa Cruz Evening News (Santa Cruz, CA) September 7, 1923. Friday, p. 8. (Newspapers.com).

“Better Vision.” San Francisco Chronicle, September 24, 1923. Monday, p. 2. (Newspapers.com).

“Cameras.” The Signal (Santa Clarita, CA) July 21, 1938. Thursday, p. 6. (Newspapers.com).

Mrs. Delia Hoak, Idaho, Circa 1930

Posted on by
Reply

Two old photos, circa 1925 – 1935.

Price for the pair:  $15.00           Size for photo on left: 2 and 5/8 x 4 and 3/8″

Size for photo on right:  3 and 1/8 x 5″

“Delia on her mount…..Taken after Ernest’s & Cleo’s wedding when they went to Rupert.”

Most likely these are photos of Delia Olive Bull, born September 12, 1909 in Rupert, Idaho, daughter of Walter A. Bull and Victoria Virginia Howell. Delia married John William Hoak October 25, 1926 in Minidoka County, Idaho. Though the back of the photo on our right shows “Delia or Mrs. Coke,” no matches were found, so the correction in pencil to “Hoak” would be correct. The photo on the left might have been taken before Delia married, as she looks younger in that snapshot. The 1930 Federal Census for Boise shows John, Delia and their two young sons, Willis and Kenneth.

As for the newlyweds, Cleo and Ernest, there are a few possible couples that fit the time period with these given names, in Idaho.

Sources:  Idaho State Department of Health; Boise, Idaho; Idaho Birth and Stillbirth Index, 1913-1964. (Ancestry.com).

Upper Snake River Family History Center and Ricks College; Rexburg, Idaho; Idaho Marriages, 1842-1996. (Ancestry.com).

Year: 1930; Census Place: Boise, Ada, Idaho; Roll: 395; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 0012; FHL microfilm: 2340130. (Ancestry.com).

W. J. & Family At Old Home On Colorado

Posted on by
Reply

Photo from 1911 printed to canvas on wooden board and frame

Price:  $20.00        Size:  10 x 7 and 3/4″    

Condition:  Some scratches, markings and canvas tears

Surname mystery

This was an unusual find at, it was either an antique store or a thrift store. (Yikes, I guess this means I have to start writing them all down.) So, it was somebody’s cool idea to take an old family photo (their family or one they just found and liked) and have the image transferred to a canvas (or canvas-like) type of surface. It was then glued onto a thin board on a wooden frame, so that it could go up on that person’s wall. (Now it’s on mine.) It’s the fourth for me, of those that are not family but have become family. A couple have names but nobody’s claimed them yet, another has no name, and then there’s this one:  What in the world is this family’s surname? Ferris, Harris, Ferix misspelled as Farrix (can’t find surname Farrix). Even with a magnifying glass, and in the sunlight, it’s hard to say. The location could be almost anywhere, too, since it appears to say “on Colorado” rather than in Colorado or on the Colorado, as in River. Well, but whoever they are, they’re a beautiful group of seven people and two dogs (didn’t the dogs do well to not move too much while the photo was being taken? 🙂 ) Love that wooden fence, and the porch running the length of the house. The home seems to have been pretty big, and it’s rustic-looking. Was it originally a log cabin? We can’t see the details. You’ll notice a windmill behind the house on the right. But, it really strikes me with an impression so significant, a feeling that we could wave to the family and they’d wave back across this current span (insignificant, really) of six and one hundred (going old-school here) years.

Our Horseback Adventure

Posted on by
2

Old photo, white border. September 1922.

Price:  $15.00            Size:  About 2 and 1/2  4 and 1/4″

A great remembrance of a wonderful day:  Three friends, identified on the back as Florence Gallison, Zilda Smith and Maude Fields, September 1922. The three cowgirls at heart are posed on horseback in front of a scenic view in, it’s a safe bet to say the Sierras, maybe in or near the Stanislaus National Forest, or Yosemite National Park. Reason being is that the three were only found in reasonable proximity, living in the Central Valley of California: Florence and Maude in Turlock and Zilda in Stockton.

Note: There were two Florence Gallison’s in the area, but Florence G. Gallison was ruled out as she was a Gallison by marriage, and was not married until after 1922.

Below, a short news blip that appeared in the Modesto Evening News, June 17, 1914, informing that Florence (she would have been about fourteen) was spending the summer in Sugar Pine, California (near the south entrance to Yosemite National Park.)

UPDATE re a banjo:  Please be sure to read the comment below from Jay, who so kindly provided the color photos. As you will note from one of the photos, our three horseback adventurers were part of a musical endeavor called the Yosemite Blind Bats. As of March 28, 1923, the band members were:

F. C. Alexander; H. A. “Red” Halls; A. I. or A. L. Mill; F. M. Gallison; M. A. Stout; A. B. Leavitt; Gene DePaul or Depauli; Maude Field; Zilda Smith; “Edythe” Leavitt.

From our research, F. C. Alexander was Fred Colville Alexander, born Kentucky 1885. A. B. Leavitt was Amy Belle Leavitt, born San Francisco, California, April 1897. Fred and Amy married in September 1923. They were both residents of Yosemite at the time. From Fred’s WWI Draft Registration Card in 1918, his occupation was property clerk and storekeeper at Yosemite National Park, and interestingly from a musical standpoint, deaf in his right ear. By at least 1926 he was postmaster at Yosemite. (Scroll to the bottom of the page for a clip from the Santa Cruz Evening News.)

“Edythe” Leavitt was Amy Belle’s sister. Spelled Edith in records, we love the hinting toward some type of running joke re the quotation marks. She was born in California, about 1901.

And, rather grainy, but still a nice find – a photo of Zilda Smith that appeared in the Stockton Evening and Sunday Record, July 1924:

Other readable names from the banjo photos are:  Pete Van Bake; Thelma Britton; Philip Patterson; [?] Van Wormer; Bob Davison; B. B. Harlett; E. M.[?] Metcalf; G. E. Comstock; [?] Thompson; The Brockway Splashes. (Brockway is an unincorporated community on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, at the California-Nevada border.)

Photos from Jay:

Below, Postmaster, Fred Alexander of Yosemite is involved in the arrest/custody of two n’er do wells:

Sources:  Florence Gallison. Year: 1920; Census Place: Turlock, Stanislaus, California; Roll: T625_152; Pages: 1B; Enumeration District: 188. (Ancestry.com).

Maude Fields. Year: 1920; Census Place: Turlock, Stanislaus, California; Roll: T625_152; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 184. (Ancestry.com).

Zilda Smith. R. L. Polk and Co.’s Stockton City and San Joaquin County Directory, 1925. Vol. 18, p. 59. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.

Modesto Evening News, June 17, 1914. Wednesday, p. 7. (Newspapers.com)

Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Marriage Records from Select Counties, 1850-1941.

Year: 1910; Census Place: Stockton Ward 4, San Joaquin, California; Roll: T624_103; Page: 1a; Enumeration District: 0144; FHL microfilm: 1374116. (Ancestry.com).

“Planting Young Trout in Lakes and Streams Requires Extreme Care.” Stockton Evening and Sunday Record, July 26, 1924. Saturday, p. 29. (Newspapers.com)

“Former Postmaster of Arkansas Town Arrested With Female Companion.” Santa Cruz Evening News, June 25, 1926. Friday, p. 1. (Newspapers.com)

Farm Wagons At Biltmore Village, North Carolina

Posted on by
Reply

Old photo, Biltmore Village, NC. Circa 1905 – 1910.

Price:  $20.00        Size:  3 and 1/4 x 3 and 1/4″

At first glance, one might think this photo was taken on a special occasion, because of the striking contrast between the line of three oxen-driven covered wagons and the row of Dutch Colonial Revival style homes and manicured lawns in the suburban-looking setting. But rather than some type of commemorative event, it may have just been a “working day” wagons-carrying-supplies scene in Biltmore Village, NC. Note the partial glimpse of horse and rider on our right. And with scrutiny one can make out the vague image in the middle vehicle of a driver wearing a hat.

The book, Around Biltmore Village, (see p. 38) by Bill Alexander provides a couple of photos of this same street, Brook St., circa 1906 and 1909. Those are Linden trees in the images (and we hope they’re still there.) The rental houses in the village were referred to as “cottages” which seems unusual but then decidedly not…..when viewed in relation to the Biltmore Estate mansion built by George W. Vanderbilt, II. The village was a planned community for the estate workers, and was also designed to be an aesthetically pleasing entrance to the estate, modeled to have the feel of an English village. Biltmore Village was formerly known as Best but also referred to as Ashville Junction and Swannanoa Bridge. Today, Biltmore Village is a part of the city of Ashville, and is a popular shopping, dining, art, spa and historical destination. Below, another photo (Wikepidia Commons) from around the same time period.

Sources:  Alexander, Bill. Around Biltmore Village. Charleston:  Arcadia Publishing, 2008. Web accessed November 11, 2017.

Biltmore Estate. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biltmore_Estate (accessed November 11, 2017).

File:Biltmore, NC-Lindon Trees (5167651749).jpg. Original Collection: Arthur Peck Collection, P99, Item Number: P099_C_278. (accessed November 11, 2017).

6944 Wyoming Street, Dearborn, Michigan

Posted on by
Reply

Old photo, 6944 Wyoming Street, Dearborn, MI. January 25, 1967.

Price:  $6.00             Size:  5 x 5″

Like the prior post’s two photos, this one might have been taken by or for a real estate company. It shows a small restaurant, what one would affectionately call a hamburger joint, at 6944 Wyoming St., Dearborn, Michigan, one block south of Warren Ave.

The sentry

We see faces and figures almost everywhere and this is a good one:  The partial image of a sentry-type guy standing straight (as sentries do) and looking to his right. The manhole cover is his armor and he is guarding the restaurant. 🙂

Various name changes

October 13, 1955, Detroit Free Press ad, waitress wanted, restaurant name not given.

Tone’s Grill, 1 block south of Warren – waitress and counter help ads April 5, 1956 – October 5, 1959. Tone’s was owned by Anthony Basso per city directories (1955 – 1956). And there’s an Anthony Basso entry for Tony’s Grill in 1953, which may or may not have been at the same location.

February 1, 1978 – July 3, 1978 restaurant for sale ads

DC Coney Island in 1990 Free Press ads for newspaper box stands

Kas’s Coney Island – most recent name found, about September 10, 2010 – November 12, 2013. No longer in business.

June 2017 photos

The sign in the window shows for sale; these photos below were taken from our visit to the area in June 2017. For how long the business has been vacant we’re not quite sure, maybe 2013-ish, per an Mlive business entry search. Anyway, you can still read the faint “Coney Island” on the big hanging sign, which was probably for one of the more recent incarnations, and the interior is neat, cool that is….There’s the old 1950s counter with the metal edging (I have the same type in my kitchen only my counter is yellow) the old counter stools, the Semper Fi U. S. Marines plaque proudly displayed off to the side next to the small U. S. flag, the definitely older country scene on the wall (1920s? maybe) and the two wall plaques. We’re betting the decor was still in place from Tony’s era. (We kinda feel like we know Tony a little, now. A cool guy.)

The display, above left is a shorter version of J. P. McEvoy’s popular poem, circa 1925:

“Guest, you are welcome here,

Be at your ease;

Get up when you’re ready,

Go to bed when you please;

Happy to share with you

Such as we’ve got:

The leaks in the roof

And the soup in the pot…

You don’t have to thank us

Or laugh at our jokes,

Sit deep and come often…

You’re one of the Folks.”

The one above right, shows a saying (how can we argue with it?!) by an unknown author and states:

“The man who invented work

Made one bad mistake:

He didn’t finish it!”

Sources:  R. L. Polk & Co.’s Dearborn (Wayne County, Mich.) City Directory, 1953. Vol. 11. p. 37. (Ancestry.com).

R. L. Polk & Co.’s Dearborn (Wayne County, Mich.) City Directory, 1955. Vol. 12. p. 678. (Ancestry.com).

Waitress wanted ad. Detroit Free Press, October 13, 1955. Thursday, p. 48. (Newspapers.com).

Counter and grill service ad. Detroit Free Press, April 5, 1956. Thursday, p. 42. (Newspapers.com).

Waitress for counter and grill ad. Detroit Free Press, October 5, 1959. Monday, p. 31. (Newspapers.com).

Restaurant for sale. Detroit Free Press, January 31, 1978. Monday, p. 27 and July 3, 1978. Monday, p. 29. (Newspapers.com).

News boxes west of Woodward. DC Coney Island. Detroit Free Press, January 27, 1990. Monday, p. 27 and February 25, 1990. Sunday, p. 40. (Newspapers.com).

Kas’s Coney Island. businessfinder.mlive.com (accessed October 8, 2017).

J. P. McEvoy. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._McEvoy (accessed October 8, 2017).

13925 Tireman Avenue, Dearborn, MI

Posted on by
2

Two vintage photos, February 25, 1959. Tireman Avenue, Dearborn, Michigan.

Price for the set:  $6.00           Size: 5 x 5″ each

Braccy….Bracey Trucking…note the lettering starting with B…on the roof, top photo

February 25, 1959. These photos may have been taken for a real estate company, if not real estate maybe for a photography class or something along those lines. In any case, they show the Dearborn side of Tireman Avenue, between Maple Street (Decatur Street on the Detroit side) and the railroad tracks. The tracks run across Tireman today so unless they were moved or the image got reversed or the photographer was looking into the 14000 block (golly, this is getting convoluted) it would seem like the top view was standing west of the tracks looking east, with Tireman further on the left but out of the picture. It’s just fields and parking lots now, but time-traveling back to the mid to late 1950s, 13925 Tireman was found as a listing for Braccy Trucking (then Bracey Trucking). And on the 1940 Federal Census for Dearborn, Albert Braccy is listed as truck driver in the lumber supply industry, born in Italy about 1893, with wife, Lucy, born in Vermont (but read on) about 1898. Lucy is the owner of a trailer camp. Their address on the 1940 is 13717 Tireman, though in 2 and 1/3 pages of census records everyone is listed either at 13717 or 13723, all owned, no rentals. (This is something we’ve not come across before.) On the 1930 census for Detroit (5920 Renville St.) the couple is listed with their seventeen-old daughter, Sophia. All three family members were born in Italy. Albert at this time is a manager for a coal company.

Tireman at the railroad tracks in 2016, looking east.

City directories

1955 – Braccy Trucking, 13925 Tireman Ave., Dearborn. Albert Braccy living at 9141 Littlefield, Detroit.

1956  – Bracey Trucking, 13925 Tireman Ave., Dearborn. Albert Bracey, residence Detroit.

1958 – Bracey Trucking, 13925 Tireman Ave., Dearborn. Albert Bracey, residence Detroit.

Sources:  Year: 1940; Census Place: Dearborn, Wayne, Michigan; Roll: T627_1826; Page: 81A; Enumeration District: 82-26. (Ancestry.com).

Year: 1930; Census Place: Detroit, Wayne, Michigan; Roll: 1061; Page: 18A; Enumeration District: 0738; FHL microfilm: 2340796. (Ancestry.com).

R. L. Polk & Co’s Dearborn (Wayne County, Mich) City Directory, 1955, Vol 12. p. 69. (Ancestry.com).

R. L. Polk & Co.’s Yellow Pages, Dearborn (Michigan) 1956. p. 156. (Ancestry.com).

R. L. Polk & Co.’s Dearborn (Wayne County, Mich.) City Directory., 1958, Vol. 14. p. 160. (Ancestry.com).

Google map image and satellite view, July 2016. (Google.com)

Canadian National Railways Steam Engine 6218

Posted on by
Reply

Two vintage black and white steam engine photos, October 1966.

Price for set:  $10.00         Size:  3 and 1/2 x 5″ each.

October 1966, she’s a beauty….

The CN Steam engine 6218 (4-8-4). She’s moving away from us, toward our left. Note the engineer (?) in the first photo, with his head out the window – he’s easy to miss, as he blends in a little. This steam locomotive was built in 1942 by the Montreal Locomotive Works, was retired in 1959, then rebuilt and restored in 1963 and used for rail fan trips before being finally retired in 1971, obtained by the town of Fort Erie, Ontario in 1973 and moved in 1974 to the Fort Erie Railway Museum. Restoration of the engine and caboose has been badly needed for some decades. The most recent article we found on the subject, “RFP to plan 6218 restoration”  is dated Feb. 22, 2017 and appears in the online magazine Heritage Rail Alliance. And for more photos (1966 through 2010) see  rrpictures.archives.net.

Acme Quality Paints, Inc.

That’s an Acme Paint sign in the background of both snapshots, but you can see it better in the shot on our right. Since these photos were found (at an antique store) on our last Detroit trip, and Acme Quality Paints started and had plants in Detroit (as well as other states) plus the fact that some of the photos in the railroad pictures link above were taken in October in Detroit, it’s a better guess than most that the photos’ location could have been Detroit. But maybe this post will jog some memories and someone can let us know, for sure.

Sources:  4-8-4. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-8-4 (accessed October 1, 2017).

“RFP to plan 6218 restoration.” September 22, 2017. Heritage Rail Alliance (www.atrrm.org) Accessed October 1, 2017.

Pictures of CN 6218. http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/Locopicture.aspx?id=100419. (accessed September 30, 2017).

Thompson, Kenneth, “Acme Paints, 75, Is ‘Here to Stay,’ ” Detroit Free Press. March 15, 1959, Sunday, p. 14. (Newspapers.com)