Aerial View of Hobart Circa 1917

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Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Thank goodness for the Hobart Historical Society and all those interesting historical pictures they have. Anytime I want to slack off, all I have to do is put up one of those nice old pictures I scanned at the museum and voilà — my post for the day. (Assuming I don't do a then-and-now. Which I'm definitely not going to do in this case!)

I'm guessing that some brave photographer climbed to the top of the tower of the Hobart water and light plant, or whatever it was called, to take this photo of downtown Hobart, looking toward the west over Lake George. That's Third Street running from the foreground up to the lake.

That large blocky structure just off Third Street on the other side of Lake George (slightly left of center in the background) is an icehouse. We will be hearing more of that the next time I want to slack off.

The other large structure further left in the background is the roller coaster in the former amusement park. I say former because I think it was abandoned by then.

Someone who seems confident of their knowledge has written "1917" on the picture; otherwise I might think it had been taken by Hobart's librarian in 1915:


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From the Hobart News of August 19, 1915.

I suppose this is the tower she climbed:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

This image is from a postcard postmarked December 20, 1910. Howard Shearer sent it to Elsie Wojahn, and so I have another entry for my collection of their correspondence.

[update] And here's the "brave girl" herself: