Monday, December 6, 2010

Aerial View of Hobart Circa 1917 (From the West)

Birdseye1919
(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.


Back in September when I posted a circa-1917 view of Hobart taken from the water tower, I said we'd be hearing more of the icehouse visible in the background of that photo.

I said that because I have this image which looks as if it had been taken from the roof of the icehouse. Here we're on the west bank of the Deep River and Lake George, with Third Street crossing the river at right (and you can see the streetcar tracks running alongside the road).

I have "1919" in my notes for this, but I have to question whether that's correct because the Strattan building still seems to have its curtain loft, which was dismantled in (I believe) the summer of 1917.

Some distance to the right of the Strattan building and just before the trees completely take over, you can see a steeple which I think belongs to the M.E. Church. It looks more like the modern structure than the original one. If I'm right about that, this photo must have been taken after the autumn of 1916, when the modern church was built.

On the left of the photo you can see the white corner bay window of the building that I couldn't believe existed on the corner of Main and Second. Now I believe.

The biggest building to the left of Third Street is, of course, the Hobart House.


Sources:
♦ "Curtain Loft of Strattan Building Being Torn Down." Hobart News 28 June 1917.
♦ "M.E. Church Will Lay Cornerstone Saturday." Hobart News 17 Aug. 1916.

3 comments:

Janice said...

I'm amazed at how large that curtain loft is--it looks to be two stories. I own an enlarged print of this photo--I'll have to look to see if it includes a date.

Ainsworthiana said...

It does look huge. That must have been quite an operation to put up, and to take down. It's weird how tiny the parking lot on that site today seems, and yet the building was standing until only a few years ago. It seemed to magnify the space somehow. :)

Janice said...

I spent a lot of time in that building when it was a hardware store. I remember bugging my father to ask the owners if they would let me go upstairs to see the old theater space. He wouldn't do it and I was a very shy high schooler.