Down at the Loop – Then & Now

With the fate of the Broadway Building being mentioned so often in the news lately, it seems like a good time to post this undated vintage postcard featuring that venerable old building.

The postcard is fairly amusing because of the blurred image of the car towing the boat. It’s as if the photographer thought, “Oh, what the heck, I’ll just go with this shot. It’s good enough!”

As for dating the postcard, there’s not much to work with (unless you know your vintage cars).

Bear's Furniture had been listed in the city directories at 319 Broadway since around 1947. Fisher Brothers was at 330 Broadway all through the 1950s and into the 1960s. So the photo is probably from the 1950s.

More than fifty years later, the Broadway Building wears a hairnet and many of the buildings shown in the postcard are gone, thanks to urban renewal. And boats are still finding their way into the picture.

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As a bonus, here's some more views of the same subject.

This slightly wider pre-tornado view (below) is from two postcards both postmarked 1905. Sorry, no boat in this one, just a horse and carriage turning the corner.

But by George, you can see the actual streetcar "loop" tracks in the photo.

And here are a few more postcards, dated by their postmarks. I’ve tacked on the card at the top of the post at the end for comparison.

Vintage postcard postmarked 1939

Vintage postcard postmarked 1953