Black River Postcard View Early 1900s

Recently I saw this photo (above) in a 1906 book at the Lorain Public Library entitled Lorain County Ohio Picturesque and Industrial Features and recognized it from a vintage postcard. The photo is copyrighted by K.G. Goddard, and the caption in the book was "Scene on Black River."

Vintage postcard postmarked March 1909

Actually the matching postcard was on Ebay back in May, resulting in a very brief email discussion between historian and archivist Dennis Lamont, Drew Penfield and myself as to whether or not the road in the background is the old Globeville Road that ran alongside the Black River.

The postcard is a cropped version of the above photo. What's interesting is what's written on the back of it.

Addressed to Miss Francis Anthony of Akron, Ohio, the postcard includes a brief comment about the photo. "Don't you think this is a pretty view? That's me in the boat "alone," the postcard's sender writes. (The name is illegible.)

The sender adds: "This is up around the island."

The Globeville Road in 1894

That observation at least introduces the possibility that the road seen in the background is the Globeville Road.

Compare the postcard to this 1894 photo of the Globeville Road (right), which I featured back here in March in a post about the birth of the steel mill. The view shown is also near the island, and later was the location of a reservoir used by the steel mill.

There's a definite similarity.

Anyway, it's fun (and frustrating) to try and figure out things like this.

Here's part of an 1874 map (courtesy of Drew Penfield) showing the Globeville Road dipping as it does in the photo, directly south of the island in the Black River. Also notice how Root Road comes down from the north towards the island.

And here's the modern day view courtesy of Bing maps.