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.
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.
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| Vintage postcard postmarked 1939 |
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| Vintage postcard postmarked 1953 |
Not the same Broadway builing, they are both different.
ReplyDeleteAlso, POC Beer:
Ohio Brewing Co. to open its doors soon, P.O.C. beer coming back ...
The Plain Dealer
Mar 6, 2016 - CLEVELAND, Ohio – A brewery and a beer will see a resurgence soon in Northeast Ohio, as Ohio Brewing Co. gets set to open its doors and Cellar Rats Brewery is bringing back the old P.O.C. as a "craft pilsener." ... In January, Ohio Brewing's Jingle Bell Ale won the People's Choice ...
http://www.cleveland.com/drinks/index.ssf/2016/03/ohio_brewing_co_to_open_its_do.html
Black and white photos are a different building. May not even be the same corner. The current Broadway building was not built until 1925. Black and white photos cannot be the same building.
DeleteFor the top post card with the yellow and black car rounding the corner and towing a boat, I believe it to be a 1956 Mercury. I Googled it for images and I found some where you can see quite a few of these cars in the various color combinations that they had for that car that year.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I think as a small child I remember seeing that car on my childhood street which was on the south of E Erie side of Arizona Avenue. There was a boat house at the end of the street; Bowditch's Boathouse, right by the shipyards. I used to walk down there as my father kept his small boat there. I remember seeing a yellow and black car with a boat behind it. I always remembered that 'zig zag' on the side of the car; so it could very well be the same car in the post card.
Hi Linda,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the car I.D. – I think you nailed it. That’s pretty cool if it is the same car you remember seeing around the neighborhood as a young girl. And thanks for the reminisce about Bowditch’s Boathouse too.
Hi Shari!
ReplyDeleteYes, the tornado completely changed the face of Downtown Lorain and it is a different building where the Broadway Building is today in the pre-1924 photos. But it is the same intersection and view in the other shots, and it is still referred to as the Loop.