Tram Tuesday - Belfast, Northern Ireland

Belfast, Northern Ireland had horse-drawn trams in 1872, but by 1905 (about the time this photo was taken), they had changed to electric power. These trams did have overhead wires, but you can't see them because the people who colored the cards often erased whatever they could of the wires for aesthetic reasons. I don't think anyone ever thought to erase horses from the earlier photos.

Here's a closer view of the trams.

The card was sent to Master Alexander Seavey of Eugene, Oregon in 1910. Little Alexander would have been just over two years old at the time. He was born into an Oregon family with pioneer roots. His father, James Walter, was a hops farmer who married Bessie Kelly. Bessie's father John came from Dublin, Ireland, so the aunt who wrote this card may have been a relative of his.

The message is very sweet:

Belfast Ireland

April 5 -1910

My Dear little Boy -

Tell Mamma that Aunt Trey (Tray?) got her letter yesterday and will write her next Sunday. I was so glad to hear  all the nice things about you and so happy to hear in her other letter that you could say my name -  Don't forget it, please - It is just four months today since I saw you last. I stole upstairs and you were asleep in your little bed. How do you like the looks of these two-story cars? Not so much as your own new "chu-chu" car I know. Wish you bring it over to take me riding. Kiss Mamma, Papa, Aunt Kate, Elizabeth, W___, Aunt Ida for me, and tell everyone to compliment you.

Lots of love from Aunt Trey

U.S. Battleship Oregon

The USS Oregon was built in San Francisco and launched in 1893. I have delayed this post for a long time because I intended to go down to Tom McCall Waterfront Park here in Portland and take a photo of the mast, which is on display there as a memorial. Somehow I have never gotten around to doing it, but there's a perfectly good photo on Wikipedia anyway.

Here' s the card.

And here's the Wikipedia photo of the mast as it looks today.

Source: Wikipedia

The card was sent by D.A. Westcott of Victoria, B.C. to Miss Kate Goff of Waterford, Pennsylvania. The choice of a battleship postcard seems to be intentional. Here's the back of the card with its wonderful message.

Victoria, B.C. Canada

Kate - Take care of yourself. Don't let any body walk on you.

D.A. Westcott

May 23, 1908.

Giant Grapes and 9 Little Pigs

One of the best things about the exaggeration cards is that they often have interesting messages on the back.

The message, to Mrs. Emma Trappe in Portland, Oregon, reads:

Sherwood, Ore

July 26, 1910

Dear Sister. We are all well now Theodor was sick for a cupple of Days last week with Tonsilitis but is all right now. I guess Art and I will come down Sat. Evenin. Theo doesn't want to come. We have 9 little pigs a week old. best regards to all. from your Loving Sister

Clara Rupprecht

Box 107 R.F.D. 4

Clara Rupprecht was born in 1869 and died in 1942. She is buried beside her husband in the St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery in Sherwood, Oregon. I was unable to find Emma and Clara's maiden name in a quick search of records.

Roseburg, Oregon - The Althaus Family

Herman and Eva Althaus moved their family across country from Illinois to settle in Roseburg, Oregon in about 1909. Herman had a plumbing shop.
Here's a photo labeled Louise Althaus, Roseburg Oregon. Every time I look at this picture and the cinched in waist, I feel like I need to take a deep breath.

The next card was sent to Mrs. Herman Althaus (Eva) in 1912. It's one of the most heavily textured cards I've ever encountered, although it's hard to tell on a digital scan.

The last card was also sent to Mrs. Eva Althaus from her niece in Illinois.

Here's the back of the last card, with a message expressing sadness that the family had moved to Oregon. Bertha talks about Herman and Minnie, Eva's son and daughter-in-law:

Belleville, Ills. December 29/09

Dear Aunt I received the pretty card, thank you very much for it. I am looking for a letter right along. I got one of Herman and Minnie's pictures for which I was very very glad, but also felt so sad when I seen them to think that we might never get to see each other any more. I thought sure  I would get a family picture from you before this time. Write soon from Bertha

Here's the back of the second card. These messages make you realize how much more difficult it was to make a cross-country trip in the early 20th century. This one reads:

Dear Sister

I wish you many happy returns of the day and am only sorry that we cannot be together + celebrate

Your Sister Louise S. _____

10-7-12

Last of all, the back of the first card.

Eat Your Giant Vegetables

Just five servings a day, that's all you need. Both of these cards show giant vegetables from Oregon being delivered by rail car. For some reason, Oregon has been blacked out on the first card...perhaps by a jealous Californian.

The second card is basically identical to one I posted earlier, except for the wording. I recognize those tomatoes.

The first card was sent to Mrs. F.E. Hull (Krill?) in Bandon, Oregon in 1916 from her May in Coquille, Oregon.

The message reads:

Jan 3, 1916

Dear Mrs. Hull

I got the little towel . I was tickled to death over it thanks it is beautiful. We have sold out and are moving don't know where. I will write a long letter when we get settled bye bye from May.

Here's the back of the second card, sent to Lola Cline in Union, Oregon in 1909.

The message reads:

I arrived here at 10 o'clock safe and sound. How is the baby tell him "Hello" will write to the rest of the folks soon. The folks were at the train to meet me. love to all. Tiddy.

Perkins Hotel - Portland, Oregon

There were a number of elegant hotels in Portland at the turn of the century, catering to wealth visitors. The Perkins Hotel stands out from the other hotels though. Richard Perkins was a cattle driver and owed his success to driving cattle from the Willamette Valley to Idaho. He was a native of Bristol, England, the son of a wholesale cattle dealer and butcher. When Richard Perkins built the  six-story Perkins Hotel on the NE corner of 5th and Washington streets in Portland in 1891, he honored his roots as a cattleman by placing a golden steer on the exterior above the top floor. The hotel catered to visiting cattlemen and served steaks in its restaurant across the street, but it also attracted politicians and actresses such as Sarah Bernhardt.

Mr. Perkins had financial trouble in the following years and had to sell the hotel.  The hotel was redecorated and re-opened by its new owners without the golden steer in 1908. However, when A. Everett Meyers leased the hotel in 1924, he returned the steer to its alcove. It remained there until 1957. At that point the hotel had been declared a fire hazard and the top floors were closed. The entire building was demolished in 1962. The golden steer is now stored (though not on display) at the Oregon Historical Society.

I love the message on the front of this card sent to Mrs. E. Thrall of Albany, Oregon in 1907:

Dear Mamma - All we girls are up on Council Crest. How are you? (???? T.)

At the time, Council Crest was the site of an amusement park. I'll post a card of that one of these days too.

For more on the Perkins Hotel and history of Portland, visit Vintage Portland.

Views of Oregon

Steven from Facing West kindly sent me these Oregon postcards some time ago. I had trouble finding information on the monument below until Jennfer Keyser of the Oregon Historical Society came to my rescue. The name of the park is now Lownsdale Park and the statue is known as the soldier's monument. It is a memorial to Oregon's 2nd volunteer regiment that helped to capture Manila in 1896 at the end of the Spanish-American War.

Here are a two other cards Steven sent me, a great beach scene at Seaside, Oregon, and a view of Cascade Locks on the Columbia River. I don't go to Seaside very often, but it is a popular destination for Oregonians and visitors alike.

There is now a city called Cascade Locks, but the locks you see in this postcard were submerged in 1938 by the Bonneville Dam, which included its own locks to replace the Cascade Locks. The Cascade Locks were originally built to ease navigation through the treacherous 4.5 mile Cascade Rapids, which Lewis and Clark named The Great Shute. When they came through in 1805, they carried their gear around the rapids and took the canoes down empty.

Here are the backs of the postcards in the same order.

The message sent to Mrs. H.L. Barth of Seattle in 1911 is faint and hard to read, but I think this is what it says:

Portland, Ore May 5, 1911

Dear Fanny:

Rec'd your letter and was very glad to hear from you. I would like to write, but expect to be home soon and will tell you all the news then. We expect to stop over at Centralia and Grand Mound on our way up. We are having a dandy time. Say, maybe I wasent glad to go.

Best. With Love SM

Independence, Oregon

Thank goodness for tall trees; it makes building bridges like this a lot easier. This photo of the bridge and three young women (?) was taken in Independence, Oregon. The date was sometime between 1904 and the 1920s, based on the stamp box on the backside. Independence is a small town with a current population of about 6,000 on the Willamette River near Salem, Oregon. This picture was probably taken somewhere along Ash Creek.

Independence was a center for hops growing for several decades, so much so that the population would increase by over 40,000 during harvest season. For some reason production declined in the 1950s, and the influx stopped.

Here's the back of the card.

Giant Almonds

Lena sent these giant almonds to her father, F.M. Barnum,  in Merrill, Oregon for his 55th birthday.  Merrill is a small town, current population of 897, located in Klamath County, not far from the Oregon and California border. The 1904 Klamath County Directory lists F.M. Barnum as a rancher.

In September 1912, the Sacramento Union newspaper reported that:

F.M. BARNUM, living near Merrill, has brought to the 
city a good supply of apples of the Yellow Transparent, Gravenstein and Red June 
varieties, which cannot be surpassed for texture and flavor. A peculiarity of 
this Red June apple is that it ripens in September, thus becoming a fall variety 
instead of a summer one, as is usual. 

Here's the back of the card, sent from San Jose, California.

The message reads:

Dearest papa! - 

Happy Birthday to you - I wish I could be there to help eat your birthday dinner. We are studying hard - Well may your 55th birthday be the happiest you have ever had is the wish of your loving daughter. Heaps of love + kisses.

Lena B.

Recreation in Oregon

Sepia Saturday's theme this week has to do with launching men into space. This is as close as I could get. This photo was taken sometime between 1904 and 1918.  Ballston was never a big town. In 1915, it had a population of 104.  At that time, it also had a school, a post office, and two churches. It is now considered a ghost town. The original 1855 Ballston school building is still standing though. These ruffians were probably students there

Here's the back of the card. it looks like the sender was preparing to post it off to someone at the U.S. School of Music in New York.

If you want to get an idea of how the town looked, here are some old Ballston photos from the Ben Maxwell Collection at the Salem Public Library.

Businesses in Ballston in Polk County, Oregon, 1959
Oldest surviving school building in Polk County, Oregon, 1964
Old vacant store in Ballston in Polk County, Oregon, 1964
The former railroad station at Ballston in Polk County, Oregon

Giant Strawberries

Bring out the giant shortcake and the giant bowl of whipping cream!

Here's the back of the card, which Mike sent to Mrs. Oscar Bentson in Florence, Montana.

 

The message reads:

Dear Pat -

Your postal was O.K. looks good to see the st cars. How do these berrys look to you? Ma and I have just arrived from Portland, we were down to the carnival. Had dandy time - Took in everything Will write later + tell more about our trip.

Mike

Based on the June postmark, it's likely that Mike was in Portland for the Annual Rose Festival. The Rose Festival was a fairly new event at the time, but it is now an important tradition in Portland.

Oregon Pear and Peach Orchard

Soon I will run out of giant fruit and vegetable cards to post on this blog. Some people may consider this a blessing. But the message on the backs of these cards have often been very entertaining too. Here's one of pears and peaches in Oregon. It seems strange to group those two together, since they ripen at different times of the year...not to mention that Oregon is hardly prime peach-growing territory. Well, never mind all that. We do grow great pears here.

 And here's the back of the card.

The virtually punctuation-free message on the card sent to Rebecca Bales is not that exciting. It reads:

Dear Sis

I received your card was glad to hear from you will try to write a letter for that country soon though am pretty busy to write hope every thing  is O.K.  up there every thing  is O.K. here so write As Ever

F.B.

So, here's what's interesting (to me, anyway) about this card: it was sent to Dorena, Oregon, a logging and gold-mining town that doesn't exist anymore. For reasons unknown to me, the name of the town was created by combining the first names of Dora Burnette and Rena Martin. The town already had a school and a post office back in the 1890s. In the 1940s, the Corps. of Engineers began constructing a dam on the nearby Row River. According to Wikipedia,  the entire town was flooded and approximately 100 households were moved five miles upriver. It's still called Dorena, but it's not the same place. The lake created by the dam is called Dorena Lake.

Another One-Room Schoolhouse

As with yesterday's card, this is likely another Oregon school - I just don't know where.
All we know is that the teacher's name was Hanna E. Swartz, that this was her first school, and that the picture was taken in 1909.

One-Room Schoolhouse

I don't know much about this one-room schoolhouse, except that it was in a town in Oregon that starts with the letter B.
Any thoughts?

Cassie, a teacher at this school, sent the card to Hilda Olsen in Monmouth, Oregon:

Dear Hilda  4/1/09

I have intended to write a letter to you every day but haven't had a chance. Will grab the first opportunity. Have only 10 more days of school and you know what a job it is to prepare a class for exams. This is where I shine and part of my little flock. (The absent part consists of two.) write to me soon can't you? Tue. without a letter from you isn't Tue. at all.

Cassie

Ten more days of school would have meant that instruction stopped on April 11th! It seems early, but it's also possible that those children were needed on the farm during the busy spring months.

Newport, Oregon

Last week's Sepia Saturday post featured women on the beach, so my post was also beach themed. This week's theme is a little closer to Rosie the Riveter, but I seem to be stuck on the beach.

I just love this real-photo postcard of two women  in their sailor suits on the beach in Newport, Oregon in 1913. There are some interesting details, including the headband, and the bracelet worn above the elbow. There also appears to be a car on the beach. You can see it if you look off in the distance between the two young women.  For whatever reason, what thrills me the most is that they are clearly sitting on a classic Pendleton Mills wool blanket. It doesn't get any better than that.

When you have a chance, get up off your blanket and check out all of the interesting photos at Sepia Saturday.

Broadway - Portland, Oregon

This section of Broadway in Portland has never been my favorite.  It seems stark and traffic oriented, although it looks a little more appealing in this early 1900s view. On the left, you see the Hotel Oregon, which no longer exists. An annex was built onto the Hotel Oregon in 1913, and was initially called the New Oregon Hotel and later the Benson Hotel. In 1959, the original Hotel Oregon was demolished to make way for a new addition to the Benson Hotel.

At the time this postcard was printed, the U.S. National Bank Building (below on the right) had not yet been built.  It was completed in 1917,with major additions in 1925. A.E. Doyle, the building's architect, was a devoted classicist who also designed Portland's Central Public Library, the Meier & Frank Building, the Lipman Building, the original Reed College buildings, and the Benson Hotel.
Here's the modern view:

View Larger Map

And here's the back of the card, with a message to Viola in Grant's Pass, Oregon that reads:

Dear Viola

Thanks for the seeds. I shall look patiently for the pretty flowers. I do think Asters are such choice flowers. Haven't heard from your mother since she left guess she is having the time of her life. I guess Vada is pretty well considering.  _______will have another job with time. Celia

Central Bus Depot - Portland, Oregon

I bought this card for several reasons: 1. It makes a bus depot look stylish. 2. It's in Portland, where I live 3. The message on the back is typed. It's not that I don't like handwriting, but there's something amusing about a typed postcard - and typing allows the sender to write a longer message. And, of course, it's so easy to read.

The depot was there until 2000, although at that point it was no longer used as a bus depot. The building became the venue for various nightclubs after a new bus depot was built in the 1980s. Over the years, it gradually became fairly seedy and was eventually slated for demolition.  Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club,  also wrote a book entitled Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk In Portland, Oregon, where he recounts a late-night illicit party in the abandoned depot building. He describes how people rolled bowling balls down makeshift lanes of votive candles. Instead of bowling pins, the targets were china and  knick-knacks from junk stores. He also describes running through tunnels that connected the bus lube pits.

The card was sent to Corporal Lute H. Defrieze during World War II when he was stationed at Camp Adair, just north of Corvallis, Oregon. Part of Camp Adair is now a wildlife area, and another part of is the city of Adair Village, with a population of about 1,000.

The sender, F.K.M., had an office in the Lumbermen's Building, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places and known as the Oregon Trail Building. It's about five blocks up the street from where the bus depot used to stand.

Start Drinking

Most postcards that feature the inebriated also include a streetlight. There's often a moon too, but not in this case.

Then there's the guy who just soaks it up in the barrel. By the way, don't try this at home or anywhere else. There are reports of people dying from the fumes after going in to clean out empty brandy vats.

And then there's the guy in Portland, Oregon - did he die or just lose interest in drinking? He saved a whole lot of drink chips from the 60s and 70s from all kinds of taverns in Portland, most of which are not around anymore.  I bought these for 25 cents at a garage sale in a plastic Cool Whip tub with "Dick's Chips" written on the top in felt pen. It's part of Portland's history.

Here are some of the names of the old Portland taverns, in case you can't read them off the scan:
The Boondox Tavern, Y-Not Tavern, Mary Jo's, Little Apple Tavern, Ace Tavern, Spur Tavern, B&I Tavern, Spanish Inn, Hal & Thelma's, Hals' Tavern (uh-oh, what happened to Thelma?),  Pal's Shanty (still there!), The Table, Happy Days Tavern, Pakana, Picadilly Inn, Hour-Glass Tavern, Game Cock Tavern,  Hole in the Wall, Punjab Tavern, Hook & Ladder, Seahorse Tavern, Big Wheel, Snoopy's Tavern, Etc. Tavern, Red Star Tavern, Jakes' Paris Mugs, Tiny's Cafe, Side Show, and the Sandy Jug.

The Sandy Jug is still there, but it is now called the Pirate's Cove.  People still refer to it as the Sandy Jug, because it's on Sandy Blvd, it's shaped like a jug, and it's been there since the 1920s.  Here's what it looks like.

 Photo courtesy of Por Stanton.