Contadina Senese

A Contadina is the Italian term for a peasant woman or a woman of the fields. This lovely Contadina is from Tuscany.

Streetcar Sundays - Portland, Oregon

It's Streetcar Sunday, so here's another postcard featuring a streetcar, trolley or tram.
Streetcars were a very important mode of transportation in Portland at the turn of the century. This card shows Third Street in Portland with streetcars, buggies, and even a bicycle. I don't see any cars. The streetcar tracks were paved over  in later years, but the streetcar is regaining its popularity in Portland. New tracks are being laid to create an east-side streetcar loop that connects with the west-side streetcar and buses, light rail, and other transportation modes.
Click here for an earlier post that also shows a streetcar in Portland.
Click here for more information on the current Portland Streetcar and its history.

Chicago's Water Street

Water Street was the produce hub of Chicago. In the 1800s, it was the main business street, running parallel to the Chicago River. In earlier years, it was the site of an Indian trading post. However in 1917, Charles Wacker, Chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission, proposed changing Water Street into a "fine highway of tremendous economic value to the City of Chicago." South Water and River Streets would be double-decker streets from Michigan Avenue to Market Street, with the upper level reserved for light traffic. The Plan called for the market to be moved to another location outside the loop to reduce loop traffic by 13,814 vehicle trips per day. (Source: Chicago Daily News Almanac and Year-Book, 1918.)

Water Street is now known as Wacker Drive (fancy that!) The market was moved to an 8-block area bounded by Racine Avenue, Morgan Street, 14th Street and Baltimore and Ohio. In 2003, the "new market" was turned into apartments, known as the University Commons.