Hotel Hermitage - New York

This hotel could hardly look more drab and uninviting, except for the advertisement painted on the side of the building promising single rooms for $1.50 and double rooms for $2.50. For less than $250, you could have rented the entire hotel for your private party. Another interesting and typical feature of this postcard is that the surrounding buildings are obscured. In black-and-white photographs this may have seemed necessary to guide the viewer's eye to the intended focus. Still, I don't think it makes the hotel appear in the best light. I think we need some bright colors here.

Although there is no date on this card, the grayed out marquis on the neighboring movie theater is screening A Woman Rebels, starring Katherine Hepburn, a film that came out in 1936.

Union Terminal - Cincinnati, Ohio

The Union Terminal was built in 1933 and declared an historic landmark in 1977. It was renovated and reopened as the Cincinnati Museum Center in 1990. I haven't seen the exterior of the building, but the pictures I have seen are striking, and it has been named one of the top 50 architecturally significant buildings in the United States. Although the terminal is still there, the concourse area you see on the card was demolished in the early 1970s.  This may have been the impetus to declare the terminal an historic landmark. The 20-foot glass mosaics on the walls were moved to the airport.

The architect who steals my covers just returned from the annual Frank Lloyd Wright conference, which was held in Cincinnati this year.  He visited the terminal and brought me back this lovely souvenir - a pair of Union Terminal socks! Not only are they stylish and comfy, but I think I may be the only one on my block with a pair.

Here's the back of the postcard:

The message to John J. Marshall reads:

Johnny:

Sorry I didn't get to say so 'long but hear I am in the terminal building at Cincinnati (what a joint you ought to see it) and headed for Fort Knox.

JM

Time 4:30 P.S. Get Ida's address and say hello

You can find out more about the history of the Union Terminal here.

High Water - Pittsburgh, PA

This card, showing high water in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is probably from the March 1907 flood.
The report below from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette is courtesy of  the GenDisasters website:


PITTSBURG, March 15.—Flood losses in Allegheny county are summarized as follows:

Loss in output of steel mills, $3,000,000; loss in output of other industries, $2,000,000; loss in wages of employees, $1,837,000, estimated damage to industrial plants, $2,500,000; total, $9,337,000.


With the rapid receding of the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers which is taking place tonight conditions are fast assuming normal proportions and the most destructive flood in the history of the city is at an end. At nightfall the approaches to the bridges were clear of water and several hours later street car service was resumed.


Thousands of suburbanites who have been stranded in this city since yesterday were able to reach their homes while the downtown section, which has been crowded with sightseers, is almost deserted. The only indications of the flood in the downtown section tonight are the many pipes across the sidewalks through which water is being pumped from submerged basements. In several districts power plants have been repaired and candles, used for thirty-six hours, have been replaced with electric lights.


At 9 o’clock to-night the rivers had fallen almost eight feet. At that hour the stage was twenty-nine feet, and dropping a half foot an hour.


Immediately following the subsiding of the water the task of repairing the damage was begun. A majority of the employees of the large manufacturing establishments who were temporarily thrown out of employment are endeavoring to put the plants in working order and by Monday most of these will have resumed operations.


Railway service is being restored but local train schedules have been revised, allowing each train more time. This action was taken owing to the fear that the roadbeds may have been weakened by the water. In some instances sections of tracks have been washed away and a number of railroad bridges outside of Pittsburg were damaged.


Excitement was caused to-day by several fires. One which swept the Mt. Washington district had to be dynamited on account of a shortage of water in the mains. The loss is about $225,000.


The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN 16 Mar 1907