Augusta, Georgia

This is how Augusta, Georgia looked in the 1920s.

And here's an aerial view from around the same time. If you look closely, you can see the memorial in the middle of Broad Street.

If you were visiting Augusta back then, you might have stayed at the elegant Bon Air Hotel. The hotel was built in 1899 and burned down in 1921. This card shows the rebuilt structure of 1924. The hotel attracted northerners looking for some sunshine and warmth in the winter months. It was an elegant getaway, attracting famous people such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Winston Churchill.  It was also the place you would go if you were attending the Masters' Golf Tournament, at least in the early days. In 1970, the Bon Air Hotel sued Time Magazine for reporting that the hotel had declined into dishevelment.

Over the years it lost its appeal and became a retirement community. Now it serves as government subsidized apartments for seniors and people with disabilities. 

In 2011, the Augusta Chronicle reported that a young man was shot there in what was believed to be a drug turf dispute. The arrested man also lived in the facility with his mother.

For more old postcard views of Augusta, be sure to look at Picturing Augusta, which features historic postcards from the collection of the East Central Georgia Library.

Cupid Gets A Driver's License

Be careful, he's definitely a distracted driver. I wonder what he wore to his driver's test.

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

Oh, look, there's a message to Iris Green of Wayland, New York on this one:

Dear Iris,

will now write you a few lines to day are all sick with the grip hope you are all well it is bitter cold here today anser soon  ____

Ethnic Humor Valentines

I think these cards by the Gibson Art Co. are all well-intentioned, though I'm not sure all the Dutch humor cards were.  In some cases the humor was fueled by anti-German sentiments (during World War I) and in other cases immigrants who had been in the country longer resented more recent immigrants and their customs and fashions (wooden shoes.)  When that was the case the humor seems to be aimed at revealing the primitive intelligence and customs of the Dutch or other ethnic group. These cards, on the other hand, seem to focus on the charm of the foreign culture, even though they make fun of the language differences.

Though it may look like it, the cards are not water damaged. The red and green colors that you see are actually part of the paper.

The cards are all blank on the back and look like this.