Self-isolation
continues in this Covid-19 era.
Reporting about our food and the plantings in our yard does have its
limitations. Consequently, I’m once
again resorting to my postcard collection, just for a change of topical
scenery…
In this
post, I’m offering a glimpse of life along America’s waterfronts from the early
to mid-twentieth century.
This is
one of the 'newest' postcards in my collection.
It was mailed from San Francisco to ‘Alice’ in Kansas City Missouri on
September 11, 1947. The message doesn’t
include the sender’s name. It simply
stated “Saw This AM 9-11-47”. Must have been a male that sent this postcard...
The
picture shows Fisherman’s Wharf back in those days when it wasn’t just a
tourist attraction, but rather primarily a working port for fishing vessels. The fishing industry at this locale dates
back to the mid-1800s. My first in
person view of Fisherman’s Wharf was in 1968 and there were still a lot of working
boats around even if much of it had devolved into a tourist trap. Laurie and I visited it years later…and there
still was and is a fishing fleet based at the wharves.
On to
mid-America! This postcard from 1908
depicts the commerce along St. Louis Missouri’s levee on the Mississippi
River. It was sent to Miss Lillian
Miller in New York State…can’t read the town’s name. Weirdly, there isn’t any message on the card.
From my
research, I’ve learned that many ships had “eagle” as part of their names. Grey Eagle was used multiple times, probably
because these sternwheelers had a short life-span either due to the many
hazards along the river or via boiler explosions.
I love
the detail in this picture… people, horses, cargo, etc. It is a snapshot of the time and
place. The bridge shown in the
background is still in service, with light rail, pedestrian and vehicular
traffic. The Eads Bridge was built in
1874 and, at 146 years old, it is the oldest bridge spanning the Mississippi
River.
Our next
stopover is along the waterfront in Milwaukee Wisconsin. This postcard was never sent and I rarely
purchase cards that haven’t been mailed or that lack a stamp. While I can’t really date this card, once
again I loved the detail. Look at that crowd of people!
As for
that excursion liner at the dock, it is the SS
Christopher Columbus and there is plenty of information about her. The Columbus was the star of the Goodrich Transportation Company. She was built in 1893 and she was scrapped in
1936. The Christopher Columbus is the only passenger vessel ever built using
a ‘whaleback’ design. She was designed
by a Scotsman, Alexander McDougall and she was built in Superior Wisconsin.
At 363
feet long, the Columbus was
reportedly the largest vessel on the Great Lakes when she was launched. It is said that she carried more passengers
during her 4 decades of plying the Great Lakes than any other vessel. I can date the postcard based on the people’s
clothing as well as the fact that the Goodrich Transit Company owned her from
1909 until she was taken out of service in 1933. The card has to be from 1909 or 1910.
It’s hard
to conceive of it in this day and age, but back in the early days steamboats
carried passengers and cargo up just about any navigable river, be it large or
small, short or long. In this case, as
this 1906 postcard shows, the river steamer “Mary Graham” is approaching a landing along Michigan’s St. Joseph
River. Look at all the folks awaiting
her arrival! This postcard was mailed
from St. Joseph Michigan to someone in Chicago Illinois.
The St. Joseph
River is 206 miles long, flowing generally westerly through southern Michigan
and northern Indiana and then back into southwestern Michigan where it flows
into Lake Michigan at the city of St. Joseph.
The river had always been an important trade route for Native Americans
and in the 1800s it was a conduit for the delivery of various products to the
busy port on Lake Michigan.
I wonder
if it’s just a coincidence that, beginning in 1874, Henry Graham and J. Stanley
Morton began operating a steam ship line based in St. Joseph... The company overtook the Goodrich Transit
Company and became the major carrier out of this Great Lakes port as well as a
major company operating on the Chicago lakefront. Was “Mary
Graham” a daughter or first wife?
Just look
at the crowds along the riverfront in Detroit Michigan. The steamer SS Tashmoo is packed with pleasure seekers too! This card was sent in 1909 to Mrs. Croft in
Chicago by E.S. Croft from Detroit. The
card is addressed ‘Dear Aunty’ and the author tells Mrs. Croft to “just imagine
yourself on this boat and having a fine trip”. Note the Goodrich Boats sign as well as the Adams Express Company sign just above it. Adams Express lives on today as Adams Diversified Equity Fund, Inc. They have paid a dividend every year since 1935.
The Tashmoo was a 320 foot long sidewheel
steamboat that plied the waters of Lake St. Clair and Lake Huron. It was launched in December of 1899, having
been built for Detroit’s White Star Steamship Company. She was nicknamed the “White Flyer” and was
famous for being one of the fastest ships operating on the Great Lakes at that
time. The SS Tashmoo’s regular route was from Detroit’s riverfront up to Port
Huron Michigan and back. She made
several stops along the way, including at its namesake, Tashmoo Park. FYI, Tashmoo comes from Native American
Indian language and it is interpreted to mean “meeting place”.
Autos
were rare and good roads more rare, so steamboat rides were a popular way to
escape the crowded big cities. Tashmoo
Park was a stop for several steamers during the summer. At the south end of Lake St. Clair, it
offered visitors a break from city heat.
It had picnic tables, a baseball diamond, swings and rides, plus a
casino and a dancing pavilion. In the
summers during the 1890s and into the early 1900s, Tashmoo Park would receive
as many as 250,000 visitors. Today,
nothing is left except the concrete floor of the pavilion, which is now used to
store customer’s boats over the winter months.
Here is
yet another waterfront scene from Detroit.
I love that red car! This
postcard is a little newer than the previous one. It was sent by Gertrude at 2543 Woodward
Avenue in Detroit to Rosa in Mendota Illinois in October of 1913. Apparently Gertrude was helping a very sick
friend who was in the hospital, so it’s doubtful that she was able to take a
pleasure cruise to the Belle Isle Amusement Park. Note the sign… Moonlight cruises were only 35
cents per person!
Moving on
to Cleveland Ohio… As the card states, this is the ‘new pier’ of C and B and D
and C Lines at the foot of East 9th Street. The card was mailed to Erma Jean Pettegrew in
Lee Summit Missouri from her “Mamma” in October of 1927. Mamma, (and her husband or someone), she
referred to ‘we’, were moving on to Buffalo and Niagara Falls on ‘Monday’.
On the
back the card reads “The New Pier is the largest and most perfectly equipped
passenger and freight terminal on the Great Lakes. Length 700 feet; width 300 feet; area 5.5
acres.” The Cleveland and Buffalo Transit
Company had been established in 1885 with passenger and freight service between
the two namesake cities. Passenger
service became increasingly more popular and in 1913 the SS Seeandbee began making regular runs between Cleveland and
Buffalo. Based on the configuration of
the ship in the picture plus the 4 smoke stacks, it’s most likely the ship in
the picture.
1913 was the
year that the Cleveland and Buffalo Transit Company and the Detroit and
Cleveland Line jointly obtained a 50 year lease from Cleveland to build the new
pier at the end of East 9th Street.
It was dedicated in 1915. Today,
East 9th Street still ends at a pier, albeit a much shorter one that
now features a small park.
As for
the SS Seeandbee, at 500 feet long,
at the time it was the biggest and most expensive inland steamship. Featuring an elegant ballroom, this all-steel
ship could carry 1,500 passengers on its 4 decks. She operated on a regular schedule until 1941
and in 1942, she was acquired by the US Navy.
Basically, her superstructure was stripped off and a 550 foot long
carrier flight deck was installed on top of her long hull. She was renamed the USS Wolverine. During WWII
she and her sister ship, the USS Sable,
formerly the steamer SS Greater Buffalo,
were used to train over 17,000 naval aviation personnel.
This
postcard at least gives us a glimpse of Buffalo New York’s waterfront back in
the early 1900s. The card was mailed to
Mrs. Anna Baker at 409 Orange Street in my home town, Jackson Michigan. It was sent from Buffalo on August 20, 1910
by Anna’s niece Edith. Edith was taking
the SS Eastern States from Buffalo to
Detroit, stopping there to visit her grandparents for a night and then going on
to Jackson to see Anna.
The SS Eastern States was one of the Detroit
and Cleveland Navigation Company’s ‘big six’ of their overnight passenger
steamers. She and her sister ship, the SS Western States, had originally been
built in 1901 for the Detroit and Buffalo Steamboat Company. This ship was out of service by 1950 or
so but she wasn’t scrapped until 1956.
I really
love this old postcard from September of 1908.
The simple waterfront and wharf with that old steamship, the horses and
wagons…not exactly what one would think about today as existing along any area
of New Jersey’s water front. Carrie and
her mother were spending the day here at Highland New Jersey. She hoped that her friend in Chicago…I couldn’t
read the name…would write soon.
Highlands
was incorporated in March 1900. The eastern
part of town is on a high bluff that overlooks Sandy Hook and the Atlantic
Ocean…hence “highlands”, the town’s name.
By the 1880s numerous hotels, beach pavilions and private clubs
flourished in the town. It was a
glorious era with trains and steamships bringing vacationers to enjoy the Jersey
shore. Given Highlands’ proximity to New
York City, many theater producers and actors built summer homes here. Almost every summer in the 1870s and 1890s, Harper’s
Magazine sent a journalist to the town to write about the town and its famous
folks. The town remained a popular
tourist destination into the 1920s and early 1930s. However in 1932 as the Depression stretched
on, steamboat operations came to an end.
As for
the SS Seabird, seen in the postcard at
the wharf in Highlands, I couldn’t find any information about her…
This
postcard was postmarked on July 1, 1909.
It was sent by “Auntie” from Winthrop Station in Boston Massachusetts to
Mr. J.C. Yuill on 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn New York. She was looking forward to his visit over the
4th of July and she’d meet him at the Winthrop Beach Station. The station was on the Boston, Revere Beach
and Lynn Railroad, a narrow gauge passenger carrying short line railroad that
ran between East Boston and Lynn Massachusetts from 1875 until 1940.
As the
front of the postcard states, the picture is of Rows wharf and the water front
in Boston. What a busy place! There are at least 6 steamboats, mostly side-wheelers,
along this portion of the waterfront.
The inner harbor has historically been the main port of Boston and it’s
still the site of most of its port facilities.
Of course much of the waterfront has now been redeveloped for
residential and recreational use.
Boston
was the 5th largest city in the USA back in 1900 and 1910. Today, it is the 22nd largest
although today we really look at total metropolitan areas, in which case it is
the 10th largest city. In any
case, it is still a major port but nothing like what it must have been in the early
days and on into the early 1900s. Today,
ranking the port by total tonnage, it is 22nd, behind cities like
Charleston SC and Savannah GA.
Just
click on any of the postcards to enlarge them…
Thanks
for stopping by for a view of life in the early 1900s!
Stay Safe
and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
