1930s Archives - Page 72 of 84

Smith Platt House, Springfield, Mass

July 5, 2016 by Derek Strahan

The Smith Platt House on Sumner Avenue in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2016:

Located next to the Lathrop House at the corner of Sumner Avenue and Washington Road, this house was built in 1893 for Smith H. Platt, a Methodist preacher, physician, and author. He was born in Connecticut and spent much of his life in New York City, but by the 1890s he was living here in Springfield and practicing medicine in an office in the house. He wrote several books, including an anti-slavery novel in 1859 entitled The Martyrs, and the Fugitive; or a Narrative of the Captivity, Sufferings, and Death of an African Family, and the Slavery and Escape of Their Son. Much later in life, in 1895, he published The Secrets of Health; or How Not to Be Sick and How to Get Well From Sickness, which provides somewhat dubious remedies for nearly every condition, including taking a teaspoon of turpentine before meals to treat cancer, drinking hydrogen peroxide to treat gangrene, and taking warm baths to treat insanity.

By the 1910 census, Platt was 81 years old and he was living here with his daughter Belle, her husband Leander W. White, and their two sons, Harrison and Gardner. He died two years later, and the White family remained here for many years. Leander was a banker, who by the 1920s was serving as vice president of Chicopee National Bank. Belle, like her father, was a physician, but she died relatively young in the 1920s. Leander and his two sons were still living in this house when the first photo was taken, and he died about 10 years later in 1949. Today, the house is still standing, and along with the surrounding houses it is virtually unchanged from the first photo. Like the rest of the neighborhood, it is part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Lost New England Goes West: Alcatraz Island, San Francisco (3)

March 5, 2021June 5, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Another view of Alcatraz Island from the water, taken in 1938. Image courtesy of the National Park Service.

Alcatraz in 2015:

This view is very similar to the one in this earlier post, but the “then” photo here was taken almost 40 years later, once most of the construction on the island had been completed. When the 1938 photo was taken, the island had been operated as a federal prison for about four years, but the island had actually been used as a prison for much longer. The main prison building at the top of the hill had been completed in 1912 as a military prison, replacing a much smaller structure, known as the Citadel, which had stood there since before the Civil War.

To the left of the main prison is the lighthouse, which was built in 1909 after the previous one had been damaged in the 1906 earthquake. Next to the lighthouse is the burned-out remains of the Warden’s House. This mansion had been built in the 1920s, and was home to the various wardens until the prison closed in 1963. Along with several other buildings on Alcatraz, it was burned in 1970, during the Native American occupation of the island, and today only the shell remains. Right along the water is Building 64, which was built in 1905 and housed officers and their families, and to the right is the 1857 guardhouse, the oldest surviving building on the island.

This post is part of a series of photos that I took in California this past winter. Click here to see the other posts in the “Lost New England Goes West” series.

Lost New England Goes West: Alcatraz Guardhouse, San Francisco

June 5, 2016 by Derek Strahan

The view on Alcatraz next to Building 64, facing toward the guardhouse, in 1937. Image courtesy of the National Park Service.

The view in 2015:

As mentioned in an earlier post, the guardhouse in the center of this scene is the oldest surviving building on Alcatraz Island. It was built around 1857 as part of the Army’s initial fortification of the island, back when Alcatraz was seen as a valuable defensive position rather than as a prison. However, it did not take long for the Army to realize the value of the isolated island’s potential as a prison, and the guardhouse here was also used to house inmates.

Over the years, more buildings were added to the island, including Building 64 on the left side of the photo, which was built in 1905 to house the officers who were stationed on the island, along with their families. When the first photo was taken, the prison had been recently transferred to the Department of Justice, who used it to house the most difficult federal prisoners in the country. Many notorious criminals passed through here on their way to the main prison building, including Al Capone, Whitey Bulger, Arthur Barker, Alvin Karpis, and Machine Gun Kelly. The prison closed in 1963 because of the high operating costs, and today it is open to the public as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

This post is part of a series of photos that I took in California this past winter. Click here to see the other posts in the “Lost New England Goes West” series.

Lost New England Goes West: Alcatraz Dining Hall, San Francisco

June 5, 2016 by Derek Strahan

The dining hall at the Alcatraz Federal Penitentary, sometime between 1933 and 1963. Image courtesy of the National Park Service.

The dining hall in 2015:

This dining hall is part of the main prison building at Alcatraz, which first opened in 1912 as a military prison. The first photo, taken during its time as a federal civilian prison, shows the dining hall set up for some sort of holiday dinner. All of the inmates ate their meals here together, and the food was supposedly the best in the entire federal prison system. Meals were 20 minutes long, and inmates could help themselves to as much food as they wanted, provided that they ate it in time and left no waste.

In the distance on the far left of the 2015 photo is the breakfast menu from March 21, 1963, the prison’s last day in operation. The meal consisted of assorted dry cereals, steamed whole wheat, scrambled eggs, milk, stewed fruit. toast, bread, butter, and coffee. Today, the dining hall is one of the stops on the self-guided tour of the island, which is operated by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

This post is part of a series of photos that I took in California this past winter. Click here to see the other posts in the “Lost New England Goes West” series.

1007-1017 Main Street, Springfield, Mass

July 17, 2016April 25, 2016 by Derek Strahan

The building at the corner of Main and Union Streets in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The scene in 2015:

The section of Main Street south of State Street was once primarily residential, but as the city grew in the second half of the 19th century many of the homes were either demolished or, in many cases, had storefronts built in front of them. Based on its blend of Greek Revival and Italianate architectural styles, this house was probably built around the 1850s, but sometime around 1900-1910 the owners built a one-story commercial building around it, presumably incorporating the first floor of the house into the stores. This is similar to what happened to the John Avery House, a c.1825 house located diagonally across the street from here.

When the first photo was taken, the building had several commercial tenants, including The Linoleum Shoppe on the left and a cigar store on the right. The old house was still clearly visible at the time, but later taken down after a fire. The rest of the building was damaged in the June 1, 2011 tornado, and was subsequently renovated into its current appearance, as seen in the 2015 photo.

130 Union Street, Springfield, Mass

April 25, 2016 by Derek Strahan

The building at 130 Union Street, just east of Main Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The building in 2015:

This two-story brick building was built around 1906-1910, on the site of the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Bethesda Church, which had been built here in 1897. Although the church building was short-lived, I suspect that part of the church walls may have been incorporated into this building, because part of the first floor walls are made of stone, the same material as the church. This is also consistent with the church’s footprint as it appeared in the 1899 city atlas, although I do not have any photos of the church to confirm my theory.

In any case, when the first photo was taken the building had a sign that read “Bay State Mattress Company,” which may have occupied the upper floor, because the ground floor appears to have been used as a repair garage. There is a car visible inside the building, with signs on the exterior for “Brake Service & Greasing” and for Exide batteries. Later on, this building was home to Radding Signs, as the vertical neon sign on the left still indicates. Most recently, the building was owned by the Anti-Displacement Project, but it was damaged in the 2011 tornado and now appears to be vacant.