Wood & Steel

James Wood and 1932 Chevrolet Series BA Confederate

I've seen a few automobiles in my photo journey. There was this Model T speeding down an unknown Toronto street and this Mercury parked in Waupoos and there was this one pulling up to a rural home. And there are many more I haven't posted, but I thought I'd post one last picture to wrap things up. That's my grandfather and namesake, James Wood, beside what I think is a 1932 Chevrolet Series BA Confederate. He was a chauffeur so I don't know if that's his own car, or one he drove for a living. I suspect it was one he drove for a living as I'd be surprised if he could afford it. 

I'm pretty confident that these photos were indeed taken in 1939 as up until 1973 plates were issued annually. 1973 saw the inauguration of annual validation stickers. If I'm wrong about the license plates, all I can then say is the photo was taken between 1939 and the end of the good weather in Toronto in 1947, as he died in early January 1948.

The letter 'A' in the plate I believe indicates the plate was issued in Toronto. If I ever come across a scan of the Ontario 1939 license plate registry I should be able to identify who owned that car.

I'm livin' on the air in Cincinnati; Cincinnati, D813C

 On the back of this photo is written:

I think this reads:

D813C. Cincinnati

Ohio from Carew Tower

I must admit I arrived at 'Carew' from the somewhat indistinct writing by looking for suitable matches to towers existing in Cincinnati in 1959. 

I don't know what 'D813C' refers to. A highway maybe?

Here's a closer look at the view, maybe that'll clear things up:

Got that image in your head?, Ok, have a look at this video posted to YouTube:

At around the 2:45 mark you'll begin the to see a view that has landmarks visible in the 1959 photo. Here's a snap from the video:

Snapshot from this YouTube video

Amazing.

Chicago & North Western boxcar 118268

Getting a high pressure stream of water or steam under control?

I came across this photo stuck amongst pictures of babies and stern great grandparents. No context, no related pictures nearby, no writing on the back, no date, no location, no explanation whatsoever.

Apparently the 'C & N W' stenciled on the end of the boxcar stands for the Chicago & North Western railroad. I don't know anything about this railroad other than the internet tells me it was in operation from 1859 to 1995, and at times sprawled over 11,000 to 12,000 miles of track throughout Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, South & North Dakota, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, and Wyoming. 

I wondered if Lucius Beebe had anything to note about the C&NW in his classic 1947 book, Mixed Train Daily. He had a little bit to say, Beebe-style, in an aside about the railroads' vanishing individualism:

The cachet of individualism, a national characteristic somewhat in general abeyance, can no longer be said to obtain among the mainline railroads of the United States, their operations, motive power or other distinguishing identifications. The Milwaukee, to be sure, still cleaves to the bright-orange rolling stock that has so long been its hallmark; the Chicago and North Western holds to left-hand operations, a sort of ancestral mortmain from its days of English capitalization; the Santa Fe is celebrated for the Fred Harvey Restaurants on its de luxe varnish hauls and, almost alone among the great trunk lines of the Southwest, the Frisco adheres to the tradition of beautifully maintained motive power and its engines glitter in the noble old manner with blue paint and red trim, gold leaf, gleaming brass and burnished rod assemblies. 

By and large, however, the main lines have surrendered to the expediency of uniform and interchangeable styles and properties, and the day when they indulged in spacious personal mannerisms, from motives of both pride and promotion, has vanished.

Canadian Pacific's Montreal Windsor Street Station & HQ

I found this postcard* in amongst the family photos I've been sorting through. The caption reads:

Windsor Street Station and Head Office Can. Pac. Ry., Montreal

There's an interesting Wikipedia entry on this old station. I'm glad to see the building still exists. I'll have to visit one day.

*It isn't actually a postcard. The photo is printed on a card, but it's about the size of a playing card or a pack of cigarettes, and its flip side is blank. An internet search shows this image did appear on postcards, so this example does have postcard DNA.

Revisiting Bryce's Home Made Bread

What appears to be the business end of a Bryce's Home Made Bread facility

Longtime readers may recall that back around this time in 2014 I posted some pictures of Bryce's Home Made Bread that my uncle, William Henry Wood, took in the 1940s. While on my current dig through family photos I think I may have unearthed some photos of what appears to be another Bryce's facility. 

You might ask why didn't I find these on my first pass through the photos 9 years ago? Because I didn't know what I was looking at, didn't examine them with a magnifying glass, and the photos don't appear to have any organization. They're just scattered here-and-there throughout a variety of albums. I know a bit more now about what I'm looking at in these pictures, so new aspects pop out that I didn't appreciate before.

Cropped version of the opening photo

The connection to Bryce's was clear once I closely looked at the logos on the wagons and truck.

The wagon on blocks (on the right) has written on the side: Bryce's Bread

The wagon on the left doesn't appear to have a company logo, but the one up on blocks to the right does.

'Bryce's Bread' appears on the truck

The same logo that's on the derelict wagon appears on the truck.

A slightly modernized delivery wagon

The deal was sealed when I stumbled across the above photo.

A cropping of the previous photo. That's Mr. Bill Paterson on the right

The other tip off was the presence of Mr. Bill Paterson as he accompanied my uncle on this audit trip.

Outside Bryce's. Left to right: Mr. W. B. Foster, Bill Paterson, William Henry Wood

In the above photo we also saw Mr. W. B. Foster standing for a portrait outside the other Bryce's Facility.

A cleaned up and cropped version of the previous photo

The next 3 photos give an interesting view of an office inside the building. No PCs, laptops, smartphones, or much of anything we'd associated with today's office life.

My uncle with a mountain of paper work

I suspect the two were having a good time staging the next two photos, but if nothing else you get a good idea of what typical office equipment was like in the 1940s.

My uncle again with a lot less paper, and many more office tools. That thing that looks like a tire beside his elbow is likely an ash tray

And here's Mr. Paterson taking his turn at the desk:

Bill Paterson looking concerned

As I've noted before, the puzzling continues.

[21 Nov 2023 update: I discovered another photo album with annotated photographs. It turns out this facility was located in Calgary, not Winnipeg, and the photos were shot on August 4, 1944.]

A photo in the spirit of an E. L. Moore reference scene

The above is another photo from my archeological dig through family records. Having E. L. Moore's works and style permanently imprinted on my brain I immediately thought upon seeing this image, "this could have been a classic ELM model and scene." Let me assure you this picture has nothing to do with Mr. Moore, it's just my addled brain at work.

I don't know when or where it was shot, or by who. My best guess is it was taken sometime in the 1920s, probably in New York state. Which of my long gone relatives took it is lost to time.

Here's an enlargement of the car:

My guess is that it's a Model T Ford. The license plate is fascinating. Was it really the 837th automobile licensed in the state? If so, it's hard to imagine a time when there were so few cars on the road.

Here's an enlargement of the house:

A gaggle of geese, wagon wheels, and a little bridge over a creek. Maybe one of Ma Spumoni's relatives lived here :-)

From Washington with Love

My cousin and I are working on puzzling out some family history from a pile of old photographs and documents. Along the way I stumbled across the above picture. On the back is written:

Which I believe reads:

With love to Ethel

From

A Jones U. S. A. A Vancouver

Washington

U.S.A.

19-12-18

Ethel was my maternal grandmother. In 1918 she was 22 and living in Ontario working as a housekeeper after having immigrated from England by way of the U.S.A.. A Jones must have been an admirer as he wasn't my grandfather. 

I think the railroad name on the side of the flat car reads: Illinois Central. It's interesting that the railroad isn't using specialized log cars for hauling those huge tree trunks, but is just using regular flat cars outfitted with tall side stakes. 

The puzzling continues.

Going for a ride 100 years ago in Toronto

I clipped this image from the larger one shown at the bottom of this post. The picture is from my cousin's collection of family photos. I'm trying to figure out what street this is, and if that house still exists. All I know is it's in Toronto.

The action in the top picture is palpable. On the left some boys are joy riding a bicycle; on the right a Model T is swerving to avoid them; deep on the right a horse drawn wagon is lumbering down the avenue.  

Date? Well, Wikipedia tells me the Model T had a 5-sided hood between 1909 and 1916, and that's clearly a 5-sided hood job in the photo. Assuming Torontonians of old were like Torontonians of today and loved to show off their new possessions :-) I'll say the photo dates from somewhere between 1909 and 1917, but that's just a wild guess. 

If I learn more about where this was shot I'll let you know. If you know where this location is, please let me know.

Waupoos General Store Then and Now

Top: then, maybe late '40s or early '50s; Bottom: now, Sept 2023

Longtime readers may recall I posted the top picture and an associated story back in January 2021. That's the general store in Waupoos, Ontario in the late 1940s or, more likely, the early 1950s. The photo was shot by my father, and that's his car, which I think he told me was a '49 Mercury. If so, he had better taste in cars than I've ever had. 

This summer we drove out to Waupoos in Prince Edward County. The old store still stands. That's it in the bottom photo. It's no longer a general store but Stella's Eatery. Unfortunately it was closed when we drove by. That's not our car in the photo, and it's certainly not a '49 Mercury.

Some toy cars from the '30s

Another uncle, the brother of WHW, playing in the backyard of their house, probably sometime around 1933 or so. Notice the two toy cars in the foreground, and the pedal-car in the background. I can see a few pleasant hours ahead rummaging through Louis Hertz's The Complete Book of Building and Collecting Model Automobiles to see if I can identify them.

Portrait with Train

Another photo from the family albums scanning project. Problem is I don't think that woman is family. I have no idea who she is. And to compound the problem, I have no idea where this was taken. I doubt it was in Toronto, but it could possibly be somewhere near Winnipeg, MB, or Rochester, NY, or maybe even Novato, CA - it's all guesswork though. I don't see recognizable markings or logos on the cars for possible clues. Era? Maybe the '40s or '50s?

I sometimes think photos like these - taken by amateurs where the trains are merely background - are just as important as those taken by railfans. The railfan photographer may approach the subject with certain agendas and preconceptions in mind which colours what and how they shoot. On the other hand, pictures like these where the subject is something other than the trains may capture some spontaneity in the rail scene that might not appear in a 'properly' staged and composed shot.

Horse drawn milk wagon, Toronto, 1930s (?) or 1940s (?)

No streetcars or hints of streetcars in this photo, although I was rather surprised by it. It's a Silverwood's horse drawn milk wagon and milkman making their rounds somewhere in 1930s or 1940s Toronto. I speculate the photo was shot by my uncle, near the family home on Leroy Ave., probably in the early 1940s or late 1930s. The milkman appears to be caught mid-stride. The horse looks a bit dejected, or maybe is just resigned to its job. Toronto is looking rather bucolic in this picture.

Just There: Lessons from streetcar scenes in Winnipeg

I'm always impressed by the detail in old black-and-white photos. Scanning them and enlarging the resulting images seems to always yield interesting details and surprises. 

Over the past few days I've posted a few images of Winnipeg's Portage & Main that my uncle shot in the 1940s. Each included a streetcar, so I decided to blow up the streetcar section to see what there was to see. Over there on the left is the intersection of Portage & Main with a streetcar on each thoroughfare.

And here are a couple of streetcars on Portage, obscured by automobiles and pedestrians, but still clearly visible.

And finally, here's a streetcar just peeking out of the left side of the image near The Bank of Hamilton on Main St..

I think what's important in all three is that they include streetcars not by deliberate choice, but because they happened to be there when my uncle was shooting pictures of other things that interested him. They were an everyday part of the world in that era, so naturally they're just there. It's that feeling of 'just there' that I'm looking for in my model photos. Just there if I'm looking out of an office window. Just there if I'm walking across an intersection. Just there if I'm going to the bank. Just there.

The Bank of Hamilton building, Winnipeg, 1940s (?)

This magnificent structure is The Bank of Hamilton building on Winnipeg's Main St., along Banker's Row. The Heritage Winnipeg blog has this to say about the building: Started in 1916 at a cost of $400,000 and completed two years later, the building was the most lavish branch in Canada constructed by the Hamilton company.

And is now standard with these Winnipeg photos, there's a streetcar peeking out of the lower left. I don't think my uncle was particularly interested in streetcars, but I think they show up in all these photos simply because the city was busy and there were a lot of them on the streets. They were just another mundane feature of everyday life.

Another view of Portage & Main, Winnipeg, 1940s (?)

Another view of the intersection of Portage & Main in Winnipeg. Over on the right side of the image is a better view of the facade of the Canadian National Railway building. Over on the left - somewhat obscured by automobiles and pedestrians - are a couple of streetcars.

Portage & Main, Winnipeg, 1940s (?)

A photo taken from high above Main St in Winnipeg looking towards Portage Ave. circa sometime in the 1940s, although I can't be certain about the date. 

That large dark building originating on the right is The McIntyre Block. Towering above the block, near the centre of the photo, is The McArthur Building on Portage. Near the intersection is the Canadian National Railways building, which looks rather modern compared to its neighbours.

And in this photo, unlike a few others I've posted, you can see streetcars on both Portage and Main, and not just track and overhead wire :-)

Creed Furs, Bloor St., Toronto, 1940s

I believe this is Creed Furs on Toronto's Bloor Street circa the 1940s. I think my mother worked there as a seamstress for awhile although I can't put any dates on it.

Usually with these old Toronto photos I say something like, "and here you can see the streetcar track and the overhead wire", but they're nowhere in sight in this photo :-)

Bloor & Yonge, Toronto, 1940s

A view of the northwest corner of Toronto's Bloor & Yonge in the 1940s.

I speculate that there was something about that overloaded truck in the middle of the intersection that caught my uncle's eye - I think this photo was taken by my uncle, William Henry Wood. It looks like there are people hanging off the truck - one looks like he's wearing a soldier's uniform - and many others are stuffed in the back. The commotion seems to have also caught the attention of a fellow crossing the street. As well as the speeding truck, you can also see the old Pilot restaurant, and just make out the streetcar track and overhead wire.

Palace Theatre, Toronto, 1940s

Another street scene found during genealogical scanning. This time it's Danforth Avenue, not too far from the corner of Danforth and Pape. On the right is Toronto's famous Palace Theatre. And as an added bonus, the streetcar tracks are visible in the centre of the road :-)

General store, Waupoos, Ontario, 1940s ?

The photo of Brampton's main street in the 1940s generated a lot of off-line discussion, so I thought I'd post this one of Brown & Son General Merchants in Waupoos, Ontario. I think this one was also taken in the late 1940s, but the early 1950s is a possibility.

This is another classic modelgenic building. Its simple structure would make it easy to build, and it has some interesting details out front - a later day Penny Model candidate :-)