A neat shot of Pitt Street West looking east. The sign for the “Monroe Gold Cure” is out in front of the Francois Baby House. Interesting to note the wooden plank sidewalks. This view has changed a bit in the last 130 years…
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I love these types of pictures. They give so much feel to what the area was like back then.
Thanks for sharing.
I walk that stretch several times a week and it sure looked like a nice little town back then. What a concrete wasteland it has become !
I noticed how the bolovard slopes down to the street and look at all the TREES!!!I think this shot is from the book Garden Gateway i’m curious as to what those objects at the curb on the road are
Looking at that picket fence kind of gives the photo a Huck Finn Tom Sawyer kind of feel
Those things by the curb almost look like sewer pipes or something like that. Sure looked peaceful.
Linda that’s what I was thinking also
Gary, you must have forgotten what city this was taken in. Look closer, see the stripes?
Those are construction barrels lol
you know Aaron I did notice one of them has what seems to have stripes on it and I thought …no it couldn’t be not way back then,but then like you say look what city it is LOL…but at least stucco hadn’t been invented yet
That sure is a sign of times of life on the border in the 1880s.. The “Gold Cure” was a treatment for addictions, alcoholism, drugs (mainly morphine) and tobacco. The “cure” was created by a Dr. Leslie Keeley of Illinois and was also known as Keeley’s Cure. It became so widely promoted that it gave rise to many imitators including the “Monroe Gold Cure.” The woman partially in the left edge of the frame looks sturdy enough to keep addicts in line.
In 2013 we marvel at how the city looked in this c 1885 photograph. Well, I wonder what the elderly woman in the left edge of the photograph thinks. She likely remembers earlier days when the back yard of the Baby house was in fact farmland with fruit trees and farm animals… and there was no Pitt Street!!
Commenting on the objects on the curb:
I zoomed in on my iPhone here and though thi he got distorted I think the objects may be for tieing up horses like the poles with hoops in certain parts of old Walkerville that are still there today.