Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Francis McCullagh
One of those truly larger than life figures, and this time in the persona of a journalist and author.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
The Golden Age of Hotels
January 26, 2011
These photographs depict what had been the Townsend Hotel, and what is now the Natrona County Townsend Justice Center. This building depicts an evolution in transportation, and in the downtown landscape of cities, which incidentally has a direct legal connection.
This building was originally built in the 1920s as a nice hotel. It served in that capacity up in to the 1960s. It was well suited to do so, being only two blocks from the train depot. What it lacked, however, was parking.
Starting in the 1960s, after the massive nationwide improvement in highways, and the corresponding decline in rail transportation, this building became a bit of a flop house. It finally closed in the late 1970s, after its restaurant closed down (the restaurant had not declined like the hotel itself).
In the last decade it was rebuilt as a courthouse.
This says a lot about downtowns as they once were, and are today. Built in the golden age of hotels, this hotel was in a neighborhood of similiar hotels, all of which offered lodging and dining. They didn't offer parking. They couldn't survive the motorization of the country. They depended upon rail transportation for their business. They made, however, for a busy downtown.
Postscript
May 29, 2014
I was reminded of this old post as one of the oldest buildings in Casper is undergoing renovations, and I took a few photographs of it this past week when those renovations revealed a "ghost sign" that was painted on it when the building was a hotel. I posted those photos on our Painted Brick's blog.
The former County Annex, being rebuilt as the Hotel Virginia.
The building is sort of returning to its original use as apartments, under one of its apparent former names, the Hotel Virginia. This building is older than the old Townsend Building depicted above in this thread, and its one of the oldest surviving brick buildings in Casper.
What's interesting about this, other than the age of the building, is that this building is one block over from the Townsend. And its on the same block as what was the Gladstone (now an office building). It would have been catercorner from the Henning. So Casper had four brick hotels, three of which were quite substantial, withing a block of each other.
In thinking on it, if a person goes just a couple of blocks out, this trend continues. The street depicted in this photograph is 1st Street, which was also the east/west highway at that time. A couple of blocks away were a couple of motels, true Motor Hotels, of early vintage, one of which had a swimming pool.
Today all the major current hotels in Casper are along the interstate highway. Casper has an assortment of modern hotels and business hotels, but what's interesting about that is how the hotels had migrated by the 1960s to the interstate. The downtown hotels were dying by that time, and by the 1980s none of the original downtown brick hotels that were located in the heart of the downtown era were still hotels. This is, of course, a very typical story, demonstrating the evolution from rail travel, to car travel, to those cars being on a state highway at first, and an interstate highway later.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Monday, May 26, 2014
Memorial Day Parade, Washington D. C., May 30, 1942.
9th or 10th Cavalry.
9th or 10th Cavalry.
President's reviewing stand and light tanks.
Recalling Memorial Day.
1937 Memorial Day poster, recalling veterans of the Civil War. At this time, remaining veterans would have been in their 80s and up.
1917 Memorial Day poster, noting the ongoing First World War and recalling the Civil War.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Graduating on Memorial Day Weekend
The Natrona County High School Class of 2014 graduates today, May 24, 2014.
It is, of course, also Memorial Day weekend..
It's been interesting for a variety of reasons. It would be interesting any way, as I'm a graduate of NCHS, my wife is a graduate of NCHS, my father in law, mother in law, two brothers in law, two uncles, three aunts, and my father graduated from NCHS; and my son attends NCHS.
And NC is undergoing major renovation. It's 80 year old swimming pool, which is where I practiced when a swim team member, and where my son has also practiced for the same reason, will be torn down in that project in a couple of weeks, with no replacement pool in the offering as the local voters refused to pass the bond that would have funded that and other projects. We were involved in the effort to pass the bond, which was narrowly defeated. All of that would have made that interesting.
But it's also interesting as the choice of Memorial Day has caused a minor flap on the party of some who are upset on the basis that they conceive of a graduation over Memorial Day weekend (but not on the day tiself) as disrespectful to veterans in general and war dead in particular.
Well, while I say honor the day, my view on that is that the critics of the graduation should relax, reconsider and frankly reflect on this.. Dates for high school graduations are pretty strictly controlled around here and they had little other choice. Beyond that, two of the young men that I've grown to know over the years are going to be leaving shortly after they graduate for Navy basic training. And it occurs to me that a lot of our war dead weren't much older when they died than those young men entering the service. Indeed, a couple of the World War Two veterans I've known, including one who attended NCHS, left high school for the army. Anyhow, it occurs to me that those young men probably would have preferred to be at a high school graduation rather than in some mud hole in Italy, some freezing pit in Belgium, or some sandy foxhole on Iwo Jima, so maybe a high school graduation is honoring them in a way that they might like to be honored.
It's been interesting for a variety of reasons. It would be interesting any way, as I'm a graduate of NCHS, my wife is a graduate of NCHS, my father in law, mother in law, two brothers in law, two uncles, three aunts, and my father graduated from NCHS; and my son attends NCHS.
And NC is undergoing major renovation. It's 80 year old swimming pool, which is where I practiced when a swim team member, and where my son has also practiced for the same reason, will be torn down in that project in a couple of weeks, with no replacement pool in the offering as the local voters refused to pass the bond that would have funded that and other projects. We were involved in the effort to pass the bond, which was narrowly defeated. All of that would have made that interesting.
But it's also interesting as the choice of Memorial Day has caused a minor flap on the party of some who are upset on the basis that they conceive of a graduation over Memorial Day weekend (but not on the day tiself) as disrespectful to veterans in general and war dead in particular.
Well, while I say honor the day, my view on that is that the critics of the graduation should relax, reconsider and frankly reflect on this.. Dates for high school graduations are pretty strictly controlled around here and they had little other choice. Beyond that, two of the young men that I've grown to know over the years are going to be leaving shortly after they graduate for Navy basic training. And it occurs to me that a lot of our war dead weren't much older when they died than those young men entering the service. Indeed, a couple of the World War Two veterans I've known, including one who attended NCHS, left high school for the army. Anyhow, it occurs to me that those young men probably would have preferred to be at a high school graduation rather than in some mud hole in Italy, some freezing pit in Belgium, or some sandy foxhole on Iwo Jima, so maybe a high school graduation is honoring them in a way that they might like to be honored.
My service, as I have noted here before, was in the National Guard, although because of the length of training during the time during which I was receiving it, I have an Honorable Discharge from the U.S. Army (that is, we were in the active duty Army during training, and for such a long period that we qualify as veterans). That may make my prospective a bit different, but if it does, I suspect that my point is all the more valid. All of us in the Guard in that period were of course volunteers, with quite a few being men who had served in the Vietnam War. It seemed to me that in our conversations, while we all had an interest in the service, we talked more about routine matters, or matters that concerned us in our daily lives. For those men who served in 1860-1865, or 1917-1918, or 1940-1945, or what have you, who often served without a real choice, and who tended to be young men, my guess is that is all the more the case. I"m sure that on the plaque honoring NCHS's war dead from World War Two, which is in the school lobby, and past which hundreds of students pass each day, are the names of many young men whose souls would look back out on those familiar halls where they had walked and, if they were to speak, would say "I wish I could be there tonight".
Painted Bricks: Platte County Steam Laundry, Wheatland Wyoming
Painted Bricks: Platte County Steam Laundry, Wheatland Wyoming: This small building is still in use, and has updated windows today. A newer sign above the door says "Coin Operated Laundry", ...
Friday, May 23, 2014
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Monday, May 19, 2014
Sunday, May 18, 2014
1870 to 1918 | From empire to cataclysm
1870 to 1918 | From empire to cataclysm
I've been waiting for this blog to appear, and somehow failed to notice that it had!
Anyhow, the author of this blog has had some excellent posts on her other blog on historical topics, including the Second Boer War, and I'm glad to note that this blog has appeared!
I've been waiting for this blog to appear, and somehow failed to notice that it had!
Anyhow, the author of this blog has had some excellent posts on her other blog on historical topics, including the Second Boer War, and I'm glad to note that this blog has appeared!
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Old Man and the Plow
10245373_10152458886508156_6755861074685630166_n.jpg (JPEG Image, 665 × 960 pixels) - Scaled (91%)
I'm not sure if some days I feel like this old timer, or wish I did.
I'm not sure if some days I feel like this old timer, or wish I did.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)