Shorpy | Old Photos - Comments

Beautiful Talent

Greg B. — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:17:20 +0000

In reply to Eva Marie Saint: 1924-2026:

I first fell for her as the agent in North by Northwest, saw her in other roles as well, but was most impressed by her in her appearances and interviews on TCM. Just a lovely lady.

The Big O

Dave — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 22:44:00 +0000

In reply to Eva Marie Saint: 1924-2026:

"It's my trademark -- ROT."

"Roger O. Thornhill -- what does the O stand for?"

"Nothing."

A lady never tells

Notcom — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 17:03:00 +0000

In reply to Eva Marie Saint: 1924-2026:

her true age:

It might be recalled that she introduces herself as "Eve Kendall, 26."
In reality she was nearly a decade older than that, but we later learn, of course, that she's been less than truthful about herself.

Are you related?

jimboylan — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 16:12:35 +0000

In reply to Quite Profane: 1912:

Links:
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Veatch-411
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/39344479/griffin_edward-veatch
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/LJL4-FNL

DC quadrants

wiggy — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 15:32:04 +0000

In reply to Quite Profane: 1912:

To sittininlab -- Washington is divided into four quadrants, based on the Capitol and defined by North Capitol, East Capitol, South Capitol streets and the Mall. The Bureau of Printing and Engraving is located at 14th and C streets SOUTHWEST. The Hine photo is labeled as 13th and C streets NORTHWEST, an address that no longer exists. It was in what's now called the Federal Triangle bounded by 15th Street and Pennsylvania and Constitution avenues. Before it was cleared for government buildings this area was Murder Bay, Washington's red light district.

Another cluster

archfan — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 10:17:00 +0000

In reply to Factoryscape: 1942:

I found some more survivors. Here's a cluster of three buildings that are in the original photo: the curved building that looks like a Quonset hut made of brick; the white building with a bump in the middle, that now houses the Northern Lights Lounge; and the former State Hotel, which looks like residential now, and whose facade is a victim of modernization.

Uneeda Building

archfan — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 09:44:00 +0000

In reply to Factoryscape: 1942:

On the far right, there's a four-turreted building that was originally called the NBC Building, for National Biscuit Company. The company made cookies and crackers there from 1920 until sometime before the company adopted the Nabisco brand as its corporate name in the early 1970s. From then until 2012, the factory was effectively empty. In 2012, U-Haul renovated the building for rentals and storage.

Not so lovely now

happywaffle — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 06:49:00 +0000

In reply to Factoryscape: 1942:

It wasn't hard to replicate the view on Google Earth (besides the Fisher Building itself blocking the view). The news is not good! A couple of surviving buildings, a number of midcentury replacements, and a whole lotta parking lots.

So many water towers!

sjmills — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 03:19:10 +0000

In reply to Factoryscape: 1942:

They must've provided plenty of pressure to the buildings they belonged to.

If you listen close

pennsylvaniaproud — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 17:54:00 +0000

In reply to Life in Wartime: 1942:

You can hear the war machine gearing up, cranking out the hardware. Trains and boats and planes. I can't wait for the '46 Packards to roll off the line.

The Grapes of Wrath

Steamcrane — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 18:52:04 +0000

In reply to Valley Girls: 1939:

Tough times by American standards, but a reminder that Stalin banned "The Grapes of Wrath" when Russian audiences noticed that even poor American migrant workers owned automobiles.

Hope things worked out for these folks.

Monument to a general

Bert Perry — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 18:46:16 +0000

In reply to Quite Profane: 1912:

If I'm reading correctly about the address here, and looking up the place where General Hooker relegated prostitutes during the Civil War, isn't he working "Hooker's Division"? I was surprised to learn that the District only outright banned prostitution in 1914. So the young man's career is about to change.

Near Bureau of Engraving and Printing

sittininlab — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 15:32:00 +0000

In reply to Quite Profane: 1912:

Today this block is occupied either by the USDA (left side) or the Bureau of Engraving and Printing Annex (right side)

Going to the wiki page for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing Building Page show a 1918 view where the concourses of the building are pointing to a neighborhood of low houses. The intersection of C and 13 is just barely visible in this photo.

[You're in the wrong quadrant (Southwest vs. Northwest). See comment above. -- Dave]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Engraving_and_Printing#/media/Fi...

He got around

Hillary — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 22:28:55 +0000

In reply to Quite Profane: 1912:

Interesting details about his life on that page, thanks PTownBaby! It would appear he was 17 in 1912, despite not looking it. He got around - was born in Chicago, then was in DC as a teen, went on to serve in the 103rd Aero Squadron in World War I, and somehow ended up in Texas, where he worked for the railroad.

No Automobiles

RONKOR — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 17:08:09 +0000

In reply to Quite Profane: 1912:

I do not see a single automobile. I would have thought by 1912 there would have been at least one.

My grandfathers could have been in this photo

KimS — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 13:30:00 +0000

In reply to Southland Shoe: 1911:

both of whom went on to lead solidly middle-class lives. An 8th-grade education (to about age 14) was all that was typically expected and legally mandated in 1911. A summer job like that now for rising 9th-graders would be great incentive to re-apply oneself to one's studies.

Poor kid had a lot on his plate

PTownBaby — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 23:13:00 +0000

In reply to Quite Profane: 1912:

Find A Grave has one listing for a Griffin Edward Veatch (1895-1935). His mother, Annie Frances McManus Veatch, lived to age 101. Griffin's father, John McLain Veatch, died in 1913. Griffin's widow, Elizabeth Hale Wilson Veatch, lived to age 93. Griffin & Elizabeth had two children. Tragically, Griffin took his own life.

No eyeglasses

dwig — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 15:26:00 +0000

In reply to Southland Shoe: 1911:

Statistically there are likely 8-12 people in this pic who need them.

Shoes!

bwayne — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 19:53:00 +0000

In reply to Southland Shoe: 1911:

Compared to most of the mill and other various child labor photos we see, at least we don't see any bare feet for once.

[OTOH (OTOF?), for shoe factory workers, some of them are very shoddily shod. -- Dave]

Hurry up Mista,

Sgt McG — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 19:33:19 +0000

In reply to Southland Shoe: 1911:

They ain't payin' us for picture time.

Park Row Station

mgolden — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:17:49 +0000

In reply to Brooklyn Bound: 1905:

There is an interesting Wikipedia article about this structure, which was called Park Row Station. It was run by the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit (BMT) company. Unclear when it was dismantled, seems to have been about 1950.

I know this scene

Tony L Smith — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 12:08:00 +0000

In reply to Open House: 1938:

My parents were both born in the 1930s in western North Carolina (Black Mountain foothills). My mom's family were farmers and this very much reminds me of my grandparents' farm. It had rocks/boulders, streams, cows, and rutted dirt roads. There was a main house with winter plastic over the single-pane windows and a wood burning fireplace, a milking shed, and a couple of barns. Broken down farming equipment and derelict cars were strewn about.

When we visited -- I can only recall doing so a handful of times in the 1960s at Thanksgiving -- my three siblings and I slept on a wood floor. The best of times.

I'm certain after all these years all of it is gone.

Well, maybe ...

KimS — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 13:35:00 +0000

In reply to Open House: 1938:

but maybe, also, I saw this before in my youth: a working and moderately prosperous farm with the yard and meadow cropped (or mowed) short around the original farmhouse, which was vacated long ago after the owners built a more comfortable home in another corner of the farmyard.

[That's definitely not the case here. Or here. -- Dave]

Progress in a time of Poverty

swa — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 05:03:00 +0000

In reply to Open House: 1938:

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

— President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, second inaugural address, January 20, 1937.

Old News

Sgt McG — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 19:37:00 +0000

In reply to Brooklyn Bound: 1905:

According to the fine folks at History 101, that building in the background was the headquarters of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, founded in 1834 and still in business, claiming to be the largest German language newspaper in the U.S. The building was demolished in the early 1900s to make way for the Municipal Building.

https://www.history101.nyc/the-staats-zeitung-building-1874

Brooklynplatz

Donovan Nuera — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 17:14:00 +0000

In reply to Brooklyn Bound: 1905:

It appears that there are a lot of German-Americans in this neck of Brooklyn as there is the Herman Herald (with a statue of Herman the German) in the tall building in the background as well as a German-language newspaper office on the left side of the platform stairs on the awning (Zeitung) of that French 2nd-3rd Empire building. I think Germans have the highest percentage of ancestry in the US (at least from the European side). Their families had a lot of children too.

[The newspaper is the German Herold, not the "Herman Herald." -- Dave]

The Fairer Six

TimB — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:42:35 +0000

In reply to Brooklyn Bound: 1905:

I count six women and one girl. And one of the women appears to be looking at the camera*. To be fair, I cheated and downloaded the full-resolution image from the LOC (find "4a12609").

*Spoiler: Woman looking at us is middle of photo, far right of middle platform, shading her eyes. There's another one on the same platform to the left. One woman + girl are on the stairs. Three women are on the ground level, the obvious in foreground, plus two in background to the left of her. There might be another woman at far background-left side of stairs, which might be a hat. That would make seven, but not sure.

That's a lot of suits

gb — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 15:17:07 +0000

In reply to Brooklyn Bound: 1905:

Unless there are more in the background, where the focus and detail is blurred, my count of females is two. That's a lot of suits and hats.

Just one woman

deemery — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 14:28:00 +0000

In reply to Brooklyn Bound: 1905:

I looked pretty carefully, but only saw one woman in that entire crowd.

And there's the man near the front in the top hat, while most everyone else is wearing derbies.

When "The Whistler" ruled the ETHER

suziba — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 05:29:00 +0000

In reply to Highway City: 1939:

"Signal, Signal, Signal Gasoline ... The Go-Farther Gasoline"