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September 1941. "Building on main street of ghost town. Judith Basin County, Montana." The Home Cafe / Kandy Kitchen / Eat Shop. Also, Rooms. Medium format negative by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
The ghost town is Geyser, Montana, which still exists. Ms. Wolcott took other pictures of this ghost town, including a few of the former First National Bank. That building survives, which is how ID'd the town after making an educated guess it was the place.
I can see the faded letters for POST OFFICE, but this photo would have been a perfect place for a similar ghostly image of the SHORPY logo. I wonder what the original colour of the building was?
I'm always delighted viewing Ms. Wolcott's photos. The subjects are interesting and her skill with the camera, in a technological way, is superb. Here, the edges of the photo and the corner posts of the cafe look as if a draftsman laid them out. I didn't take a micrometer to prove parallel, but I wouldn't be surprised learn that she'd achieved it. Great "pichertaker" she was.
[Some of the credit goes to Photoshop. - Dave]
Please, leave my other fantasies alone, I liked being the way I was about her skills.
Eddy's Pan Dandy Bread was the creation of J.E. "Eddy" O'Connell (1886-1972), who due to his business acumen combined with a gentle demeanor, earned a reputation as a "velvet hammer" and a "cream puff filled with concrete." He was legend for his philanthropic work in Helena, Montana, as well as for high-yield bakeries in that state (one of which operated beneath a brothel), and from Utah and Washington to the Dakotas. On his and his wife's shared tombstone in Resurrection Cemetery in Helena is etched a loaf of Eddy's bread.
Or so say the washed out words above the East Shop Cafe.
[Eat Shop. - Dave]
[ :) ... And me on a full, non-SloppyType keyboard I've used for almost 30 years. ]
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