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Washington, D.C., circa 1901. "View of Eighth Street N.W., east side, looking north from D Street with Hoy's Hotel on the corner and the U.S. Patent Office building at the end of the street." 5x7 inch dry plate glass negative, D.C. Street Survey Collection. View full size.
Signpainting instruction books up to about 1900 considered every thought in a sign to be a complete sentence, and thus required a capital to start and a period to finish. I have seen signs like "The Jones Co.." where the Co. is an abbreviation of Company and the second period is because the name is a complete sentence. I'm not sure if print shops or penmen followed the same logic. It's a quick rule of thumb for dating old signs.
A review of the play as it appeared in the Washington Post (the day after President McKinley's casket arrived by train from New York after his assassination there two days earlier). Click for full text.
That banner really caught my eye. My Grandpa Reilly, born in NJ in 1898, used to tell me stories in the 1960s, of his "historic" childhood. According to him, "Foxy Grandpa" was a popular newspaper cartoon character, who also had a spin-off chocolate penny candy brand, which the Sisters at his Catholic elementary school used to give to the classroom winners of spelling bees, arithmetic tests, and such.
"Foxy", at the turn of the last century, meant clever, tricky, and hard to fool.
Below is the same view from June of 2016.
I am sooooooo going to get a Foxy Grandpa t-shirt!
The sign painter put a period after: Hoy's Hotel, Pool Room, and Hoy's Hotel Bar. Either he was a stickler for grammar, or he got paid by the character.
I'm with Sgt McG -- what did they mean by Foxy in 1901, and why did it require one to go through a door at the back of the hotel?
["Foxy Grandpa" was a stage play. - Dave]
Thanks for the explanation, Dave. I found two short reels of Foxy Grandpa, here and here, both dated 1902. Grandpa could bust some moves.
Who was the Foxy Grandpa?
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