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Newburgh, New York, circa 1906. "Water Street." Get your cloaks and mattings to-day! 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.
This perspective is looking north down Colden Street as it once merged into Water Street (at First Street, which cannot be seen in this view). In the small triangular park (Clinton Square) at the intersection stood a statue of New York Governor George Clinton, for whom the square was named, and who was from the Town of Newburgh. The statue now stands at the corner of Third Street and Fullerton Avenues in Newburgh, in a square of lawn which is now called Clinton Square.
Newburgh is also my old home town, and it's great to see something positive about it appear in the media this week.
Does anyone have any idea what the cross street was. It is astounding that absolutely no multi-story buildings exist on Water Street today.
I visited the site you reference, and my heart sank when I moused over the picture. I never imagined such a drastic change. Was expecting boarded-up buildings or highly modernized facades. Nothing like what Water Street has actually become. Tragic!
That then-and-now link is the most extreme I've ever seen. What on earth where they thinking?
From that view, it is almost impossible to tell, but my thin reference library shows both Packard and Buick used lighting like that shown, as well as the fender shaping.
Google Maps Street View, 28 Water St, New York, NY.
Wonder if anyone can ID that car in the middle? I find it fascinating (yeah, I know, I said it before) to see these old cars the way they really were.
I have a friend who teaches at West Point; I drive through Newburgh to visit her, and it is a bleak small town in a really beautiful Hudson River location. What a contrast with this picture.
Are those rug samples hanging out the windows at Burger's? Interesting marketing tactic.
There is, to me, a certain oppressive feeling from the street scenes with all the awnings. It's almost claustrophobic. But I love seeing them anyway!
Okay, I admit that I'm older than most but when I was in elementary school, each and every classroom had an adjoining "cloakroom" and I often wondered why it wasn't just called a coat-room, since NONE of us in the 1940's wore cloaks, which I imagined as a sort of mysterious cape-like outer garment (but with sleeves and lots of places to hide a dagger). Now I see that in 1906, they were in fact still calling coats "cloaks" and the school I attended was indeed built around that time. Live and learn. One can get an education on Shorpy every day.
There's an article in today's NY Times about how Newburgh is in the throes of gang-related crime.
A Google search of Van Dalfsen returns a Google Books hit for "The Empire State: Its industries and Wealth" - Specifically page 267 - That puts the furniture store at 114 Water St.
[As we can see from the address numbers on the building and the awning, it was at 21 and 23 Water Street. - Dave]
To see what remains (nothing) of this scene now you can mouse over the picture found here.
I've been coming to this site for a while now and always wondered if pictures of my hometown would eventually pop up. What a great picture this is. Water Street looks absolutely nothing like this today. It's relatively empty now except for the recently redeveloped waterfront with a number of restaurants and gift shops.
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