"Found it! The "United Motors Corporation" Garage in the background is the buildign near the corner of Liberty and Baum which contained the recently-closed Goodwill Store, thought it looked familiar!
Here is the 1920 directory listing: http://digital.library...
And here is the map in 1923: http://images.library....
Showing the "Straub" property had already passed intot he ownership of the "Autocar S & S Company" meaning the two grand houses were doomed to a fate as a car lot (which the site still was until very recent plans for redevelopment....
Seems someone with the name Straub had a change of fortune shortly before 1920 and divested themselves of property...
1919 Prohibition perhaps? "
"There was a branch of the Straub Brewery at the corner of Liberty and Main, the north end of the Bloomfield Bridge, roughly the site of the current supermarket, seen here: http://images.library....
By 1923, they were making ice cream, Prohibition, so sad...: http://images.library....
But in neither are any of the Straub properties adjacent to a "Guffey" owned lot... Maybe I need to check the directores for the trucking business... "
"The caption has assumed an "M" but the Insurance maps lists to owner of the horse shoeing shop and the restaurant as "C. Nessenthaler" and I tend to trust them more... I believe the building in background with "CAFE" written on it may be the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern building, or in its location (BBT building building may be later than 1913...
""Liquid Carbonic Company Acid Works" visible at the corner of Winebiddle and Yew streets, both now abandoned in this area, adjacet to the railroad tracks:
http://images.library...."
"This looks like the Herron Hill Reservoir basin."
"Midway Avenue is now Morrowfield Avenue:
http://images.library...."
"The building was torn down to make way for the Lazarus building. "
"Also, couldn't figure out what "Weed Chains" were, thought maybe early off-roading gear... Turns out "Weed" was a York-based tire chain manufacturer."
"Here's the directory link: http://digital.library..."
"The city directory of 1914 lists the business at 3700 Grant Blvd (which was previously the name of Bigelow Blvd) which should put this building directly across from the south foot of the Bloomfield Bridge, roughly the corner of Grant and Ridgway, but the map of 1914 appears to show no building there, unless it is the one labelled "M.E.Malley" though that should be the end of the 3600 block (the address labelling is poor on that stretch. http://images.library...."
"Nice photo! I suspect sometimes the City Photographer just turned his camera on a good shot, independent of what he was working on officially....
Pretty confident of this location, based upon the church's location noted on this map: http://images.library....
One uintended benefit of our city's formerly pollution-denuded landscape were much more impressive views! "
"It's also pretty incredible that there was "hokie man" street sweeper working a street that was barely beginning to be built up!"
"It's on the left behind the trees, barely visible. You can see the location on the map here in 1905: http://images.library....
but by 1910, it appears to be demolished and its property absorbed into the grounds of the Colfax School:
http://images.library...."
"I don't see a church in the background of the original photo?"
"Chuck made the correct tag, which is from Ella Street looking toward Taylor Street, not the other way around as the photo's caption has."
"Jonathan, what's your reason for saying it's from Pear St. From what I can tell both yours and Chuck's tags look right."
"This looks to be from Pearl Street looking down Rosina Way."
"Seemed a pretty ostentatious address for a rag and bone operation... Wondering about it's previous use, I found it listed as the Power House for the Citizen's Traction Company 13 years earlier... http://images.library....
So are the current power substation on the site and the current scrap yard across the street legacies of these businesses? "
