The Magic Metropolis
There is a blurry faded photo of some ladies and children in 1877 San Francisco just leaving the theater. The waists on those women look painfully tiny.
Cities exploded in the gilded age as farm-folk and immigrants swelled their ranks. An unnamed British visitor (Come on, TL, get your head out of your ass on these quotes!) described New York as “a lady in ball costume, with diamonds in her ears, and her toes out at her boots.” In other words, it was filthy, smelly and disgusting while at the same time being glorious.
Walter B. Platt of Charm City, Maryland gives a bit of advice to the city dweller on the need for exercise. I am feeling a little virtuous because I just worked out.
A Giant Stride for Builders
The Brooklyn Bridge was a big deal. Bridges in general changed the face of cities. Because of strides in materials and engineering the sky was, as they say, the limit. TL describes and shows Chicago’s “towering” 10 story Insurance Building. Also pictured are beautifully ornate buildings from the 1890s and Dewey Arch on 5th Avenue.
Frederick Law Olmsted is mentioned as the creator of Central Park. Good job, Fred!
The Swan Boats in Boston’s Public Garden are pictured. I have never ridden one - must remedy that when we are once again a Swan Boat riding society. There are ice skaters and zoo-goers enjoying themselves en masse on the pages as well. Cities were awesome for the affluent!
Diversity in the Marketplace
Oh TL, I don’t think you know what diversity even is! Oh my gosh, did ladies love to shop! Well, middle and upper class ladies, anyway. Marshall Field opened up to “give the lady what she wants.” He had high end stores, discount stores and a restaurant for the hungry shopper. I remember restaurants in department stores from when I was a kid. My Grandma would take us for lunch, or Mom would when Grandma was visiting. I distinctly remember eating chicken pot pie that came in a little cardboard house and it was amazing!
There is a neat juxtaposition between a beautifully ornate Cleveland Arcade circa 1890 and on the next page Detroit’s open air Central Market 10 years prior. What a difference!
Getting Around
San Francisco - home of Rice-a-roni - put in the first cable cars in 1873. It was a hit and L.A., Denver, Seattle and Omaha followed suit. I believe this would have been the main mode of transportation for most city dwellers if not for that antisemetic sumbitch Henry Ford. Electric trolleys started up in 1888.
A New Lifestyle
Oh my gosh, “In 1872 new rows of four story town-houses rise along Boston’s Commonwealth Avenue in the freshly land-filled Back Bay Area.” It looks so sparse! There is talk of new fangled “apartment buildings” and mention is made of the dreaded “elevator sickness.”
In the following pages Chinatown tenements and an Italian immigrant neighborhood in Philadelphia are shown. They go from the rich and powerful to the scrappiest.
Nature Against the City
The blizzard of 1888 was far different in New York City than in DeSmet, South Dakota, that’s for sure. The aftermath of the Chicago fire is shown - precursor to the Salem fire which was experienced by my father-in-law’s parents!
Next up - Entertainment. Oh good, how I long to be entertained…
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