Charles W Walker Co.  219 Hale Street

I chose this photo to be the first in my series due to the interesting changes over the years.  These buildings are still there, but you'd never recognize them.  Why?  Apparently there was a fire in the four story "Walker Co" building and so they simply lopped-off the top two floors.  Then, they added a section to the left of the building so instead of having two entrances as you see in this photo,  today it has three.  The building to the right is still there also, and you might recognize it somewhat today.  But something's different here also!  See the 3 wooden louvers sitting close together?  (two squares and a diamond) Today they are spread far apart on the building.  Why would they do that?  Here's another clue:  Notice how the building sits back from the street about 8 feet and has a front porch?  That was changed when they added a section to the front in order to bring the building forward and flush with the street.  They saved those louvers and replaced them on the front,  but spread them out this time!  Also, if you look closely at the extreme right,  you can see The Loewenstein Building  (Ellen's Ice cream) over on Capital Street.   Remember, we're in the middle of the block,  and in this time period, you could see right through to Capital Street! The locally famous STRAND Poolroom building would later be added to the extreme left,  while Merrill Photo and Camera Shop is about 3 buildings to the right of this photo.

Here is my rendition of these same buildings if you changed them to reflect how they look today:

 

And here are the buildings today:

Moving on to the 20s

The building in the right foreground would later become Merrill Photo.

Next Photo

Back to Index