Antique Postcards, Group 4

Here are 300 dpi resolution images from my antique postcard collection for you to use and enjoy.  This lot of 10 is from the 1920s – 1930s.  If you are having resolution problems, run into WordPress compression or need another file format, please contact me via email.  Right click and use “open image in a new tab” to download the full size image.  Please remember that I cannot confirm Public Domain / open source legal rights on the works.  Any further information on dating, origin and publishers is welcomed.

© James E. Pitts, Series 44 A, not dated [circa 1910 – 1920s?], not mailed.  Here is the back:

“N.Y. 350” St. Patrick’s Cathedral Fifth Avenue & Fiftieth Street, post marked New York, NY 8/9/1921

The Stevens, Chicago “World’s Largest Hotel” Continental Room [printed on reverse], not mailed or dated, circa late 1920s as this hotel opened in 1927.  I didn’t know this building had so much history, I took this from the Wikipedia:

The Stevens Hotel

The hotel, designed in the Beaux-Arts architecture style, originally opened in 1927 as the Stevens Hotel, across Balbo Street from the older Blackstone Hotel. At the time, the Stevens was the largest hotel in the world.^[4][5] The hotel was developed by James W. Stevens, his son Ernest, and their family who ran the Illinois Life Insurance Company and owned the Hotel La Salle. The Stevens featured 3,000 guest rooms, cost approximately $30 million to construct (more than ten times the cost of Yankee Stadium only few years earlier), and boasted of a virtual “City Within a City”. The Stevens housed its own bowling alley, barber shop, rooftop miniature golf course (the “High-Ho Club”), movie theater, ice cream shop, and drug store.^[6] The first registered guest was Vice President Charles G. Dawes.^[7]

The Great Depression ruined the Stevens family, and the State of Illinois charged the hotel’s owners with financial corruption. As with four out of five American hotels during the Great Depression, the Stevens Hotel went bankrupt.^[8] The government took the hotel into receivership, and by the late 1930s, it was valued at only $7 million.^[9] The youngest heir of the Stevens family was seven years old when the hotel opened. His legacy as John Paul Stevens would be to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

In 1942 the U.S Army purchased the Stevens Hotel for $6 million for use as barracks and classrooms for the Army Air Force during WWII. The Stevens housed over 10,000 air cadets during this time, who utilized the Grand Ballroom as their mess hall. In January 1944, the War Department closed a deal to sell the property for $4.91 million to a bricklayer turned private businessman named Stephen Healy.^[10]

The Conrad Hilton

As World War II drew to a close, Conrad Hilton purchased the hotel from Healy in February 1945.^[11] The board of directors changed the name of the hotel, branding it after Conrad Hilton himself in November 1951.^[12] Conrad continued to use his Hollywood connections to entice film stars, politicians and royalty to the hotel.

Meanwhile, never order a drink there.  I ordered an apricot stone sour and it cost me freaking $14.  I gave the waiter a dollar tip and nearly died.

Not mailed, Made in the U.S.A. on the reverse, estimated 1920s.  A little nature sketch dresses up the back.

Distributed by Northern Post Card Company, Eu Claire, Wisconsin; mailed, date stamped 8/2/1938.

Dear Jackie  I was fishing today I got 4 fish my Dad 1 fish 9 3/4 pounds, 32 ins  Having a lovely time  Love Neal Ott  We got 9 fish together

That’s a long way to haul for fish, Neal.  Good thing you were there in August, because those huskies look frozen.

Reverse indicates :”NYCE” Quality Colored Landscape Locals, Made in the U.S.A. 77080, not mailed, circa 1930s

Mailed, post marked Seattle, WA 9/21/1937. The back of this one goes from touristy to cryptic.  Are you good at cramped handwriting?  I’m not making out the end of second to last sentence but I sensing a failed love connection.

Sept. 20  Look on the other side of this card and you will see what you have missed by not comming out here. We have had 14 different kinds of fish to eat, and I think every kind of fruit + vegetable that grows, and if I would tell you the wife of some of him would would say I handled the truth mighty rough. I am feeling better. Laura W.

© 1932, John G. Shedd Aquarium, Chicago; not mailed.

Mailed. post marked 8/29/1936 Livermore, California and mailed to Fish Creek, Door County, Wisconsin.

Mailed, post marked Saint Paul, Minn. 10/26/1939 and Mother is totally bitching about the cold.   No surprises there, it’s northern Minnesota!