Main St., Catskill, N.Y. 37

Main St., Catskill, N.Y. 37

A long view angling north up the Main Street of Catskill, NY, shows blockfronts of mid and later 19th-century buildings. The commercial street is dirt but sidewalks, street lighting, and utility poles indicate a level of economic prosperity and modernity. The scene is bustling with pedestrians and horse- drawn buggies parked on either side of the street. A protected port on the Hudson River, Catskill was known particularly as a center of ice harvesting, where storage and shipping of the product, bound for New York City, took place before the invention of mechanical refrigeration. It was also known as a steamboat stop for tourists exploring the Catskill Mountain area nearby to the west. Legible storefront signs identify electrical and musical supplies, groceries, fresh produce, Day & Holt, a hardware and framing store, and a theater. This is one of a series of images made in upstate New York state by one of the three Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company photographers assigned to New England or New York State. The glass plates would be sent back to Belfast, Maine, and processed into postcards at the printing plant on High Street.