Rodrick Block, Baltic Conn. 17K

Rodrick Block, Baltic Conn. 17K

View of a large, late-19th century brick commercial block in a small downtown. This image is part of a series made by one of the three Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company photographers assigned to cover New England or upstate New York. The quest for images that would be saleable as postcards resulted in the documentation of small towns and small town life at the turn of the 20th century. As the photos were shot, the glass plates were promptly sent back to Belfast, Maine, and processed into postcards at the printing plant on High Street. Here is a side view of The Roderick Block, which was a Victorian vernacular building designed to fit into a triangular lot at a main intersection in downtown Baltic. The resulting "flatiron" footprint includes the characteristic acute angled corner, at the far right, which on this building is curved. "(The Block) was built in 1898 by Raymond J. Jodoin, a businessman who was Baltic’s largest landowner. He also served several terms as Sprague’s First Selectman and in the state legislature. Born in St. Hyacinth, Quebec, Jodoin‘s family came to Baltic in 1865, when he was seven weeks old, during a period of mass immigration of French-Canadians. According to the Legislative History and Souvenir of Connecticut, Vol. VII (1910): At the age of nine years he went to work in the mill at Baltic. He saved his earnings until he was able to buy a small livery stock and successfully conducted this business several years. In April, 1888, Mr. Jodoin went to Providence, where he secured a position as traveling salesman in the wholesale grocery house of Waldron Wightman & Co. He remained with them ten years and then accepted a similar position with Daniels & Cornell, of Providence, with whom he has since remained. His territory covers Eastern Connecticut. Southern Massachusetts and Western Rhode Island." [source: historicbuildingsct.com] Jodoin's pride in the structure is evident in the large sign featuring a spread-winged eagle atop the building. Ground floor businesses include the pharmacist's J.A. Baril Drug Store at the main corner, and, next door, The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. (the grocery franchise later popularly known as "The A&P"). In the commercial window and their frames are, at the drug store, advertisements for New Haven Dairy Quality Ice Cream/Soda/Candy/Cigars, "Kodaks" (a popular synonym for "cameras"), and B. Goldblatt's Shoe Repairing.