North Main St., Bristol, Conn 118.

North Main St., Bristol, Conn 118.

Image of a stretch of Bristol, CT's downtown, showing a mix of late 19th and early 20th century commercial blocks, and trolley line in the street. The street itself is a hard-packed material, and would not be paved until the 1930s. 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. The mid-19th century arrival of the Hartford, Providence & Fishkill Rairoad greatly expanded Bristol's markets for its already important clock-making and brass industries, and spurrred a variety of other industrial and commercial enterprises supported by investments of the Bristol Savings Bank and the Bristol National Bank. This image of a downtown with its caucophany of signs and businesses reflects the recent boom in the mass manufacture of affordable products for the home, made possible by the industrial revolution of the 1870s and 80s, and the related rise of a middle class able to afford those products. This view takes in a much older frame building from the early or mid 19th century at the far left, and newer brick blocks, all housing storefronts and upper story commercial spaces explained by a profusion of signs. The street, which leads down a slope, is clear of traffic. A couple of shop keepers, blurred in the course of their work arranging produce stalls, can be seen down the block in front of their grocery. From the left is Roberts & Arnold, a stove and hardware business. Fixed atop on the steep gable roof is a huge woden sign advertising "Magee Products/ Gas Stoves/ Heaters & Ranges/ Steam & Hot Water Heating/ Plumbing and Tinning/ Grain Tile/ Colonial Paints". The ground floor storefront bears the signs of an auto supply: "Goodyear Services/ Supreme Auto Oil/ Hood Tires". Right in front at the curb is a gas pump with a Socony sign. Next door are Hayes' Lunch and an indoor shoe shine place (offering service for "10 cents"). Farther down is the J.C. Cullen "News Room" carrying "Stationery/ Cigar/ Tobacco". Upstairs is a sign shop. Across a side street looms a large, more recently built brick block capped by a sign reading "Bristol Furniture Co." in large letters mounted on a scaffold on the building's roof. Taking advantage of its location, the building's corner is cut off to maximize its visibility from the upper end of Main Street. Above this corner's large storefront window, huge, white letters painted on the upper wall read vertically: Bristol Furniture Co." Additional advertisements painted on the building's side wall read: "Chamber Suites" (ie. furniture sets) Oil Cloth/ Linoleum" and a picture of a Victorian gas kitchen stove surrounded by the caption: "Here's the Whole Story - Makes Cooking Easy". An Elm tree leans over the scene from across the street.