New Hartford House, New Hartford, Conn.

New Hartford House, New Hartford, Conn.

View across a downtown intersection of a three-story Victorian building on a corner, with neighboring commercial blocks on either side. 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 sent back to Belfast, Maine, and processed into postcards at the printing plant on High Street. The Eastern photographer positions his camera at the main intersection of New Hartford's tiny downtown to face the hotel's corner entrance with its picturesque Victorian tower. Both street sides of the block are also visible. A covered balcony running the entire length of the second story wraps around the corner. Below, at the awnings on the left, is Milton F. Shapiro's General Store. Signs advertise "Clothing/ Shoes/ / Dry Goods/ House Furnishings" as well as "Candy (and) Perfecto Cigars". A man approaches his car parked outside. Around the corner from the main hotel corner entrance is a door marked "Ladies' Entrance". (This allowed women to enter a public space like a restuarant or hotel inconspicuously and without having to pass by the bar, which was mostly male territory.) Farther down the block on the right is an early 20th century brick commercial building. One of its storefronts is identified with the sign "Economy". The neighboring building is an earlier wood frame commercial structure from the mid-1900s.