From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
A View at North Brookfield, N.Y. 404.
Scene of an early Upstate New York gas station and market on a paved road in summer. Two men sit on the stoop, chatting. Several early automobiles and a truck are parked in the front parking area. This image is part of a series made by one of the three Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company photographers assigned to New England or upstate New York. The glass plates would be sent back to Belfast, Maine, and processed into postcards at the printing plant on High Street. The sign over the store entrance and on the truck reads "A.M.Raffauf/ Meats/General Merchandise". The gas and motor oil sold here is the well-marked Socony brand fuel. A sign across the road indicates that the scene is 5 miles from Utica. The vignette of the two men talking reminds us that such stores were often a place for informal catch-ups with neighbors, or a place to discuss politics and the news of the day.
