Postcard from Superior Street in 1871

Paul Lundgren May 12, 2021 2 Comments

What did Superior Street look like 150 years ago? Well, a little something like what’s shown in the postcard image above.

Postcard artists, of course, were known to take a few liberties — particularly with color choices, but also sometimes radically altering perspectives — but still, the cards generally offer a reasonably accurate sense of how things appeared back in the day.

It can be difficult to match up old images of Superior Street with modern times, but my guess would be we are looking at roughly the 200 to 400 blocks of West Superior Street. The only storefront with a sign I can read is the third building from the left, “Banking House.”

“Some of these tunes are among my best,” Bennett continues. “Just try to imagine them being recorded by someone who knows what they’re doing in a real studio. They’d really be great, like that. But they never will be, because I have shat, and now I am getting off the pot. This album is a mess, but it’s my mess, and I am taking responsibility for it.”

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2 Comments

Matthijs

about 3 years ago 


This photograph from approximately the same year, location and angle, but taken from a bit farther back, shows the postcard area in relation to the Clark House, which gives a better sense of what part of Superior Street is being shown. The position of the buildings all seem accurate, but the postcard maker seems to have made some substantial improvements to the quality of the street.

Matthijs

about 3 years ago 



And zooming in on this photograph from about the same period allows us to see the names of a few of the other businesses (from left to right: Oswald Rothschild, Banking House, City Meat Market, and Insurance).

The photo in the comment above and the one here both have higher resolution versions available on the Minnesota Reflections page.
 

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