19th Century (pre-1890) Shenandoah

 

Possibly pre-fire view of the town from Locust Mountain.  Extremely early photograph.

 

 

Residence of Mrs. Jane Grant, Shenandoah City, P.A. Drawing signed "H.S.P." Lithographed by Charles  Hart, 36 Vesey Street, NY. On 12.75 x 15.625" sheet, thought to be from a Beers Almanac of  Schuylkill County.  Location unknown.  Possibly southwest corner of Chestnut and Oak.  Pre-1883 fire era.

 

Shenandoah Valley Bank, Main Street, Shenandoah City, P.A. J. Wasley, President. J.B. McGamant, Cashier.  On 12.75 x 15.625" sheet, thought to be from a Beers Almanac of  Schuylkill County.  Pre-1883 fire era.

 

Presumably pre-fire engraving of Watson's Liquor.
 

 

On Monday, November 12, 1883, the carelessness of a maid in the United States Hotel with a can of kerosene started a fire which destroyed every
building on both sides of Main Street, south as far as Cherry Street, and east as far as Bower.  More than three hundred structures were destroyed.  
The photo was taken on the morning of Tuesday, November 13, 1883, from one of the upper floors of a building on the northwest corner of Main &
Centre looking south and east.

 
1889 Panoramic map. Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on December 21, 1842, and ran away from home at the age of fifteen. Although initially rejected because he was underage, after some maneuvering Fowler was sworn into the 21st Regiment of the New York Volunteers at Elmira, New York, in May 1861. He established his own panoramic map firm and in 1870 produced a view of Omro, Wisconsin. This was followed the next year by panoramas of Peshtigo, Sheboygan Falls, and Waupaca, Wisconsin. Morrisville served as a convenient operating center as Fowler began to draw and publish views of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio cities. His production of Pennsylvania panoramas was greater than that of any other artist for a particular state. Throughout his career, which extended over fifty-four years, Thaddeus Fowler never ceased to find pleasure in drawing and publishing panoramic maps. In a letter to his granddaughter written in 1920, he said that he felt "an unadulterated joy" while sketching a view of Middletown, New York. This was the expression of a man who at that time had been working at his profession fifty years! Fowler gained commissions for city plans by interesting citizens and civic groups in the idea of a panoramic map of their community. After one town had agreed to having a map made, he would seek to involve neighboring communities. By noting that he had already secured an agreement for a view from one town in the area, he would play on the pride, community spirit, and sense of competition of adjacent communities. By such promotional procedures, he garnered commitments for panoramic maps from a limited geographical area, thus reducing travel expenses. Fowler died in 1922. Source: Library of Congress.
 
 
circa 1891. The funeral procession for Pranas [Francis] Petrauskas, victim of a mining accident, pauses at the north end of Main Street, before ascending Locust Mountain to the burial in St. George's cemetery.