Cadillac Square, 1916

[Ray1936]

Shorpy [[www.shorpy.com) has posted a new old photo of Cadillac Square in 1916 that will knock your eyes out for detail. Enjoy! http://www.shorpy.com/node/6568?size=_original

[Detroit500]

Ray,
Thanks to you I now have a new Desktop Background! Absolutely STUNNING image!!!

[Doma]

That was amazing, thanks so much!

Shorpy [[www.shorpy.com) has posted a new old photo of Cadillac Square in 1916 that will knock your eyes out for detail. Enjoy! http://www.shorpy.com/node/6568?size=_original

[staticstate]

what's the awesome big building dominating the shot? I assume that schitt has been torn down?

[Stosh]

Absolutely a great, high quality shot. I hope they continue in this vein with the Detroit Publishing catalog. It's a great improvement over the ones at the LOC.

The picture shows the square's buildings in their heyday. I remember them only from the 60's as faded ghosts. Where the cars were parked I remember as where the busses used to come in.

[crawford]

Wow, look at all that surface parking!

Looks like Big Beaver Road or something.

[jbd441]

Check out the picture of the NYPL. I live in Manhattan and recently visited the library. It is in the process of a makeover. Absolutely a breathtaking building inside and out.

[Stosh]

Wow, look at all that surface parking!

Looks like Big Beaver Road or something.

Yeppers. Seems to me that the sustainability of that area isn't that great, is it?

The large building to the right of the picture is the Hotel Ponchatrain. Which was hosting an auto sales convention at the time.

[Mikeg]

what's the awesome big building dominating the shot? I assume that schitt has been torn down?

The Hotel Pontchartrain opened in 1907 on the site of the former Russell Hotel, which was built in 1857. In 1920, the Hotel Pontchartrain was demolished to make way for the National Bank Building, which is now known as the First National Building.

[mcsdetroitfriend]

I wish the Manning Brothers photographic archive would be freed to the public

[eriedearie]

WOW! Knocked my eyes out to see such a beautifully clear photo from back then. Thanks for posting the link Ray!

[the rock]

Thanks for the wonderful photo, '36, showing the Gregory, Mayer and Thom Building., a ten store structure that sat next to the Cadillac Tower. My Uncle Bill Gregory and his father [[ who was one of the three original founding partners) were in that building for several years, and when it was finally torn down, it seemed to take forever. It was a real concrete fortress. After it was leveled, it left a real void on Campus Martius.
I still have my marble pen and pencil set given to me by Uncle Bill when I passed the Michigan Br in 1964. GMT was the Staples of their era. They supplied office supplies and furniture to literally hundreds of businesses in the tri county area.

[rjk]

The name of actress Bertha Kalich appears in the lower left corner. I take it that building contained a playhouse of some sort?

[marshall]

Thanks for the great post! I really enjoy looking at old pics of Detroit.

Lots of streetcars. Seems funny that we had better public transportation in 1906 than we have today!

[Shorpy]

I hope they continue in this vein with the Detroit Publishing catalog. It's a great improvement over the ones at the LOC.

The Detroit Publishing photos *are* from the LOC.

[DetroitPlanner]

Thanks for the great post! I really enjoy looking at old pics of Detroit.

Lots of streetcars. Seems funny that we had better public transportation in 1906 than we have today!

Don't know about that I could do without the horse poop or open sided buses.

[rb336]

Is that the first "Hotel Pontchartrain" there?

oh, if you go ALLL the way down, it says so

I love that building.

[Stosh]

The Detroit Publishing photos *are* from the LOC.

Well of course they are. My point being that the quality of the shot is no where near the quality of the photographs available at the site. It's been considerably improved. Even their archival TIFF isn't as good as the one on the shorpy site. I think they've taken the TIFF and digitally enhanced it to achieve the clarity they have.

Take a look at the LOC version and compare to the Shorpy one. For one, Shorpy's been cropped. Also, the backround buildings have been clarified.
http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/de...0/4a24890v.jpg

[jerrytimes]

Ray,
Thanks to you I now have a new Desktop Background! Absolutely STUNNING image!!!

I do too. I wish Detroit looked like that.

[EastsideAl]

So, which structures in this photo are still standing? I believe only the Soldiers & Sailors Monument, the old County Building, and the hotel building to the right of the Pontchartrain [[now adjacent to the First National Bldg.). Are those the only ones?

[Nicodeme]

Well of course they are. My point being that the quality of the shot is no where near the quality of the photographs available at the site. It's been considerably improved. Even their archival TIFF isn't as good as the one on the shorpy site. I think they've taken the TIFF and digitally enhanced it to achieve the clarity they have.

Take a look at the LOC version and compare to the Shorpy one. For one, Shorpy's been cropped. Also, the backround buildings have been clarified.
http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/de...0/4a24890v.jpg

Shorpy does enhance their photos, for clarity, size, and contrast, color, and whatever else they think will make the picture look better. Some may not like that they alter the photos, but I think their changes make them look more lifelike, more like what the photographer saw. Shorpy is a fascinating Web site to browse; always many brilliant pieces of our past there.

[Rockin' Best]

Awesome shot. The original appears to have been shot on a 8x10 negative, possibly glass. Then, a contact print made. Also, some lenses from the mid-teens were quite impressive [[the apochromatic "process" lenses).They were [[and are) more than capable of this kind of resolution. I'll venture this because I've shot with a smaller 4x5 view camera for decades, and know what the images from apos look like.

Thanks for posting this image. A keeper.

[Rockin' Best]

Follow-on thought

Sure, this image may have also been digitally enhanced to correct certain problems, if there were any. But such enhancement would have to start with high image resolution and a large enough format size that minimises "grain." And those two important qualities are definitely there in this shot.

[Stosh]

Follow-on thought

Sure, this image may have also been digitally enhanced to correct certain problems, if there were any. But such enhancement would have to start with high image resolution and a large enough format size that minimises "grain." And those two important qualities are definitely there in this shot.

Downloading the TIFF from the LOC is no problem. It's saving it in an image form after you edit that's the problem. You obviously need a computer with more computing chops than mine to finish the job. Adobe Photoshop elements works good in clarifying and adjusting contrast and lighting.

While downloading and fooling with another file from LOC, the view down Woodward, I found a few things that I cut for here.

First was a movie at the old Opera House called Somewhere in Georgia. It looked as if was starring Ty Cobb, a little looking brought this up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somewhere_in_Georgia

Attachment 2538

[Ray1936]

PC magazine just rated them as the 66th best web site on the web. Considering the tens of thousands sites that exist, that's not a bad ranking. I check it every day for new photos and am never disappointed.

RJK, if you Wikipedia 'Bertha Kalich", you'll find a short bio.