Mornings on Maple Street

a collection of articles, stories, photographs, the Lewis Hine Project, and much more by Joe Manning

Poor All Her Life

There died at the county home a few days ago a woman remarkable in one respect, and that is that she in all probability held the world record as to successive days spent in the almshouse. Her name is Lynn Anderson and she was about 80 years old, and about 76 of those years had … [Read more...]

Rural Mail Delivery Experiment

Within two years a man standing in Indianapolis will be able to put his finger on every farmhouse in Indiana - that is, on the map, says the Indianapolis News. This is one of the details of the rural mail delivery experiment that the government is working out in Indiana. If in … [Read more...]

Saw Their Old Bones

The first article below, and the additional one I found later got my curiosity up. Who was this Dr. Rae Felt? "Interesting name," I thought. And notice in the second article that the X-ray technology he demonstrated in April was apparently used to advantage, just a few months … [Read more...]

Emigrants

The names of emigrants who left Schuyler county in 1849 for California, as furnished by Jonathan D. Manlove, Esq., leader of the company. The company left Rushville on the first of April and reached Feather River on the 22nd of October: John Blackford, Samuel Boring, Jacob … [Read more...]

Seventeen Brought To Dubuque

Mr. Robert Curran, accompanied by Mrs. E. Higgins, the matron in charge, arrived over the Milwaukee at 8:06 yesterday morning with a flock of orphans from the Catholic foundling asylum in New York. There were seventeen of them who alighted from one of the coaches and marched in … [Read more...]

North Adams – Eagle Street

The downtown block of Eagle Street, a narrow commercial area just off Main Street, has always been a mix of Mom and Pop stores. Most of the buildings were built in the middle years of the 19th century, but because of many changes in the business climate over the years, the … [Read more...]

North Adams – River Street

River Street has been the most well-defined example of a working-class neighborhood in North Adams ever since Arnold Print Works opened its sprawling factory in the 1860s. The factory, then Sprague Electric Company, closed in 1985, and the street rapidly deteriorated. But it is … [Read more...]

Mohawk Theater and Train Tunnels

The classic Art Deco Mohawk Theater opened in North Adams in 1938, and closed permanently in the late 1980s. State funding and local fundraising will likely finance the renovation and conversion of the theater to a well-equiped performance space and movie house at a still … [Read more...]

North Adams – J.J. Newberry

J.J. Newberry opened in North Adams in 1926, and closed in 1993. It consisted of a three-story building fronting Main St, built in 1867, and a long attached building behind which was used primarily for storage. In 2001, the owner of the vacant building demolished the attached … [Read more...]

North Adams – Houses

The three houses on North Holden Street, which I have dubbed the "triplets," were all built by Dennis Sullivan in the 1890s. They have since been  restored and renovated. The Haggerty Block is a sort of flatiron-shaped apartment building constructed about 1890. It hovers … [Read more...]

North Adams – Mills

I love to photograph old mills. Their faded colors and forlorn look perhaps reflect the real feelings of the many workers who toiled long hours in them for low wages. The Beaver Mill was converted by artist Eric Rudd to the Contemporary Artists Center in 1990. The pink-colored … [Read more...]

North Adams – Odd Photos

I call these "Odd Photos," because that's what they are - odd. The shot of the church through the library entrance was a spur of the moment thing. I was sitting on the Mass MoCA sound installation speaker when I noticed the dark, ominous scene through the underpass. I walked into … [Read more...]

Various North Adams Photos

The Jarisch Box Company, a longtime business in North Adams, moved to an industrial park in the city in the 1990s, leaving vacant its historic building on American Legion Drive. In 2003, the City of North Adams, now owners of the property, demolished it. The window on North … [Read more...]

Mass MoCA

The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1999. It occupies a 13-acre campus of 26 buildings formerly occupied by Arnold Print Works (1860-1942), and Sprague Electric Company (1942-1986). Its performing arts programs are equal in stature to its visual art programs. … [Read more...]

Letter From An Old Settler

When I saw this old newspaper article on the Internet, I was captivated by the author's simple eloquence and his vivid description of life on the Wisconsin frontier more than 150 years ago. I wanted to know more about him. Very quickly, I was able to identify him in the US Census … [Read more...]

Dauphin School

After discovering the wonderful article below (Athens Weekly Review (Texas), January 18, 1901), I wanted to know more about the young Texas student who wrote it. By researching the census, death records, and other records on the Internet, and finally contacting a descendant, my … [Read more...]

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joe@sevensteeples.com