Detroit circa 1905. “Mather Block, Woodward Avenue.” Where merchants vying for your trade include Madame Mattlar’s Temple of Beauty (“Corns removed, 25¢”); William E. Metzger, dealer in “Motorcycles Bicycles Phonographs”; an outpost of the Singer Sewing Machine Co.; Tuomy Bros. (suits and cloaks) and the eyeball-bedizened offices of L. Kaplan Optician (“I Glassed Detroit”). 8×10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company.
ROCHESTER, Sept. 13 — Rochester’s new hotel, the Seneca, will be opened tomorrow in time for the State Democratic Convention, which meets here Tuesday. The hostelry in size will compare with the Hotel Astor in New York. Its architecture is in a general way French Renaissance. It is constructed of brick of brownish hue, trimmed with gray terra-cotta. The hotel has a frontage of 130 feet on Clinton Avenue, and is only a couple of blocks from the city’s Convention Hall. It runs back 200 feet to Cortland Street, and along the side has the advantage of a private roadway 30 feet wide. The main entrance to the lobby of the hotel is from this private street. This provides a porte cochere, which affords protection to those alighting from carriages in inclement weather.
— New York Times
Rochester, New York, circa 1908. “Hotel Seneca, Clinton Avenue at Cortland Street.” Last glimpsed here, the hotel (interior view here) was razed in 1969. 8×10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company.
Detroit circa 1909. “Operating room” is all it says here, and we’re sure whatever that is on the floor will mop right up. 8×10 glass negative.
