Category: Photography

Clean and Bright

Clean and Bright
Cute sign for Clean and Bright Laundry, 812 S. Potomac Street in Hagerstown, Maryland. That little cat is jumping in the clean laundry!

They Called Her Moses

A humble gravestone marks the final resting place of abolitionist, wartime spy, and social activist Harriet Tubman (1822-1913) in Fort Hill Cemetery, 19 Fort Street in Auburn, New York. Born Araminta Ross, a slave in Maryland, Harriet escaped to the free states in 1849, where she helped hundreds more escape slavery through the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as a scout and spy for the Union Army. After the war, she advocated for women’s suffrage. She died of pneumonia in 1913 at the age of 90 or 91.

Belington’s Golden Rule Co.

Golden Rule
Old brick ad for The Golden Rule Department Store, 122 Crim Avenue in Belington, West Virginia. The Shinn family built a grocery store at this location 117 years ago during the height of West Virignia’s coal boom. The Golden Rule Department Store opened in 1939 but has stood abandoned for many years. Revitalization efforts have raised hope for the building’s future.

Magdalene’s Eyes Opened

Bronze monument to Charles Mather Ffoulke (1841-1909), his wife, Sarah Cushing (1852-1926), and their children in St. Paul’s Rock Creek Cemetery, 201 Allison Street NW, Washington, DC. Charles was a merchant, investment banker, and art collector. Titled “Rabboni”, this sculpture of Mary Magdalene emerging from Jesus’ tomb on Easter was designed by Gutzon Borglum in 1909. The epitaph reads:

“THE END OF BIRTH IS DEATH \ THE END OF DEATH IS LIFE AND \ WHERFOR MOURNEST THOU”

Charles Mather Ffoulke (1841-1909)

Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio

Established in 1869 as a nonprofit garden cemetery, Lake View Cemetery at 12316 Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio contains a veritable who’s who from Cleveland’s once-storied past, including the remains of U.S. President James A. Garfield. Over 110,000 former residents are interred in its sprawling 285 acres.

Henry Chisholm (1822-1881)

This larger-then-life statue is dedicated to Scottish-American steel magnate Henry Chisholm (1822-1881). Chisholm emigrated to Montreal, Quebec at the age of 20. He steadily built a thriving construction business, then bought the Cleveland Rolling Mill with his brother in 1857. It became one of the largest steel companies in the U.S. His wife, Jean Allen, and he had five children. They are not buried beneath this monument (designed by sculptor Charles Henry Niehaus) but in the family mausoleum nearby.

John Milton Hay (1838-1905)

This intimidating monument was erected in memory of U.S. Secretary of State John Milton Hay (1838-1905). Hay was a lawyer and Abraham Lincoln’s private secretary. He served President William McKinley as Ambassador to Great Britain, and then Secretary of State in 1898. He continued in that position under President Theodore Roosevelt. He was also an author who wrote a ten volume biography of Abraham Lincoln. His epitaph reads: “The fruit of righteousness is sown in place of them that make peace.”

Continue reading “Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio”

She Flies at Night

This freestanding bronze statue of a cloaked woman in Forest Lawn Cemetery, 1411 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo, New York, was designed by Philadelphia sculptor Harriet Whitney Frishmuth and titled “Aspiration.” It commemorates iron mogul William A. Rogers (1851-1946) and his wife, Eleanor Silliman Rogers, a trustee of Buffalo General Hospital. This statue is one of three in existence.

William A. Rogers (1851-1946)