Good Morning, Oppo

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 02/11/2020 at 09:35 • Filed to: good morning oppo

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cletus44 aka Clayton Seams > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 09:42

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Mornin!

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 09:49

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Check this out:

Back in 1914, that shop did a truck repair for the government and repaired clothwork on a carriage (?).

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/11/2020 at 09:52

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They did some further repairs twice more in 1915 , repaired a carriage for the navy department naval observatory in 1914, and provided a curtain and repaired a carriage for Commerce.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 09:54

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Also:

http://carsandracingstuff.com/library/r/rmcreynoldsson.php

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/11/2020 at 10:00

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From that entry and the address:

The Boyd’s Directory of 1903.

The 1400 block of L St. NW now has a 7-11 and a Bank of America.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/11/2020 at 10:05

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...and the ad from 1922, in addition to mentioning the Willys-Knights, mentions that McReynolds dealt in Ward electric trucks. Which were like this:

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/11/2020 at 10:37

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Ain’t history fun? Thanks for finding all this. 

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/11/2020 at 10:37

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Progress?

facw > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/11/2020 at 10:41

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Neat! Given the little bend and the narrowness of the street, I wonder if this photo is actually off an alley behind the buildings. Odd numbers are on the north side of the street, so it presumably would have been the building on the right here, again with the shot being from down the alley you can see between the buildings:

I hope some library or archive has a deal with Google to maintain their street view data long-term, one imagines there isn’t much value for Google in keeping it around forever (though the fact they added the timeline view is encouraging), but an ongoing record of the growth of cities is definitely of long-term general interest.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 10:59

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I was curious where this was, and before trying to reverse-GIS or anything, I noticed that the company had a highly unusual surname attached. “McReynolds”. Celtic adoption of a germanic root last name? “Aha”, said I. “Almost no way searching the name won’t turn some things up.”

A t that point I had opened the history-dive Pringles can. Once popped...

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 11:07

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Progress re: the trucks or the site? I can’t say either way. I can’t imagine the range or speed of the trucks was much to write home about.

For damn sure you can’t buy a tractor at that address anymore, so is a 7-11 more “prestigious”? Who knows. It certainly is an interesting thought - selling tractors in DC.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > facw 02/11/2020 at 11:17

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Yeah, alley behind + raised street was my guess for the perspective of the shot - which was also the story with a site near a hotel in a previous ttyymmnn “little ‘20s repair shop” image.

The real killer trick would be if I could find ~1920 washington survey maps...

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > facw 02/11/2020 at 11:36

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I found this, which doesn’t have a detail of that site, but is kind of neat:

https://www.loc.gov/item/78695113/

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/11/2020 at 11:40

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The site. DC has gone through an extraordinary amount of change in its history.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > facw 02/11/2020 at 11:59

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Looks like the buildings weren’t terribly deep and there was some space behind, but it’s not super-clear. (1926 aerial photo mosaic).

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 12:09

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I found it in an aerial survey. Not easy to see much of what’s there, but it looks a bit like there are some trees/woods out of frame to the left.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > facw 02/11/2020 at 12:19

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Obsoive. An alley is shown on this map, as well as a connecting alley coming off of L. It’s possible that that in-between alley is the gap between the Ford dealer and McReynolds. This map is from ‘24 . If that alley were there today, it would be aligned with the Starbucks, which would be about right.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 12:20

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Here’s a link to where I finally found a map including that alley behind the businesses on L:

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3851p.ct004825/?r=0.526,0.595,0.235,0.144,0

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 12:22

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This isometric/artistic map actually has a lot of businesses called out, including (for example) what was then the DC Nash dealer.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3851p.ct004825/?r=0.526,0.595,0.235,0.144,0

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/11/2020 at 12:27

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Slow day at work today? You’ve spent all morning on this. :D

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 12:46

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A bit slow. I was in the office until after 9 last night trying to stave off any urgent events this morning, so between digging through six months of emails on one project trying to find information, checking the fit of some parts, and waiting for an esoteric debate on a fluid cooler part number to die down, it’s been relatively slack.

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/11/2020 at 12:49

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I keep trying to impress upon my kids how burning some midnight oil one day can make your next day better. I guess some lessons can only be learned empirically.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 13:04

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In my case it’s out of necessity. In order to draw/generate part drawings and the like, I have to make use of the creative side of my head, otherwise the drawings don’t come. Simple part revisions or single parts I can generate in minutes, but a more complex part requires me to be able to keep a map running of where I am in the process, otherwise I stare at the screen and can’t function. Not only this, but I need to have a sense of place of how the elements should lay out. Since a fairly normal course of day-to-day office time engages a lot of recall (what was that part, how did it work, when did we discuss it, what was this or that on that project), I have a very, very hard time creating data from a blank slate *during* the workday. Interruptions kill.

If I’m here at 7:00 and the haze of the rest of the day clears, and I am then in a fugue and working faster without interruptions , I dare not stop.

fintail > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 13:06

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First two car are late run Model Ts, perhaps 1925-26 -ish. Third car in next to the Model T coupe is an Essex, I’d have to study the others to tell more.

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/11/2020 at 13:10

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My son is home sick today, which means that he’s watching TV in the living room where my computer is. Normally, it is quiet, and I can focus on writing, or practicing, or working on teaching invoices. I can’t possibly write with the noise in the background. I simply can’t concentrate or keep a coherent thought. I was trying to do invoices for my students this morning, and I had to put headphones on to block out the TV. Still, even with music I like playing, I can’t concentrate and I sent somebody the wrong bill. Maybe I need some noice canceling headphones. 

ttyymmnn > fintail 02/11/2020 at 13:11

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RamblinRover did a ton of detective work on this shot this morning, using maps from the mid-20s. 

fintail > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 13:55

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I saw that, crazy what is relatively easily available online.