Mystery Photos #61 and #62: Posing with Car

Not much is known about these two photos, other than that the car has Minnesota plates that appear to show the year 1925 or 1935. Is this a scene from Duluth? Is it possible to pin this photo on any map? Obviously bonus points for identifying people in the photo.

Don’t be fooled by how the building at right appears to look a little bit like the Chromaline/Ikonics building in West Duluth. It is not.

4 Comments

Matthijs

about 6 years ago

I could be wrong, but I believe that is a photo for Perfect Minneapolis Day. The building in the background seems to be the old Janney, Semple, Hill & Co. Warehouse in the Gateway District of Minneapolis.

Using an image from the University of Minnesota Digital Content library, I've added an arrow to show where the photo was probably taken from.
 

Paul Lundgren

about 6 years ago

Yeah, that looks like a pretty good match. There's a chance the people in the photo are Duluthians, but they are apparently not in Duluth in this photo.

Ramos

about 6 years ago

I find that to be an uncannily exact answer, Matthijs.

Matthijs

about 6 years ago

I appreciate that, Ramos, because I was actually a bit disappointed by my own answer. I couldn't find a photo of the building they are next to, which I thought would be more convincing and interesting than the warehouse in the background. And it should be possible because there are so many photos online of the Gateway District before it was demolished, and it's a rather small area.   Last night, some time after I had posted and was just closing all my open tabs, I started browsing through one of the more interesting photo sites related to downtown Minneapolis and came across a whole series on the building they are next to, the Ritz/Minnesotan Hotel (http://www.lileks.com/mpls/hotels/ritz/index.html). So the people in the photo were most likely Minnesota based tourists. And the plates most likely say 1935, not only because they appear to be sitting on a 1935 Chevrolet Master Delux, but also because the windows of the Minneapolis Post Office building are visible through the windshield of the car in top photo, and that building was completed in 1933. That feels more like a sufficiently exact answer to me. Other than, of course, who these people are.

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