Beckwith Street, Smiths Falls postcard

Description

Comments (0)

Creator

John Nichol

Media Type

Image

Item Types

Photographs

Postcards

Description

See the Pages box at top of this record and click the downward pointing select arrow to access the different views. Use +/- symbol on the left for resizing. Or click the red arrow 'PDF version of the page' on the right for even greater resizing capabilities.

Notes

Illustrated in Glenn J. Lockwood. "Smiths Falls: A Social History of the Men and Women in a Rideau Canal Community 1794-1994." Smiths Falls: Corporation of the Town of Smiths Falls, 1994, p.229 - the caption reads: "View looking north up Beckwith street during the annual December poultry fair with "Fort Hemlock" on the far left, as photographed by John Nichol circa 1888. The spires of Saint Andrew's Presbyterian church and the Baptist church crowning the brow of Beckwith street reveal a town in which the visual relation of buildings to one another once mattered. The equal height and similar design of the two spires on the churches, like the alternating tones of brick and stone in the commercial facades leading up to them, created a sense of a uniform vista. They were evidence of a proprietorial pride in the appearance of the front street of the town as a valued possession of all inhabitants. A later generation would find it difficult to believe that the handsome appearance of Beckwith street was a major source of prideful boast, "What other town can compare with Smith's Falls!" (1994, p.229)."

Image of the reverse of the postcard was not available.

Date of Original