On Saturday, April 18, the Romeo Community Archives hosted a Scanning Party at the Romeo District Library Kezar Branch. For those who don't know, these events involve people receiving high-quality scans of their photographs to ensure long-term preservation. In our case, patrons even had a chance to donate their digital copies to the archives if they wanted to. One person Charlotte Grobbel did just that by giving copies of family pictures throughout the years to our digital collection. I've talked about two of them before, so here's another one.
This is a picture of what Charlotte calls "The Alley." It's located in the extension of Church Street near the corner of North Bailey Street in Romeo. Charlotte's father Frank Murphy Jr. took this photo sometime in the 1940s. She recalled that the Verellen Electric Company, run by Louis Verellen, was on the far left side in the picture's foreground. The electric company occupied 255 North Bailey Street by 1951.
In addition, two historic homes are present in the background. The one on the left is the John Dittman Residence on 262 North Bailey Street. It was built in 1882. Did I say built? I meant he altered the house so drastically that even The Romeo Observer had to comment on the front page of the October 18, 1882 issue.
During his lifetime, Dittman erected a lot of homes in the northeast area of Romeo.
The home on the right is the James H. Boden Residence on 246 North Bailey Street. It was built in 1868, and Boden - the original owner - was a carriage manufacturer in Romeo.
Trees obscure the building in the middle, so it's hard to tell what it is. It's possible that it's the Village Office on 252 North Bailey Street, but the documents pertaining to that house claim that it was constructed in the 1950s. However, I snapped a photo of the same area recently, and what can be seen is somewhat similar to the building in the older picture.
On top of that, the address 252 North Bailey Street existed by 1950 with Harry and Madeline Hathaway living in it according to the US Census that year, but it doesn't mean it's the same house. Again, the trees block what we can see of it.
Today, the area hasn't changed all that much. There are some house and road alterations, and the home health agency Bay Nursing INC. currently occupies 255 North Bailey Street. Regardless, it's still the same spot as it was about 80 years ago, and we have to thank Charlotte for donating the photo to our digital collection.
People can view this picture and others on our online catalog at https://rcarchives.pastperfectonline.com/
Our next Scanning Party will happen later this year, so keep an eye out for it!
To learn more about "The Alley" as well as the Scanning Party, you can contact the Romeo Community Archives at rca@romemodistrictlibrary.org or call (586) 690-4890. If you want to search for articles on that topic, you can find the Romeo newspapers like The Romeo Observer on the Suburban Library Cooperative's Local History Digital Collection website.
Images and sources courtesy of the Romeo Community Archives; Romeo Community Archives, Digital Collection; Charlotte Grobbel; Melvin E. and Joan D. Bleich Collection, The Romeo Observer, October 18, 1882, p.1; Ancestry; and 1951 V.F.W. Romeo Directory
Quick note about last week's article: it has brought to my attention that the Romeo Theatre Company also performed Anything Goes in 2007.