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Aerial photo of St. John’s taken from from a blimp in September 1920

46 comments

Martha McConnell Looney 08/19/2017 at 7:04 AM

Great photo. You can see Patrick Henry park wasn’t built yet. You can also see where Nolde condos is today and the Belfry Condos,(church) didn’t have the school annex built yet. That was 1929.

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Katherine Jester 08/19/2017 at 7:38 AM

Thanks for posting, these old photos are so much fun. Does anyone know what the big building in the 400 block of 25th Street is? Looks like a school, although I guess it could also be a church.

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Dana Bagby 08/19/2017 at 7:53 AM

Ahhh, so that’s what was across the street before the tunnel claimed it.

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Keith West 08/19/2017 at 8:15 AM

Quite the commercial district where the Nolde is now.

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Dana Bagby 08/19/2017 at 8:29 AM

THANKS!!

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Punisher 08/19/2017 at 11:07 AM

Also, the RUST HOUSE is in this photo. My father was born in that house in February of that year.

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Stokes McCune 08/19/2017 at 10:24 AM

It’s actually an Aerial view of St. Patrick’s! Just saying

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Loren Isabel 08/19/2017 at 7:22 PM

So crazy to see all the buildings that aren’t there anymore

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Samantha Elaine 08/19/2017 at 7:22 PM

Loren, crazy and sad

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Eric S. Huffstutler 08/22/2017 at 10:26 PM

@2 Katherine Jeter, that is actually the 300 block and is Corcoran Hall (311 N 25th). Later, it became the Model Steam Laundry building. Here is a CHPN link to an old post about it:

https://chpn.net/2014/02/22/corcoran-hall-1936/

@3 Dana Bagby… the tunnel did not claim that block. Granted, the post office that was across the street did develop cracks in the wall and they moved out but, the rest of the business were there until 1962 when the buildings were torn down. Preservationists at the time felt they had no value, were poorly built, had become dilapidated and abandoned so, the city had other plans with the park. I wrote a piece on this called “The Vanishing Block” in the April, 2014 CHA Newsletter. here is that link where the article starts on Page 20.

http://www.churchhill.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2014APR-web.pdf

Did they take more shots of Church Hill in 1920 outside of Broad Street?

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Eric S. Huffstutler 08/22/2017 at 11:06 PM

@7 Punisher… Can you give any background on the Rust house? For those who do not know what we are talking about, it is the house that sits directly to the right of the large Corcoran Hall (was a laundry plant by the 1920 photo), and has the dormer windows. I have info when it was torn down long ago but, could have been the oldest, or one of the oldest houses in Church Hill if it were still standing. The Hall came down in 1965. I have discovered our house was built in 1809 (not 1812 as long believed) and this was listed as being built before 1812 but how long before? Address was 307 N 25th.

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Eric S. Huffstutler 08/22/2017 at 11:24 PM

Wanted to add one more thing about this photo, which has such historic value. The block where Nolde’s sits on Broad today. If you look and see the building on the corner of 26th and Broad, that is the original 1892 shop. The 3-story building in the middle of the block with the painted sign saying Tip-Top Bread on it, was the original Nolde’s plant built in 1897 (demolished in 1950 for modern expansions) and the 2 story attached to the left of it is where the Nolde family lived.

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Rob Pate 08/23/2017 at 4:11 AM

Looks like a great place to start an Historic District!

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