Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime?

[BlueTrain]

And speaking of coal towns, some miners were paid in company script, good only at the company store. I've never seen any.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The WPA gave us some very nice public buildings in the 1930s, but they had the advantage of having people with actual artistic and architectural talent on the payroll.

The schools I went to were without any architectural distinction -- or pretense to such distinction -- whatsoever. One was a low wooden-frame three-roomed clapboard building put up in 1930, that always seemed to need a new coat of the cheapest white paint possible. Second was a low, flat brown-stained-wood structure built in 1962 that looked like it escaped from an industrial park, and had a flat roof that leaked like a sieve, and finally, my high school was a low, flat cinder block bunker built in 1949 that would have made a lousy fallout shelter, if that's what they were thinking.

None of these schools exist today in their original form -- one was burned down for practice by the fire department, one was bulldozed to build a new playground, and the high school was completely rebuilt in the 90s after its accreditation was revoked by the state. But if you look close you can still see the seam where the new part ends and the old cinder blocks begin.

 

[BlueTrain]

Nothing escapes the march of time. An interesting thing in my hometown is the way some schools were repurposed for a lower grade level. As I mentioned above, the junior high I attended was the high school that my mother attended (my father never attended high school). Sometime in the 1950s, the junior high school was established, there previously having been only the two levels of schools, primary and secondary. Because of the baby boom, there was an addition built to the junior high, formerly high school. But it was in a contemporary style which did not match the original part. Some years back, the old part was destroyed in a fire but the addition continues in use as an elementary school. But my grade school was demolished years ago and nothing but grass occupies the space now. The other two grade schools in town continue with no additions or external alterations and are as imposing as they ever were, insofar as they ever were.

I always thought that some of the newer schools looked very business-like, but I had no eye for form or function. They just looked business-like to me but I thought the same thing about the airplane hanger at the little airfield in my hometown. Now, the airplane hanger had a sense of adventure to it, whereas none of the schools had the slightest whiff of adventure.

All of these comments could be applied to banks. At one time they were as imposing as possible and I've been in one or two that looked positively palatial. They're still there, too, but they aren't independent local banks anymore. And the one I'm thinking of, the former American Security & Trust, actually appeared on the $10 bill because it was across the street from the Treasury building. Now, it's a Bank of America. There was a bank next door and another one across the street. They're all still there but new bank buildings look much less imposing, which might be why they still get robbed.

 

[Fading Fast]

...All of these comments could be applied to banks. At one time they were as imposing as possible and I've been in one or two that looked positively palatial. They're still there, too, but they aren't independent local banks anymore. And the one I'm thinking of, the former American Security & Trust, actually appeared on the $10 bill because it was across the street from the Treasury building. Now, it's a Bank of America. There was a bank next door and another one across the street. They're all still there but new bank buildings look much less imposing, which might be why they still get robbed.

Pre WWII, owing to repeated banking crises (going back to the 1800s in this country) - and periodic upticks in bank robbery as a "thing -" banks built building to project fortitude, security, longevity, etc. to inspire confident in the public.

What's great about that is you can go into some small towns and, if the bank was built prior to WWII, there's a shot the bank will be an impressive structure with foot-thick walls,, Greek columns, etc.

Today, despite as you note, ongoing robbery issues, since no one worries about losing money in a bank (FDIC took care of that for most), banks now want their branches "accessible" and "friendly" which is why many of them look like coffee shops or generic mall stores and you'll also see a "greeter" at many today.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Part of the thing with banks is the whole place-product-package concept that came out of the gas station and fast food industries -- the idea that the building itself is the trademark. With so many modern banks being chains, the idea that they should have a consistent and recognizable architecture wherever possible is part of their marketing plan.

One of the radio stations where I used to work was located in a former National Bank building, at a time when "First National Bank of Yourtown" was significant -- well into the 1920s, this bank issued its own currency. The building was put up in the 1910s, and the inside still retained many of the original features when I was working there -- most impressively a tin ceiling embossed with large cartouches containing reproductions of all the coins then current. To look up and see a meticulously detailed sixteen-inch-in-diameter Mercury dime hanging over your head was quite a breathtaking experience.

 

[HudsonHawk]

This is the fire station that was recently built in our little district. People pitched a conniption fit at how over the top elaborate and ornamental it is, and what a disgusting waste of taxpayer dollars. A simple metal or cinder block cube is all that is necessary.

 

[Fading Fast]

In the little town of Saratoga Springs, there is a small bank building (see below) that still looks like a combination fortress and bunker, but architecturally beautiful in a classic Greek way.

While not as ornate inside as the bank Lizzie describes above ⇧, it has a time-travel-to-the-1920s feel to it (and the walls are so thick, the air "tastes" like 1920s air and you hear no evidence of any street activity inside the foot-or-so-thick walls).

For years, my girlfriend and I would say, "they could film a movie in here about a bank in the '20s with just a little tweaking." And, lo and behold, we later learned that some interior bank scenes from "Road to Perdition" were filmed there.

 

[tonyb]

I'm the odd man out here, by the looks of it, in that I'm a big fan of lots of post-War architecture -- not all of it, of course, and not to the exclusion of earlier styles. But I often pause to take a longer look at schools and branch banks and other structures built during the first couple-three decades after Big Brawl Deuce.

 

[Fading Fast]

This is the fire station that was recently built in our little district. People pitched a conniption fit at how over the top elaborate and ornamental it is, and what a disgusting waste of taxpayer dollars. A simple metal or cinder block cube is all that is necessary.

I'm a small-gov't, libertarian-leaning guy, but for God's sake, there is no reason that gov't buildings or offices shouldn't be - within reason - architecturally attractive. There are normal community standards and the gov't shouldn't exceed those (i.e., no vanity projects with taxpayer money), but there is no reason gov't buildings have to look like Soviet Union architecture.

 

[BlueTrain]

The bank in Sarasota Springs above looks just the same inside and out as the old AS&T bank that I mentioned above, only smaller. Fancy doors, high ceilings, lots of bronze all over the place, and a nice looking front. The AS&T, however, was built next to another bank building (also designed by the same architect) and it's easy to think that it's all one building. But for real grand architecture and on a grand scale, are the old train stations. And unlike banks, they have a sense of adventure. Private houses also were built to be as elaborate as possible, if the owners could afford it, during the same period that probably lasted through the 1920s.

In the early days of the republic, we liked to think of ourselves (as a country) as a new Rome (not Greece). So we built a lot of buildings that look like Roman temples--and sometimes Greek temples, too. Clubs and societies were given Roman names, people were given Roman names, cities were given Roman names and so on. There are of course a lot of cities and towns with Greek names, too. There was an Athens in the county where I grew up, as well as a Ceres, but more places had Indian names. The town and the county, though, were names after like places in New Jersey, which I guess is as good a place as any to be named after. But it is no accident that so many capitol buildings have a dome.

I rather like the appearance of that fire house, partly because it actually looks like a fire house. It doesn't look at all elaborate to me. The fire house in my home town, which I realize I mention a lot, looked like an auto repair shop. It shared the building at the time with the police department.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm a small-gov't, libertarian-leaning guy, but for God's sake, there is no reason that gov't buildings or offices shouldn't be - within reason - architecturally attractive. There are normal community standards and the gov't shouldn't exceed those (i.e., no vanity projects with taxpayer money), but there is no reason gov't buildings have to look like Soviet Union architecture.

Soviet architecture actually gets a very bad rap. There was some ugly stuff built in the sixties, but Stalin-era buildings could be quite elegant.

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ Agreed - all three are good looking buildings in their own way; although, the first one is a bit of a mishmash, but still has something going for it.

When was the last one built - looks very Czarist St. Petersburg to me, but I assume it's Stalin-era based on your post?

Edit Add: I know I've mentioned this before, but the Soviet propaganda art of the '30s / '40s is very impressive.

It's not fair that all Soviet architecture is thought of as that horrible '60s block garbage, but then, the Rosenbergs were guilty of spying for the USSR, but the narrative believed by many is different. It is what it is, history and popular perceptions are quite different.

 

[HudsonHawk]

⇧ Agreed - all three are good looking buildings in their own way; although, the first one is a bit of a mishmash, but still has something going for it.

When was the last one built - looks very Czarist St. Petersburg to me, but I assume it's Stalin-era based on your post?

The last picture is on Khreschatyk Street in Kiev, Ukraine. It was completely destroyed in WWII, so every building you see today was built post-WWII. Stalinist architecture is very neo-classical in style. It wasn't until the end of Stalin's reign that the "inefficiencies" in the labor required for building such buildings required them to be phased out. That, along with Krushchev's rejection of "excess". Kind of like our rejection of style today.

 

[HudsonHawk]

There is also the Palace of the Soviets, which was designed, but never got built:

 

[Fading Fast]

The last picture is on Khreschatyk Street in Kiev, Ukraine. It was completely destroyed in WWII, so every building you see today was built post-WWII. Stalinist architecture is very neo-classical in style. It wasn't until the end of Stalin's reign that the "inefficiencies" in the labor required for building such buildings required them to be phased out. That, along with Krushchev's rejection of "excess". Kind of like our rejection of style today.

RE the building built post WWII in Kiev, was it an intentional copy of a Czarist-era building?

Glad your firehouse avoided the "anti-excess" movement. That said, while I like the building, I don't love it - something doesn't completely feel right to me about architecturally about it. Something about the actual garage part feels off to me, the rest works really well - all IMHO of course.

 

[Fading Fast]

There is also the Palace of the Soviets, which was designed, but never got built:

I saw a special on this at some point - only from an architectural point of view, just like some of Hitler's planned buildings (and, again, only from an architectural point of view / absolutely not from a political one), it would have been cool to see some of these grandiose structures built.

Some of the CGI buildings of Berlin in the TV show "Man in the High Castle" (an alternative history that has Germany winning the war) show what that city might have looked like.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's not fair that all Soviet architecture is thought of as that horrible '60s block garbage, but then, the Rosenbergs were guilty of spying for the USSR, but the narrative believed by many is different. It is what it is, history and popular perceptions are quite different.

Julius was guilty of passing military information to an ally during wartime, but Ethel wasn't, and the government knew it. David Greenglass was given the choice of implicating his wife or his sister -- and he knew his wife was guilty. He knew Ethel wasn't, and figured she'd be acquitted -- but the verdict in the trial was pre-ordained, and the US Government murdered an innocent woman to make a political point. Greenglass himself confessed all before his death in 2014. But as you say, popular percepctions are quite different.

 

[Fading Fast]

Julius was guilty of passing military information to an ally during wartime, but Ethel wasn't, and the government knew it. David Greenglass was given the choice of implicating his wife or his sister -- and he knew his wife was guilty. He knew Ethel wasn't, and figured she'd be acquitted -- but the verdict in the trial was pre-ordained, and the US Government murdered an innocent woman to make a political point. But as you say, popular percepctions are quite different.

My mistake to bring it up - I am not going to argue the Rosenberg's guilt or innocence here. I disagree with your view, but am not trying to change your or anyone else's mine. I chose a very poor example to use as a metaphor - it was because we were talking about the USSR that it popped into my head. My mistake.

 

[LizzieMaine]

S'all good. The case is a very sore point with me, as much for the popular image of it as for what actually happened.

The "UYM" building above was a department store, built in the 1930s, and has a lot in common, I think, with American styles of the same period. There was an old downtown W. T. Grant store in this area that had a similar sort of profile.

 

[HudsonHawk]

RE the building built post WWII in Kiev, was it an intentional copy of a Czarist-era building?

I think it's just traditional Russian baroque style, which I guess would have been common in Imperial Russia during the 18th and 19th centuries. I doubt it was intentionally "czarist".

Glad your firehouse avoided the "anti-excess" movement. That said, while I like the building, I don't love it - something doesn't completely feel right to me about architecturally about it. Something about the actual garage part feels off to me, the rest works really well - all IMHO of course.

IMO, there's nothing particularly special about it. It's just typical firehouse layout...a little office space, small living quarters and large bays to house trucks and equipment. The exterior façade is Texas limestone, something very common around here. It fits in nicely with the local style, but it's not something you'd write up in an architectural journal. You'd have thought it was made of gold the way some people squawked.