Southern Railway Freight Station
1910 vs. 2024
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SOURCE:
2024 photo by Sam Hall
In 1898 Southern Railway expanded an existing building acquired from the defunct East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad. The construction of a two-story addition expanded the freight depot and provided office space for Southern employees. Southern continued operations in this building until the late 1960s.
After Southern’s departure, ‘John's Railroad Salvage’ operated from this venue.
I remember a visit there with my family in 1970. The dimly lit rows of dark wooden shelves contained a myriad of discounted grocery items. I begged my mom to get 'Jello 1-2-3', a new dessert treat I’d seen on TV, and no doubt too extravagant for our budget. The slightly crushed cardboard box entered our cart – much to my delight.
Today, this location houses a number of businesses at 1200 Market Street.
Why the difference in photographic views?
Over 100 years ago, professional photographers utilized large format cameras with movements changed the relationship between the lens focus plane and the film-back plane. It's a very useful technique for landscape and architectural photography.
Modern cameras have 'fixed' focus planes - including the drone I took the 2024 photo with. The altitude of the drone photo was also slightly higher.
How do we know it's 1910?
It's a best-guess given clues in the older photo.
An 'Albert Theatre' sign be seen at the extreme left. Earliest mentions in newspapers were 1910. The Wrigley's Gum advertisement just beneath was also widely posted around the same time.
No automobiles are visible, which quickly began to appear by 1912.
