Greetings from Raleigh, North Carolina
This week’s Flashback Friday feature is a so-called ‘Big Letter’ postcard, popular with the American traveling public of the 1930s and ’40s. And, quite by coincidence, we revisit with it the ‘Ronson Twenty Questions’ radio show of the 1940s.
Addressed to ‘Ronson Twenty Questions’ —
Here’s my question
“The Fiddle Nero played while Rome burnt” (Mineral)Yours truly
Arthur J. Sullivan
1317 W. 4th St.
Wilmington (34) Del.
Animal, vegetable, mineral? — You can read more about the ‘Twenty Questions’ radio show in an earlier Flashback Friday post we published last month. Curiously, although both postcards depict Raleigh scenes, neither was mailed from here.
This week’s feature is an example of the popular ‘large letter’ (aka ‘big letter’) postcard.
A large letter card is a postcard in which a drawn place name in large letters becomes its subject. The name is usually that of a state, but many cities and popular tourist spots also had their own versions. They were always accompanied by graphic work that could be simple to complex in design. Large letter cards were most popular as ‘linens’ published between 1938 and 1942. Their designs grew more complex through the 1940s, but they gradually went out of fashion along with linen postcards. Variations of this style still continue to be made.
Back in March 2011 we ran another example of a large letter Raleigh postcard in a Flashback Friday post. That card identified the scenes depicted in the ‘big letters’ — I wonder how many readers can identify the buildings depicted in this week’s featured card.
Our Flashback Friday postcard this week was published locally by the Raleigh News Agency.
“Flashback Friday†is a weekly feature of Goodnight, Raleigh! in which we showcase vintage postcards depicting our historic capital city. We hope you enjoy this week end treat!
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10/06/2012
I’ll take a stab at it(I haven’t lived in Raleigh in a long time so the current name of the buildings/tenants may have changed, but since the postcard is from the 1940’s perhaps the names I use will be appropriate):
R: Wake County Courthouse (demolished)on Fayetteville St
A: Highway Building on N Wilmington & E Morgan
L: Education Building on W Edenton & N Salisbury
E: Memorial Auditorium on Fayetteville St & South St
I: War Memorial at State College (not NCSU in 1940) on Hillsborough St & Pullen Rd
G: Pullen Park on Pullen Rd & Western Blvd
H: St Mary’s School on Hillsborough St
10/09/2012
RalNative — Nice job! Here’s your score: You got them all — except one; but you did get the one I thought would be the toughest of all!
I’ll see if anybody else wants to have a go at it, and then publish the actual IDs tomorrow.
10/09/2012
I think the “A” is the Justice Building on Morgan between Fayetteville and Salisbury streets.
And I was thinking the “G” might have been the old Raleigh Municipal Airport south of town, but now I agree it’s Pullen Park.
10/09/2012
I’m pretty sure that I got A wrong. My opinion was that it is one of the building facing the Capitol Square because of the bench in the foreground. Which one was the question. The color of the building, if accurate in the postcard, threw me off.
10/10/2012
Here are the correct IDs of the buildings depicted in the big letters on the postcard:
R: Wake County Courthouse (1915), Fayetteville St (demolished 1967)
A: Justice Building (1940), E Morgan St
L: Education Building (1938), W Edenton St
E: Memorial Auditorium (1932), foot of Fayetteville St
I: War Memorial (1921-1937) (aka The Bell Tower), NC State campus
G: Pullen Park (1889) (Swimming pool and lake)
H: St Mary’s School (Smedes Hall, ca 1839, 1909), Hillsborough St
So RalNative got them all except letter A, which NCSU correctly ID’d as the Justice Building. (The statue of the ancient Greek law-giver Solon above the entrance was the clue.) RalNative got the Education Building, which I thought was the toughest to ID. (At first glance it looked like the Highway Building to me.)
We’ll test readers’ familiarity with Raleigh landmarks in a future ‘Big Letter’ post on Flashback Friday.
10/10/2012
Neither of us mentioned the 500 pound gorilla sitting below the letters: the Capitol building. However did we miss that?