Goodnight Raleigh | a look at the art, architecture, history, and people of the city at night

Fayetteville Street looking towards State Capitol at night, Raleigh, N.C.

by Raleigh Boy in Flashback Friday on 02/8/2013
5 Comments

This week’s featured postcard is a first for Flashback Friday — a nighttime view of Fayetteville Street. Curiously, even though the view is supposed to be a night shot, a blue sedan appears to motor down the street with no headlights on!

July 9
Hi Honey,
I am in Raleigh today. at the present am sitting in the car in front of Hudson Belk & Co. x marks the spot on front of the card. guess you got my letter.
It sure is good to be back home.
love you
Sue

I was curious about the position of the stamp on this card. Some mavens of the ‘stamp placement cult’ claim a stamp pointed to the right means ‘love and kisses,’ while another meaning could be ‘won’t you marry me?’ So go figure — maybe ‘Sue’ just put the stamp on crooked.

The image on this card was heavily color-retouched in production, and seems even cartoonish to me — in fact, the effect reminds me of the Action Comics Superman series of the 1940s. Also, many of the Fayetteville St. landmarks seen here are distorted and oddly colorized. One building in particular stands out in this regard. Any readers notice this too?

ThisÂ 1950s ‘real photo’ white border postcard shows the same view in the ‘daylight.’

‘True’ color is restored in this ‘linen’ postcard of the 1940s — the same era and type as our featured card this week.

This week’s Flashback Friday postcard is a ‘Tichnor Quality View’ published by Tichnor Brothers, Inc. of Boston, MA.

Tichnor Brothers, Inc.Â Â (1912-1987)
160 N. Washington Street, Boston and Cambridge, MA

A major publisher and printer of a wide variety of postcards types. Their view-cards were produced on a national level. Their photochomes went under the trade name Lusterchrome. They also produced an earl[ier] series in offset lithography that was so heavily retouched they floated somewhere between being artist drawn and being a photograph. The company was sold in 1987 to Paper Majic.

â€œFlashback Fridayâ€ 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!