City - Cincinnati OH - Government Square 1902 Postcard

Colorized photo from 1902 Original Title: Government Square Photographer: Detroit Publishing Location: 175 East 5th St, Cincinnati, OH It's roughly 1902, this image came with a date range of 1900-1906, but it changes so often its hard to tell exactly which year. It seems many of the stores changed hands every few years, that or they got new signs. Anyway, on the right is the original Post Office, built in 1885, razed in 1936, replaced by what's there now in 1939. It was a huge building in its day. On the left is the Peeble's Grocery store, it was there at least until 1960, opening before 1900. The Nonpareil hotel also had a long life. In the background on the left is the CH&D building (it has the clock tower). It was later replaced with the Carew tower building. There is a fountain in the back, that is the Tyler Davidson Fountain, in its original location (they moved it since then). It was in 1871, originally it was considered the center of town. There is a motorman in streetcar below, he's holding a long iron shaft, that's used to change to a new lane. These are electric cars, as they used the electricity, power was returned along the line back to the power station. But the phone company complained that due to electrolytic reaction, their own wires would corrode. The said the power would leak through the tracks and up into the phone pole. As a result the streetcar company had to string up new wires just to send the power back on its own dedicated line. That's why Cincinnati streetcars ended up being equipped with dual poles. On the right rear is the Mabley and Carew Dept store.