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Washington, D.C., circa 1912. "National Safe Deposit Savings & Trust Co., 15th St. & New York Avenue." Note the PUBLIC TOILET FOR WOMEN, possibly for a parade. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
Below is the same view from May of 2015.
This building was designed by Philadelphia architect James H. Windrim in 1887, one of a very small group of buildings he did for DC clients. Although he served as supervising architect of the Treasury from 1889 to 1891, he is best known as the designer of the fantastic (and fantastical) Masonic Temple in Philadelphia.
When we came to Washington in 1979, it was still NS&T--National Savings and Trust. I opened an account there because it was the only bank that I could get direct deposit of my law firm salary (that is because one of the partners was an owner of the bank.) It was later Crestar and is now SunTrust. I still have the account 35 years later.
Behind the cameraman is the block that has the White House. I know I stood there and took the same photo back in 2010.
And very much still there turrets, clock and all.
3:35:30 pm to be precise. I love seeing these Roman numeral public clocks in Shorpy's historical pictures; it gives a sense of time and place. With most public time being shown now in digital I miss this type of time piece; also much easier to see the time when your passing it in a fast carriage.
I count 48 stars, which means this photo could not predate 1912.
Those flags on the right are all 48-star flags. That flag was officially adopted on July 4, 1912, although there were 48-star flags as early as 1910 due to anticipatory fever.
[You are right. Date updated. And on the left, 45-star flags. - Dave]
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