- Main & Washington – 1940s
Bad drivers, it seems, have always been a problem in our city. And in the 1940s, an anonymous photographer documenting an automobile accident captured an image of a downtown street scene that no longer exists.
The old photo shows the intersection of Main and Washington, looking southeast towards the Sterick Building looming in the distance. The three-story brick building on the corner, with the Canada Dry Spur sign (“It’s a finer Cola” — wow, what a lame slogan!) painted on the side, is the Jefferson Hotel.
Constructed in 1915, the hotel occupied the second and third floors of the building, and originally offered patrons a range of rooms costing from 50 cents to $1.50 a night. The proprietor, a fellow named Abraham Alperin, operated a clothing store on the ground floor and lived in the rear of his shop.