Postcard Friendship Friday

 

Happy PFF--This week I did some searching on the old hospital in Topeka and found out what has happened to it over the years.  So here are some more pictures and the story of what has become of it.  A big thank you to Beth at http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/ for hosting this every week. 

There were many hospitals up and down the line on the Santa Fe Railroad.  If you would like to find out more about them and see the old postcards that are shown go to http://railwaysurgery.org/Hospitals.htm.  Here is Santa Fe Hospital, Topeka , KS, built 1898-99. The picture above is the original building.

If you compare this view  with the one above, you can see there has been a new wing added.

Santa Fe Hospital, Topeka , KS. Compared to the previous picture, the add-on wing is intact
but in 1953 the original 1898-99 building was demolished and replaced with the new building on the left. Note the cars in the parking lot.

Yet another addition has been built over the site of the parking lot. Postmarked 1971.


 The following I found on the internet telling about the old hospital in Topeka now:

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Sep 23, 2003 by Steve Fry Capital-Journal


  A redevelopment project that has cost $7 million so far has turned the old Memorial Hospital at 600 S.E. Madison into the Santa Fe Place Senior Apartments. All but one of the 91 apartments is occupied.
Don Cooper, vice president of operations and development for the Commercial Group, talks about the variety of floor plans at Santa Fe Place.


The building's railroad heritage shows in the Santa Fe logos above the drinking fountains.
 

One more picture - this is the old ATSF hospital in Ft. Madison, Iowa, a town we lived in in the late 50's and early 60's.  I don't remember it and I don't think it was in service then.  The only hospital I remember there was the Catholic hospital.     (Click to enlarge)

Injun Summer

For some reason or other, I got to thinking about something I used to see in a newspaper every year when I was a little girl back in Rome, Illinois.  We took the Peoria paper, but on Sunday Dad usually went "uptown" to Chillicothe and bought a copy of the Chicago Tribune which had marvelous funnies.  The Katzenjammer Kids, Fritzy Ritz, and Brenda Starr.  Wow, a bonanza.  (Brenda may have been in the Peoria paper, but that's neither here nor there.  I loved her especially when there were paper dolls!!)  I could recall seeing on a supplement to the paper a cartoonlike picture of a cornfield in the moonlight with dreamlike visions but couldn'temember exactly what it was like.  I knew it was very fallish and sweet.  

So, a little while ago I decided you can find anything on the internet - and started putting phrases in the search box.  I tried  "cornfield in the moonlight", etc., and did get some pictures that did fit the description but not the one I remembered.  Then a phrase popped into my head - Indian Summer - and lo  and behold up came the top picture with the address of a blog my-over-the-fence.blogspot.com/2010/09/injun-summer.html and I went there to find "Injun Summer", my picture - two of them - that I remembered from so long ago.   This really is a "piece of my past" and conjurs up memories of the fall in Rome (Illinois, that is) in a much simpler time.  There was an orchard behind our old house and I can still remember the smell of apples that were frozen on the trees and how wet the long grass was when you walked through the orchard.  Read more about Injun Summer on My Over the Fence blog. 

(Click to enlarge)

From FOH Fashion Friday

Here again is one of the best dressed chicks in Peoria sometime around 1915-20. Mom seemed to just love posing in her pretty outfits. This one features such a lovely hat with a gorgeous feather and a chic fur stole. According to the times, she wore leather gloves and high button shoes and her suit was probably wool. How times have changed. Most people rarely dress up to such an extent - at least the ones that I know. I do like the casual approach better.  (Click to enlarge)

When I was Young

Ah, each generation has it's music - and, being in my 80's, I don't understand some of the strange music of today's youth.  It was so simple and melodic when I was a girl.  I thought I might share some of it with some of you younger folks to let you know what you missed out on in the 30's and 40's.  Let's start with this one -




Now wasn't that fun?  If you like it, I will hunt for some more gems from the past!

Postcard Friendship Friday

Two old cards that I found on the internet some time ago when I was looking for Santa Fe memorabilia.  As you know if you have followed my blog, my husband worked 41 years for ATSF and we did a lot of moving over the years.  From Chillicothe, IL, to Ft. Madison, IA, to Topeka, KS, to Newton, KS, to Kansas City, KS then back to Illinois upon retirement.  This card shows the big office building in Topeka that was headquarters for Santa Fe.  When we moved there, it meant he was not on the road like he had been before so that was really nice - for a few years.  Then they sent him back to Ft. Madison on a long job but he was not transferred there.  So again, he would be gone from Monday morning until Friday night.  You get used to it but never really like the idea.  When we finally moved to KC area, he was home all the time - that was good.

Above is the Santa Fe Hospital in Topeka that serviced the system's employees.  I can't remember if it was still being used when we were there or not since, thankfully, we had no need for hospitalization when we were living there.   I will have to do some searching one day and find out more about it.  Thanks, Beth, at 
http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/ for hosting  -  and Happy PFF.

Oh, Baby

A very old picture of me at probably under a year old sitting in a fancy old rocking chair. I may have been older than that since it looks as if I would have been walking because of the hard soled shoes and the bottoms of them that appear to have been wallked on . 

This is one of the photos that is taken in a little booth in a dime store.  Probably two to three years old in this one.  Kinda cute little girl!    (Click to enlarge)

From Funoldhag's Fashion Friday

There are quite a few pictures of my mother in her younger years that just fascinate me. At one time, my grandparents, although not wealthy, led a very comfortable life and some of the old pictures reflect that. My grandfather worked for Thomas and Clark Cracker Company and was active in politics in Peoria. He was city treasurer when I was born despite having only an elementary school education. Mom and her sisters, especially Nelle, the older one, wore such pretty clothes for the time. The Pearces also had a cottage up the river in Rome, Illinois, a wide place in the road  where I grew up some years later.

 This picture, I am almost 100% sure, would have been taken at the conservatory in Glen Oak Park in Peoria. Nan and her friend (I think she was a girl Nan worked with at Powers Camera Shop) are admiring the lovely blooms. Nan is holding her hat which looks as if it were trimmed with a lovely flower and she is wearing a pretty summer dress with three-quarter sleeves trimmed with lace and a big sash. I would guess the dress is white and sash blue. Her friend has a lovely plaid skirt and white blouse and straw hat with a halo of flowers around the brim. This most likely was a lovely summer afternoon and the girls had been for a walk in the park.  (Click to enlarge)