Featured How it really looked-ex clear Civil War images.

Got these on one of my favorite antique photography sites-
'Shorpy'.They were all taken during the War (1861-1865). You'll notice details like the hand made bricks and pebble (!) hand-laid sidewalks that Hollywood to my knowledge has rarely,if ever,reproduced.
Of course the streets were a swamp of manure,axle grease and mud.
PS-Before you ask,I don't own any of these original images.

 

But they're pretty darn good images!!!!​

 

I was astounded when I first saw them.
Answers just a tiny bit of the question-"How close can you get to actual history ?".We read contemporary diaries,examine artifacts-then there are these images.
'1865 The Vulcan Iron Works' (the sign's insane)

 

OTOH if you had it in an antique store you could name your price! That cast iron balcony..whew. Wouldn't want to make that now never mind then. Forget the sign, the balcony was a major piece of advertising. Just the fact that it was cast iron and it held up meant whoever mixed up the alloy knew his stuff.

 

The balcony's a museum piece.The sawhorses in the foreground look like a mason was chiseling cobblestone pavers.
If you look at the stone window lintels on the brick building,you can notice how uneven they are compared to todays construction methods.
Brick production was mechanized in the 1860's,but some small shops still made slightly uneven hand cast bricks-made it very tough to keep everything in plumb.
PS-They couldn't have hung any more knick-knacks on that sign. There's an anchor,anvil,plow,cannon,palm frond,dividers,wheel,sword & God knows what else !

 

YESSS, the CREATIVE HUGE piece of ART hanging off the front of the building is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING....!!!​

 

What he said. It's too big for most antique stores, but it would make one heckuvan installation piece in an art museum.

 

Smithsonian quality Folk Art on steroids.

 

Beautiful historical documentation, bosko.

Meanwhile people in my part of the world were going crazy from the infernal noise of cart and coach wheels on cobble stones.

Construction methods were excellent long before that building was built. I think we are looking at the result of subsidence.

 

Fantastic! Love this. Beautiful buildings, lots of creativity, amazing sign. Wow!!

 

Great point AJ & Davey-building methods were good but soil engineering had a ways to go.
If you click on pic#1(enlarge),You'll notice hand painted broadsides/handbills plastered to the far left brick building's edge.One of the painted bills says 'Atheneum' on it,a title used for play & opera houses.
At the end of the street (pic 1),IMHO you can see what look like two ironclads in port-the upper deck (forecastle ?) of one,and smokestack of another.
PS-Streetlamp in the foreground shot/bashed out ?