Friday, January 24, 2014

Postcard of the week: GE Lampworks 1914

For the foreseeable future, each week I will be sharing a scan of an “antique” postcard.  I have hundreds of these old things, most of them over 100 years old, many from India, Japan, Indonesia, and all over the pacific.  A few, like today’s example, are from here in the United States.

The value of these postcards are unknown.  I’ve never sought to appraise them, and I am really not interested in making a fast buck that way.  Most of these came from my father, and they’re little pieces of history which I intend to cling to, and pass on to my posterity.  The rarity of these postcards is also unknown, but it’s quite possible that some of these are unique, or among a handful of examples still surviving.

Today’s example is probably more common than most of the others in this collection.  It’s the Lamp Works of General Electric in Fort Wayne, Indiana, circa 1914:



2 comments:

  1. Hello Martin,
    You would not happen to know which two streets this is on the corner of? I suspect it has been demolished as it operated from 1906 to 1924. It began as the National Lamp Works but was taken over by G.E.
    A similar structure still stands at 102 West Superior Street and I think it was the Fort Wayne Jenny Arc Lamp Co. started in 1881 but it is this one I wish to find the location of. There were two other, later G.E. plants in Fort Wayne, a big complex around Swiney Avenue, now slated for closure and what is now the Paragon Tube Mill at the western end of Wayne Terrace.

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    1. Unfortunately, the location of the building is not included on the card, and I have no knowledge of its placement. I'm sure the information is out there somewhere.

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