My friend and fellow gravestone photographer, Connecticut native, Brian Zoldac loves a good mystery.
He remembered my problem of looking at the photo of The Victor Co. which is an undated glass negative owned by the North Stonington Historical Society. They know about my obsession with my family laundry business and scanned this photo and sent it to me some time ago.
It wasn't until I examined it that it occurred to me that I didn't know if this building is in Connecticut or Rhode Island. Yes, the state line is very blurry there because of the water that you see in both photos.
If that seems strange to you consider how complicated the geography of New England can be. Anywhere here where the states comes together can be hard to be sure WHERE you are researching. Even if you are sure of the location (such as written on the back of the photo) you must know the DATE. State and county lines keep changing over the years. Unfortunately for me, my ancestors lived, in many cases on the edge. Now they are driving me over the edge!
What we noticed about this photo is the green circled pipe. At first, I thought the drain pipe was coming from the building. Nice pollution, I thought. Think about dry cleaning solvent and laundry soap. Nasty.
But, as I look over the photos that Brian took (on both sides of the water), this is the one that gave me a "gut feeling". The building is long gone but the ratio of land to water seems about right considering erosion. Yes, there are still a lot of rocks. But the drain pipe can't be ignored. Is it the same? Did it just fall off and is stuck to the rocks?
We probably will never know but it is great of Brian to take photos so that I don't think about this all the time and can move on.
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