Pennsylvania Visitor Praises Toledo Amenities

Pennsylvania Visitor Praises Toledo Amenities by Alan Borer

Old postcards are fun, not just because their views are a window to the past, but also because of the messages written on the other side. Many of them are nothing special; family news, idle speculation about travel plans, and the popular, “Please write soon.” Sometimes, however, the short notes give an interesting view of times past.

Take this card. Mailed April 2, 1911, it is a fairly standard view of Madison Avenue, looking east toward the Maumee River. On the left, the Boody House hotel can be seen, and a block beyond that the Nasby Building is visible. The Produce Exchange is in there somewhere. On the right, the building closest the viewer is the United Cigar Store as a street-level tenant. If you have sharp eyes, you can see signs for Coca Cola (bottom left), the “Caswell Club,” and Florsheim Shoes, in the shape of a shoe. Two vehicles, one horse-drawn and one automobile, can be seen. Not many people; was the photograph taken on a Sunday morning? Impossible to say.

The message, from a father to a daughter, is unsigned. Written to Mrs. W. E. Nagle, Jr in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. Mrs. Nagle was probably Mary E. Nagle, a 25-year-old newlywed of German-Irish parentage. Her maiden name might have been Murray. Her husband, William E. Nagle, was three years younger and a “tool salesman.” Apparently Mary’s father was also a salesman, but of what? He was in Toledo to sell, as is hinted at toward the end of the note:

I sold 37 Bars yesterday on Commission – it would be about $100.00

Bars of what? Chocolate? No; 37 bars of chocolate would be roughly 37 cents in 1911. Gold? No, one did not sell gold bars on the streets of downtown Toledo in 1911, nor any other time, and the profit would certainly be more than $100. Perhaps some other industrial metal, but there is no way to know, even if it is fun to speculate.

Most of the message is taken up with the writer singing the praises of Toledo:

This is a great town. Everything open on Sunday. Maw could get Milk of Bread any time – in fact, meat or anything. Not alone Bake Shops, but Barber Shops & Booze Shops. The Picture Shows, Vaudeville Houses & Theaters.

Mrs. Nagle’s father does not specify which of these shops and places of entertainment he visited, or whether he participated or window shopped. But his impression of the city was certainly favorable.

Yet there are signs of change between the lines. Vaudeville was eventually driven out of favor by the movies/“picture shows.” Many of the vaudeville theaters changed format to keep up with changing tastes. The Empire Theater on St. Clair changed from vaudeville to movies in 1919. “The Paramount [opened 1929] handled both movies and live stage shows (vaudeville being not quite dead yet).”And the writer’s mention of “booze shops?” Only eight years later, national Prohibition came into effect, and Toledo, at least above ground, would be a ‘dry” town.

The writer of the postcard to Mrs. Nagle probably had no conception that his message would one day serve as a view into early twentieth century Toledo, It was a city on the brink of change, a city of many wonders with many more to come that we take for granted. As always, it is good to know where we have been while moving into the future. Change is the only constant.