I found this wonderful photograph of the Chamber of Commerce Building in the Newark Library’s photo archive. It works on a both large and small scale, from the full breadth of the building down to fine details at street level.
After visiting the building recently I was hoping to find a good period photo, and this one is better than I had hoped for; I’ve become accustomed to very sparse photos of Betelle’s schools, which were generally shot lacking any signs of life. This one, however, captures a vibrant and familiar urban landscape (the stores have since gained a certain tackiness, but it’s still as bustling).
I would like to have imagined that James Betelle is up in one of those windows, looking over the plans for some school or conducting any number of his civic-related duties. There was just one problem; I didn’t know when the picture was taken, it’s not dated. How would I figure this out? For this, we get into the tangential minutia of detective work that has been more and more the bane of my research (commonly known as yak shaving).
