Today’s post is by John LeGloahec, Archivist in the Electronic Records Division at the National Archives in College Park, MD.
In 1941, a Joint Resolution of Congress established that Thanksgiving be observed on the fourth Thursday of each month. There are a number of properties on the National Register of Historic Places that are related to the American holiday devoted to turkey, football, and all the trimmings. In New York City, Thanksgiving starts with the traditional Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which ends at Herald Square, in front of Macy’s Department Store (National Archives Identifier 75315902), “according to historian John William Ferry, “the world’s largest department store under one roof.” It occupies . . . the entire block bounded by Broadway on the east. Seventh Avenue on the west, 34th Street on the south, and 35th Street on the north . . . Designed by the firm of DeLomos and Cordes and constructed by George A. Fuller Company, the new store was completed in 1902 at a cost of about $4.8 million, which included the site but not the fixtures. Within the massive structure were 13,000 tons of structural steel, 1,000 tons of ornamental iron and bronze, 33 hydraulic elevators, 18 miles of brass tubing for a pneumatic tube system, 1,400 Jandus enclosed arc lamps, 15,000 Incandescent lamps, 42 miles of wiring, 6 massive iron and marble stairways leading to the upper selling floors, 4 Otis mahogany and steel escalators, 6 l60-inch ventilating fans, 6 large power generators driven by 6 Corliss-type steam engines totaling 3,040 horsepower, and a built-in vacuum cleaning system, known then as a “suction duster.””
“In l874, Macy’s put together the first promotional window display—a portion of the store’s doll collection—ever with a purely Christmas theme and thus created another annual tradition. Fifty years later Macy’s inaugurated its first annual Thanksgiving Day parade, and today it is a widely emulated signal for the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.”
In Adrian, Michigan is the St. Mary of Good Counsel Catholic Church (National Archives Identifier 25339902), “a cruciform, stone-trimmed, red-orange brick structure of Italian Romanesque Inspiration with a partly projecting, centrally positioned, square, pyramid-roof bell tower . . . The Reverend Ernest Van Dyke, appointed pastor In September 1867, employed Detroit architect Gordon w. Lloyd to draft plans for a new brick church. Bids were let on April 16, 1869, and the cornerstone laid the following July. Constructed at a cost of $30,000, the Italian Romanesque-inspired church was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day, 1871.”
In 1926, the Town of Heber Springs, Arkansas (National Archives Identifier 26141773) was devastated by a tornado that touched down on the evening of Thanksgiving Day, “in the 900 block of W. Main Street in Heber Springs swept a path down Main Street, destroying and damaging numerous buildings. Although the commercial district of Heber Springs suffered less destruction than the areas just to the west, there were damages to the buildings such as glass breakage and roofs being blown off, but no significant reconstruction of downtown business buildings occurred after this storm.”
“The Heber Springs Commercial Historic District contains a collection of 84 late 19th Century to mid-20th Century resources located in a deep valley in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains of north-central Arkansas. The district also contains the ten-acre Spring Park with seven natural mineral water springs around which the town was developed as a health resort . . . The Heber Springs Commercial Historic District includes 70 buildings, one monument, and Spring Park, containing eight resources. Of the 80 resources comprising the district 54 (67%) have integrity and/or contribute to the district’s period of significance.”
Of course, the original Thanksgiving got its start in the Massachusetts Bay Colony with the arrival of the Pilgrims in the 17th Century and the Plymouth Village Historic District (National Archives Identifier 63796477), “the heart of the Pilgrim’s original settlement located on a plateau overlooking Plymouth Harbor. The district includes Winslow Street, North Street, Middle Street (partial), Carver Street, and Leyden Street— a small area conveniently located between the harbor on the east and the civic and commercial district on the west. Approximately 60 structures stand in this area.”
Plymouth Village was established as a residential neighborhood, the first houses being constructed on Leyden Street, then expanding to North Street. The first, 17th century houses were replaced with larger, more permanent structures during the Georgian, Federal, and Greek Revival periods. Little construction occurred here in the late 19th and 20th centuries. The area remained solely residential until about the 1920s, when apartments and small shops and offices began to appear within the existing structures, especially on Leyden Street. Today the area presents a charming series of streetscapes, still residential in character.”
“The Plymouth Village Historic District comprises the major portion of the first townscape to be established as a permanent British settlement in the United States. Streets in this district were laid out as early as 1621 and form the major visual evidence of the early period of Plymouth’s history. Although none of the first structures survive, the continued vitality of this neighborhood through the mid-19th century is indicated by its high quality residential architecture, several churches and parsonages, and its many distinguished residents.”
In Richmond, Virginia, is Maggie L. Walker High School (National Archives Identifier 41683153), “a three-story red-brick building located along the west side of Lombardy Street. As an urban axis, Lombardy Street historically linked a number of Richmond Virginia’s educational institutions, including Virginia Union University, the University of Richmond (which was formerly located at Lombardy and Broad streets), Virginia Commonwealth University (historically Richmond Professional Institute), and Stonewall Jackson School . . . the Maggie L. Walker High School site has been associated with the education of the African American community since the last decades of the nineteenth century. At that time prime real estate in the city was beginning to be concentrated in the West End (then the area marked by the fairgrounds at Monroe Park). Richmond College had had its campus on the margins of the city at Lombardy and Broad Streets since 1834. Three blocks north at Lombardy and Leigh Streets, Hartshorn Memorial College was dedicated in 1884 to the use of African-American women.”
“Responding to a delegation from the African-American community, the School Board gave the new facility the name of one of Richmond’s principal civic leaders. In a segregated society Maggie Lena Mitchell Walker (1867-1934) was prominent not only in her native Richmond, but also throughout the nation as an entrepreneur and social welfare advocate. A graduate of the city’s public schools (Richmond High and Normal), Mrs. Walker taught five years in the same schools before joining a small insurance concern, the Order of St. Luke’s.” Over the course of thirty years she became its Executive Secretary and was the founder and President of its affiliated Penny Savings Bank, the present day Consolidated Bank and Trust Company. Mrs. Walker was the first woman in the United States to head a bank. Her home, a National Historic Site located less than a mile east of the high school which bears her name, is operated by the National Park Service as a house museum.”
“Perhaps the most celebrated event of the academic year was the “Armstrong-Walker Football Classic.” This annual celebration focused on the game between rival African-American high schools and brought families from across the city together for a long weekend of Thanksgiving and celebration. This event became a symbol of black unity and pride until Maggie Walker High School’s closing brought the tradition to an end. Beginning in 1939 and ending in 1978, Richmond’s two black high schools came together the Saturday after Thanksgiving in a fierce rivalry. Over the forty years that the game was played, the event was an ingathering of the African-American community. Students and alumni of the two schools made the weekend a family holiday.”
In Waukegan, Illinois is the Bowen Country Club (National Archives Identifier 28893390) “lies in the northeast comer of the City of Waukegan (1970 population – 65,269), the seat of Lake County. The city is built on and west of a bluff about 50 feet above the lake, and on the plain between the bluff and the lake shore (most of the latter being given over to industry). The city’s terrain, except for the bluff itself, is gently rolling and is cut occasionally by deep ravines.”
“The property was purchased in 1909 by Fred W. and Edith L. Buck, who intended to sell the property to the City of Waukegan for a city park. However, this was rejected because the site was considered too far from town. In fact, Mr. Buck, who was Mayor of Waukegan from 1909 to 1911, and his family never moved to the house because of this very reason. The land, 1 3/4 miles north of downtown Waukegan along Sheridan Road, and just north of a lane now known as Greenwood Avenue, was quite secluded at this time. Few people resided in the area, and wooded bluffs and fields abounded, cut throughout with ravines and dotted with small ponds. On the property itself were found large trees planted by past owners, a farmyard, and an orchard.”
“Around Thanksgiving Day of 1911, when a light blanket of snow covered the not yet frozen flowers, came an open sleigh with Mrs. Louise DeKoven Bowen and Jane Addams looking for a site for a permanent summer camp for the children of the Hull-House Association. For a number of years, groups of 50 to 100 children had been sent for two week periods to rented land in Wisconsin or Michigan, where they camped and enjoyed the natural scenery which they didn’t see on the streets of Chicago. However, problems of bad water, inhospitable land, and inclement weather influenced them to examine 168 sites for a permanent camp, out of a list of 300 supplied by a realtor. Mrs. Bowen, President and Treasurer of the Hull House and prominent Chicago Civic leader, and Miss Addams, upon seeing this site, purchased the land from Buck for $29,000 on December 11, 1911, in memory of Mrs. Bowen’s recently deceased husband. It was the intent of Mrs. Bowen to have, according to Miss Addams, “A country club built upon an attractive site which would extend constant hospitality to those most sorely in need of rest, of health, and of recreation.” Said Mrs. Bowen, “I wanted them given the opportunity to see and enjoy the beauties of nature in green grass, trees, and lovely flowers.” In June of 1912, the Joseph Tilton Bowen Country Club was dedicated by Jane Addams.”
The Dorris Motor Car Company (National Archives Identifier 63821024) was founded in St. Louis, Missouri at the beginning of the 20th Century and the “three-story Dorris Motor Car Building at 4100 Laclede Avenue features a reinforced concrete frame sheathed in red brick trimmed with terra cotta and limestone. St. Louis architect John Ludwig Wees designed the factory and showroom . . . The history of the Dorris Motor Car Company began in Nashville, Tennessee where teenagers John L. French and George Preston Dorris built a gasoline motor for a secondhand steam launch in 1891. In 1895, French moved to St. Louis to work, at the family owned piano and organ company and Dorris decided to attend the Thanksgiving Day Road Race in Chicago. Fascinated with that event and by accounts of early German and French experiments with the horseless carriage as reported in Scientific American, Dorris returned to Nashville determined to build an automobile. By the spring of 1897, Dorris’ car was in operation: “It attracted a great deal of attention,” as he reported some years later. Meanwhile, in 1896, French’s father had ordered a single-cylinder car from the Winton Motor Carriage Co. but the car (the sixth produced by Winton) did not arrive until 1898. That same year, French decided to organize the first automobile manufacturing company in St. Louis and sent to Nashville for Dorris and his experimental car. Dorris arrived on Thanksgiving Day in 1898 and the St. Louis Motor Carriage Co. was inaugurated with $5000 in capital stock. French, whose father provided the equity, was President; Dorris, Vice President and Chief Engineer.”
In Denver, Colorado is the still operating Brown Palace Hotel (National Archives Identifier 84125996), which “except for the numerous changes of the interior decor, the Brown palace appears much as it did in the late nineteenth century . . . The Brown Palace was one of Denver’s earliest skyscrapers, rising 10 stories from the street . . . Begun in 1889 and completed in 1892, the Brown palace was America’s second fireproof building.”
“The Palace has seen such notables as President “Teddy” Roosevelt, President and Mrs.’ Woodrow Wilson, and Queen Marie of Romania. Dwight D. Eisenhower made the Brown Palace his campaign headquarters in 1952. After his presidential victory, the hotel became known as “Ike’s summer White House.””
Acts of great generosity and great tragedy have taken place within the Palace. A Thanksgiving dinner for 1500 needy children was hosted by Simon Guggenheim in 1901. Two men were shot to death when they chanced to meet in the downstairs bar and quarreled over a third man’s wife.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!