Some older postcards have incredible hidden detail. Sometime in late 1909 (or probably not long after), J.Elmer Baxter took this photo of downtown West Dennis, looking east from School Street at buildings on the south side of Main Street:
The shop on the corner was John Baxter's jewelry store. Blowing the picture up and cropping in iPhoto makes it possible to read the signs:
The large sign appears to say:
"Clocks & Watches and Jewelry repaired – J. Baxter – Stationary and Yankee Notions"
while the one on the corner of the building says:
"John Baxter Graduate Optician"
You can even see inside the front windows, not much, but the giant eye is a little creepy. The man outside the building turns out to have a white beard. I'd guess he's in his fifties or sixties.
According to Deyo, Baxter opened his jewelry store on this corner in 1879, in a building that used to be a boot store. By the late '80s he was selling "fancy goods" as well. What was included in the categories "fancy goods" and "Yankee notions"?
Further down the street, seven boys are standing in front of the third building in the row, one has a bicycle:
They're maybe 12 to 16. They haven't a clue what's in store for them: a world war to start, some really roaring 20s, a great depression, a new deal, a second world war, a cold war, and more.
Some of them may still be living in West Dennis just over 50 years from now, when I'll be going to my scout meetings in their old school building about a block south.
At this time C.C. Weysser (Charles C. Weysser I think) sells hardware, stoves, tin plate work and sheet iron work, and furniture in the fourth building. You can see shovels leaning against the wall behind the man on the porch.
I'm dating the card to 1909 or later since I think Weysser had this building built in the fall of 1909 – he had a two story building built on Main St. that fall and this store looks spanking new. Let me know if you do find a copy of a postcard showing this building postmarked before November 1909.
Sources: Deyo has a couple of sentences on Baxter's jewelry store. Construction of Weysser's store is documented in issues of the Hyannis Patriot from fall 1909 (Sept 27, Oct 11, Nov 8); these are available on-line at the Sturgis Library newspaper archive. The Dennis Historical Society has a postcard in its on-line archive showing the words in the signs on Weysser's store.
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