Under Construction

As I have been going through the 55 boxes of books and ephemera that we received a few weeks ago, I am discovering all sorts of goodies!

Among those goodies are a series of photographs of the construction of our 1909 building. I had seen a few of these, but there were lots of new ones. They seem to have been taken over the course of the construction, which took a bit more than a year, spanning 1908-1909. And luckily, someone has dated the images, which you can see in the lower right corners.

Interestingly, the names of the architect and builder were on the front of the building.

From the rear of the building, overlooking Maryland Avenue. You can see the former PS 49 to the right of the photo.

Again, from the rear, with a lot more work done a month later.

Same date, and you will notice the complete lack of machinery.

Two weeks later and the structure is going in. 

Oops! Cut off the date on this one, but the brickwork is being installed, as well as some of the marble for the interior.

Late October. The crew testing the loads for the beams.

Early November. It's shocking how small the building looks.

Two weeks later, and the building is really coming into shape.

Brickwork is finished, windows are almost all installed. Two dates on this photo, December 1908 and March 1909. I am inclined to think December.

Looks like it's finally finished, and it will open just a few months later.

Just to make it a little more real, I colorized it a bit. 

It was fascinating to find these images and see how our building was constructed.