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The McClintock drugstore is the white building with the window awnings in the right center of the picture. Three generations of McClintocks worked in the store. Charles ("Chick") was the son of Arthur, and Arthur was the son of another Charles, who began operating a drug store in Salem in 1869 and built the building. The Twentieth-Century Charles not only published the card to be sold in the family business, he probably took the picture. He was an active photographer, and McClintock's was an active Kodak dealer from the earliest days of amateur photography. (Charles McClintock was also mayor of Salem from 1948 to 1952, and a longtime president of the Building and Loan.) The card is postmarked from Salem at 11 a.m. July 18, 1946, but the photograph perhaps dates from a decade earlier, in the late 1930s -- there's not a vehicle in view that's post-World War II. Apparently very little had happened to this block in the 30 years since 1908. McClintock's is still flanked by the Odd Fellows building and Salem Dry Goods. These two buildings also help date the photo: the Odd Fellows hall lost its sidewalk canopy by the early 1950s, and Salem Dry Goods burned and was rebuilt in 1946. McClintock's itself closed its doors in 1963. The message doesn't offer any help in dating the card. It was sent to Miss Lydia Hoffman on West 28th Street in New York City, and the message reads in full: "Greetings from Salem, Indiana. Grace & Bob." (9/4/00, updated 12/6/00 and 5/26/02) |