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Old Home Week, Locust Street, Columbia, Pennsylvania, 1913

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of blurry motion (someone or something moved as the photo was taken).

A photographer captured this scene along Locust Street in Columbia, Pennsylvania, in 1913. Flags and columns decorated the street and the buildings for the Old Home Week celebration that took place from October 12 to 19 that year.

The image captures the hustle and bustle of people and vehicles in the town. The ghostly blur in the middle is a woman walking in the street, and a foot is all that remains of a man moving along the left-hand side. Another blurry man tends to his team of horses next to the sidewalk on the left, and a banner advertising "Oysters in Every Style" is draped across a storefront just beyond the horses. In the distance, a wagon is traveling along the right-hand side of the street, and a streetcar is barely visible beyond the wagon.

For better views of the activity in the street, see enlargements of the left-hand side and right-hand side of the photo. To see what the same area looks like today, see the Google Street View of Locust Street.

Additional photos taken during Columbia's Old Home Week celebration in 1913 appear in Frederic H. Abendschein's book, Columbia, Marietta, and Wrightsville: Images of America (Arcadia Publishing, 2009), pp. 18-20.

Old Home Week, Locust Street, Columbia, Pennsylvania, 1913 (Cropped Left)

Old Home Week, Locust Street, Columbia, Pennsylvania, 1913 (Cropped Right)
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2 comments

Deborah Lundbech said:

Fabulous picture, Alan!
I feel like the curtain is about to sweep away to reveal a noisy, busy, celebratory street - either time travel or the beginning of a smashing musical!
It's all movement, excitement, waving flags and anticipation. (I love the child on the column!)
Is this still celebrated in such a big fashion in Pennsylvania?
Did it survive the Wars and come back with a vengeance?
I'm not sure this was ever celebrated in Vermont - although perhaps it was close to the Class reunion parade held in June. (In Springfield, VT anyway.)
This is a real gem!
15 months ago

Alan Mays replied to Deborah Lundbech:

Thanks, Deborah! As far as I know, Old Home Week isn't celebrated like it once was. The postcards and info I've been able to locate seem to date celebrations like this to the 1900s and up to the 1920s. I haven't heard of any current events like this, unfortunately.
14 months ago