Lee Steele the design director for the Connecticut Post, has written and directed the design for several newspapers and magazines in New Jersey, New York City and Connecticut. His interests include cartooning and collecting vintage magazines and newspapers.June 19, 2006
Old downtown - in color
I recently wrote in a sunday "Talk of the Towns" piece that I bought a Lou Trapasso print that depicted downtown Bridgeport in the 40s. The wide angle really gave me an understanding of what Main and Fairfield must have looked at...
Mr. Trapasso has a Web site that shows this print, among others. Maybe you'll see what I mean. He told me at the City Lights Gallery that he used old postcards as reference, guessing at the proper colors, and adding cars to clue the reader into the era. I'm pretty sure those buildings way in the background are embellishment.
The Howlands/Smith-Murray's block is completely gone, but most of everything else still exists. The Barnum and Stratfield hotels have housing, the Woolworth is a pharmacy and the Leavitts has storefronts and offices with a top-to-bottom facade which doesn't improve on the original building at all.
What I object to even more is how the courthouse that replaced Howlands/Smith-Murray's was built when the idea of "plazas" were popular. Rather than put buildings on the sidewalk, builders placed them off the street, destroying any continuity in the streetscape. The most dreary blocks in New York were designed when that idea was trendy. I'm glad that idea has been discredited by urban planners.
I swiped that jpg from the artist's web site and used it as a background screen on my computer. I haven't gotten around to framing my print, but I'll be enjoying it every day on my little monitor.
Posted by lsteele on 3:30 PM | Comments (381)
