I presume those are trolley car tracks, and there's an overhead wire. I don't see the wire, because the picture isn't that sharp. But what supports the wire, and why don't I see that?
The poles along the curb on the east side of the street are for trolley wire support. The poles on the west side are for trolley wire support, power lines, and telephone. This is undated, but I'm guessing late teens. Note that while drive-in filling stations were becoming common by then, there's still a curbside gas pump here.
Steve;
Those poles are on the west side of the street. LOL
Steve;
Maybe U R right.
Is that a spreader bar near the center of the photo?
Looking north, right is east. But poles are on both sides.
I wonder why somebody parked his bike in a puddle beside the Sims-Weber driveway.
It's an electric traction motor line. It most likely used DC battery powered cars through an electrified rail.
The Grays Harbor Railway & Light Company. It connected the towns of Aberdeen, Hoquiam, and Cosmopolis and ran from 1904 until 1932 for passenger service and 1941 for freight. It was 9 miles long.
The line used wooden combine style cars built to interurban design and in later years, two truck style Birney cars.
however I didn't see the power lines before
Thanks Herb, I lived right next door in Aberdeen till I was 9.
All but 2 buildings gone, one being the Sims-Weber Garage.
I find the "modern" picture strangely discomforting. What happened? Eight Street is a ghost of its former self. As if the cars in the original picture are driving into their past, not into their future.
Not the same location.
Grays Harbor County long held the title for highest suicide rate in the nation, and the area reflects that. Three days of sun a year, 600 inches of rain, it is a wet, dark place where moss will grow between your toes ! Hoquiam existed because of the logging up the coast and into the Olympic Mountains. With the cutting out of all the old growth and the general decline of the timber industry, the entire area has suffered economically.
Looks like the same location to me right down to the iron work in the windows of the first building and the curve of roof of the 2ed building.
Burger, average rain fall is 86 inches in grays harbor. I remember at least one year over 100, but 600? Most of the logging is gone, as are the lumber and pulp mills due to many factors. The spotted owl and the Boltd decision being a couple. Lots of beautiful areas in the county.
Wifey and I with sturgeon catch near Hoquiam. My oldest brother and family lived in Montesano near there.
Guess I should have said 6000 inches to emphasize my being absurd.
What isn't absurd is the dark and wet and depressing nature of the area. Of course, be there on that rare sunny day and it is stunningly beautiful !
I say all this as a recovering Seattleite who spent a couple years in Olympia, Oakville, Montesano ... one day realizing everything I enjoy involves being outdoors and the cold and rain was really cramping my style (only took 30 years to come to this epiphany) and sold my junk, packed my bags, and headed for drier climes.
Yes, we used to go there fishing a lot when I was a kid. For 2 weeks a year, it is absolutely beautiful. But as an adult I eventually got tired of having wet feet all the time, so I went to the desert on vacation, and haven't been back there for the last 30 years or so. Seems like there was so little work there, and so little "action," that all the kids moved to Seattle or elsewhere. I suppose it is like that in many places today. Maybe with the internet some of them will be able to move back. Or global warming will dry the place out and it will start hopping again.