Every Monday we share an image on the Essex on Lake Champlain Facebook page and invite our viewers to play some Vintage Essex Trivia.
Check out this old postcard! I don’t think is is a photograph, it looks more like some kind of artwork to me — but I could be mistaken. What do you think? What do you recognize in the image? Click on it to enlarge it and see clearer. Please share your thoughts!
Here is what the community shared already:
Bruce Ramsdell: My great great great grandfather Joseph Ramsdell was the keeper there in the 1850s
Judi Root: Amazing sight…my 3x g.grandfather too! Must have been a great job!
Both comments are referring to Split Rock Lighthouse, which still stands today. If you didn’t recognize it or the surrounding area as Split Rock and Lake Champlain (with the Adirondack Mountains in the background — or is it the Green Mountains of Vermont? Or both?) then the caption tells us. Also, if you did not recognize it or were unable to make out the name on the ship the caption is also a help! It reads: “Steamer Vermont Passing Split Rock Lighthouse, Essex, NY, Lake Champlain.”
There have been a few steamer Vermonts on Lake Champlain. You can learn more about that ship and see other vintage photos we have shared featuring Steamer Vermont here: Steamer Vermont Archives.
The back of the postcard is shown to the right. Not much interesting or helpful there to help date the postcard. Although it does label postage as costing one cent domestic and two cents foreign.
It’s likely the postcard was created in the early half of the 1900s.
Do you have any other thoughts to share? Please leave a comment below!
Share Your Essex Artifacts
If you want to share your old photos of Essex (or brochures; postcards; menus; tickets; any artifact) on the blog please email us at editor [AT] essexonlakechamplain [DOT] com.
Related articles
- Vintage Postcard: Adirondack Ferry at Port Kent Dock (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Vintage Photo: Lake Champlain Bridge (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Barbara Irish Smith says
Oh my love seeing Split Rock……….brings back so many memories as where we lived I could see it every day!