Vintage Postcard: View of Essex from Lake Champlain

Every Monday we share an image on the Essex on Lake Champlain Facebook page and invite our viewers to play some Vintage Essex Trivia.

Have you ever see the postcard we’ve shared above? What do you recognize? What has changed? When do you think the photo was taken?

Here’s what the community has already shared about the photo and they posed answers to some of those questions:

Ken Hughes: Amazing to see how the difference in vegetation from this picture to today. And all the buildings look so gray … not entirely like what we see today!

Christine Herrmann: A couple of notable changes: there is a retaining wall along Beggs Point Rd. and The Old Dock is now red and has a large white canopy!

Judi Root: Love this place!!

Scottie Ginn: Many more trees!

Morgan Brooks: It’s taken from the ferry. Sometime when Bart Bailey ran the Dock House.

Mary S Houston: Paint colors make a big difference!

The abundance of grey on the buildings stood out to me as well – a lot of that grey is still there today as the buildings like the library, Essex Community Church, and Noble Warehouse are built out of gray limestone. But the pop of red paint color on the Old Dock House Restaurant today is definitely lacking at the time this photo was taken.

It is likely that the photo was taken from the ferry (I can make out part of the dock to the far right), but it also could have been taken from another boat out on the Lake Champlain.

The back of the postcard gives us some important information about the creation of the postcard. See it below:

Vintage Postcard: Lake View of Essex - back — Vintage Postcard: Lake View of Essex – back (Source: Geo Davis via Rosslyn Redux)

The date that the post office stamped the postcard with was August 20, 1980, which I believe dates the photo on the front of the postcard to that year or perhaps the late 1970s. (The postage stamp cost only 15 cents!)

The back has some text imprinted that reads: “View of Essex, New York, on Lake Champlain, from the lake. Photo by Donald Beggs. Sold for the benefit of the Essex Free Library.” So this postcard (and possibly others with different photos on the front) were created as a benefit drive for the town library.

Anything else you’d like to share or point out about this postcard? 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.

Vintage Photo: Lake Champlain Bridge (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Vintage Photo: Essex Waterfront with Ferry to South (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Vintage Brochure: Old Dock House (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Vintage Postcard: Essex Aerial View (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)

About Katie Shepard

Passionate about reading and writing stories, Katie Shepard enjoys discovering more about her home while writing and editing for Essex on Lake Champlain. Katie graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh in 2011 where she studied English literature, philosophy, and Asian studies. Her first book Essex, New York Architecture: A Doodler's Field Guide was published in 2015. Connect with her on Facebook or at Linked.in. Or email her at katie [@] essexeditions [dot] com.