The photographer for the old postcard was probably standing at the Main Street side of the foot bridge crossing over onto Island Park. Today, that location would be between the current post office and Fulton’s Wildlife Gift Shop. It was the footbridge in front of and used by the West End Hotel.
The footbridge in the distance also crossing onto the Island Park was located behind what is now Madison’s Restaurant, earlier known as the Central Pharmacy building.
The O&W water tower can be seen just to the left of the bridge, with the long roof in front of the tower being that of the freight depot. Far to the left, the building with the cupola would be Sturdevant’s Garage and the small building in front possibly Kunnis’ shoe shop or Sorkin’s tailor shop, depending on the date of the postcard.
In the river channel may be a retort from the acid factory, or possibly a stack or some other part from a steam engine used in Sherwood’s mill. When this photograph was taken, the mill was lying idle. This may have been placed in the river to help prevent stream erosion along the river’s bank. Old acid factory retorts can still be seen today along the banks of both the Little Beaverkill and the Cattail Creek used for the same purpose.
Hand coloration on Hartig’s Hill in the background distort the actual landscape. The two houses behind the water tower are on High Street, the road leading to the Hartig [Hoag] [Rose] farm. The road dropped down the side of the hill from there toward the road leading to the creamery, the two houses down the hill mark its course. The other house on the painted “plateau” would be that of Ted Felter [today the residence of the Casey family]. The house and barn on the right side of the same “plateau” would be the Schoonmaker farm.
fred
Here is another view from farther up the river showing the same footbridge in distance - Harold
More views around town
