52 Ancestors: Labor - Abe's Photos

Until I started this journey, I had no idea that my great grandfather, Abraham Gunzendorfer, was a photographer.  What I still don't know is if he did this as a paying job or just a LABOR of love.  I do know that he took lots of photos, many of which I have in my private stash, which makes it difficult, at times, to know if the subject is an ancestor or, rather, someone who might have paid Abe to take their photo.

One of the first 'Abe' photos I discovered is one of my favorites - the interior of the family store in Pacific Grove.  At one point, there were two stores - one on Alvarado Street in Monterey and the one photographed here.

The White House, Pacific Grove
prior to 1896

But the store in Pacific Grove failed and closed in 1896.

San Francisco Chronicle
5 January, 1896
page 20

What's interesting about the date of the article is that my grandmother, Loraine Gunzendorfer, was born just two weeks later on 20 January 1896.  I know that during the course of her teen years she worked at "the store" so I now know that she worked at the store on Alvarado Street in Monterey.

Abe was on hand when President McKinley visited Monterey on 11 May 1901.  I'm fairly certain that the first building, with Beeman's on the side, is The White House.

And then he captured the President on a stroll in San Francisco a few days later.

It seemed that Abe liked to photograph parades.  This must be downtown Monterey.

And another parade - not sure if this is Monterey or maybe San Francisco.  

Back of photo reads
Photo by A.B. Gunzendorfer
2040 Sutter Street
San Francisco, Cal.

I know next to nothing about Palo Corona Ranch, which was the property of Alonzo E. Allen.  Was this an important place to Abe or was he merely taking photographs for Mr. Allen or someone else?

Abe wrote on the back of this photo "A sample of my first photographs".  Wonder what/where it is?

This is an interesting shot.  Seems too large of a city to be Monterey?  The photo is clearly sepia in person but it looks colorized here.

One of the many things I remember about my grandmother was her love of abalone.  Whenever possible, she'd order abalone when we went to a restaurant.  It seems that Abe also shared that love, at least when it came to the process of fishing for them.

The back of the photo is interesting since it says "compliments of Ad. Sept 18/1900" yet has a marking of a Photographic Supplies company in Los Angeles.  "Ad" was how is brother, Adolph, was referred to at times so maybe Adolph gave the photo to Abe.  But the writing at the bottom is Abe's.  

Abe's mother-in-law, my 2x great grandmother, was Rebecca (Steen) Schwartz.  Many of the Steen family resided in Monterey so I found this photo very interesting.  Based on this, there was a reason he photographed Palo Corona Ranch.  Thank you, Abe, for labeling so many of your photos.

Abe did take photos of his children as seen here in the photo of his son, Wilton Louis Gunzendorfer, in 1900.

What makes this photo so special is the inscription on the back.

Wilton Louis Gunzendorfer
July 8th 1900
This photo property of his dad

I have so many of Abe's photos and, perhaps, photos that he took that have no marking on it.  I am forever grateful that he labeled so many of his photos.

Thanks to this blog prompt, it's caused me to bring out the box of Abe photos to scan some more and get into archival boxes.

52 Ancestors: Challenging

Another challenging post.  We had this blog prompt earlier this year but I didn't remember what I'd written about.  Not surprisingly, it was the challenge of identifying photos, especially since my great grandfather, Abraham Gunzendorfer, was a photographer.  And being that my memory really sucks these days, I didn't even remember that I'd pulled out some of the photos I was going to post for this blog post.

But the photos of the Hotel Del Monte had me scratching my head again and the photos got even a little more challenging.

First are the beautiful photos that Abe took.

Hotel Del Monte, Monterey, California
Photo by Abraham Gunzendorfer
Date Unknown

I learned that the Hotel Del Monte opened in 1880 and was one of the finest luxury hotels in North America until it ceased operating as a hotel in 1942.  It later became the Naval Postgraduate school of the U.S. Navy and today is known as Hermann Hall and functions as administrative offices and a hotel for the school.

There have been three buildings on the same site.  The first was designed by architect Arthur Brown, Sr. and was destroyed by fire on June 1, 1887.  The hotel was then damaged and two guests were killed during the San Francisco earthquake in 1906.  And then on October 28, 1924 the hotel was again destroyed by fire.

Which leads to the extra challenge when I found these two photos.  I'm not certain these are the hotel but it sure looks like it to me.

What is going on here?  It seems like it could be during the earthquake but the chances of getting such an action shot seems unlikely for 1906.  But could it be?

Here's another photo that leads me to believe this really is the hotel.

Oh geez, now that I compare the two photos I'm not sure they are the same building even though the damage looks the same.

Now my challenge is to find an expert in the history of the Hotel Del Monte.  Time to renew my contact with the Monterey historian I met when I first started this journey.

52 Ancestors: Challenge

This week’s blog prompt was, well, um……a challenge.

I have lots of challenges with brick wall ancestors, folks who either just showed up or left never to be heard from again, and documenting my ancestry to Ashbel Waller, my Revolutionary War patriot, so that I can join Daughters of the American Revolution.  But today I put all those challenges aside so that I could focus on the unidentified photos I have that were taken by my Great Grandfather, Abraham Gunzendorfer.

I don’t really know for sure if Abe was a “true” professional photographer but I do know that he at least dabbled in it and I have many, many photos to prove it.  I have a box of photos with this on the back.

While it is very cool to have these photos, it really makes it a challenge because I can’t be sure if the people or places are important to my family or just a photo that Abe took and hung on to.

This is, apparently, one of his first photos because he did me a favor and wrote on the back.  Why, why, WHY didn’t people identify the subject by labeling it.  Yes, I know that probably 80% of my photos are blank on the back – I guess I figured I’d never forget which kid is which but as the years go by, I find myself questioning my memory.

Thanks, Abe.  And not only did you tell me that it was your first photograph, I’m extremely happy to have confirmation that you were the Gunzendorfer son who dabbled in photography.

What is the significance of this?  Just an interesting ship or was someone important to you on this ship?

There are many photos of parades and presidential visits – I shared the story of Abe photographing President McKinley’s visit to Monterey in 1901 HERE.  And here’s a parade which I’m guessing is down Alvarado Street, one of the major streets in Monterey at the time.  I can’t be sure but I believe The White House, the Gunzendorfer family mercantile, might be the building just to the left of the Del Monte Drug store.

Speaking of Del Monte, Abe has a few photos of the Hotel Del Monte.  This hotel was established in 1880 and was one of the finest luxury hotels in the country.  During World War II the hotel closed and was leased to the Navy.  It first served as a school for enlisted men and later became the Naval Postgraduate School of the United States Navy.  It is now known as Hermann Hall and functions as administrative offices and hotel for the school.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Del_Monte

Wonder what and where this is?

Could this be the street in Monterey Abe and Bertha lived on?  Or just a beautiful street somewhere in America?

Who are these people?  And did they really just drink all that?

Or these nice young women – who are you?

Or this – should I know this young man?

Wait, wait, wait just a minute.  Could this be Milton Harry Schwartz, Birdie Schwartz Gunzendorfer’s brother?

Milton Harry Schwartz, 28 February 1894

And then as I looked further in the box, I found this.  And on the back it said “M.H. Schwartz, photographer”.  So Milton was a photographer, too?  And this is the same guy, right?  Oh geez, things just got more challenging.

Finally, Abe gave me a clue – check out this photo from 1898.  I’ve seen that dog before and now I know these gents are Jacob W. Gunzendorfer, Abe’s younger brother, and Abe. 

While I love having all of these photos, I wish I didn’t have the challenge of identifying all of the people and places.

What the heck is a Cash Carrier?

Sometimes as I go through the many boxes of family treasures I run across something that I’ve looked at many, many times but this time, for whatever reason, it really piques my interest.  I come from a long line of newspaper ‘clippers’ and as it turns out, this practice goes back for more than 100 years.  Check out today’s newspaper clippings.

The Monterey New Era Thursday, April 28, 1892

And on the other side.

Monterey Cypress October 22, 1892

Looks like my great grandfather, Abraham Gunzendorfer was an inventor!  I’ve written about his younger brother, Jacob Gunzendorfer, and his amusement apparatus invention here – looks like big brother Abe might have taught him a thing or two.

So, of course, I had to see if Abe’s cash carrier was ever patented and it looks like it was.

The collected works of Sir Humphry Davy…Discourses delivered before the Royal society.  Elements of agricultural chemistry, pt. 1 (Volume 7) Editor:  John Davy  Publisher:  Smith, Elder and Company, 1893

It’s hard to read but it was patented on November 15, 1892 and is patent number 486250.  So of course I searched more and found the patent.

US 486250 A Filing Date May 25, 1892 Publication date November 15, 1892 Inventor Abe B. Gunzendorfer

The description of the patent is much too long to include in this blog but here’s an excerpt:

To all it may concern

Be it known that I, ABE B. GUNZENDORFER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Monterey, Monterey county, State of California, have invented an improvement in Cash-Carriers, and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to that class of cash carriers in which the car is propelled from one end of the track to the other by means of a sudden force applied at either end.

My invention consists in the novel construction, combination, and arrangement of parts hereinafter fully described, and specifically point out in the claims.

The objects of my invention are to provide simple and effective means for receiving and locking the car at the end of the line, releasing and immediately projecting it on its travel, regulating the power of the propelling device, adjusting the track to any suitable inclination, and locking and releasing the cashbox in the casing.

And it goes on to get more and more technical but since my brain doesn’t work that way, I started drifting off even though this was my GREAT-GRANDFATHER! 

And then I looked on Wikipedia for a brief description and found that “cash carriers were used in shops and department stores to carry customers' payments from the sales assistant to the cashier and to carry the change and receipt back again.”

Okay, that makes sense since Abe’s father, Ferdinand Gunzendorfer, owned a store in Monterey called The White House which I’ve written about here.  Could they have taken in that much cash in the early 1890’s to need a cash carrier? 

So I checked out some photos I have of the interior of the store and don’t see anything like that.

Lots of stuff in there but I don’t see anything that looks like a cash carrier.  A little closer.



And for good measure (and because I love this photo), here’s Ferdinand in front of the store.  Nope, nothing there.



So while I don’t see anything to show that they ever used Abe’s cash carrier in the store, it’s pretty cool to think that he invented it.  I’m thinking Abe Gunzendorfer was a smarty pants!

First Signs of Civilization

Sometimes I run across interesting items in the boxes of items my grandmother held onto throughout her life.  Not just throughout her life, but those before her and those after her, including me.  Today was no exception.



Now this would have been an interesting exhibit to see!  Abe Gunzendorfer (my great grandfather) was just 17 years old in 1886 so this was probably a school project or something.  What’s really odd is that this article from the Monterey Argus is actually glued to a piece of paper that someone used as a scratch pad to do some math problems – they couldn’t rely on a calculator in those days.  Maybe someone was trying to figure out someone's age?



Abe left quite a few quirky items for me.  I know he spent quite a bit of time putting together a miniature railroad for his family's store, The White House – he even left pictures!







Looks like he was a pretty handy guy! 

Here’s another picture of the train, the A.B.G.R.R (A.B. Gunzendorfer Railroad)



And a close of up of the first few cars.



I sure wish I’d known him – it seems like he was an interesting guy!

A new clue!

Last week I showed a photo of two people, whom I believe to be my grandmother, Loraine Gunzendorfer, and some mystery man.  You can read it here.  In order to get everything combined, here is the photo in question.



My dad was an avid photographer and always had a camera around his neck.  And he always, always took slides.  And then he’d put them in to the old Kodak carousels and there they would sit,in most cases never to be seen again.  After Dad died in 2005, we always knew that at some point we’d have to tackle those slides, as well as the reels and reels of movies, but I don’t think any of us could face it.  Fast forward to 2013 when Mom died and we were faced with the daunting task of cleaning out the home they’d lived in for over 55 years.  And it was then that the reality of those thousands of slides and movie reels hit us in the face.  What to do?  The good news is that technology had improved considerably between 2005 and 2013 so we were pretty sure we could handle this task by ourselves.  So my husband and I packed our van with slides, and the reels of film left with my brother, and off we went. 

Thanks to the Technology for Genealogists Facebook page, I received many, many recommendations for a small scanner that could handle the task.  And thankfully, my husband was anxious to get those old carousels out of the garage so he tackled the project.  The rule was if there were no people in the picture, out they’d go – and we still had over 1,000 slides to scan.

I’m not sure if my dad just wasn’t a great photographer or the years had taken a toll on the slides but for the most part, they were so dark you could barely see them.  I spent some time lightening them up but it became an overwhelming task and I put it aside for months.  Until yesterday when a cousin on my mom’s side sent me a photo of my great grandmother standing next to her sister (thanks again, Kris!) and my interest in old photos was piqued again.  I was flipping through the slides to determine what was there when I ran across this photo of Loraine and my grandfather, Sig Levy.



Nice picture but WAIT - look at those stone posts.  Something looked very familiar about this house.  Could it be???


Look closely – it is the same house!  Which tells me that this was a very, very special house in Loraine’s life for her to have gone back years later and posed for a picture with her husband.  And since her parents lived in the same house at 430 (later 456) Pacific Street in Monterey for close to 40 years, my hunch is that this is the house!  But how cool would it be to have a photo of your son in front of the house you grew up in?  I’d say pretty darned cool!

Gordon Levy

Based on the age of those in the later photos, I’d guess this to be in the mid to late 1950’s.  Which is somewhere around the time that the house was demolished to make way for the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies, now the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

Certainly not a slam dunk but the clues are leading me back to Pacific Street in Monterey!