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.