Back to Gardner Landmarks
August/September 2023 - The page is best viewed on a computer and not a phone so that the text lines up with the pictures.
Many of the old photos and postcards were downloaded from the internet and some may not still be online because they were from ebay. My feeling was that this was OK because I'm trying to preserve Gardner's history and not trying to make any money off of them. Plus, ALL of them were at the library too and sitting there copying each (without a scanner even) would have been difficult. I hope that the internet denizens can forgive me. The dates associated are often the best estimate of when the photo was taken. Because of this, some of the downloaded ones may have had the wrong dates. For example, the Colonial Hotel, built in 1924, had some images that said they were 10+ years earlier. For some of the postcards it was easy enough to read the postage mark so one can assume the image is at least that old. Occasionally, I found a few postcards that had clearly the same image so the oldest date reigned. My occasional guesses are based on what's in the image. New trees, age of cars, missing items, added items, etc...
I also took some from the 1878 History of the Town of Gardner by William D Herrick which can be downloaded from the link and some from the 1967 Gardner History by Esther Gilman Moore which you can find at the library or buy from the Gardner Museum.
Many houses and images can be found in Gardner/A Portrait of Its Past, a 1978 book put together by the Gardner Historical Commission. That book had a lot of pictures of the historical houses of Gardner and I only copied ones relevant to my project (for the most part).
I urge you to check out Images of America Gardner which is a book from 2008 with many, many unique Gardner pictures. I did use it as a reference but copying all of the images seemed a bit much and it's a recent book still in publication (I ordered on Amazon but you can buy your own at the Gardner Museum). There is a copy at Heywood Library, too.
The Gardner Museum has many great items too.
I used my genealogical database which contains 200,000 people from Gardner and the surrounding towns. Check out the Gardner Genealogy tab at the top of the page.
I also used Gardner related items that I have scavenged from the internet over the 18 years I've been in this town. My computer is a bit stuffed! When necessary, I have used FamilySearch.org to look at census data for clarification of people and their addresses. Also, Googlemaps.com was really useful for figuring out where places are (or were).
My full reference list is here --->>> References
In going through the old postcards it seems obvious to me that there was some artistic license taken on some of the images which are not technically photos. They were postcards, after all, so presenting a nice view was key. Also, I found a number of cases where the same image was printed as a photo but also printed as an artist's manipulation of what was clearly based on the original photo. As seen in the Big Chair section, it is even obvious when something (or someone) has been edited out. For images where I found multiple copies I just chose the best one to display unless I had a point to make like in the case of the Big Chair.
One thing that was confusing to me at first was the term "Block". I guess businesses used to refer to their building(s) as a Block even if it was actually a single building I think because they would own the building but rent out space in a storefront to others. It doesn't mean block like you or I would think of today.
Some notes on taking the 2023 photos: Where possible, I took one of the old images and tried to take a new photo in August/September of 2023 to match the old one. My ability to get in the exact position was occasionally hampered by new construction, my unwillingness to trample on people's lawns, or get run over by cars. So, the side by side images may not match up exactly. This is especially noticeable for the tall buildings because I could not get far enough away from it to make the vertical sides appear vertical and so they slant inwards a little.
Generally, if I had a bunch of different pictures then I created an initial grouping. Following that is a side-by-side comparison to see how things have changed if I was able to get 2023 photo. If I had some other photos related to the subject, I would add them where appropriate.
A final note. Many of the pictures I used have their origins at the Gardner Museum. They hold many (all?) of the originals and, thus, the copyrights. I would like to thank the museum for their efforts to preserve all of Gardner's images. Where possible, I will note when I think they might have the original.
I have learned a lot about Gardner in the few weeks I worked on this project and I've gained a newfound respect for its rich history. Enjoy!
Ed Poulin
Back to Gardner Landmarks
August/September 2023 - The page is best viewed on a computer and not a phone so that the text lines up with the pictures.
Many of the old photos and postcards were downloaded from the internet and some may not still be online because they were from ebay. My feeling was that this was OK because I'm trying to preserve Gardner's history and not trying to make any money off of them. Plus, ALL of them were at the library too and sitting there copying each (without a scanner even) would have been difficult. I hope that the internet denizens can forgive me. The dates associated are often the best estimate of when the photo was taken. Because of this, some of the downloaded ones may have had the wrong dates. For example, the Colonial Hotel, built in 1924, had some images that said they were 10+ years earlier. For some of the postcards it was easy enough to read the postage mark so one can assume the image is at least that old. Occasionally, I found a few postcards that had clearly the same image so the oldest date reigned. My occasional guesses are based on what's in the image. New trees, age of cars, missing items, added items, etc...
I also took some from the 1878 History of the Town of Gardner by William D Herrick which can be downloaded from the link and some from the 1967 Gardner History by Esther Gilman Moore which you can find at the library or buy from the Gardner Museum.
Many houses and images can be found in Gardner/A Portrait of Its Past, a 1978 book put together by the Gardner Historical Commission. That book had a lot of pictures of the historical houses of Gardner and I only copied ones relevant to my project (for the most part).
I urge you to check out Images of America Gardner which is a book from 2008 with many, many unique Gardner pictures. I did use it as a reference but copying all of the images seemed a bit much and it's a recent book still in publication (I ordered on Amazon but you can buy your own at the Gardner Museum). There is a copy at Heywood Library, too.
The Gardner Museum has many great items too.
I used my genealogical database which contains 200,000 people from Gardner and the surrounding towns. Check out the Gardner Genealogy tab at the top of the page.
I also used Gardner related items that I have scavenged from the internet over the 18 years I've been in this town. My computer is a bit stuffed! When necessary, I have used FamilySearch.org to look at census data for clarification of people and their addresses. Also, Googlemaps.com was really useful for figuring out where places are (or were).
My full reference list is here --->>> References
In going through the old postcards it seems obvious to me that there was some artistic license taken on some of the images which are not technically photos. They were postcards, after all, so presenting a nice view was key. Also, I found a number of cases where the same image was printed as a photo but also printed as an artist's manipulation of what was clearly based on the original photo. As seen in the Big Chair section, it is even obvious when something (or someone) has been edited out. For images where I found multiple copies I just chose the best one to display unless I had a point to make like in the case of the Big Chair.
One thing that was confusing to me at first was the term "Block". I guess businesses used to refer to their building(s) as a Block even if it was actually a single building I think because they would own the building but rent out space in a storefront to others. It doesn't mean block like you or I would think of today.
Some notes on taking the 2023 photos: Where possible, I took one of the old images and tried to take a new photo in August/September of 2023 to match the old one. My ability to get in the exact position was occasionally hampered by new construction, my unwillingness to trample on people's lawns, or get run over by cars. So, the side by side images may not match up exactly. This is especially noticeable for the tall buildings because I could not get far enough away from it to make the vertical sides appear vertical and so they slant inwards a little.
Generally, if I had a bunch of different pictures then I created an initial grouping. Following that is a side-by-side comparison to see how things have changed if I was able to get 2023 photo. If I had some other photos related to the subject, I would add them where appropriate.
A final note. Many of the pictures I used have their origins at the Gardner Museum. They hold many (all?) of the originals and, thus, the copyrights. I would like to thank the museum for their efforts to preserve all of Gardner's images. Where possible, I will note when I think they might have the original.
I have learned a lot about Gardner in the few weeks I worked on this project and I've gained a newfound respect for its rich history. Enjoy!
Ed Poulin
Back to Gardner Landmarks