We are currently selecting images to illustrate the soon-to-be-released second volume in the Discourses on History Series, published by the FRHS Press – a fascinating process. Main Street in the Eighteen Seventies and Eighties was written by Fall River businessman Thomas Richmond Burrell (1861-1953) and originally delivered as a lecture at a meeting of the FRHS on February 17, 1936.
In it, the author vividly recounted his memories of downtown Fall River in its heyday by conjuring up “a flood of memories … out of the distant past … about those persons who carried on business” in the center of the city’s thriving main business district. The text is peppered with charming anecdotes and recollections about a varied cast, among them a number of individuals described by the author as “peculiar characters,” for very good reason.
This photograph, inscribed on the reverse: “View North on South Main Street from Columbia Street, taken A.D. 1886,” is one of the many images chosen from the FRHS collection that will appear in the volume; it was donated to the society in 1936.
Stay tuned.
