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Dale Hipson and his Best Chums during World War II
Tag Archives: Photography
Back to the Beginning
My first blog was about compiling A Pictorial History of Palm City with my daughter Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch. The books have arrived from Southeastern Printing, now located in Hialeah. It is time to get them in the hands of those who want them.
We are having a launch party on the patio of the Palm City Social, a trendy new restaurant in the location of the former Palm City Grill in Martin Downs Village Center on November 21 from 4:00 -7;00 pm. Everyone who wants to buy a book is invited.
The beautiful coffee-table style book with its watercolor of palms by acclaimed artist Jerry Rose on its cover should in every Palm City home after Christmas.
Jerry Rose painted the scene soon after he and his wife bought waterfront property from Val Martin, Martin County’s first real book merchant. The painting was a “thank you” to Val.
In 1972, Val Martin sold his bookstore in Stuart located across from Memorial Park and founded Florida Classics Library. He began publishing many valuable out of print books, beginning with Jonathan Dickinson’s Journal. When he died in 2021, at the age of 89, his niece, Julie Alexander took over Florida Classic Library located at 11300 SE Dixie Highway in Hobe Sound.
https://floridaclassicslibrary.com
The painting that graces the dust jacket of A Pictorial History of Palm City was on the wall in Florida Classic Library. Realizing it would make a beautiful cover for our Palm City book, I asked and received permission to use it from both, Julie, the owner, and Jerry, the artist.
Fifty Beautifully Preserved Photographs More Than a Century Old
My husband and I were thrilled when he succeeded in purchasing an album filled with Harry Hill’s photography in an eBay auction in 2006.
The album was sold by Robi & Aundra-Antique Doctors in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, I called Aundra to see where they got the album but she could not remember.
I was surprised that some of the photographs in the album had “Corell” imbedded in them rather than Hill.
During my Hill research I contacted the Benson Memorial Library in Titusville, Pennsylvania where the Hills had lived before they moved to Florida. I asked the librarian if she could supply information on Corell. She shared clipping from a September 1, 1904 Titusville Herald, that told of Perry Corell an experienced photographer who selling his shop and moving to Ft. Pierce Florida, to join Harry Hill. Both were “Titusville boys.”
The photograph on the left is the Planters Security Bank founded in Jensen in 1904. Today it is the location of Lure’s Bar and Grill. Some of the bricks from the old bank were used in the construction of the building that became Lure’s.
The photograph at right is pioneer home of George A. Saeger on Indian River Drive. He was a director of the Planters Security Bank so maybe that is why the photographs are beside each others. The home still stands at 4511 S. Indian River Drive.
The Hill Studio has been reconstructed in the St. Lucie County Regional History Center.
Billy Bowlegs’ Family Portrait taken in Hill Studio
One of the most important postcards in my collection is of Billy Bowlegs with his sister, Lucy Pearce and her daughters, Ada and Annie. I knew the portrait was the work of Harry Hill because his name is on another version of the postcard. The group portrait also appears on page 100 in A Portrait of St. Lucie County, Florida by Lucille Rieley Rights.
Imagine my delight when among the images in a photo album my husband, Tom Thurlow, purchase on eBay in 2006 is one showing the Indians walking down a road after their photo session.
I will write more about the album that contained the photograph of the Seminole Indians in Ft. Pierce in my next blog.
Another Hill Photograph Dust Jacket
I used this antique postcard for the dust jacket of my third pictorial history book. Just as was true of Stuart on the St. Lucie, I did not realize the image was the product of the Florida Photographic Concern.
At the time I published my books I did not understand that postcard publishers, like Hugh C. Leighton, secured their images from the Hill family’s Florida Photographic Concern in Fort Pierce.
For this blog, I found the postcard I used and was shocked to see that the postcard had been cropped for the dust jacket. Below is the complete postcard. The Alfresco Hotel that appears at right was cropped off when the dust jacket was designed.
The Alfresco Hotel that appears at right was cropped off when the dust jacket was designed.
This Hugh C. Leighton Co. postcard shows the fine quality of printing done in Germany during the “Golden Age of Postcards.”
The Al Fresco Hotel, designed by Louis F. Kwiatkowski for John Jensen in 1893, burned in 1911 after being purchased by R. R. Ricou.
The Hellier Family and the Florida Photographic Concern
A previous blog focused on Walter Hellier’s book, Indian River Florida’s Treasure Coast filled with photographs from the Florida Photographic Concern
A series of curious coincidences brought me in contact with his granddaughters who had a fabulous collection Florida Photographic Concern photos. They allowed me to scan them. There were several dozen with a wide range of subjects but just a few could be directly .connected to today’s Martin County.
This photograph was among the many Walter Hellier’s granddaughters let me scan. It has a local connection because the sailboat is flying the burgee of the Gilbert’s Bar Yacht Club that had a clubhouse south of the House of Refuge on Hutchinson Island. Many of our well-to-do pioneers were members.
Walter Helier’s granddaughters, Marilyn VanDerlofske and Susan Bryant, residents of Palm Beach County, were happy to visit me because they could also visit my famous-artist neighbor , the late Jim Hutchinson. This photograph of the three of them was taken on February 8, 2018.
Hill Family of the Florida Photographic Concern
Harry Hill, originally from Ontario, moved to Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1884 where he met and married Katherine Nelson. He studied and worked as an apiarist in Canada, California and Cuba but chose to settle in Florida in 1894. Harry and Katherine’s son, Lowell, was born in Titusville, Pennsylvania, the year before, so they moved to Florida with an infant. After setting up an apiary in New Smyrna, the Hills settled in Spruce Bluff on the North Fork of the St. Lucie River.
The Hills moved to Ft. Pierce in 1898 where Harry, not only was managing editor of the American Bee Keeper, he launched into pineapple culture on a large scale. Photographs were increasingly enhancing the magazine. Soon Harry’s interest and growing skills as a photographer overshadowed his other enterprises. By 1905, advertisements for the Florida Photographic Concern were appearing in the St. Lucie News Tribune.
This advertisement began appearing in the St. Lucie News Tribune in 1905.
Harry Hill was producing commercial photographs by the turn of the 20th Century.
This appeared in the July 1906. It has Florida Photographic Concern embedded in the photograph but the image was probably made before the company was founded. James Heddon and Harry Hill were associates for many years.
These almost identical photographs were published in the June 1907 American Bee Keeper. Harry Hill was making the point that photographs on semi-matte stock reproduce better that ones on glossy paper. The article explained his engravers, “one of the best house in New York” preferred matte.
American Bee Keepers subscribers lived throughout the United States and in other countries! HOW IN THE WORLD DID HARRY HILL MANAGE THIS?
The last American Bee Keeper was published in June 1908.
Learning of Stanley Kitching’s and Harry Hill’s Early Association
Stanley Kitching arrived on the Indian River from England with his parents as a ten-year-old boy in 1884.Harry Hill came to the east coast of Florida in 1894 as he was approaching 30.
They were both Southeast Florida pioneers. After setting up apiaries in New Smyrna and Spruce Bluff, Harry moved to Ft. Pierce with his wife Kate and young son, Lowell. The family previously lived in Titusville, Pennsylvania, not to be confused with Titusville, Florida. What a conscience! Stanley Kitching was using Harry Hill’s photographs as soon as the Florida Photographic Concern was founded.
Stanley Kitching secured rights to use Harry Hill’s photographs on postcards he had printed in Germany just like big firms like Hugh L. Leighton of Maine and other large publishers.
Above is the front and back of a postcard published by Stanley Kitching. There are a dozen or so others. It shows that there was an early commercial relationship between Stanley Kitching and the Florida
Using the Information Highway
The work of the Florida Photographic Concern of Fort Pierce is an under-appreciated treasure. My husband and I collected everything we could connected to the Harry Hill family and their Florida Photographic Concern. Now, by going to newspaper.com the Hills’ historical photographs have added significance
This photograph has been displayed in various places in Ft. Pierce without information to go with it. By studying other photographs, the driver can be identified as Lowell Hill. His father, Harry Hill’s face appears over his shoulder. The woman beside Harry is Lowell’s mother Katherine Hill. The woman at extreme left is unidentified. Fred Hill, Harry’s bother (Lowell’s uncle) is in the passenger seat. (St. Lucie Regional History Center)
http://St. Lucie Regional History Center
This advertisement published in the April 4, 1913 St. Lucie News Tribune enables us to identify the car. It also tells us the the Hills’ business was growing.
I had never heard of a H.B. McIntyre automobile!