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Post by jon hynes on Mar 22, 2009 21:20:15 GMT -5
RAZING THE RUINS _____________________
Workmen Pull Down the Walls of the Genesee Flats.
At 2:30 this afternoon workmen began to pull down the walls remaining of the burned Genesee Flats. Milton M. Northrup supervised the work. They started in on the rear side and had got down to the third story on the southernmost section and to the fifth story of the adjoining section when City Surveyor Johnson, acting for the city ordered the workmen to leave the rear side and pull down on the front side.
The work is progressing slowly, and the opinion of onlookers is that Northrup & Lucher will just get it done in the given time. Mr Johnson xxxxxxxxxx(opinion) the whole proceeding was fierce. (was a farce)
____________________________
This is the best that I could do.
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 22, 2009 21:37:01 GMT -5
The full version of Acrobat with Distiller. It comes up just like the Reader, but you can copy graphics (or paragraphs) or copy text directly out of the document. When you do, it sorta OCR's it right into Word. It's a little tedious with columned documents, such as newspapers, but yes, it's a lot faster than re-typing. I have an old version, 5.0. It's expensive, I think. I paid a $50 school price some years ago.
these Adobe programs are lunkers, because of their rich function. But I don't always need it. I used Acrobat 5.0 to make pdf's for my website from Word documents, until I discovered CutePDF. It's faster, produces smaller files sizes, produces yields documents that look exactly the same and is free.
So there might be free "word recognition from PDF" software somewhere on the Internet. Check Tucows.com. I'll look, too.
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 22, 2009 22:33:46 GMT -5
I playing with a program I just downloaded from Tucows.com, called Simple OCR. It's free and allows you to do word recognition directly from a scanner, or from a graphic file, such as a jpg or gif. To test it, I took a sample of a pdf file and copied it to a jpg using my favorite graphic management program, Irfanview. (Also free from tucows.)
If you can get a paragraph or art off the pdf into a jpg, I think SimpleOCR will do the trick for you. I don't know if Acrobat READER will allow you to do that, however. But this is a good project to figure out, nonetheless. Tomorrow.
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Post by fiona on Mar 22, 2009 22:37:50 GMT -5
Dave, the answer to that is, architecturally, visually and spatially, yes, I belive that it is very close. That's why in the beginning of my posts, I said it was a hologram, one building over another, the same lay out, floor plan, ect, with a different facade. I don't know about no 29. I always understood the cafe was on 7 from the beginning, so that, if any fires started there, in the stoves, whatever, no living areas would be affected. The rooms on 6 are very small, only room for a sink, a bed and that's all. The toilet was in the hall. But then, up on 7, there was a small room with a huge bathtub, a WC and a sink. Obviously, those persons stopping in for tea and crumpets didn't bathe there, so it must have been for the help, waiters, maids and such like. That makes sense to me, because even the largest apts have only one bathroom- and I don't believe that back in the gay nineties the "girl" or "man servant "you employed was encouraged to use the families private bath. In the flats the cafe was on the first floor, to the right of the front door. If you look at the photo, it looks like someone is sitting in the window reading a newspaper, and a woman looks out to the street. Was no 29 in the Flats or the Olbiston? That is interesting about the "colored man". I think I would find out more about this. great work, both of you. Fiona
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Post by fiona on Mar 22, 2009 22:46:26 GMT -5
Dave: I can pretty much figure out where no 29 was by counting the floors in each block, since Mr Latcher lived on the far north side, 6th floor, 7 floors to a block. Take it from there, guys! fiona
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Post by Ralph on Mar 23, 2009 1:39:20 GMT -5
I just wanted to add my apologies for disturbing the original location of this thread, but I felt it was better to moved it before it got too big than to wait. I would have hated to see it lost in the General section.
On another note, I have a large number of pictures and postcards from that era. When I get everything unpacked I will be setting up to post some of them for you all......just have to get another PC to add to the rest!!
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 23, 2009 5:53:15 GMT -5
Thanks, Ralph, and we knew the move was coming. Not another PC for you! But I know what you mean. I'm running out of webspace and in fact hit the ceiling last night while doing some maintenance that required a lot of temporary duplication. I have to stop being so profligate with my graphics amended to posts. Thanks for all the work you do here, by the way.
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 23, 2009 6:20:42 GMT -5
RAZING THE RUINS_____________________Workmen Pull Down the Walls of the Genesee Flats.At 2:30 this afternoon workmen began to pull down the walls remaining of the burned Genesee Flats. Milton M. Northrup supervised the work. They started in on the rear side and had got down to the third story on the southernmost section and to the fifth story of the adjoining section when City Surveyor Johnson, acting for the city ordered the workmen to leave the rear side and pull down on the front side. The work is progressing slowly, and the opinion of onlookers is that Northrup & Lucher will just get it done in the given time. Mr Johnson xxxxxxxxxx(opinion) the whole proceeding was fierce. (was a farce) ____________________________ This is the best that I could do. You've a better eye than me. Yeah, I thought the last word might be farce, too, but it seemed out of place in that more formal style of newspaper writing of the era. Good read on the direction of the workmen. And that makes sense, because Johnson probably wanted the front wall down to protect people passing in the street.
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 23, 2009 6:33:11 GMT -5
In the flats the cafe was on the first floor, to the right of the front door. I wonder if that has anything to do with the statement I have been wondering about in the 10March1896 Herald article, above, "Those who were located on the first and second floors, except adjoining the main entrance, had no difficulty in escaping, and some succeeded in taking considerable clothing and other effects with them."
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Post by fiona on Mar 23, 2009 15:10:35 GMT -5
Opposite the front doors, one side was the office, the other the cafe. Perhaps these doors, the main doors, were locked. Will cyber more later. Glad the thread was moved, as it is ballooning and still have the fire, the inquest of the deaths at the flats, the rebuilding of the flats as Olbiston, and some of the Kanatenah to go! Whew! Whole lotta history goin' on! I never though in my life that this project would get this big. At the end of the part "Flats" I promise to tell all about how I began this research. Another amazing story! Be well, Fiona
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Post by jon hynes on Mar 23, 2009 15:52:26 GMT -5
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Post by fiona on Mar 23, 2009 18:57:21 GMT -5
John: A beautiful, beautiful picture of the top of the Olbiston. What I love about the building is the thematic repetition of the towers. This is a great blog. I was walking about the lobby today and noticed a different sort of energy... very peaceful and positive, I saw the afternoon sun on the old marble and said: This is beautiful, a place I have come to love in spite of it's obvious flaws. Just two old farts who get along. Moving through time, I should be posting by the end of this week., and the subject will be: events that led to the disaster: such as, hoses that burst, a railing around the building, conflicting stories of employees, so if we all know where were going, that gives you two gentlemen time to post anything pertinant. Be well, Fiona
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Post by fiona on Mar 23, 2009 19:02:13 GMT -5
Oh, just thought I'd drop another line; See those towers, the cladding around the edges is copper, all deteriorated now by the passage of time, and within those spaces live hundreds of birds, starlings, that imitate every fire truck, every ambulance, every police car on Genesee Street. I swear there are some that "Rap", but, hey, who am I? Just Fiona
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 23, 2009 19:37:34 GMT -5
Thanks, Fiona. Couple of questions. Jon and I are discussing the spelling of Obliston, or is it Olbiston. We see it spelled both ways in the old newspapers seen on fultonhistory.com. Googling either spelling results in many hits each. Here are a couple of postcards found on eBay today. Notice on one the name is spelled Obliston. So Ol or Ob is the question. Also, WestMoGuy and I are wondering where the Opera House was and we've asked you that question on the thread labeled "Utica Opera House." Oh! And where was Genesee Hill? Up to Oneida Square? Or south, up Genesee Street toward Sherman? Obliston in 1909Obliston in 1911
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Post by dgriffin on Mar 23, 2009 22:35:15 GMT -5
Changing spelling of thread here and in the first post of the thread. Now O L B I S T O N.
Thanks, Jon.
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