Always on the lookout
Several of our members regularly check the latest listings on auction sites, looking for “new to us” photos of Cobalt.
Just when we are about to declare “no more new photos are out there” we learn we are mistaken.
That’s OK. We like THESE kinds of mistakes. Above is the latest “new to us” photo.
Now, take a look at that row of buildings just behind the people. They can be seen in the next two photos.
Who was JH Hunter?
Joseph Hendricks Hunter was one of the directors of Horatio Barber’s Open Call Mining Exchange. In 1907, he was a Vice President of the City of Cobalt Mine. The press referred to him as a capitalist from Cincinnati who owned considerable property in Cobalt’s residential and commercial neighbourhoods. His most significant, most visible contribution to Cobalt was the Hunter Block in the Square. It was completed in 1907.
By mining-town standards, the Hunter Block was impressive. On the outside, that is. Inside was another matter. It was a cheaply built structure without toilets. In 1909 during the typhoid crisis, Joseph’s brother Cromwell Orrick acted as the landlord, and was fined for non-compliance after he ignored the health authorities’ order to install toilets in the building and other rooming “facilities” in town such as the above illustrated, so-called, cottages.
No big deal, except it is
If you’ve followed Cobalt’s history from the discovery of silver in 1903 to present day, you know that the landscape has changed dramatically over the years.
Especially in the early days when. for example, a building that was erected in spring 1905 was relocated elsewhere by the end of the same year.
To find new photos that illustrate something new is a VERY big deal to we few die-hard Cobalt-o-philes.