Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Hillmanns 39

THE HILLMANNS OF BROOKLYN

CHAPTER 39

1929

College Days


Marian is a flapper.


Marian says she is part of the Maxwell gang.  I "assume" this means she was attending Maxwell College. Marian became an elementary school teacher. 


The number one song in 1929 was "Am I Blue".  This was definitely appropriate after the crash.


In 1929 the St. Valentine's Day Massacre took place. Seven gangsters, rivals of Al Capone, were murdered in Chicago.


Herbert Hoover became president in 1929.  His campaign promise was a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.


In 1929 the first public demonstration of a color television set took place.




The Museum of Modern Art opened in New York City.



Two Schwells. 1929 Births include Martin Luther King Jr., Audrey Hepburn, Anne Frank, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, and Bob Newhart 


I don't know who these children are.





I think we established a few albums back this was the way the men impressed the women.





Hillmanns albums come out on Tuesdays. Next week we're hanging out with more of Marian's friends.





Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Hilllmanns38

THE HILLMANNS OF BROOKLYN

CHAPTER 38

1928

MONTREAL

The Hillmanns left the Thousand Islands and headed up to Montreal

Rose's album contained 7 photos labeled "Canada", Marian's album had many more photos labeled "Montreal". I have merged the albums, but not all the photos are labeled


I think they started their trip in Buffalo, New York, then to Niagara Falls, Ontario.


They caught a steamer and too it up to the Thousand Islands.


The Hillmanns love to travel.   They love water.  They love physical activity.







Mountie in the crosswalk.





The Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel (chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, "Our Lady of Good Help") is a church in the district of Old Montreal in Montreal, Quebec. One of the oldest churches in Montreal, it was built in 1771 over the ruins of an earlier chapel.


The Château Ramezay is a museum and historic building on Notre-Dame Street in Old Montreal, opposite Montreal City Hall.

Built in 1705 as the residence of then-governor of Montreal, Claude de Ramezay, the Château was the first building proclaimed as a historical monument in Quebec and is the province’s oldest private history museum. It was designated a National Historic Sites of Canada in 1949.





Mount Royal












Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Hillmanns 37

THE HILLMANNS OF BROOKLYN

CHAPTER 37

1928

The Thousand Islands


In 1928, after the Hillmanns went to Niagara Falls they journeyed up Lake Ontario towards the St. Laurence Seaway.  They stopped at Boldt Castle in the Thousands Islands.  Marian Hillmann is my paternal grandmother. It just so happened my maternal grandmother, Audrey Eggert, was from a town a little more than an hour west of the Thousand Islands.  This is the area where I have spent the summers of my life.  I was thrilled when I saw the Hillmanns in the same place.  This album shows the Hillmanns in the Thousand Islands in 1928 juxtaposed with pictures of Lily and I in the Thousands  Islands in 2004 and again in 2015.  If you ever get the opportunity to  take a sightseeing boat around the Thousand Islands, its a beautiful place to visit.



That's quite a pose Rosie is striking.  


Marian tells us from her hotel she could see Heart Island.  The building closest to the water is the playhouse, the larger building is Boldt Castle


The closest I took to Marian's picture is this one with the playhouse in the forefront and the castle behind.


The Hillmanns' albums clearly show us that steamers were the airplanes of their day.


Rosie on board

Young Lily on board


Older Lily on board


Marian the Second on Board


We are approaching Boldt Castle





Arrived


The playhouse, built for the children



Marian on the roof of the playhouse.  There are no pictures of us on the roof of the playhouse because they don't let you do that anymore.


Marian tells us she is with Henry Brill. Wikipedia tells us there was a famous psychiatrist named Henry Brill.


Henry Brill (October 6, 1906 - June 17, 1990) was an American psychiatrist and educator. A native of Bridgeport, Connecticut, he earned both his undergraduate and medical degrees from Yale University. After receiving his M.D. in 1932, he began a career in the New York state psychiatric system, culminating in the directorship of Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood, NY from 1958 to 1974. At its height in the mid 1950s, Pilgrim was the largest mental institution in the world, with a census of 13,875 patients. Brill also served as Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene from 1959 to 1964.







Lily at Boldt Castle. Boldt Castle is hollow inside. It was never completed. While it was being built Mrs. Boldt died. Mr. Boldt stopped building. In recent years the Thousand Islands Port Authority has been working on completing Boldt Castle, which is a huge task. When we were there, the dining room had been completed.


We're leaving Boldt Castle.


The Tudor buildings were originally the boathouses for Boldt Castle as there was not enough room on the island to house all of the Boldt boats. 


A boathouse, imagine that.




The Hillmanns continue their journey up the St. Laurence


Hillmanns albums come out on Tuesdays. Next week we are going to Montreal.