The House on Broadway?

House-on-Broadway-detHere’s one for the old-time South Jersey residents and armchair historians to hash over. This may or may not be John Capewell’s residence on Broadway in Westville, New Jersey. When I lived there, it was more densely packed than it was at the time this photograph was shot, but the house or type of house looks familiar.

I can’t make out an address, but I figured that Capewell was taking some pride in his ownership and snapped this photo.

screendoor
The side door towards the rear of the house looks like the place where he shot his series of reading photographs. He probably set up his tripod on the steps outside of the screen door.

Here is the entire negative:

House-on-Broadway

About The Capewell Glass Negative Collection

The Capewell Glass Negative Collection is a series of about 200 5-inch by 7-inch glass negatives shot early in the 20th Century by John Batt Capewell (1878-1951) of Westville, New Jersey. John passed the negatives down to his son Henry who left them in his wife’s possession upon his passing. Henry’s widow didn’t know what to do with them and didn’t particularly want them so she offered them to my Dad who couldn’t turn down anything. Ultimately I wound up with them and thought I would one day have photographic prints struck from them. That didn’t happen, but I came up with the digital workaround of placing the negatives on a lightbox and rephotographing them with a digital camera. The “processing” was then done on a computer with image editing software. They came out better than I thought they would so I thought I would show them off to the world on this site. Many of these pictures have not been seen in a century, and I’m proud to be presenting them today.

At first, I did not know who the people were in the photographs. I have a box of ephemera that accompanied the negatives and snagged a few clues from that as far as the Capewell name. I did some research on the internet and had a few false starts and wrong turns, but the readers of these posts have provided a remarkable amount of research and detail. I’m amazed at what people have turned up sifting through public records and such!

Last Week: Same Wicker, Same Chicken Wire, Different Baby

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3 Responses to The House on Broadway?

  1. Jim Bessing Sr. says:

    Joe; Just guessing. This looks like John was proud of his work on the new addition over the back of the house for a couple of extra bedrooms . You think? JIm

  2. Jim Bessing Sr. says:

    Joe ; And also he would not have set up those indoor shots from the steps. They where set up at
    the inside doorway. I think. This can go on forever. lol

  3. Joe_Williams says:

    Thanks for the info!

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