Manawa's main street looking south

The photographer is standing just north of the intersection of Union and Bridge Streets, looking south up the hill toward Sacred Heart Catholic church, which is not quite tall enough to be visible above the trees from this angle.

I don't know what the date is. It's mostly a guess, but I'd say between 1920 and 1940.

The cars would probably be one of the most obvious clues. I don't know much about old cars, but from what I can tell by comparing pictures on the internet, these look most like the cars from the 20's and 30's. They look a lot like the cars in the view looking north, but there appears to be a lot more variety here. I don't know what that might suggest.

Those stove pipe gas pumps like the ones on the right were made in the 20's and 30's, too, but I wouldn't care to guess how long they'd hang on in a small town in mid-Wisconsin.

A couple other interesting differences from one view to the next:

The sign at the top of the Eastling building looks like it reads "First National" something or other (click on the photo to enlarge it a bit). This is one of two photos I've seen that identify the building as the First National Bank, even though in two other photos on the page for the Eastling building, the hand-painted sign in the front window appears to say "Citizen's National Bank of Manawa." I have no idea why this is.

In this photo and the view looking north, the Eastling building has been painted dark with light trim.

I thought at first that the Texaco sign was gone, but it's not -- it's just hidden behind a square, gray box or sign, above the station wagon on the left.

I really like the funky angled parking scheme. The town never used that, in my memory.

Let's crank up The Way-Back Machine and take a look south from this end of town in 1908. Although we're on the north end of town, and still looking south, this is not even close to the same spot; the photo above was taken about 150 yards further south up the street. But in this photo, the photographer's standing as far back (north) as the Little Wolf river. He may even be on top of the bridge, although I think it's more likely he's standing on the railroad trestle that runs from the lumber mill over Bridge Street.

To the left is the Little Wolf Lumber Company; the west end of the main warehouse is just visible, and the main office, a square, white clapboard building with a mansard roof, stands just left of the wooden sidewalk in the middle distance.

To the right is the spot where the milk condensory will be built in about two or three years.