Feature of the Month - The S. Garczynski Collection 🏆

May 2025 Registry Feature

This month's featured Registry Set is the New Hampshire themed S. Garczynski Collection.  This collection features some very interesting and unique stereoviews, including a few extremely rare pieces.  Today we will be highlighting four scarce stereoviews housed in The S. Garczynski Collection.

The first piece that we will be looking at today is registry item #1527, a watchmaker's shop in Lisbon, New Hampshire.  Views that illustrate businesses or houses are usually quite rare and they are often one-of-a-kind.  The business owner or the resident would hire a photographer to take a stereoscopic photo of the building, which would later be viewed in 3D with a stereoscope.  The Stark K. Fisk Jewelry and Watch Shop existed on South Main Street in Lisbon, New Hampshire.  

[Registry #1527 - The S. Garczynski Collection]

In the photo we see the shop owners and employees, including presumably S.K. Fisk himself, standing on a wood-planked side walk in front of the store.  In front of the men, stands a finely made three-horse carriage.  In the upper window to the right of the photo, we can see a curious onlooker lifting the shade to see what the fuss outside was all about.  The success of Fisk's store was likely a result of the booming tourism industry in the 1870's and 1880's.  Thousands upon thousands of travellers heading to Franconia Notch and Mount Washington would stop in Lisbon along the way.  This created a tourism boom in the town.  Interestingly enough, the building that housed Fisk's store still stands to this day!

The second view we are highlighting today is registry item #2135, an early view of Elm Street in Manchester, New Hampshire.  The back of the card specifically identifies this stereoview as showing 'The Orrill Brothers Shop - 895 Elm Street Manchester NH'.  The Orrill Brothers likely refer to James and William B. Orrill who operated a barber shop at this location at the time.  The street scene in this stereoview is a busy and interesting one.

[Registry #2135 - The S. Garczynski Collection]

The building in the foreground is under construction, surrounded with scaffolding and ladders.  A pile of debris is sitting on the road in front of the store and if we look closely we can see temporary overhead protection installed over the sidewalk to keep bystanders safe from falling debris.  The street itself is populated with elm trees, a rare sight in today's time because of the devastating impact of Dutch Elm Disease on elm trees in the Northeast.  On the sidewalk in the foreground, a salesman or shoe-shiner has a folding table set up in order to sell his wares to passers-by.  One more interesting thing to note in this photo - often the trunks of street trees were protected by wood slats all the way around the base.  This was intended to prevent horses from gnawing on the bark and damaging the tree.  It would also prevent people from nailing signs or bulletins to the base of the tree.

There third piece in The S. Garczynski Collection that we are looking at today is registry item #2215, an ice cutting factory in Manchester, New Hampshire.  This is a fascinating look back to the times before refrigeration.  Ice cutting in ponds along the Merrimack River was a popular enterprise during the Winter months.  In Victorian times, ice would be cut from frozen freshwater ponds and lakes across the United States.  Ice was considered a delicacy and it could be stored for short periods using an ice box.  In this stereoview, we see Gideon Flanders and his workers cutting and removing ice bocks.

[Registry #2215 - The S. Garczynski Collection]

Gideon Flanders would cut his ice out of Dorr's Pond in the center of Manchester and his sales shop was located on Pearl Street.  Ice cutting had become so popular in Manchester that it supported three large ice businesses and employed over 150 men.  In this stereoview, we see the men standing proudly in front of a manual hoisting elevator.  The men had cut the ice blocks using large saws and then fished them out of the large rectangular holes with picks, hooks and leather straps.  The blocks would then move up the mechanical elevator to another crew of men standing on the scaffolding above.  These men would load horse-driven sleds with the large blocks so that they could be moved to a warehouse or delivered to a buyer.  Although a popular industry from the 1860's until the turn-of-the-Century, refrigeration and ice-making machinery eventually replaced the need for freshwater ice block cutting. 

The last piece from The S. Garczynski Collection that we will be looking at today is registry item #2307, a quarry in Milford, New Hampshire.  Popular for it's 'Milford Pink Granite', the town saw significant growth when the first quarries were built to mine the rock in the 1870's.  It is unknown exactly where 'Cram's Ledge Quarry' was located, but somewhere along Cram Hill Road is probable.  The Pike Quarry currently operates a large mine on Cram Hill Road, which is just north of Wilton.

[Registry #2307 - The S. Garczynski Collection]

The Cram family were an important part of Milford's history and it would be unsurprising that they expanded their businesses to include quarrying.  The Cram's had already opened a large foundry, a hosiery factory, a construction business, and they were an integral part of the Oddfellows lodges in the area.  Granite quarrying was a dangerous operation in the 1870's.  Early steam augers were used to drill holes into the granite.  In the absence of steam equipment, the holes would be drilled manually using hand augers.  This was an intensely laborious process because granite is very hard and dense.  Dynamite would then be placed down the hole so that the rock could be blasted into a workable size.  Men with hammers and chisels would then square the granite to size and ship it to a nearby construction site or prison yard.  In this photo, we can see that the men are hoisting a large granite block in the air using a pully system attached to a horse.  With no safety equipment in sight, we can only imagine how many eyes, fingers and lives were lost while mining this stone.

Congratulations to The S. Garczynski Collection for achieving Collection of the Month!  This is a huge accomplishment!  Check your mailbox, your award should arrive soon.  To view the rest of The S. Garczynski Collection, please visit the WHS Stereoview registry page.