My OperaAlley Books
Thursday, May 22, 2008 1:50:38 PM
From Dave Salter:
When I went on the walking tour of the two alleys [Mike Herlong, an historian, April 26 and 27], I asked the guide at the end if he could suggest any reference material. He mentioned the Borchert book (Alley Life in Washington), the Greene book (Secret City) and the book that I have attached for you by Weller (Neglected Neighbors). This book is available online for free through the Google book sharing service for books that are no longer copyright protected. In Weller's book he uses Blagden alley as his model and refers to it as Average Alley - a fictitious moniker. There is even a Mrs. Salter (no relation I'm sure) of ill repute!
Hope you enjoy this, even though it's rather dry and droll reading at times and filled with public health verbiage.
Dave
The actual reference to the book is here and the pdf is here. Just click on the "Download PDF - 6.3M" at the top right. (If you are on dial-up, don't do it.)
The most popular book on local alleys is, of course, Alley Life in Washington: Family, Community, Religion, and Folklife in the City, 1850-1970 By James Borchert. For a taste of it, go here and hit the Preview tab.
I haven't yet seen the Greene book that Salter mentions, but the reference is here. Note that while you can't download it you can read a lot of it via the preview tab. (I had to switch to the
Firefox from the Opera browser for that page to work well. Probably a missed plugin.)
All three, and others, are also about parts of the Progressive Era, with the obligatory Wikipedia reference here. Our alleys were part of something big!
When I went on the walking tour of the two alleys [Mike Herlong, an historian, April 26 and 27], I asked the guide at the end if he could suggest any reference material. He mentioned the Borchert book (Alley Life in Washington), the Greene book (Secret City) and the book that I have attached for you by Weller (Neglected Neighbors). This book is available online for free through the Google book sharing service for books that are no longer copyright protected. In Weller's book he uses Blagden alley as his model and refers to it as Average Alley - a fictitious moniker. There is even a Mrs. Salter (no relation I'm sure) of ill repute!
Hope you enjoy this, even though it's rather dry and droll reading at times and filled with public health verbiage.
Dave
The actual reference to the book is here and the pdf is here. Just click on the "Download PDF - 6.3M" at the top right. (If you are on dial-up, don't do it.)
The most popular book on local alleys is, of course, Alley Life in Washington: Family, Community, Religion, and Folklife in the City, 1850-1970 By James Borchert. For a taste of it, go here and hit the Preview tab.
I haven't yet seen the Greene book that Salter mentions, but the reference is here. Note that while you can't download it you can read a lot of it via the preview tab. (I had to switch to the
Firefox from the Opera browser for that page to work well. Probably a missed plugin.)
All three, and others, are also about parts of the Progressive Era, with the obligatory Wikipedia reference here. Our alleys were part of something big!
