Gothenburg Panarama

Gothenburg in 1919

Recently, the Archive acquired a large photo album from a flea market dealer; the album had once owned by a family who lived in Gothenburg, Nebraska, and the photos all seem to be dated from 1907-1915. The album itself was in extremely poor condition, with the covers and the binding long gone, meaning it's really just a stack of very tattered and torn pages. Some of the photos had previously been removed (possibly by other buyers at the flea market), and most are just family photos. Some, however, give an amazing insight into this small midwestern farming and railroad town in the early 1900s. Three of the photos show an overview of the town taken from top of one of the grain elevators along the Union Pacific Railroad. A fourth photo, taken at a different time (based on the paper used for the print), appears to show the part of town on the south side of the tracks.

Stitched panarama of three individual photos taken from one of Gothenburg's grain elevators

Google Earth view of the same area today

Gothenburg can trace its origins to 1882 when Swedish immigrant Olof Bergstrom established a homestead in Dawson County. As a land agent for the Union Pacific Railroad, he helped select the town site as a coaling and watering stop for the railroad's steam locomotives, and the railroad laid out the original eight-block street plan in 1884; the town was incorporated a year later. Bergstrom maintained his ties with the Old Country, and a number of other Swedish immigrants followed him and settled in Gothenburg, named after the city in Sweden.

Photo No. 1 in the series looks northwest along the railroad tracks and Lincoln Highway

Avenue G is in the immediate foreground of the above photo, which later would be built as an overpass. Ave. F is just this side of the Pabst Saloon, and Lake Street, the main business street, is just beyond. At the far left is the coaling tower for the Union Pacific locomotives, along with the water spout. The grain mill in the middle distance would later burn, and a series of photos of that catastrophy will be featured in an upcoming post.

Pabst Saloon - a frontal view will be included in an upcoming post. 

Building featuring advertising signs for Tom Keene Cigars and Velvet Tobacco.

One thing that I find fascinating about these three photos is what's not in them: in spite of there being at least two garages in town, there is not a single automobile. There are a few scattered wagons and two steam-powered farm tractors (one with a combine), and in this whole panaramic town view, only five people! (I'll leave it to you the reader to play a bit of Where's Waldo Gothenburgite).

Photo No. 2 in the series

According to the 1919 map at the top of this post, there were two large local landowners with the name Norsworthy, J. E. Norsworthy, and J. H. Norsworthy.

The Blacksmith shop with a sign advertising the Auto Garage "one block south". That would suggest that there were at least two garages in town, as The Auditorium Garage (below) is a couple blocks north of this location.

The Auditorium Garage (the name somewhat mystifies me), significant because in a series of photos we'll feature in an upcoming post, it burns to the ground.

Photo No. 3 in the series

Most of the outhouses in view seem to have his-and-hers stalls

This photo, which appears to show the part of Gothenburg south of the UP tracks, was taken at a different time that the other three, based on the photo paper used. Again, though, no cars nor people can be seen.