Antique & Vintage Postcards

Leominster's imposing Romanesque Revival Town Hall looms handsomely in this richly chromolithographed 1908 souvenir card, its dark mansard roof and arched entry portal rendered in warm ochre and umber tones that German lithographers at the Leipzig-Berlin-Dresden Litho-Chrome works perfected for the American market. The building — constructed in the 1890s — served as the civic heart of a city already famous as the "Comb Capital of the World" for its celluloid manufacturing. Bare late-autumn trees flank the structure, and a lone figure stands at the corner, lending human scale. The card was mailed from Leominster on October 3, 1908, to Mrs. H.S. Thomas at 58 Atkins Ave, Lynn, Massachusetts, with a 1¢ Franklin stamp. The reverse carries the elegant Litho-Chrome trade mark with its four-leaf clover device and the notation "Published by Leominster 5 and 10 Cent Store, Leominster, Mass." — a charming record of small-town retail patronage of the postcard craze. No message was written.