Bridgeport

The golden age of postcards, which took place between 1900 and 1940, was also the golden age of Bridgeport. Local and national publishers printed scenes of the city's beautiful and renowned parks, magnificent mansions, palatial theaters, and sprawling factories, as well as its busy streets and unique architecture. These cards carried images of Bridgeport near and far. Recipients of these mementos could imagine building automobiles at the Locomobile factory, dining at the Amazon Café, staying at the Stratfield Hotel, riding the carousel at the Steeplechase Island amusement park, shopping at Howlands, admiring the Wheeler Mansion, attending mass at the South Congregational Church, or watching the activity at the winter quarters of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Bridgeport takes the modern reader on a journey into the past through nearly two hundred of these vintage postcard images.