These two views of Broad Street published early in the 20th century show roughly the same location. The main difference being that one looks north and the other southeast. Many of the buildings reflect mid to late 19th century design and the street has little or no automobile traffic. Soon this landscape would undergo a “high rise” building boom. The Kinney Building, The Firemen’s Insurance Building , the construction of the “new” Bamberger’s Building and the First National State Bank Building would all transform this vicinity in the next decade. The automobile would also become less of a novelty and more of a means of everyday transport. Vehicles of all descriptions would soon be filling the street with traffic. Newark was thriving and growing.

I would be remiss not to comment on the post cards themselves. To begin with they were never mailed and judging by the brightness  of their colors they were probably stored away from light. The colors jump out at you. In fact, these cards were printed in Germany, as were many cards before World War I. The reason for that was the superior quality of  cards printed in Germany. It was not until the war ended trade with Germany that cards produced domestically were able to gain some headway here.