This extraordinary photo was on a postcard, ostensibly sent from Wilhelmine Plath Boock on 26 April 1909 to her son Arthur and his wife Emma Aufderheide Boock in Spencer, Wisconsin. Nothing in Wilhelmine's note suggests that Emma is expecting a child in three months, nor is there any inquiry about Art's new job as Cashier of the Spencer State Bank. The short message is a fairly routine parental greeting.
The photo on the obverse is extraordinary because it is the only photo we've located thus far of Christian Friederich Boock's Blacksmith Shop and Wagonry, located at 304-305 North Minnesota Street in New Ulm. By this date, Wilhelmine would have moved from her home on Broadway to the light-colored building on the right side of the photo, located at 311 North Minnesoa Street and known as The Windsor House.Interesting details of the photo include the enormous iron anvil atop the Blacksmithry, the building a block behind The Windsor House labeled "Saloon," the imposing Catholic School building, and the Italianate cupola of the New Ulm Cathedral. In between the chimneys is yet another cupola that suggests the Hermann Monument.
The Windsor House was a combined Boock homestead, where Wilhelmine, daughter Emma Theresa Boock Cordes, daughter Frieda, and son Albert Peter and wife Emma Elise Ruemke Boock lived, as well as boarders. The third floor was added when William and Emma Theresa Cordes partnered with Wilhelmine in making the facility both a home and a boarding house with five apartments.
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