Hamilton’s history explored with vintage-postcard book

Book signings by Brian Smith

Some upcoming book signings by Hamilton's author, Brian Smith:

Images of Hamilton's history as a city and an industrial center unfold in the new book, Hamilton, which includes 127 pages filled with postcard scenes from the 1900s through the 1950s.

The book is the first by Ross High School English and drama teacher Brian Smith, a Butler County native who lived in Hamilton during the 1990s and now lives in Ross.

Some of the more fascinating photos among the book’s 200-plus images are shots of High Street, downtown, during the historic 1913 flood; and an image of a former bell tower of the current courthouse the moment it collapsed on March 14, 1912, during a fire. The courthouse bell tower crashed through the floors below and landed in the basement.

Also interesting are portraits of long-gone downtown buildings, and streets that were bedecked with flags for big celebrations.

“Unfortunately, a lot of buildings, a lot of architecture, is gone” now, Smith said. “It’s interesting to see, ‘This is what used to be here.’”

With Hamilton’s downtown now undergoing significant restoration, Smith finds it interesting to see “how history changes things. In the 1950s, people were like, ‘We new to be new, we need to be modern, we need to be vibrant — so they put all those metal facades on the faces of buildings downtown, because that was the cutting edge of the future, that was the 1950s modernization. Recently, within the past several years, now the feel is, ‘We need to get rid of all those, and let’s get back to the original character of the downtown, the original character of the buildings.’”

Smith, who serves on the boards of trustees of the Butler County Historical Society and the Greater Hamilton Civic Theatre, took most of the images from his 3,000-plus vintage postcard collection, of which about 600 depict Hamilton scenes, with about 1,500 from all over the county, and others from surrounding counties that interest him.

He began collecting, “probably during the same time I was living in the city,” Smith said. “I came across an old box that had some of my great grandmother (Helen Lindauer)’s things in it, and inside this little metal box were some old old postcards she had kept from different places that people had sent her around the country.”

Smith’s book, put out by Arcadia Publishing as part of its Postcard History Series, reached stores March 14, and sells for $21.99. It also can be purchased through Amazon.com, www.arcadiapublishing.com and other online sellers.

“I said, ‘I’ve got to find a way to get this out there and share it, because I’m sitting here and enjoying my collection,’” Smith said. “Postcard-collecting is still one of the top collecting hobbies in the world, so there’s got to be other people out there interested.”

His great grandmother lived in Middletown, “but I know that she and my great grandfather used to travel to Hamilton regularly during the ’30s, before the war, to partake in the lively nightlife of the city, and it wasn’t always quite legal.”

“She always told stories about coming up to Hamilton, to the speakeasies and things up there, and to the clubs, where the nightlife was I guess a little more exciting than it was up in Middletown,” Smith said.

In those roaring days, some people knew Hamilton as “Little Chicago” because of its party atmosphere.

The book is the first for Smith, 48, himself a 1985 Ross graduate, who has spent more than $200 to buy some rare postcards. Many cost $1 or less, but others, like the collapsing-courthouse photo, can be obtained for $12-$20, he said.