Photo of The Month – Mar 2012

The Fiddler

Picture contributor: Roy Lee Harris Collection

We don’t know his name, but judging from his violin case, and his decision to pose with it, he must have been a musician of some caliber. He may have been a friend or relative of Roy Lee Harris’ father, Elijah, who was a gifted photographer in his own right, and who likely took this photo.

The scene, shot from the bluff at Highland Street, is from the late 1920’s or early ’30s. The most striking feature in the photo is the house at lower right. Few people will remember that two-story eight-room house, poised on the creek bank as if waiting for a flood.

There’s another to the left of the bridge. These and a few others populated the street called Goforth Flats and still existed when the 1935 Cliffside map was drawn.

Note the water tank looming near the town clock tower, which stood near the old ice plant. It did not survive the 1930’s.