Historic Hood River
The End of Mysteries
Notes
We have many wonderful mystery images in our collection, but modern research tools make it much easier to solve the mystery than it was even 13 years ago when we started this site. Spoiler alert: if you want to try to solve this mystery yourself, stop reading here!
This negative is in a group Matt and I scanned in 2013. At that time we wrote,
Collection of individually boxed glass plate negatives (also some transparencies “positives”) primarily 5×7 & 4×5. The boxes also contain a few prints. The collection is of unknown origin, possibly came from a film studio. Images are mainly of Hood River and Portland, Oregon. The collection also includes some of images of Europe (France).
More recently, we were able to link at least some images in this box to Fritz Rossinger/Rossiger/Rosiger (We’ll use Rosiger since that is thge spelling on his death certificate and tombstone), which you can read about in this post. Rosiger worked with August Guignard, inventor of fruit processing equipment and namesake of Guignard Drive, where his farm and business were located. Rosiger’s smiling face appears in several of the images in this collection.
Because the central building in this town is such and unusual mixture of architecture from different periods, it seemed like a good candidate for positive identification. Sure enough, with a combination of keyword and image searches, I was able to identify the central tower as Schloss Wolkenburg, a castle in Limbach-Oberfrohna, Germany. The castle was originally constructed in 1635, but it was rebuilt in 1790 which explains the mix of architectural styles. Fortunately it has survived the wars since this photograph was taken (circa 1905) and you can see it today in this view. You can read more about the castle’s architectural mix here.
L. E.
At first glance, I thought it was a church.
Interesting, and I am glad a mystery photo can be solved.