A few of Gustav Anderson's photos from Memorial University's archives. This guy was a brilliant photographer - his photos, especially those of rural Newfoundland, are amazing. Beautifully composed. And his portraiture is the best I've seen from this part of the world. He has several easily as engaging as the Great Depression mother.
If you're able to determine whether he photographed your part of the world, do check out any he did from there. It'll be spectacular.
Here are a few of his shots from around St. John's in 1945, immediately after WWII and just a few years before Confederation with Canada.
The Central Slum still existed, and this photo below wasn't even part of it, it was just getting close to that area. In the 1950s, it was all bulldozed, Water Street and New Gower Street were widened to four lanes, and this is where virtually all of the modern buildings (from City Hall to Fortis) in the Downtown West exist today.
The city actually never intended to lose all of the beautiful mixed-use buildings that lined both sides of Water and New Gower, but when the slum residences were bulldozed, there were no people to shop in them and the area declined. It was only then that it was modernized, unfortunately.
Signal Hill was finally being blasted to bring a road out to the Battery neighbourhood.
We were still driving on the left.
And, during his visit, voila: