By Michael Bushnell
Northeast News
July 20, 2016

Published by the North American Postcard Company of Kansas City, Mo., this week’s card is a Real Photo Postcard showing the West Bottoms area looking northwest toward the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas (“Kaw”) rivers.

The large building occupying a majority of the card is the Loose-Wiles Cracker & Candy Company. Loose-Wiles later went on to become what we know today as Sunshine Biscuit. In the foreground is Union Avenue and the northeast section of the old Union Depot. A long passenger train can be seen on the tracks directly in the front of the depot, and a streetcar can be seen clanging its way along Union Avenue (at lower right).

It should be noted that the river seems uncontained in this photo because this was before the system of levees that line today’s river channel were built. The inter-city (Lewis & Clark) viaduct seems to be standing in the water near its eastern terminus.

The card was sent to Mrs. Orval Hubbard of 1301 E. Fourth St., Pueblo, Colo. It was mailed on June 22, 1913, from the Argentine Postal Station.