buggies

Officially opened on 1 January 1881, the Fitzroy Bridge was Rockhampton's first bridge and until the Alexandra Railway Bridge was opened in 1899, it was the only bridge crossing the river. Prior to it being built, residents were ferried across the river on a steam ferryboat.[3] The official ceremony consisted of a procession walking across the bridge, the planting of memorial trees at the northern end and the bridge's designer, Frederick Byerley breaking a bottle of champagne on one of the pedestals at the southern end of the bridge where he "baptised" the structure, the Fitzroy Bridge.[4] Following the official opening, a large crowd gathered at the Criterion Hotel who proceeding to drink a number of toasts in honour of Rockhampton's new bridge.[5] Source en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitzroy_Bridge

An online search of old newspapers found an ad for S. B. Newman & Co., a printing & bookbinding company located at 617 S Gay St in Knoxville, TN. Given that we appear to be looking at the backside of the business, I think we're just off of Market St SW, in the alley between Church Ave S and Clinch Ave S. That would put us on the backside of the Old Customs House, the first floor of which, according to Wikipedia, was used as a post office until around 1934. Here's the view today in Google Street View. The road's been redone a bit, and the buildings at the end of the alley are gone, but the windows, arches, keystones, etc, of the Old Customs House to our left definitely look right. The Customs House is now home to the East Tennessee Historical Society. I sent them a tweet with a link to this page, figured they might be interested.

severinus, had i seen your comment i wouldn't have filled my sunday afternoon doing the research to prove the same point!

pomonobo productions Heh, well I hope the research was still enjoyable. And nice work with the "today" shot; I would've loved to've stolen that thunder from you too, but being in Seattle I had to settle for Google :)

Thank you both for your interest. This is fantastic information, and I especially enjoy the then-and-now view! I'll be sure the pass this along to my colleagues at the National Postal Museum. Susannah Smithsonian Institution Archives

A curator at the National Postal Museum confirmed the information you found, @severinus. We updated the caption with the location and postmaster's name. Thank you again for your help in identifying this image! Effie Smithsonian Institution Archives

cool