2017 is coming to a close, and it’s time for the year’s last retro photo post. Thank you for all of your emails and insights this year. Your memories are a great help in strengthening the Duke Energy archives, which holds hundreds of thousands of pictures from the last century.
Here are a few black-and-white photos – as usual, if you recognize them, please send us an email at illumination@duke-energy.com, and include the photo number or attach the image.
Sign up for alerts when new photos are posted by clicking here, and we’ll see you in 2018!
Photo 197: Do you recognize these employees outside the Valdese (N.C.) Branch Office in 1957? This photo is from the Duke Power collection.
Photo 199: These Duke Power linemen at safety training in 1979 are unidentified – do they look familiar?
Photo 200: This photo is labeled “Management Development Program at Lake Hickory – 1960.” Do you have any details on the program or these employees from Duke Power?
Mysteries solved!
Turns out that this Spartanburg, S.C., building in photo 193 is not a Duke Energy building, but a department store, according to retirees Tom Glenn and John T. Guthrie. It was the Aug W Smith Co. department store, which was located in this building from the 1920s to the 1970s. Guthrie sent us this article, where the building is featured in its past and present states. Glenn found the following photo in the Duke Energy archives of the actual Spartanburg Southern Public Utilities (later Duke Power) office decked out for the holidays on West Main Street. Glenn said the picture had special meaning to him because his grandfather had a hardware store next door in the 1940s and '50s.
