Wordless Wednesday is an ongoing blog-prompt hosted at Geneabloggers.  The author frequently uses the opportunity to share the vintage postcard collection of her grandfather, Donald C. Minor.

Today’s visitor to 112 North Richhill Street, Waynesburg, Pennyslvania would come upon this beautiful old church:

accessed August 10, 2011: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ronmilliken/reunion/Sunday%20tour.html

One hundred years ago the corner looked like this:

From the postcard collection of Donald C. Minor

How many differences can you spot!

• The NAME:  In or around 1968 the Waynesburg Methodist Episcopal Church became affiliated with the newly created United Methodist Church, and was afterward known as the First Methodist Church of Waynesburg.
• The parsonage porch is brown.
• There is no ramp leading through the front arches.
• There is no stop sign at the corner.
• The trees are different.
• There are no electrical lines.

This second image is an artochrome postcard from the Donald C. Minor Postcard Collection, a treasure trove of images and notes sent to my grandfather from 1907-1910.  The card was printed in Germany, as were most of the postcards of that era.  The publisher, however, was more local.  Olmstead Brothers Company Publishers were located in nearby Wheeling, West Virginia.  Either the printer or the publisher identified the card as being #1035, one of a set that showed scenes of the region.*  Unfortunately for Minor genealogists, no note explains why Walter sent this card to five year old Donald on October 21, 1908.

*You can find more photo postcards of the Wheeling, West Virginia region at http://wheeling.weirton.lib.wv.us/history/photos/postcards/index.htm.