When was the last time you sent a postcard? This beautiful custom seems to be fading away, which is a shame. Therefore, this summer, we invite you to send an original postcard featuring the Kamienna 28 investment and a unique stamp produced especially for the “Discover the Lower Town with ACCIONA” campaign by Poczta Polska. You can receive the postcard and stamp during the “History Storytellers” walks through the Lower Town this summer.

A postcard featuring the 1846 oil mill (Kamienna 28), currently being revitalized, published this year by ACCIONA is another nod to the remarkable history of the Lower Town. One of the few surviving postcards from this magical spot on the Tricity map dates back to 1901 and was sent from Gdańsk to Bydgoszcz on August 11th. This is almost the same day as the next walk, which will take place on August 10th. However, before you stroll through the historic streets of the former “Industrial Chimney District” and send your own postcard from the Lower Town, we encourage you to read Jacek Górski’s article and discover the secret of a certain postcard from Jałmużnicza Street.

Jałmużnicza Street on postcards

Why did prewar photographers so rarely visit the Lower Town? Was it because of the distance to cover? Or perhaps they believed there was nothing in the Lower Town worth photographing? Or perhaps there was no demand for views from Łąkowa, Toruńska, Jaskółcza, or Śluza Streets? We will probably never find the answers to these questions. On the other hand, we should be grateful to those who decided to cross the banks of the New Motława and capture the charming corners of the Lower Town in photographs.

One early spring or late autumn afternoon, walking from Chmielna Street, or perhaps from Łąkowa Street, a photographer suddenly stopped at the intersection of Toruńska and Jałmużnicza Streets. To his left, he saw a row of two-story tenement houses with a shop or service establishment on the corner. The houses on the other side were significantly lower, but they were towered over by the high wall of the middle school on Śluza Street (in addition, I should add that the municipal baths building, which will be built in 3-4 years, is not yet visible on this postcard). Even so, this structure wasn’t the tallest he had seen from this perspective.

On the aforementioned street, but on the other side, in the distance, two tall chimneys of the oil mill operating there could be seen. The whole thing was complemented by an alley running through the middle, lined with trees on both sides. As he began to set up his photographic equipment, several people who lived there or were visiting emerged from the nearby tenement houses, and several children ran out from the school. Everyone watched his activities with interest, practically posing for a photo. And I’m convinced that none of them realized that after 115 years, they would still be standing in the same spot in front of their homes, a symbol of the early 20th century in the Lower Town.

The postcard was written on August 11, 1901, and sent to Max Schmidt in Bromberg, also known as Bydgoszcz, where it arrived the very next day, as evidenced by the post office stamp visible on it, affixed upside down. The original postcard presented comes from the collection of the Storytellers of the Lower Town in Gdańsk.