Rochester Preserves Past, Buys Old Set

    The Rochester City Council voted to buy a little bit of history last week, when they unanimously approved the purchase of approximately 300 antique postcards depicting city sights -- sights which, in many cases, no longer exist.
    The postcards, which date from 1897 to the 1920s, came from the collection of the late Raymond Russell, a retired police officer who died last month at age 79.
    Russell's widow, Winnie, said she decided to sell his cards because, "I need the money, and besides, I think they would be a good thing for the city of Rochester to have. They may never find another set like this."
    The city paid $4,000 for the collection, which will become part of a local historical display at the Rochester Hills Public Library, sponsored by the Rochester Historical Commission.
    "We hated to have the postcards leave the area, and we hustled to find a way to keep them," said Diane Burgeson, a historical commission member. "They're part of the history and the heritage of the area that future generations may want to preserve and research."
    Although she had heard offers from outside bidders, Winnie Russell said she, like Burgeson, wanted the cards to stay in their hometown.
    "We'd rather keep them in the city, if the city wants to pay for them," she said.
    One of the postcards held a special significance for Ray Russell. According to his wife, he once paid $30 for an old picture postcard of the Haven, a mental institution that has since been closed down. The Russells met there as employees; he was an orderly, she was a cook.
    The postcards were part of a large collection of historical materials, according to Winnie Russell.
    He was a historian of the best kind," Winnie said. "The best thing about being a historian is that you are interested in the past and you want to preserve it."
    The Russells' son, Brian, said the postcards were a natural interest for his father, a lifelong resident of Rochester who loved all things historical.
    "He was a collector of all sorts of things, but being a real Rochester enthusiast, he understood the value of preserving these cards," said Brian.
    This concern for history did not stop with the elder Russell. Brian, who owns Fourth Street Bookstore in Royal Oak, said he took advantage of his job to hunt down cards for his father. The city, he noted, got quite a bargain when it bought the cards.
    "Knowing that the city wanted them, I gave them a reduced rate," he said. "It was about a third less than they'd pay on the open market."
    While the city is getting albums full of postcards, Brian added that there are a few which will not be included in the transaction: two cards which feature the Inter-Urban Repair Shop, where his grandfather used to work, and one card which features a photograph of Ray Russell at age 13.

Tim Carvell,
The Eccentric, June 21, 1993