Fixing Up Downtown Buckman in 1915

Larry and I realize how very much you enjoy reading about our latest obscure obsession re the tiny berg of Buckman, a Minnesota village whose heyday was about 70 years ago, yeah.  I suspect you understand that almost anything can set us off, too.  Oh, hell, bear with us, reading this won't kill you...

A faded print from the Pictorial Atlas shows a street crew in 1915, in Buckman, right?  But look, it's hard to tell whether we're looking north or south (and isn't it fascinating how your eyes and brain can switch it back and forth like that?)  The guys are on the crest of the hill, and we had to study what houses they could be, in the background.  What house had a second story door, next to a house with no windows on this side?  It puzzled us, and so we compared it to another photo we have of the metropolis.

The red outline is the actual machine they cobbled together to make sidewalk pouring easier.  They're in the middle of the future highway, but they're not working on the road--see the wooden form in the foreground?  I think they were pouring a sidewalk from the bank across to Schmolkes Store.  

Take note of all four five men in the pic (according to Horst, they were Fritz & John Mueller, Frank &
 Pete Poster and Peter Grundhoefer, looking on)-see #2?  He's partly hidden by a small silo of material, possibly a water tank.  But that silo shape is positioned just right to look like the south wall of the house behind it, see?

As a gift to YOU, we outlined the buildings to correspond with the view we know is looking south--the postcard photo from 1911.  When I enlarged the pink-outlined house, there was the second floor door between the windows.  So, the sidewalk crew photographer was looking north, toward Pierz and the wavery wagon road going up the far hill.  Isn't that nifty?

Oh, and check man #4 up there.  I'm not sure about when Andrew Suess moved to Buckman, but the pose reminds me of him in the pic we have of men around Brandl's Garage, from 1925.  'Course, #4 could have been one of various retired farmers who'd moved into town, but we have no pics of them ☺.  

Added two months later:

Pierz Journal, April 24, 1913.
Of interest: I believe Carl Kropp
also built St Michaels Church.
Here, the Poster cement machine
 was being used on the new High school.

  Horst emailed today, and had this to say:
 "By the way, the second story of that building you marked was the Sitzman General Store" [pink outline] "with upstairs meeting hall and saloon, later to be Billig's Saloon, then Albert Gohl's Shoe and Harness Shop.  The stairs were on the north side.  Hoheisel's house", [green outline] "the former Frank Mischke dwelling, is just to the north of that, the place without windows".
THANKS, Horst!

DANG, I'm proud of us!!