1950s Havana Cuba Street Photos La Vajilla Shops Signs Architecture Pre Castro For Sale

Two vintage c.1950s photographscapturing the shops, signs and architecture of pre-Revolutionary Cuba,including an identifiable Havana retailer and a particularly atmospheric olderCuban commercial corner.

The first photograph shows Loceríay Cristalería La Vajilla at Galiano and Zanja in Havana. Its enormoussuspended LA VAJILLA sign dominates the streetscape, surrounded bypedestrians, neighboring businesses, advertisements, streetlights, balconiesand other details of everyday Havana commercial life.

La Vajilla had a long history inHavana. Established in 1885, it developed into a retailer of china, glasswareand household goods, including imported Limoges porcelain, Baccarat crystal andChristofle wares. Its location at Galiano and Zanja also placed it at the edgeof Havana's historic Barrio Chino (Chinatown).

The second photograph shows a verydifferent Cuban commercial streetscape. LA COMERCIAL is painted inenormous letters across an older corner building with a projecting woodenbalcony, turned balusters, columns, tiled roof and hanging street lamp. A smallsign at the corner appears to advertise cold lager at 5 centavos per glass,adding an appealing piece of everyday commercial detail.

The exact city shown in the LaComercial photograph has not been established. Businesses called La Comercialexisted in multiple Cuban cities, so the photograph is conservativelyidentified simply as Cuba, c.1950s rather than being assigned to Havanawithout evidence. This caution was also built into the earlier research.

Together, the photographs make anappealing pair of Cuban commercial and architectural ephemera,documenting the storefronts, advertising and built environment encountered inordinary urban life during the 1950s.

Two vintage black-and-whitephotographs:

1. Locería y Cristalería La Vajilla — Galiano & Zanja, Havana, c.1950s — prominent hanging sign with surrounding businesses, pedestrians, advertising and Havana architecture.
2. La Comercial — Cuba, unidentified city, c.1950s — older commercial corner building with enormous painted lettering, wooden balcony, tiled roof, hanging street lamp and period signage.

Both photographs are printed onKodak Velox photographic paper.

HISTORICAL INTEREST

These photographs record a side of1950s Cuba that is less glamorous but, to me, more interesting than anotherhotel or tourist photograph: the places people actually encountered whilemoving through Cuban cities.

La Vajilla can be tied to aparticular Havana business and intersection, transforming the photograph from ageneric street view into a record of the city's retail history. Around it arepedestrians, advertisements, lottery material, neighboring businesses,streetlights and architecture—the incidental details that make historicalstreet photography useful.

La Comercial is less preciselyidentifiable but visually terrific. Its traditional wooden balcony and tiledroof sit above a working commercial façade covered with painted lettering andsigns. Together, the photographs show old Cuban architecture still functioningas part of the modern commercial city on the eve of the Revolution.

Inventory # LT067