Buildings in Akita City in the Taisho Era
This is a preliminary study for making pop-up cards. In this article, I will show you buildings that existed in Akita City in the past.
I found a book titled “Akita City Guide" published by Akita City in 1925. This book also contains photos, so I picked out the buildings of those days.
First is the Akita Prefectural Library.
The library was completed in 1918. It was built in Higashi-nekoyacho, Akita City, but I could not locate the place for a moment. The current name of the town corresponds to Nakadori, Akita City. (–>
found.)
When I checked the newly built one, the Prefectural Akita Library, I was surprised to find that building was no longer there either.
I found that the prefectural library had been newly built and moved to Sanno-shinmachi, Akita City in 1993. The Akita Art Theater Mille Has now stands to the south of Senshu Park.
Next is the Akita Memorial Hall.
It was built in 1918 on the south side of Senshu Park.
The Akita Prefectural Public Hall had been built on the south side of Senshu Park in 1904. The public hall had become too small, so a memorial hall was built next to it to compensate for the growing size of the public hall.
However, on April 29, 1918, while the memorial hall was under construction, the prefectural public hall was destroyed by fire. So the memorial hall became to be used also as a public hall.
Since the building was destroyed by fire, there is no photo of the public hall in the “Akita Guide", so I quote a photo of the public hall from the “Akita Prefecture Photo Album" (1917). The image is rough because it is a small photo, this is what the building looked like.
The public hall was designed by Naoaki Yamaguchi. He also designed the Akita Bank head office.
Back to the “Akita City Guide" again.
This is the Akita City Office building.
Akita City was incorporated in 1889, and the building of the former Minami-Akita County Office was used as the first city office. It was destroyed by fire in 1905, and business was conducted for a while in a temporary building.
The building in the photo was used until the third city office was completed in 1964.
An aerial photo from 1962 shows the city hall as it was then.
The newly built prefectural citizens’ hall and the prefectural library are also shown, both of which are no longer there. Note that the Prefectural Public Hall mentioned above was located at the site of the prefectural citizen’s hall.
The next photo shows Akita Mining College.
The college opened in 1911, and in 1949, it was incorporated into Akita University and became the Faculty of Mines of Akita University.
Since the shape of the building is not very clear in this photo, I quote again from “Akita Prefecture Photo Album".
It showed a photo of the school building, which seemed to be made of bricks.
The school building no longer remains, but the Centennial Memorial Hall (completed in 2012) at Akita University is said to be a replica of the main building of Akita Mining College. (The photo above is of another school building, not the main building.)
These are some of the buildings that existed in Akita City in the Taisho era.
I plan to choose a few of these to make a pop-up card.
[Reference]
“Akita Prefecture Photo Album" (Akita Prefecture Photo Exchange Group / 1917)
“Akita City Guide" (Akita City / 1925)