August 31, 2018
Joseph Jud Pennell or J.J. Pennell as he was known, left a legacy in the
form of over 30,000 glass plate negatives that recorded the daily life and
development in Junction City during the 30 years surrounding the turn of the 20th
century.
Perhaps the
most famous example of his work is easily recognized in the 1904 photograph of
the interior of Junction City’s Horseshoe Saloon with patrons standing at the
bar. This was seen in American living
rooms every week in the early 1990s as part of the opening credits for the
television series “Cheers.”
In 1886, the
Pennell family arrived in Junction City and took up residence in a big stone
house on West 13th Street. Joe (or J.J.) worked with his father as a
carpenter and coffin maker. However, in
1888 he decided to become a photographer and purchased a camera from an itinerant
photographer passing through town.
At age32,
J.J. was both successful and one of the most popular bachelors in Junction
City. He met and married Edith Stanley
and they later married. The couple lived
on 4th Street, near Adams Street.
Within three years, J.J. Pennell built a second home beside the first
one, which her parents then occupied.
The new home was a two story house with nine or ten rooms and still
stands at 428 West 4th Street.
In 1903, the
couple’s only child was born and was named Joseph Stanley Pennell. In 1908, the 42 year old self-made
photographer was determined to make a lasting difference in Junction City’s
business district, when he built the Pennell Building, which now serves as the
Geary County Court Services annex.
In March of
1922, J.J. Pennell underwent an operation to correct a minor health problem,
however blood poisoning developed after the surgery and ten days later he
died.
We have a
several photographs taken by J. J. Pennell in our Museum. One of those is a self-portrait. This picture can also be seen in a collage of
pictures in the lobby at the C.L. Hoover Opera House. He is sitting and is playing the guitar while
resting his foot on a foot stool.
Check this out and thanks for reading “Our Past Is Present”
from the Geary County Historical Society.
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