u/NickelPlatedEmperor

Aerial view of Cannon Street Railway Bridge

around 1926 reveals the remarkable complexity

of London's suburban rail system during the

interwar years. Stretching across the River

Thames just outside Cannon Street Station, the

bridge carried an intricate web of tracks,

switches, and signals that funneled countless

commuter trains in and out of the city each day.

By this period, Cannon Street was already a vital

terminus for workers traveling from the

southern suburbs, and the sheer density of rail

traffic required advanced methods of control.

Unlike earlier mechanical systems, the points

and signals here were operated electrically, a

forward-looking innovation that allowed for

quicker, more reliable operation in such a

heavily congested area. From above, the bridge

esembled a labyrinth of steel lines converging

toward the station's platforms, a testament ta

poth Victorian engineering and modern

adaptation. This snapshot captures a moment

when London's railways were at the height of

their suburban service role, before later decades

saw restructuring and decline in some areas,

The photograph underscores the importance of

Cannon Street as a gatewav into the Citv of London and highlights the evolving technology

that kept the capital's rail arteries flowing.

Born in Hartford on January 19, 1886, young Anna Louise James was the eighth of eleven children born to Willis James, a former slave who had successfully escaped from a Virginia plantation via the Underground Railroad. As a child, Anna’s family moved from Hartford to Old Saybrook, where she graduated high school and, as a diligent student, sought to pursue some form of higher education. Anna’s large, extended family included two of the only black pharmacists practicing in Connecticut, who likely inspired her to apply to the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy in New York City. She was the only woman in her graduating class, and in 1908, she became the first African-American woman to graduate from the institute. The very next year, she successfully applied for a license in her home state, becoming the first African-American female pharmacist in Connecticut history.

After college, Anna returned to Old Saybrook to work for her brother-in-law Peter Lane, who had opened the shoreline town’s first drug store several years earlier and installed a soda fountain that made the store a favorite destination for local children. In 1917, after Lane accepted a pharmaceutical sales position for a drug company in Hartford, Anna became the primary manager of the property, and finally assumed sole leadership in 1922. “Miss James,” as she was fondly known throughout the community, promptly renamed the establishment “James’ Pharmacy,” and continued running the store — and soda fountain — for nearly five decades until her retirement in 1967. Living on the upper floors of the historic, late 18th century building that housed her pharmacy, Miss James became a fixture in the downtown Old Saybrook community and a favorite neighbor to the many children — and adults — that frequented James’ popular soda fountain, which included famous Old Saybrook resident Katharine Hepburn.

After James’ death in 1977 at the age of 91, the venerable James Pharmacy building remained vacant for several years before being purchased and reopened as an ice cream parlor. The handsome structure, which Anna Louise James had poured so much time and effort into maintaining, is now on the National Register of Historic Places, and, in recognition of James’ professional achievements as a woman of color, a featured stop on the Connecticut Freedom Trail. A pharmaceutical pioneer and beloved community leader, born today in Connecticut history.

https://www.tigersroar.com/news/article\_7ebb9df0-ab3d-43b1-bdd9-6676a3e5da0b.html