Scene of Calhoun Courthouse

Main street, including former Ben Franklin Store, later
converted to Calhoun Banks, Lloyd Parson long-time jewelry
store, the Dalton Department Store, earlier in the century
Strader's Department Store, now Tony Morgan's law office,
the later businesses located in the Masonic building

In the earlier part of the century, the Plant and Gibson
General Store, and later for several years Godfrey's store

One of Grantsville's long running businesses, the Calhoun Super Service

Photos 1974 & 2017 David Kutz

By Bob Weaver

New York photographer David Kutz returned to Calhoun to take panoramic landscapes of the back-to-landers Armadillo Farm off Rowels Run Road, an active endeavor in the 1970s by a number of mostly out-of-state young people to subsistence farm and live communally.

It was our pleasure to spend the day with him.

Calhoun and a few neighboring counties were destinations for the experimental life style, with several hundred folks coming to Calhoun mostly because of cheap land, often under $100 an acre.

Original Calhoun Bank building occupied by a barber shop and loan company, longtime location of Calhoun Chronicle and the Grantsville Post Office, formerly occupied by attorneys and a dentist.

Barber Bill Price cutting a little hair

1974 & 2017 David Kutz

Kutz came to Calhoun in the 1970s to photograph their endeavors, and while here took photographs in the Grantsville area, which he has released for publication on the Hur Herald.

We would like to hear from our readers regarding the photographs and the people in them, none were captioned by Kutz at the time.

The high quality photographs represent a small slice of life.

CAN YOU HELP US IDENTIFY THE UNKNOWNS? EMAIL bob@hurherald.com

After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Art from Rochester Institute of Technology, David Kutz moved to New York City and became the eleventh employee at the newly-founded International Center of Photography. During his two years at ICP he hung exhibitions, built darkrooms, participated in master class workshops, and taught photography.

David worked as an independent photojournalist from 1976 to 1980, with assignments from the New York Times, Life, Look, and Time magazines.

For the next three decades David worked in film and television as a director, producer, and media executive. In addition to commercial and industrial assignments, he created the award winning documentary, The African Burial Ground: An American Discovery (1994) and was a senior executive directing the launch of VOOM-HD, a package of 15 high definition cable channels distributed in the USA, Europe and Asia.

In 2013, David decided to return to photography as an art form, and earned an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2016.

David is now actively engaged in making work and continuing his research into geography, urban planning, travel and globalization. He is a member of Soho Photo Gallery, a cooperative gallery in New York City, the International Panorama Council, and recently participated in the Gowanus Arts open studio weekend.