Barney Oldfield's Restaurant and Gasoline Alley

This theme restaurant/coffeeshop/lounge opened October 1973 as an adjunct to the Sheraton Inn-Mockingbird West at 1893 West Mockingbird just west of Harry Hines. Its proponents declared it was "unique in the hotel business" because it was a freestanding building which allowed the public entry without having to go through a hotel lobby, yet allowed paying guests easy entry from a hotel-side covered walkway.

You could be sure you were at the right place when you saw the giant gas pump at the door and the flashing signal lights in the lobby. The restaurant's decor was somewhat dedicated to the memory of race car driver Barney Oldfield. The floors were made of the same material as tires, and the interior's bright red walls were of highway reflector material. The waitstaff dressed in pit stop crew costumes. Barney Oldfield's served "all-American food", including Texas-style chicken-fried steak, and live music, mostly little known and long-forgotten pop acts from Reno or Las Vegas.

Barney's was still in operation as late as 1986, but is no more. Ditto the Sheraton Inn Mockingbird.

 The real Barney Oldfield

Pageant Club Lounge

Formally opened October14, 1954, across from "New Titches". Hyped as "Dallas' Newest and Finest Lounge", one ad read "Our magnificent decor will enchant your every moment...serving your favorite beers and wines (no liquor, eh?) -- your evening is sure to be most pleasant at the the beautiful new Pageant Club - modern throughout..." .  I wonder how many of the clientele appreciated the connection between the RA phone prefix and the logo on the matchbook

Just over a year later on Oct. 19, 1955 the news read, "A 1-alarm fire caused about $8,000 damage early Tuesday at the well-furnished Pageant Club..."  The 1:25 a.m. fire was confined to the back of the lounge and about one tenth of the business area was destroyed. I couldn't find anything else in the newspaper about "the rest of the story." The Pageant Club apparently vanished as the smoke cleared.

Earl Hayes Chevrolet

Earl Hayes had already worked for Chevrolet from 1925 in a variety of managerial positions in Dallas, Detroit, and Oklahoma, when he returned to Dallas in 1945 and partnered with Roy Hill to purchase the John E. Morris Chevrolet Co. at Ninth & Lancaster (also listed as 132 Lancaster). In 1949 Hayes bought the dealership outright from Hill and built one of the largest showrooms in Dallas at the 9th & Lancaster location.  He also operated a used car and truck dealership at Commerce & Industrial.

The slogan "Come out our way, trade your way" appeared in ads in 1949, and Hayes apparently stuck with the saying for the duration of his dealership.

About 1974 Earl brought his son, Robert T. (Bob) Hayes on board, and in June 1975 the result of their partnership, Bob Hayes Chevrolet Co., began operating at its new location at Marvin D. Love Freeway and Wheatland Road. Sometime in the 1990's the dealership became Powell Chevy. In 2011 Robert T. Hayes was Chairman of the Board of Hayes Truck Inc. in Dallas.

See also the Phorum discussion at Dallas Historical Society about the Hayes dealership.
Also a 1986 article from D Magazine on Dallas family dealerships.

Casa Linda State Bank

Casa Linda State Bank's application for a charter was okayed by the State Banking Board in October 1953. The bank's directors were all Dallasites: B. H. Bishop, Carl M. Brown, John A. Maxwell, Carl A. Reed, W. E. Stone, J. M Tuttle Jr. and Edward L. Vint. The bank officially opened on March 6, 1954 at 234 Casa Linda Plaza. My best guess is that it was located in the quadrant that housed the Casa Linda Theatre, and probably occupied the site that was home to Soup'R'Salad in the 1990s.

The bank officially changed its name to First Citizens Bank in January 1960, and in 1961 it moved to a new building in the Lochwood Village Shopping Center at Garland Road and Jupiter. 

Kirby's Pig Stand No. 4

 Pig Stands began as a Dallas institution in the early 1920s. Owner J. G. Kirby said, "Give a little pig a chance and it will make a hog of itself," and he proceeded to grow his business in the same way. By 1925 there were more than 30 Pig Stands under franchise in Texas,  at least one in  Los Angeles, CA, and in 1927 New York got its very own Kirby's "Pig Sandwich".

It isn't clear what happened to all those Pig Stands. From the beginning, at least in Dallas, they were easy targets for thieves. From old news accounts it appears a Pig Stand burglary or robbery was an almost weekly occurrence. When gas was rationed during World War II the Pig Stands saw a decline in business. By the end of the war there were probably only a few Stands left in Dallas.

 

Pig Stand No. 4 survived. In 1933 J.G.'s son,  B.J., started working for his dad at the Pig Stand on 3715 Greenville Avenue, and in 1954 he opened his own eatery, Kirby's Charcoal Steaks at the site that had housed the Pig Stand. 

B.J. Kirby ran his steakhouse in that same spot until 1987 when he closed the business and retired. The building on Greenville is now home to Gloria's Restaurant, but B.J.'s retirement wasn't the end of Kirby's. The restaurant's name and recipes were sold to investors, and a new Kirby's Charcoal Steaks opened in 1995 at 3525 Greenville, not so far from the original Pig Stand No. 4.  Today it is an upscale eatery called Woodfire Kirby's.

 

Oakland Cemetery

Oakland Cemetery was founded about 1890. It is located south of Fair Park and north of the corner of Malcolm X Blvd. and Pine Street. Only a few years after its founding the cemetery was well on its way to becoming the final resting place for many Dallas leaders. A journalist who reported on the cemetery in 1893 said, "The drive (to the cemetery) was through one of the most beautiful residence sections of the city....through a pretty landscape, the attractive feature of which is a succession of groves and lawns. On reaching the cemetery the visitor is seized with the inspiration of the beautiful. Beginning with the lofty pillars, there is spread out a panorama of classical beauty."

Here's a view of that panorama of classical beauty more than a hundred years later.

This postcard is probably from about 1902 or later, when Geo. W. Loudermilk was superintendent of Oakland and Greenwood Cemeteries. His name is no longer on the gate, nor is he buried here.

Learn about Oakland preservation.

F. O. Stone Baking Co.

Opened in the summer of 1916 at the corner of Phelps, Thomas and McKinney Avenues. Owner F.O. Stone had previously opened bakeries in Cincinnati and in Atlanta, but this two-story brick manufacturing plant, built for $35,000, was his biggest endeavor.  The sole product of the plant was six varieties of soft cakes made with butter and wrapped in wax paper packages to sell at local grocery stores. The 60-ft wide white tile oven was considered something of a novelty, as it baked the cakes via radiation heat and not by direct flame. The plant could produce 3,000 cakes an hour, and the 8 oz. cakes originally sold for 10 cents apiece.

In 1919 the company acquired Southern Baking Company and announced that the Dallas plant would be enlarged at a cost of $150,000. It also changed its name to Campbell-Stone Baking Company. "Stone's Cakes" became "Campbell Capital Cakes" . Sometime around 1930 the company became The Continental Baking Company. Even in those days you couldn't count on your favorite brand being around for long.