Old Dallas Stuff

Oakland Cemetery

2012-01-02T13:12:00.001-06:00

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.

2011-12-31T14:28:00.003-06:00

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.

Garry's Hair Stylists

2011-12-29T10:39:00.000-06:00

Circa 1960. 21 Highland Park Village.

Elks Arch

2011-12-28T09:38:00.001-06:00

In 1907 Dallas won the honor of hosting the 1908 Elks Convention. It was a great gig for the town, then numbering 90,000 residents. Elks' Lodges of Texas and the Southwest raised much of the $20,000 required to build this purple and white steel and plaster arch at Akard and Commerce. It was two stories tall and topped by a life-size elk. In July 1908 delegates from all over the United States converged in Dallas. Over 250,000 people turned out for the parades that passed by this arch. The convention was considered a great success and the arch remained in place until February1911, when it was moved to the old fair grounds.

Chicken Bar

2011-12-26T11:01:00.001-06:00

The Chicken Bar opened about October 1942 on 1600 Commerce St. across the street from Neiman Marcus. It was the latest venture of a young Tyler oilman, J. Curtis Sanford, who was a kind of "Mark Cuban" of his time. He had been a boxing promoter, and he had initiated the first New Year's Day Cotton Bowl football game in 1937. He had also brought two top tennis players to play indoors at the Fair Park Livestock Arena, one of the most spectacular indoor sporting events to take place in Dallas (obviously pre-Mavs). Sanford switched gears after he was sold some chicks in 1941 and began raising them on the grounds of his colonial-style home near White Rock Lake . He decided the best way to make money was to fry those chickens fer eatin'. Sanford would eventually open six Chicken Bars before quitting the business about 1947.

Sanford's biggest endeavor in the chicken business was probably the $300,000 Chicken Bar #6 at Commerce & Industrial, which opened in 1946 and featured rooftop dancing and accommodations for 1100 customers. Sanford died in 1972.

Fair Park Auditorium

2011-10-14T19:24:00.001-05:00

I knew that Pan Am Casino looked familiar. Now I know why. It's the Fair Park Music Hall in disguise. Originally called the Fair Park Auditorium, the music hall was built in 1925 at a cost of $500,000. It could seat 5000 people and was dedicated during the State Fair of 1925. The building is designed in the Spanish Baroque style with Moorish influences. The "Casino" sign was probably affixed for the duration of the 1937 State Fair.

See the Music Hall's site for more details on this great old building. I attended my first symphony and my first opera at this place.

Pan American Casino

2011-10-12T09:20:00.000-05:00

Maybe the word "Casino" had a different meaning in the 1930. Maybe you couldn't use the phrase "dance hall". At any rate, this building at Fair Park wasn't a gambler's mecca, but a venue for musical entertainments. Dance bands and orchestras were the order of the day, and at the beginning of the 1937 State Fair (in early August back then) the Rudy Vallee Orchestra played. For 50 cents you could buy a ticket to NOT dance.

Midway - State Fair of 1937

2011-10-10T09:19:00.000-05:00

The Midway in color! Sideshows were still a big draw, and you can see "Monsters of the Lost Kingdom" on the left, as well as Ripley's "odditorium" in the foreground.

Midway - State Fair of 1936

2011-10-09T09:28:00.000-05:00

The photo is not very revealing, although some art deco buildings are evidenced by the "tiered cake" coffee house under the Texaco sign (or was that a GLO cleaners building?" The sign for Little America peeks just above the horizon line at the left.

According to a 2006 Dallas Morning news article by Katie Menzer, there were some more colorful activities for fairgoers to enjoy. She says peep shows and dancing girls were standard fare from the 1800s up until at least the 1960s.

"At Sally Rand's Nude Ranch, 23 scantily clad girls played tennis and pingpong. They shared the stage with a pair of donkeys (the "dude ranch" part of the Nude Ranch). Gypsy Rose Lee strutted her stuff. And Corinne the Apple Dancer stripped almost to the core."

"Mlle. Corinne, apple-dancing star of the Streets of All Nations (she was actually from Kaufmann), performed as usual in nothing more than a g-string and a ball somewhat larger than an apple"Mona Lleslie of the Streets of Paris performed her customary rise from the watery depths in no more than a g-string and a heavy coat of olive oil."

I don't remember ANYthing like that from my visits to the Fair.

Big Tex 2

2011-10-08T14:29:00.000-05:00

A view of Big Tex similar to one I posted in October 2009. The two shots are so alike I think they must have been taken by the same photographer on the same day. The credit on the other postcard was Stryker. There was a Fort Worth photographer, John Strkyer, who shot rodeo pics for postcards in the 40s or 50s. It's possible these two Strykers are the same person.

State Fair of Texas

2011-10-07T13:56:00.001-05:00

Entrance to the State Fair, probably pre 1920. The Coliseum Building is on the left. Note the Interurban car at lower left. I wonder if it was Texas-OU weekend?

The Turntable Record Store

2011-10-07T09:34:00.000-05:00

Located at 4228 Oak Lawn just south of the "T" where Herschel Avenue ends and across the street from the existing Faulkner's Fine Dry Cleaning. The strip mall which lives there now looks new, so any original structures are probably long gone. Then as now, however, the location was home to a hodge-podge of ever-changing businesses.

In early 1944 you could find the Ki-Hi-Merry-Go-Round, a Kiwanis youth club, at this address, and later a Stauffer's System spa where you could tone muscles and reduce fat as you were massaged by a state-of-the-art contraption.

The Turntable opened February 2, 1945 and probably closed in the first months of 1951. Although its ads touted it as a "self selection record store" that carried RCA and Decca records, The Turntable's main business was probably selling radio consoles. (A friend told me, "Our parents didn't buy electronics; they bought furniture.") One item the store advertised was this Bendix "space saving" radio-record player for $179.95.

Downtown Trolley

2011-10-04T10:18:00.000-05:00

Postcard depicting trolley. The car looks a lot like the ones used for the Interurban system. I am still researching where this scene may have been located. Wild guess is Main or Elm street.

I know I have not been posting lately, but I still have a lot of stuff in my files waiting, and hope to get some more things up.

The Duchess Grill

2011-05-22T13:11:00.000-05:00

Above, a generic matchcover imprinted with info for The Duchess Grill in classic colors. Below an ad from a 1942 city directory. Notice the different depictions of the phone number. This stretch of McKinney Ave. between Armstrong and Knox is now a strip of brick buildings called The Knox Street Mall. Hard to tell how old it is.

El Sombrero Motor Courts

2011-03-15T09:46:00.001-05:00

I can't remember the last time I heard "Harry Hines" called "Hines Blvd." I remember staying at the Anchor Motel on Hines back in 1964 when we moved to Dallas. By the 80s the motels were all a bunch of dumps. There were plenty of honky tonks, too, but mostly industrial type buildings, manufacturing, printing, and such. Now there are a lot of Asian businesses and a new light rail running through the area may enliven it even more.

Zuppas Fine Foods

2010-11-07T11:06:00.000-06:00

Opened March 7, 1940 at Northwest Highway and Kate, just west of Preston Road.

James P. Baugh, Architect - S. J. Churchill, General Contractor

The eatery was billed as "Dallas' Newest Drive-In or Come-In Restaurant", and featured a system of microphones in the parking area where waitresses could turn in their orders, which would then be ready by the time they walked to the kitchen. The opening day menu featured an eight-course dinner which cost One Dollar and featured entrees as varied as broiled Kansas City Sirloin Steak, Baked Long Island Duckling, and Broiled Spring French Lamp Chops on Toast.

It probably wasn't the best timing to open an establishment with an Italian-sounding name; in June restaurants serving Italian food or with Italian names in Dallas received bomb or death threats as the world went to war against Hitler and Mussolini. Some proprietors blacked out the "Italian" references in their buildings' signs.

ahh, prejudice.... it never goes out of style.

Braniff Building

2010-02-12T19:03:00.002-06:00

Braniff moved into their new world headquarters in December 1958. See The Braniff Pages. Another view of Exchange Park from Red Oak Kid's collection

First National Bank Building

2009-12-11T18:04:00.004-06:00

Designed by Thomas E. Stanley and George L. Dahl, the 52-story First National Bank Building was briefly the tallest building west of the Mississippi when it opened in January 1965. It would have been 96 feet higher, but for safety concerns from the Federal Aviation Agency. The glass-sheathed tower was set on an 8-story base of sculptured marble, which covered the entire block bordered by Elm, Field, Pacific and Akard Streets.

The building has seen some hard times; it is now known as Elm Place.

Seven Seas

2009-12-05T19:45:00.003-06:00

I guess this theme park came and went while I was living elsewhere, or maybe it's that I remember so little of the 70s. In operation from 1972-76. Dig that "H.R. Pufnstuf" bird and the crazy clothes.

Brown Cracker & Candy Co.

2009-11-12T18:47:00.002-06:00

Opened in 1903 at 603 Munger Ave. in what is now the West End market district. They were in business until at least the early 1940s.

Big Tex

2009-10-12T09:13:00.007-05:00

above photo by Stryker

"Howdy folks! Welcome to the State Fair of Texas!" A couple of 1950-1960s era pics of Big Tex. Is it me, or does he look like he's counting the seconds until his next bathroom break in that second photo?

I don't know when his shirt went from red to yellow, as shown in this recent photo by
Randy A. Carlisle (Randy has lots of great Dallas stuff on his photostream) but somebody made a major fashion faux pax, in my opinion. Tex looks like he's on medication, too, nowadays.

More on Big Tex

The song "Big Tex's Girl" by the Lounge Lizards is a lovely ode to the big guy.

Little America

2009-10-07T11:00:00.004-05:00

Two scenes of the "Little America" exhibit at the State Fair. Top one is from 1936; bottom one may be 1936 or 1937. I'm not sure what this exhibit was all about. The building looked like mounds of snow and it was decorated with penguins. I remember seeing at least one similar construction, probably in Wyoming, in the 1960s. We may have stopped there for gas, but that's about all I remember about it. It may be my faulty memory, but I thought there were several of these in remote locations in the West.

addenda: Little America, WY, is the location of the gas station I was thinking of. This exhibit may be a Sinclair Gas promotion (they owned the Little America Refinery), or as someone suggested, it may be related to Admiral Byrd's encampment in Antarctica.

Fair Park

2009-10-04T09:40:00.007-05:00

Announcement: The Twenty-Fifth Annual Fair Exposition and Race Meet, of the State Fair of Texas, will be held in the Fair Grounds Park, Dallas, Texas, October Fifteenth-Thirtieth, Nineteen Ten. - Edwin J. Kiest, President

Cliffites should recognize the Kiest name.

In 1910 the Main Entrance included a stop for the Interurban. It only took 99 years to get another trainstop at Fair Park (the newly opened Green Line).

The New Coliseum, 1910

Exposition Building

Textile and Fine Arts Building

State Fair of Texas

2009-09-29T09:26:00.006-05:00

Entrance to State Fair - circa 1910

Unnamed avenue in Fair Park - card postmarked 1908.

Bird's eye view of the Amusement Park - card postmarked 1906.

Larry's Dining

2009-09-18T12:34:00.003-05:00

Located at 5315 E. Grand, right where R.L. Thornton crosses Grand nowadays. The name on the matchbook says "Larry Walker's Dining Room", but I could only find references to "Larry's Dining", owned by Larry Walker, and only from 1938 to 1940. In 1940 the No. 1 Dinner at Larry's included a Fancy T-bone steak, fried potatoes and salad for 45 cents. The restaurant was slated for a complete remodel in early 1940 and after that I found no more references to the place.

Larry Walker also ran Dallas' largest Christmas tree business at 4005 Oak Lawn Ave. from 1932 to at least 1946. In 1946 the site also hosted Weber's Root Beer Stand, which was listed as Larry's Root Beer in 1948. In 1954 the Christmas tree business was run by someone else, and Larry's Root Beer had morphed back to Weber's Root Beer.

Shamburger's Select Business College

2009-09-11T19:06:00.003-05:00

Circa 1928. "The School of Efficiency" taught the following subjects: Shorthand, Touch Typewriting, English, Spelling, Court Reporting, Legal Forms, Business Correspondence, Punctuation, Secretarial Duties, Office Training, Tabulating, Care of Machines, Bookkeeping, Commercial Law, Business Writing, Finger Drills, Comptometer, Dictaphone, Multigraph, and Two weeks in Office. Day and Night School.

Yeah, I guess you'd have to attend day and night to get all that. Looks like you'd be a lawyer and a C.P.A. as well as a secretary. I'll have to find out what a comptometer is. I wonder what the difference was between business correspondence and business writing?

The building located at 5101 Columbia Avenue was built in 1925 and is still standing. The two-story 6400 square foot structure currently functions as a 20-unit motel, is valued at $275,000 on the tax rolls, and according to this image from Google Maps, it may be for sale.

Greyhound Bus Terminal

2009-08-21T11:16:00.004-05:00

Corner of Lamar and Commerce Street in Downtown Dallas, circa 1960.
Photo by Leonard Raef

Tropicana Inn

2009-08-15T10:39:00.005-05:00

Artist's rendering of the motor hotel at 3939 North Central Expressway, U.S. 75 North at the Haskell St. exit. Below, the real thing, circa 1960. It was part of the Western Motel network. The copy from the postcard reads in part: "3 minutes from downtown Dallas. 97 rooms, air-conditioned for year 'round domfort. Restaurant, banquet rooms, swimming pool, TV, muted background music. All the facilities and services of a downtown hotel with a resort atmosphere. " Phone LAkeside 6-8881

Finally, a newer piece of advertising touting All Color TVs and Direct Dial Phones. Same phone number, but updated with the area code, probably from the 1980s. The building is now gone, and the site has been excavated in preparation for new construction.

The Blue Front

2009-08-11T10:50:00.002-05:00

One of the oldest and longest continously operating restaurants in Dallas, The Blue Front was located in a narrow blue-painted brick building at 1105 Elm Street. William G. "Papa" Schliepake was a German immigrant who started the place in 1877. He died in 1956, but his son Willie carried on as owner and chef. The family continued to run the restaurant until at least 1975, when it seems to have relocated to one of the underground venues on a revamped Elm St. There are no current listings for either the cafe or the Schliepake family in the current tax records.

Baylor Hospital

2009-08-11T10:29:00.001-05:00

circa 1958, on Gaston Ave.

Hap Morse Bowling Alley

2009-07-29T10:37:00.005-05:00

"Bowling for Health". Bowling was big in the thirties, forties, and fifties. Many businesses in cities throughout the U.S. sponsored bowling teams. "Southwest's Finest", 1407 Ross Avenue. Hap Morse was a famous bowler; that's all I know about him. In 1938 there were two Hap Morse Bowling Alleys in Dallas, this one and another at 1507 Young Street. In 1957 only the one on Young Street remained under this name.

Olla Podrida

2009-07-17T15:16:00.004-05:00

Located at 12215 Coit Road just off LBJ Freeway, Olla Podrida billed itself as "The Working Artists Place." It was more or less a craft mall, although during the mid 1970s it occasionally featured exhibits by well known photographers or folk artists. It closed about 1996 and was demolished some ten years later.

See Best Repurosing of a Crap Mall from 2006.

Hawaiian Century Room

2009-07-16T10:38:00.003-05:00

Located at the Adolphus Hotel, 1321 Commerce St. One of the many incarnations of the Century Room

Howdy from "Big D"

2009-07-09T11:31:00.003-05:00

Circa 1964, looking ENE toward downtown from Interstate 30. This is the skyline of my childhood. The spire of the Republic National Bank Building may have been the tallest object there, but it was the Southland Life Building that enabled us kids to get a bird's eye view of Dallas County. I think "Big D" was the most common slogan for Dallas at that time (besides "the place where Kennedy was shot"). It was probably during the seventies that the phrase "Metroplex" was coined.

Howdy from Dallas

2009-07-08T10:38:00.003-05:00

Circa 1960, this card features the Statler Hilton and the new Stemmons Freeway, as well as the Cotton Bowl, the Republic National Bank Building, SMU, and the Majestic Theater.

Greetings from Dallas

2009-07-07T22:52:00.004-05:00

Sometimes the postcards say "Howdy"; sometimes they're mere "Greetings". Dallas just can't decide how to present itself. Card is probably from 1943-1954, since it includes the Mercantile Building, but not the Republic National Bank Building. Images include a cowboy on a bucking bronco, the Cotton Bowl, a downtown canyon, Union Station, the Old Red courthouse, a lake scene (probably White Rock Lake), and one other skyscraper I haven't yet identified.

Bon Air Courts

2009-07-04T14:30:00.002-05:00

"The DeLuxe Tourist Village, convenient to Downtown and Centennial Grounds (ie Fair Park). Modern, individual cottages of stone construction with private garage." The room photo shows a single bed in a space that's not much bigger than a cubicle, and no tv, but sure looks homey.

3811-3815 Ross Avenue, between Haskell and Washington. I'm guessing 40s-50s, as I can't figure when Ross Avenue would have been called Highway 75. Now a rundown strip mall with not many trees in site.

Beck's Fried Chicken

2009-07-02T12:59:00.002-05:00

This is from Beck's second restaurant, 5820 Lovers Lane at Lomo Alto. This location was open open from 1939 to about 1955. Beck's offered "The finest pan-fried chicken, with no batter. Cooked to individual taste - served with all the hot biscuits, cream gravy & jelly you desire.

Aaron D. Beck and his wife opened their first diner on Oakland Avenue in 1919 when A.D. was about 25 years old. They opened their second diner in August 1939, and closed the Oakland diner sometime after that. In 1956 the diner opened in a new location, at Hillside Village, Abrams and Mockingbird. A.D. died in 1963.

IBM Building

2009-06-27T12:27:00.003-05:00

Typical late 50s early 60s Dallas box at 2911 Cedar Springs Road at Turtle Creek. Now a 12-15 story glass-faced hi-rise, probably condos.

Mitchell's Coffee Shop

2009-06-27T09:25:00.006-05:00

At 307 South Harwood "in the Gas Company Building". Here's an ad from 1936.

Hill Tire Company

2009-06-26T18:41:00.006-05:00

This early 60's location is 14010 Harry Hines Blvd. Owned by Robert B. Hill, who died in 1975, age 81. Dayton Thorobreds were a whitewall tire which began to be widely sold in the early thirties.

Hensley Field

2009-06-20T12:12:00.007-05:00

Established ca 1929, Hensley Field became the Dallas Naval Air Station in 1941. It was decommissioned in 1998.

I'm puzzled why it should be referred to as Hensley so long after the name change. (No accidents in 59)

Read more about the history of the Dallas NAS

Southland Center & Sheraton Hotel

2009-06-18T11:18:00.003-05:00

Circa 1972

When I was a kid the Southland Life Building was the tallest building in Dallas. A trip downtown for us usually included a ride on the elevator to the observation deck, either the top story or next one down. According to this postcard the 49-story structure was also the tallest office building west of the Mississippi.

Rodeway Inn

2009-06-15T11:00:00.001-05:00

Rodeway Inn at 4150 North Central Expressway, probably early 1960s.

Airmaid Hosiery - McGaugh Hosiery Mills

2009-06-13T18:09:00.002-05:00

McGaugh Hosiery Mills was founded in 1929 by Joe R. Brown. In 1946 the company built a 6000 square foot building at 4408 Second Avenue, which became the finishing plant, and contained general and sales offices, employing about 125 people in 1951. The actual knitting was done by 160 employees at a mill in New Braunfels. By 1953 the company name had been changed to the Airmaid Hosiery Mills and the company was a "Blue Ribbon Winner" for best style at that year's State Fair salute to the state's rapidly growing fashion industry. By 1965 the company had either moved to Fort Worth or split from the original company and was renamed Airmaid Hosiery Company.

Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages

2009-06-13T14:17:00.001-05:00

Every year the phone company used to enchant its Dallas users with a yellow pages cover rife with surprises. On the streets of the illustrated city were tiny runaway horses, old model-A's, or dinosaur tracks. It was chock full of humorous cartoons by artist Karl Hoefle done in the style of MAD magazine. If you click on the image you'll see a larger scan, and maybe you'll see something like an old nag tied up next to a tractor trailer rig.

Downtown Dallas 1918

2009-06-12T17:42:00.000-05:00

Postmarked Feb 3, 1918

The four tall buildings, from left to right, are the Adolphus Hotel, Southwestern Life, Busch, and Praetorian buildings.

Cliffton Hotel

2009-06-12T11:22:00.000-05:00

Go Continental when you go - Air Cooled - Free Parking

214 W. Colorado - MADISON 5151