Commerce Street Approach to Downtown

The last time Texas used a black-on-orange license plate was 1955, and the two-tone blue car looks a lot like 1955 model Ford Fairlane or Crown Victoria.

Clocks of Five Restaurant & Bar

Plaza Level  -  One Main Place  -  Field & Elm

Expressway Tower (name changed to Cowboy Bldg. in '74)  -  6116 N. Central Expressway

A theme restaurant which opened in October 1972 at One Main Place, back when One Main Place was new and underground dining was, too. The gimmick to this place was that the walls were covered with fully restored antique European clocks, with each one set to five o'clock. The idea was that the working day was over and it was time to relax. By mid 1973 the place had another "gimmick": an "Eastern concept" (whether East Coast or East Asia I don't know) wherein diners ordering steak dinners could have all the wine or draft beer they wanted. A second location that included live music & dancing opened in November 1973 at Central Expressway & Yale. The last listing I found for the restaurant was October 1974 and it only listed the Central Expressway location.

Martinique Bar

1809 Main St.

The mysterious Martinique. It might have been at 1809 Main. It might have been at 1816-A Main. Maybe it started out at 1809 when the matchbook was printed and ended up at 1816-A when it went out of business in 1954. I have a feeling it didn't last long.

The Monarch Laundry

5540 Preston Road  -  At Highland Park Shopping Village

"Decidedly Better"

Built in 1940 by Tom G. Leachman at the site now occupied by BankAmerica. Leachman's father had opened the first Monarch Laundry about 1890 but changed the name to Leachman's Laundry. Young Tom Leachman entered the business about 1907 and ran both the original laundry and this new one. He died in 1961 and the laundry passed into other hands. For a while it was called Holiday Laundry, but the building was eventually razed.