State Fair of Texas

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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