Chris Drive Inn

4526 Bryan  -  Phone Tenison 0382

Hickory Smoked Bar-B-Q  -  Cold Beer  -  Fast Service  -  Free Delivery

Chris Drive Inn was located on the south side of Bryan between Carroll and Peak about where Holly forms a "T". The site was at various times home to a plumbing company, a cafe, and several lounges, including Tom & Jerry Lounge in the early 1960s. It was apparently a two-story building with living quarters above the business, but both floors were rented as apartments from time to time. From the phone number I'd guess this matchbook was from the early 50s but so far I've found no other trace of this long lost bar-b-q joint. The address is no longer even listed as a property in Dallas County tax records.

Zo-Mar Hotel

409 No. Harwood St.  -  Phone 2-0376

"Modern Rooms"

I like this image of the determined bellboy, but I haven't found much about this old hotel. I would have especially liked to find the origin of its unusual name.  What I did find was that it was in operation at least from 1933 to 1938, and in 1933 you could rent an "attractively furnished" room with private bath and ceiling fan from $4 to $7 a week. 409 North Harwood was about midway between Bryan and Live Oak Street.

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.

El Rancho-Tel

"Texas' Finest Motor Court"
U.S. 77 North   -   6131 Harry Hines Blvd.
Phone D4-4818, Dallas Texas

Not just your average motor court, this 16-unit motel built in 1942 was designed by Dallas architect Charles Dilbeck, known for his Art Moderne and Early Texas Modern styles in Dallas neighborhoods. At the time of its opening the motel was "three miles north of Dallas" and must've made for a pretty pastoral setting for the weary traveler. The exterior used brick salvaged from the wrecking of the Worth Hotel (I don't think this was related the Worth Hotel located in Carrollton. There was a Worth Hotel in Fort Worth at one time.) The interior was furnished in a western motif, and the property was enclosed by an old time rail fence and decorated with cattle brands and old wagon wheels. 

Harry Hines wasn't so pastoral in the 1960s and in 1970 a group of doctors purchased the site and several adjoining tracts in order to build a 120,000 square foot medical office building. The site today is part of the Southwestern Medical Center.

To get an idea of what may have been lost here's a 1930's home in Dallas designed by Dilbeck,  listed for sale in February 2013 for $1,600,000 and this article talks a bit more about Dilbeck's work.