Halloween Looked a Lot Different in Highland Park in 1924

by Paula Bosse

Trick or treat!

by Paula Bosse

It’s Halloween! Let’s see how kids dressed up for the occasion 100 years ago.

The caption for the above photo:

A group of the little folks of John S. Armstrong School who will enjoy the Hallowe’en Celebration at Davis Park on Friday evening, October 31.

Yeah, some of those children are scary. I wouldn’t want to meet a couple of them in a dark alley.

But none of them can hold a candle to this kid, who, for some reason, is holding a hammer. Did the studio provide it as a prop? (If so, why?) Maybe he brought it with him, (Again… why?) It appears that this was taken in Dallas — just to keep things local. I’m not frivolously posting non-Dallas content here! So, rest assured, this is a scary local kid. …With a hammer. And he does not look happy. Avoid!

I’m just going to believe this photo was taken to memorialize a unique Halloween costume and is not simply a portrait of a future serial killer.

Happy Halloween!

***

Sources & Notes

Top photo appeared in the pages of an interesting little magazine called Highland Park, which was published by developers Flippen-Prather from about 1923 to at least 1928; this photo is from the October 1924 issue; from the Periodicals Collection, Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library.

The photo of the boy with the hammer is a Real Photo Post Card (RPPC), found on eBay in 2021; details on the back of the card indicate it might have been taken in Dallas.

I came across a couple of other creepy photos of children, which I posted on another (non-Dallas) blog (these contain frivolous non-local content):

See previous Flashback Dallas posts with a spooky Halloween theme here.

*

Copyright © 2024 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.