Ervay, Live Oak, and Elm: Just Another Wednesday Night — 1953
by Paula Bosse
“Tomorrow’s weather: warm & cloudy” (click for much larger image)
by Paula Bosse
Here’s what 7:18 PM looked like at the old five-point intersection of Ervay, Live Oak, and Elm streets on January 7, 1953, a Wednesday night. All that neon — especially that Coca-Cola sign, which was probably flashing and strobing like crazy — gives this scene a sort of mini-Times Square feel. Imagine this intersection on a Friday or Saturday night when the streets and sidewalks would have been packed with people heading to theaters, restaurants, and night clubs!
On the left, at the street light (I love those street lights!) and the Walgreen’s sign, is N. Ervay. To the left of the Coca-Cola sign is Live Oak, which used to come through to Elm. To the right, Elm Street, heading east.
So many interesting things here: the Mayflower Coffee Shop (with its “Anytime Is Donut Time” clock and its animated Maxwell House Coffee sign), that incredible neon sign above the Lee Optical store which gave the forecast, that Fred Astaire Dance Studios sign (with “Astaire” in a fantastic neon font), and the Tower and Majestic theater signs lit up for moviegoers who ventured to the movies on a school night. Unseen: the public restrooms (or “public comfort stations”) hidden beneath the street, with the entrance (I think) on the Lee Optical triangular “corner.”
I love all the neon, but this quiet little vignette of a woman carrying some sort of sack or parcel down a chilly downtown street is why I wish I had been around back then — it’s weird to feel nostalgia for a time and place you never actually experienced.
*
A map showing that this intersection once had five points.
1952 Mapsco (click for larger image)
A listing of the businesses along Live Oak, between N. Ervay and N. St. Paul, from the 1953 city directory (click to read):
And the businesses along Elm, between N. Ervay and the old Dallas Athletic Club:
***
This photograph — an untitled night scene — was taken by Squire Haskins on Jan. 7, 1953; from the Squire Haskins Photography, Inc. Collection at the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Special Collections, accessible here.
See this same view during the DAY in the post “Tomorrow’s Weather at Live Oak & Elm — 1955-ish,” here.
All images larger when clicked; the top photo is very large.
*
Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
As I recall it, you’re correct about the entrance to the comfort stations being on the corner. I believe that tower-like structure on the corner was the ventilation shaft for the restrooms.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t just miss the Mexico City Cafe; I miss the entire 1700 block of Live Oak. This fine photograph just about defines the idea of an irretrievable past.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Paula, note that these street lights are not the same as those seen in your “Elm Street at night” post of October. The quaint lights in use along Elm in 1953 had given way to far more modernistic ones within a very few years.
LikeLike
Paula, seeing this long-gone intersection takes me back and almost makes me want to cry for what’s been lost – not just the stores and theatres and restaurants – – – most of them local mom-and-pops – – – but the irreplaceable experience of downtown being the main shopping district. Never again. Anyway, thanks so much for this particular post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, the Mayflower Coffee Shop. On one wall there was a large framed placard, in the style of a stained-glass window, with two medieval-looking fellows leaning back against a central panel and each examining a doughnut in his hands.
In the central panel was the verse:
As you ramble on through life, brother,
Whatever be thy goal,
Keep your eye upon the doughnut
And not upon the hole.
Good advice in any age.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha! That’s great!
LikeLike
As a born & raised Dallasite, this is way cool!
I remember the streetlights growing up, even though I wasn’t born until 1959; there were plenty still around, like on the old Jefferson Street viaduct bridge for example…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! I think those lights may still be on the viaduct – that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the lights in this photograph.
LikeLike
[…] “Ervay, Live Oak, and Elm: Just Another Wednesday Night — 1953.” A chilly night in downtown Dallas. My favorite part of this photo is at the extreme left, under the […]
LikeLike
[…] — “Ervay, Live Oak, and Elm: Just Another Wednesday Night — 1953” — here. This post includes a map showing Live Oak when it used to intersect with Elm and […]
LikeLike
[…] was at 1707 Elm and the bakery was at 211 N. Ervay. The old five-point Live Oak intersection (seen here a dozen years earlier — the Stage Door would later be between Lee Optical and […]
LikeLike
[…] at the left is one of my favorite by-gone downtown landmarks (other photos of the sign can be seen here and […]
LikeLike
[…] Downtown, at the 3-point intersection of Elm, Ervay, and Live Oak (see the map here). This photo shows Live Oak, with a view to the northeast. There are a lot of landmarks: the Mayflower Coffee Shop, the Medical Arts Building, the Southland Life Building, the Sheraton Dallas hotel, the Mexico City Cafe, an entrance to an underground public restroom (the tower-like thingy directly under the Lee Optical sign), and the Dallas Athletic Club. Out of frame to the right is the large flashing Coca-Cola sign (which comes with a handy weather forecast). I’ve gotten this intersection from almost every angle. See other photos of this crossroads here and here. […]
LikeLike