Flashback : Dallas

Need a cab? They’re waiting for your call… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

Today I’m posting my favorite photos used in Flashback Dallas posts over the past year. I try to use photos and images that haven’t been seen very often, so I tend to go through a LOT of photos in search of cool and interesting little nuggets of forgotten Dallas history. I’ve seen a lot of photographs over the past year, but the ones listed below are the ones that, for whatever reason, resonated with me the most. To see a larger image of each photo, click it; to see the original post the photo came from (with its source), click the linked title.

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1. “The Allen Street Taxi Company.” Hands down, this photo (seen at the top of this post) is my favorite of the past year, found deep in the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection of SMU’s invaluable DeGolyer Library. The Cook Collection is an incredible collection of historical photographs made available online this year by SMU. I love this photo, and I feel I’ve looked at it for hours. There’s so much to see in it. Check out the original post (linked above) to view several magnified details of a photo that screams out for magnified details.

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2. “An Incredible View From Republic Tower 2 — 1968.” Photo looking down on the famed Republic “rocket,” taken by teenager Bill Parrish in 1968. (Thanks for allowing me to use your photos, Bill!)

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3. “The Continental Gin Company Complex — 1914.” Parts of this complex of buildings still stand and are recognizable today. (SMU’s Dallas Hall can be seen as a ghostly apparition in the distance.)

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4. “Back at the Ranch with Yves Saint Laurent — 1958.” I mean … it’s perfect! Wonder why YSL is posing with a Texas longhorn? Check out this post!

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5. “One of the Victims of the Great Trinity Flood: The T&P Railroad Trestle — 1908.”

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6. “Radio Broadcasting, 1922-Style” and “WFAA Radio’s ‘Altitudinous Antenna System'” — a two-fer: inside and outside Dallas’ first commercial radio station.

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7. “South Pearl, In the Shadow of Downtown — 1950s.”

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8. “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 Walgreen’s sign, where a woman passes under a streetlight as she heads home from work (see this magnified detail by clicking the link above).

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9. “The Wilson Building Under Construction — 1902.”

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10. “WWII-Era Elm Street … In COLOR — 1945.” Great photo, from Noah Jeppson. Seeing Dallas in this era IN COLOR is incredible!

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11. “George Cacas, The Terrill School’s Greek Ice Cream Man — 1916.” Just a couple of schoolboys buying ice cream from a Greek merchant in Old East Dallas.

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12. “The Dallas Skyline Seen From the Trinity Industrial District — 1950.” A view of the city not often seen.

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13. “The Vision in the ‘Miracle Window’ — 1931.” Another view one doesn’t come across often  — this one showing a typical house in the African-American Freedman’s Town area of what was then known as “North Dallas.”

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14. “The Dallas Athletic Club Building — 1925-1981.” A view of the rooftop of the then-under construction Dallas Athletic Club. This photo appeared in a catalog for a manufacturer of construction materials, and I feel confident it hasn’t been seen since that catalog came out in 1924. Pretty cool!

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15. “Views From a Passing Train — 1902.” Pacific Avenue (which was once a railroad thoroughfare for the Texas & Pacific Railway) doesn’t get enough love. Here’s a photo taken by a traveling Philadelphia architect — probably from the back of his train — looking west on Pacific toward Bryan.

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And the runners-up — you always have to have runners-up!

“Nolan Ryan’s Celebratory Pancake Breakfast — 1972.” Taken in Dallas, but before he was a Texas Ranger.

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“The Republic Bank Building and Spain’s ‘Casa de Los Picos.'” One of the Republic Bank Building’s instantly recognizable exterior aluminum panels, seen in an ad for the Minnesota company that manufactured them. Another image that’s been tucked away for far too long! It’s really grainy, but I LOVE this photo!

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“St. Paul’s Sanitarium — 1910.” The ominous “mattress sterilization room” in what looks like St. Paul’s dungeon.

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“The Gypsy Tea Room, Central Avenue, and The Darensbourg Brothers.” A photo I used only a detail of (showing only Percy Darensbourg — at the right on banjo), but this is the full photo, showing Lee Collins’ band in Dallas in 1925 or 1926. Fantastic photo of musicians who would have played clubs in the South, including stops in Deep Ellum and North Dallas.

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“An Afternoon Outing with SMU Frat Boys & Their Dates — 1917.” And, lastly, my favorite face of the year (although Percy, above, is a close second!): a young, unidentified woman who looks sweet, smart, and kind, enjoying a day’s outing to Exall Lake in Highland Park.

She even has sweet, smart, and kind-looking feet!

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For all the “Year-End  Best of 2015” lists, click here.

For the “Year-End Best of 2014” lists, click here.

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Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.