Main & Akard, Looking East
by Paula Bosse
Watch your step, girls… (click for very large image)
by Paula Bosse
Ah, Main Street. It’s so sad that the Praetorian Building — the tall white building in the distance on the left — has been demolished to be replaced by a giant eyeball, but it’s great to see that the Kirby Building — at the left — is still hanging in there and still looking great.
Check out the height of those curbs!
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Photo from the WPA Dallas Guide and History ([Denton]: University of North Texas Press, 1992); photo from the collection of the Dallas Public Library. Two sources of this photo cite different dates: one 1935, the other 1930. My guess would be late ’20s — or, certainly closer to 1930 than 1935.
See what this view looks like today on Google Street View, here.
Click pictures for larger images.
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Copyright © 2016 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
The tall building on the right, which is now the Joule Hotel, was built in 1927: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Joule_Hotel
The car in the front, left of the traffic cop, may be a 1927-30 Lincoln:
http://www.oldcarbrochures.org/NA/Lincoln/1927_Lincoln/1927-Lincoln
http://www.aries-restoration.com/content/1930_Lincoln.htm
I am only as much of an expert as google allows me to be but based on the cars and also the fashion I agree that the photo looks closer to 1930 than 1935.
To add to the confusion the photo at the Dallas Public Library actually says the publish date is 1927: http://goo.gl/lw2NOX
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I’d go with 1927. The women’s hats and dresses are definitely ’20s styles.
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Were those kerbs an anti-jay walking measure, I wonder?
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Sidewalks in older downtowns, in cities large and small, were laid out with horse-drawn vehicles in mind. By 1910 motorcars were much lower than freight wagons and people-carrying buggies of even a decade earlier.
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