1400 Block of Main Street, ca. 1946
by Paula Bosse
The Century Club, the Adolphus Bar, and the Manhattan Cafe await…
by Paula Bosse
A few years ago, I went in to the Dallas Historical Society a few times a week to volunteer. I ended up basically cataloging an entire collection of photos taken by a man named James H. Bell — and I really enjoyed it. Bell wasn’t a professional photographer, he was just a guy who liked to take a lot of photographs. The photos were all taken, as I recall, in 1946 and 1947, when he was apparently visiting Dallas — which I gather was his hometown — on a trip from his new home in California. He took a lot of pictures of places around Dallas that no one really bothered to document: businesses, street life, houses. He was also something of a pinball and jukebox aficionado, because a large number of his photos had coin-operated machines in them. Like a LOT. He also liked buses. And he seemed to always have his camera with him.
The photo above (which, sadly, I’ve had to crop because of image issues) shows the south side of the 1400 block of Main Street. I’ve never seen a photo from this period of the Main Street entrance to the Adolphus Hotel. That cool 1936 deco sign for the Century Room is great (even though it looks a little out of place next to the overly ornate early-20th-century arch next to it). (See the full wonky image — apologies for the low resolution — all my fault — here.)
I can tell you exactly why Bell took this photo: he saw a coin-operated machine being unloaded from a truck (or loaded into a truck). There were others photos in this collection taken in similar circumstances. I don’t know whether he was following jukebox and pinball trucks around town (a very definite possibility…), or whether he just happened upon these coin-op machine deliveries, camera at the ready. Whatever the case, he got a nice action-photo of a jukebox delivery in the wild, while, at the same time, he secured for posterity a nice historical image of everyday life on Main Street. And, we have the added bonus of seeing the long-gone sign for the swanky Century Room nightclub.
This was the Dallas Historical Society description I wrote for the full photo:
Downtown Dallas, 1400 block of Main Street. South side of Main, with Akard intersecting at left. Partial view of the Southwestern Life Building (southeast corner of Main and Akard, with Travis cigar stand at street level); Andrews Building (southwest corner of Main and Akard); C C Liquor Store (1412-B Main); Elko Camera Store (1410 Main); Ragir’s (1412 Main); Adolphus Hotel, rear entrance (with Century Room nightclub sign); Adolphus Bar (1406 Main); the Marquee restaurant (1404 1/2 Main); Paul R. Brown’s Restaurant. Also: a sign for Manhattan Cafe or Cafe Manhattan, pedestrians, 1940s vehicles, workman securing a pinball or other coin-operated machine into back of pickup truck.
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Sources & Notes
This photo was taken by James H. Bell in about 1946, and it is from the James H. Bell Collection at the Dallas Historical Society. The Accession Number is 2017.48, and the Object ID is V.2017.48.531. For some reason, an image is not on the DHS online database, but the link to the photo description is here.
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Copyright © 2022 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
Paula- it was such a treat to see this photo of the Century room. I saw an ice skating act there when I was 5 or 6!! You are right about it being swanky- I was all dressed up in a velvet party dress with the scratchiest horse hair petticoats.
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Wow, what a difference 75 years makes. That block is totally different. Not sure any of those architectural features are still there. Now I want to go downtown and check it out.
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go to google maps and type in 1400 Main st then select street view
https://goo.gl/maps/pFYLpFFLaaQUEudE9
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The Elko Camera Store and Adolphus Bar buildings are gone but the Marquee restaurant building is still there at 1404 Main and while the facade has changed it is still recognizable as the building which I think was built in 1919. The building next to it at 1402 Main is also still there.
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Fascinating photo of which I don’t recall becasue that was the year I was born, but in years gone by I’ve been to the Adolphus and Century Room many times. I suspect that was good times back in 1946. WWII was over and folks like Mr. Bell could once again more around at their leisure. Thanks for posting Paula.
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Thanks, Danny!
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Is it not likely the pinball is going into the restaurant? The front being wide open and the guys inside looking like they’re ‘doing’ something certainly permits that assumption. Very nice image.
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That’s my assumption. The other truck looks like it has a dining booth it. But wouldn’t it be great if either a pinball machine or a jukebox were heading inside the Adolphus? Maybe to be tucked away in the corner of the French Room?
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I spent a little time at the James H Bell photo collection. Those photos show what my mother must have seen when she came to Dallas in 1947 at 19 years of age. When I was a boy in the late sixties much of that architecture and the general way people – especially of my parents’ and older generations – looked, were still very much in evidence. Now, of course, all swept away.
I’d guess Mr. Bell worked in the coin-operated-machine business.
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[…] I had catalogued a few years ago as a volunteer for the Dallas Historical Society which shows the “1400 Block of Main Street, ca. 1946.” It was taken by James Bell, an amateur photographer who took a lot of interesting photos of what […]
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