Crescent Cafe: Warehouse District — 1944-1952

crescent-cafe_mckinney-and-lamar_ebay904 McKinney Avenue, at N. Lamar

by Paula Bosse

The Crescent Cafe once stood at 904 McKinney Avenue, at the corner of N. Lamar. Also seen in this photo is the national headquarters of the Oil Well Supply Company (2001 N. Lamar), a sign for Western Union (2026 N. Lamar), and part of the Binswanger glass company (2019-21 N. Lamar).

See this corner now, on Google Streete View, here.

About all I can tell you about this place is that it was in operation from about 1944 to 1952 (in the 1950 city directory, Mrs. Olive West was listed as the owner — by 1952, Mrs. Josephine Cashlon had taken over).

Mrs. West ran the cafe (breakfast and lunch only, closed on Sundays) for several years, but on Sept. 23, 1950, an ad appeared in the classifieds which read:

CAFE — OWNER
Industrial.
Wonderful location.
Bargain.
904 McKinney

Olive was ready to move on.

A week and a half after the ad appeared, Olive died in a car accident on her way to a nephew’s funeral in Sherman (the nephew had also died in a car accident). No word on whether Mrs. Cashlon (a former waitress who had probably long dreamed of running her own restaurant) had purchased the Crescent Cafe before Mrs. West’s unfortunate demise. 

crescent-cafe_olive-westOlive West (1890-1950)

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Sources & Notes

Photo found on eBay.

crescent-cafe_mckinney-and-lamar_ebay_sm

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Copyright © 2023 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.