Commerce & Market, Where the Air Was Made Blue
by Paula Bosse
Kinder, gentler times…
by Paula Bosse
The photo above shows a small, fairly nondescript building at the southwest corner of Market and Commerce, with retail stores and a cafe at street level and, I think, a hotel on the second floor. My car-make-and-model knowledge is bad, but I’ll guess that this photo might be from the early ’20s (a 1921 Sanborn map of the area is here). If you go back even further — like to 1891 — this corner was a hangout for unsavory types, as reported below in The Dallas Morning News in 1891.
Dallas Morning News, Sept. 7, 1891
It’s no surprise there was “indecent and profane language” in the air in 1891 (“particularly on Saturdays”), seeing as that corner was a mere hop, skip, and a jump from Dallas’ premier red-light district.
This corner is currently occupied by the George Allen Courts Building.
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Sources & Notes
Photo, titled “Building at SW corner of Market and Commerce Streets, formerly occupied by City National Bank Dallas, 1872,” is from the Collection of Dallas Morning News negatives and copy photographs, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University; more information is here.
This post appeared in a slightly different version on the Flashback Dallas Patreon page.
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Copyright © 2025 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
The Dr. Pepper sign dates the photo to not earlier than 1926. According to the Dr Pepper Company entry on the Texas State Historical Association website:
The company prospered on Second Avenue in Dallas using prolific advertising to propel the beverage to the front of the soft drink industry. The “10-2-4” logo and slogan developed during the 1920s. Dr. Walter H. Eddy conducted a study on the human body’s fatigue at Columbia University. He found that a human blood sugar fell to the lowest levels around 10:30am, 2:30pm and 4:30pm, which left them feeling tired and hungry. At the time, the Dr Pepper Company employed the Tracy-Locke-Dawson (TLD) agency for their advertising. In 1926 after learning of Dr. Eddy’s study, the company asked employees to develop a new slogan for the brand. Earle Racey of TLD suggested “Drink a Bite to Eat at 10, 2 and 4.” He received a $25 bonus for developing the slogan and Dr Pepper used different versions of the logo until the 1970s.
I can barely make out the ‘BITE TO EAT’ part of the slogan on the ad.
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Thank you!
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I love all this Paula but especially “who make the air blue” – we just don’t talk or think like that anymore.
Any idea what the pipe on the side of the building’s purpose is? It doesn’t run all the way to the ground, and it juts up on the roof maybe 6 or 8 inches.
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Stove flue. Might be a wood stove for heat. Or a cooking stove in the cafe. Which might be coal or wood.
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Thanks!
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Many houses in Dallas were built out of spite & revenge against someone, they were called spite houses. Also many buildings, apartments, comissioned art, parks & land developments were done out of spite, this hateful spite & revenge carries a curse to us today. Do you live in a spite house? Land grabbing property from the elderly & disabled is very common today and no one protects the elderly & disabled from abusive land grabbers & oppressive home owner associations; a curse of high crime will follow the property stolen from the elderly & disabled.
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Thanks, Paula!
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I agree that 1926 is close but that it isn’t much later than that either; the newest Model T seen here is about a ’25 or ’26 model and well-used looking.
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