Flashback : Dallas

The Belmont Hotel, circa 1954? (click me!)

by Paula Bosse

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about my sideline gig over on Patreon, so I’m mentioning it again. It has been a year (a year!) since I made an update. It feels like the last year was nothing but nonstop chaos, dealing with not only the return to full-time employment (which I thought would never come), but also finding myself a caregiver to my mother in the difficult final months of her life. It was exhausting. 

Both of those things ate up a lot of the time I once used to write and publish frequent posts here. But finances were scary, so I entered the world of Patreon, where people pay a monthly subscription in exchange for regular smatterings of what I hate to call “content,” but that’s what people call it these days. So I sort of shifted what little energy I had at the end of some pretty long days to writing daily mini-Flashback Dallas posts over there. (Daily was a lot. I have since decreased it to about 5 a week.)

I had been posting the topics I’ve covered on Patreon here on this blog in digestible two-month lists. This was to let readers determine if they might like to subscribe (for as little as five dollars a month!), but also so that I can have a more searchable all-in-one Flashback Dallas database (sometimes I forget where I’ve posted something). But that kind of got away from me, and it’s been a year since I’ve posted a list. In February, I’ll be starting my 13th year blogging here. And I’ve been on Patreon about two and a half years. That’s a lot of Dallas history!

Anyway, below is a list of the topics I’ve covered on my Patreon blog over the past year. I’m sorry it’s so long, but… yeah. If you have the stamina, you can also check out the previous lists of topics I’ve covered on Patreon and posted on this blog, here.

As always, I appreciate all of you for reading. I hope the chaos is winding down a bit.

**

OCTOBER 2025

• Spooky Halloween Ahead! – 1925
• “Stops Indigestion Now!” – 1923 (airplane promotional campaign, Love Field)
• Roller Hockey – 1962 (The Dallas Little Texans)
• Pike Park, Not Yet Developed – ca. 1912
• Bryan Street High School Cheerleader – 1918
• Moroney Park – ca. 1917 (baseball park)
• Water Delivery During a Time of Drought: 1909-1911
• Volk’s Lakewood – ca. 1950
• The “Mad Magician” at the Majestic – 1924
• “The Pride of East Dallas” – ca. 1886 (Fire equipment)
• The Belmont, From Above
• Metropolitan Business College – 1911
• SFOT Roller Coaster – ca. 1950s (State Fair of Texas, color)
• Elvis, In Yer Face – 1971 (Memorial Auditorium)
• James Earl Jones and Kevin Conway in Dallas – 1974 (“Of Mice and Men” at SMU)
• Beekeeping Supplies – 1908
• One of the Modern Homes of Dallas – 1910
• Mockingbird and Airline – 1953
• Centennial Songs of Texas – 1936 (Stamps-Baxter songbook cover)
• Encephalitis Spraying – 1966
• Olive and Buddy’s Place on Starlight Road – 1950
• Incinerators, Neiman-Marcus, and Illicit Substances

SEPTEMBER 2025

• Women and Their Hats, Kidd Springs – 1910
• Dallas’ Municipal Flag – 1916
• Happy First Day of You-Know-What! (State Fair of Texas)
• Back-To-School Time for Little Mr. St. Mark’s – 1955
• Serious Girls with Dolls
• Cycle Park
• American Exchange National Bank Building – 1916 (Lang & Witchell)
• Dallas Mayors, Crystal Ball – 1982 (Folsom, Evans, Jonsson, Wise)
• First Woman Dentist in Dallas – 1897 (Dr. Jessie Estelle Castle LaMoreaux)
• WWI Armored Vehicles (Camp Travis, San Antonio)
• Maestro Walter Hendl – 1953
• Dallas Artist Charles Wright
• ICEE – The Frozenated Treat
• Magnetic Rays Are Your Friend
• Pickle Alley
• Six Flags’ Sky Hook: 1963-1968
• Longhorn – 1970  (Longhorn Ballroom kitsch)
• Summer Dresses, Downtown – 1955 (Color)
• Office Equipment Co., Young Street – 1936
• Pet Cemetery
• WPA Building in Sullivan Park (City Park) – 1937

AUGUST 2025

• Snow Somewhere Downtown – ca. 1936
• Buckner Orphans Home, From Above
• Magicland
• Dallas Police, Mounted Squad – 1910
• Jefferson Hotel and Ferris Park – 1925
• The Ball in the Sky (Reunion Tower)
• Vickery Dining Hall – 1918 (Vickery, Texas)
• You Don’t Have a Heliport? – 1964
• Never Let Them See You Sweat – 1926 (magazine cover art by Harriet Grandstaff)
• Girl on Ice (Literally) – 1951
• The Turtle Creek “Hole” – 1975
• Little Mr. Dandy Dallas – ca. 1896
• A Disgruntled David Allan Coe – 1975
• Visit Texas in 1936!
• Summertime Treat: Frito’s Barbecued Lima Beans – 1940s (recipe)
• Schepps Bakery, S. Ervay – ca. 1907 (The Cedars)
• The Little Interurban That Could – ca. 1911
• “Dallasite” Sophistication – 1930 (“Dallasite” magazine)

JULY 2025

• Who is This Man? – 1971 (Mystery man who kinda looks like Mickey Mantle)
• Oak Cliff Neighborhoods
• Turn-of-the-Century Commerce Street (what IS this?)
• Beauty Pageant Disconnect – 1972 (weirdness at the Miss Texas Pageant)
• His and Hers Afros – 1971
• Puncture!
• My Dream Home! (R. M. Williamson Collection)
• Elm & Hill, ca. 1908
• Steampunk Projector (from the G. William Jones Collection, SMU)
• Girls’ High School Baseball – 1925 (Forest Avenue High School)
• Makers of Dallas – 1912
• Old London School of Beauty Culture, Forest Avenue – 1934
• Oriental Rug Cleaning Co., Since 1911
• Happy 7-Eleven Day!
• I Know That Lamppost! (as spotted in “The Palm Beach Story”)
• Lightning strike! (no post today)
• Judge Sarah T. Hughes – 1936
• Southern Fireworks and Specialty Co.
• “Dallas Conspiracy”
• Charles Dilbeck, Architect

JUNE 2025

• A “Spot-Your-Favorite-Skyline-Landmark” Ad Illustration – 1969
• Coffee Time! – 1957
• Yello Belly Drag Strip
• “Death Stalks Abrams Road” – 1937
• Fair Park Art Building – 1908
• Tenison Memorial Park: Acres and Acres of Smooth Turf and Rustic Ravines – 1923
• Here’s to the Losers – ca. 1973 (Losers Club, Mockingbird near Central)
• On Juneteenth…
• Texas State Fair Ground Plan, with “Privilege Booths” – 1900
• Kids, Horse, Cop – 1978
• Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary – 1952
• Dancing Frogs, Part 2
• Welcome Home, Tango Frogs!
• Jackson and Ervay, Now and Then
• Lakewood Country Club – 1939
• Earl’s, 2538 Cedar Springs – 1961-1962
• Fierce Peruna – 1958
• Play Ball! Dallas Eagles – 1951
• 2nd Avenue, North from Metropolitan
• Yes, Virginia, Vaudeville Happened at the Sportatorium

MAY 2025

• Sugar-Making on the Texas Frontier – 1874
• Ports o’ Call or Pier One?
• Southland Tower Observation Lounge
• Iola: Not Just the Name of a Channel 8 Anchor – 1908
• Commerce, East from Lamar – ca. 1940s (color)
• Sue Lung Chinese Restaurant – 1902
• “The Hat House of the Southwest” – 1908
• Petrified Wood, Decatur
• My mother
• Baylor University College of Medicine – 1905
• Cedar Springs Dodge – ca. 1962
• Main & Ervay – ca. 1906 (whimsy)
• Business at the Farmers Market – 1958
• Sunset at Bachman’s Dam – ca. 1930
• So. Many. Children. – 1935
• St. Jude Chapel
• Simba, African Imports – 1970 (“Afrodelic”)
• Chelsea Corner – 1974
• Entertainment Nitely – 1962 (Zoo Bar)
• The Wynnewood News – 1952 (newspaper)
• Tasmanian Devils – 1968
• Dude Ranch, Y’all – 1955
• Kirby’s – 1955

APRIL 2025

• Josie Vastie Carr Butcher (1875-1959)
• At the Stoneleigh Pool – 1960s
• The Marietta Facemask – 1950s
• Texomalandia – 1949
• Oak Lawn, Illustrated – 1994 (illustrated map)
• Briggs Machinery, Elm & Austin – 1900
• Sump’n Else
• Dallas’ Oldest Soda Jerk – 1970s (Charlie Day)
• Happy Easter! – 1952
• E. Eppstein & Co., Importers and Distillers of Fine Whiskies
• Eight Hundred Concrete Pegs – 1935
• Centennial Services Building: Police, Fire, Hospital, Radio – 1936 (Fair Park)
• Bill Fife, News Carrier – 1947
• Magnolia at Night, Before & After 1934
• Neiman’s: Your Car Is Waiting
• Centennial Liquors – 1993
• George Dahl – 1975
• Courthouse Groundbreaking – 1963 (George Allen Courts Building)
• J. L. Turner House: 1821 Allen Street – 1920s
• Rather’s Pharmacy, 5501 E. Grand – 1927
• Wynnewood Village – 1952
• The City with the Charm of Yesterday…
• Love Field’s Mondrian-y Entrance Sign
• Peruna on a Pedestal – 1935 (illustration)
• “Some of the Prominent Wholesale Jobbing Houses of Dallas” – ca. 1910
• Aerial View of Fort Worth Avenue – 1950
• Yeah, I don’t know, either… (dog walks dog)
• Somewhere on Cedar Springs (ca. 1910s)

MARCH 2025

• An Afternoon at the Ballpark (Burnett Field)
• 5009 Swiss Avenue — 1909 (Since Demolished) (Weichsel home)
• Squire Haskins – 1951
• Candy Barr – 1956
• Statler
• The Busiest Airport in the Country (…Apparently)
• Azaleas
• Need. More. Coffee. – 1895
• Visit Dallas at Your Own Peril (Our Ladies Mean Business)
• The Cyclone (Trolley) – ca. 1888
• The North American Way – 1941 (North American Aviation plant)
• Red Cross HQ: McKinney Avenue (the old Garlington mansion)
• Mosher Steel is Holding Up the Wilson Building
• Happy St. Patrick’s Day! – 1960
• “Horse Stealing Passé in Texas” – 1915
• Pandemonium – 1970 (boutique)
• “How Do You Like Me?” – 1916 (promotional campaign)
• Dallas’ First Hospital That Wasn’t in a Shack – 1874
• St. George Annex Bar (in bed with a lobster…)
• Tex Dudley Entertainment – 1942
• Johnnie Taylor, Longhorn Ballroom
• Juanita Craft, Shooting Hoops – 1974
• Highland Park: “The Suburb Beautiful” – ca. 1915
• My Visit to the Scottish Rite Cathedral – 2025
• Mariano – 1971
• Gibson Girl in PJs – 1907
• Remember Alamo Bottled Beer!
• Hermine Tobolowsky (1921-1995)

FEBRUARY 2025

• University Park in the ’20s
• 1190 On Your Dial – 1947 (KLIF)
• You Want Big Cabbages? We Got Big Cabbages – 1908 (novelty postcards)
• Jones Hospital Building, 3116 Live Oak – 1933 (still standing)
• H. L. Green Lunch Counter
• Texas: Wet, Dry, Moist – 1971 (map showing where liquor sales were legal)
• “The Musical Observer” – 1898 (Dallas arts magazine)
• Shiners for the Band – 1975 (underground art, advertising)
• “Buddy Lives” – 1973 (Buddy magazine)
• Nobody Is Minding the Store (Neiman-Marcus)
• Melody Shop, 1417 Commerce – 1972
• School Book Depository – 1964
• Doug (the Chimpanzee) Loves His Ice Cream – 1950
• Love Is Still in the Air… (blushing children, ca. 1905)
• I’m in Love with My Dr – 1931 (Dr Pepper ad)
• Crestwood Apartments, Luxury Living on Magellan Circle – 1958
• What We Did Before Computers
• KNUS 98.7 FM – 1970
• Our “Super Express Highway” (Central Expressway)
• Campisi’s, Inside
• SMU in Black and White – 1992 (graphic art)
• R. C. Hickman Exhibit/Marion Butts Exhibit
• The “Black Beatles” – 1964
• The Sensational Radio-Telephone: “New as Tomorrow” – 1948
• Meet the Grahams (Brown Cracker & Candy Co.)
• A Beautiful Day at City Hall
• Prairie Dog Drive-In, Grand Prairie
• Down on Car Theft – 1920s

JANUARY 2025

• “Bikes” – 1951 (Longfellow Elementary School)
• New-To-Me Medical Arts
• A Hive of Activity (patrons at the library’s card catalog file)
• Trent House, Hockaday – 1951
• Legacies Conference – 2025
• SMU vs State – 1953 (magazine illustration cover art)
• Grocery Store Phone Bank – 1953 (Hunt Grocery Store, Highland Park Village)
• KGKO 1480 – 1953
• Undeveloped North Dallas Caruth Farmland
• City Ambulances – Early 1900s
• Elvis Fans Pack the Palace – 1956
• Prohibition Booty – 1922
• Hugh Prather, Beverly Drive
• Buster Smith & His South Heatwave of Swing
• Pigeon Hole Parking Garages – 1956
• Big Hamhocks on Campus – 1917 (SMU)
• At the Sign of the Big Mortar – 1856
• The Love Field of Tomorrow – 1955
• Exposition Graphic Art – 1936 and 1937
• Highland Park Village: “Shop Where the Majority Shop” – 1955
• Snowy Day at Woodrow – 1948
• Snow Day! (snowman listening to KLIF)
• The Southern Rock Island Plow Co. Wants Your Trade – 1908
• Family Portrait at the Deane Studio
• Next Door to the DPL
• Temple Emanu-El, South Dallas
• No Man’s Land: North of Southwestern, East of Greenville – 1927
• Women Behaving Badly – 1922
• Power Station by Ruth Armstrong Whaley – 1927
• New Year’s Eve at the Adolphus – 1936

DECEMBER 2024

• Hanukkah, 1977
• When the Tracks Still Ran Along Pacific
• The Day Segregated Seating on Buses Ended – 1956
• Night Football Comes to Dallas – 1930 (Cotton Bowl)
• Frank Calder, Commercial Artist – 1930 (Lone Star Gas Building)
• Neiman’s Rises Up – 1927
• Ronnie Dawson – Teen Idol
• Marilla and Akard – 1950s
• Papeete: The Exotic Sheraton Hideaway
• Random Cool Building – 1950
• The Gold Rush Miniature Shooting Gallery by Electro-Ball – 1930s
• Joe Boy Is Having Quite a Time at the Fair – 1929
• This Week in Dallas – 1936 (magazine cover)
• Dunbar Branch – 1931 (architectural sketch, Dallas Public Library)
• Coffee & Confusion: The Cellar – 1969 (club exterior)
• Fisher’s Addition, West Dallas
• The Final Ride of the Dallas-Denison R.P.O. – 1948 (Pt. 2)
• The Final Ride of the Dallas-Denison R.P.O. – 1948
• Holiday Parade, Prelude
• “Bottle Etiquette” – Dallas’ Mixed-Drink Liquor Laws (a primer for out-of-towners, 1962)
• Downtown Dallas Logo in Celebration of the Sesquicentennial – 1986
• Caruth’s Inwood Village – 1950
• The “Dr Pepper Green” Enamel Finish – 1950
• Theatre Lounge: “Welcome Conventioneers” – 1951
• Kodak Plant: A Beautiful Entryway – 1950
• The Old Republic Bank Building – 1925

NOVEMBER 2024

• Taylor Publishing Co. Building – 1967
• “Black Friday” (video from NorthPark, 1975)
• “Evangelical College for Pastors” – 1929 (now Dallas Theological Seminary)
• Apartments in Segregated Dallas – 1941
• Flippen Auto Co.
• Camp Dick Track & Field Meet – 1918
• Circle Drive-In, Harry Hines
• Another Anniversary of You-Know-What
• Bird’s-Eye View of the Eppstein Building (Etc.) (at night)
• First Church of Christ, Scientist: Still Standing after 114 Years
• Escutcheon Plates, Locks, Knobs, Bolts, and Hinges – 1914 (as seen adorning the new City Hall)
• Greetings from Dallas, Texas – 1958
• Map of Oak Cliff Neighborhoods – 1959
• Pennants! – 1946
• Fair Park Band Shell, Under Construction – 1936
• Skillern’s, Main and Ervay – 1951
• J. E. Maybery, Rural Grocer
• “Dallas Skyline” by Ed Bearden
• Whittle’s – 1965
• Lake Highlands Village – 1951
• Lot’s Wife – ca. 1965 (sculpture by Mark Macken at Dallas Public Library)
• Stemmons Freeway, Really Coming Along – 1964
• Lakewood Shopping Center at Night
• Neiman’s Diamond Jubilee – 1982
• Presby: “Ready to Serve in 1966” (Presbyterian Hospital)
• Buckner Bowl

OCTOBER 2024

• Super-Cool Car, Super-Cool House
• The School Book Depository, For Your Desk – 1964 (weird collectible)
• Cannon’s Village, West Davis & Edgefield – 1920s
• Spend an Afternoon with Abbie Hoffman – 1970 (at the Fair Park band shell)
• The Clever Western Smartee Slack Suit – 1946 (fashion for women)
• Dallas Fashion and Sportswear – 1946
• The Workday Grind – 1934
• Ritz Deli, Akard Street
• DFW Archives Bazaar 2024, Old City Park
• “The Dallasite” Magazine, Main Street Parade Cover – 1930
• Boude Storey Under Construction – 1932
• Greenway Parks – 1930
• Football Debuts in Texas Stadium – 1971 (Bishop College)
• The Farmers Market – 1970s
• Futuro II at the State Fair of Texas – 1970 (spaceship or cool bachelor pad?)
• Patreon Posts with Links (pinned post)
• Commerce Street, Before the Magnolia Building – ca. 1913
• Iconic Theater Signs – 1951 (Majestic, Vogue, Esquire, Inwood, Circle)
• Joe Bob Briggs: We Are the Weird
• A Leisurely Stroll Around the State Fair Race Track – 1900
• Three Dog Night/Faces/B. W. Stevenson at the Cotton Bowl – 1972
• Campbell House Hotel, Elm & Harwood
• A Mid-Century Baker Hotel by Artist Ted Lewy
• Beatlemania at Highland Park High School – 1964 (teen band The Twilights)
• Saving the Junius Heights Columns – 1973
• A Futuristic Downtown Library: One Imagined, One Realized
• Fortnight Shopping Bags (Neiman-Marcus Fortnights)
• Hollywood, East Dallas – 1924 (Hollywood-Santa Monica neighborhood)
• Main Street Tear-Downs – 1934 (making way for Dealey Plaza)

***

Sources & Notes

Aerial photo of the Belmont Motor Hotel is from a postcard/booklet found on eBay. This was the description of the Belmont’s amenities (um, “oyster bar”…).

More info on supporting my Flashback Dallas work on Patreon can be found here. All subscriber levels have the same access — $5 a month is a bargain! I try to post at least 5 times a week — posts come directly to your email inbox. You can cancel, restart, or change your subscription amount at any time. Thank you!