Perhaps you’ve noticed the intensely colorful sunburst-like mosaic that adorns the Saint Jude Catholic Chapel at 1521 Main Street, near Stone Place. It’s hard to miss. The artist is Gyorgy Kepes (1906-2001), an important Hungarian-born avant-garde painter, photographer, and educator who immigrated to the United States in 1937. He taught for a short time at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas) in the mid 1940s, and may be known best in Dallas for his work as artistic director for Temple Emanu-El in the late 1950s, a project which artfully brought together contemporary art, architecture, and design into a sacred space.
At the time Kepes was commissioned to create the mosaic for the new Saint Jude Chapel (which opened in 1968), he was immersed in founding the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). One wonders how he found the time!
This mosaic — which as far as I know is untitled — is probably a familiar sight to people who work and live downtown, but most who pass it are completely unaware of the name of the artist. I hope I’ve helped correct that a bit. Thank you, Gyorgy Kepes — and thank you, Saint Jude Chapel — for this nice little addition to Dallas’ public art.
Postcard and info, eBay
Below, an early rendering of the proposed building (1966), designed by architect Eugene F. Boerder. The vague mosaic design in this drawing suggests that Kepes might not have been attached to the project at this point, or that his design had not yet been determined.
Architect’s rendering, Sept. 1966
***
Sources & Notes
Unless otherwise noted, photos from the Saint Jude Catholic Chapel website,here. The undated black-and-white photos are from a video history of the chapel, here.
I have been unable to find any information about this mosaic. Had I not stumbled across Kepes’ name in a Sept. 14, 1968 Dallas Morning News article about the new chapel (which I was reading while researching the very interesting history of the building the St. Jude Chapel is in — and the building next to it) (that post is here), I’m not sure I’d be able to track down the identity of the artist. It’s surprising how little is out there about such a prominently displayed work of art!
UPDATE: Rather bizarrely, a few weeks after I wrote this, I learned that this mosaic was being restored — so I went downtown, met the restoration team, took some photos, and wrote the post “Mosaic Restoration at Downtown’s St. Jude Chapel.”
So much open green space! (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
A few days ago, after having done too many recent posts on Dallas high schools, I decided to post this great 1965 photo of J. L. Long Jr. High School and Woodrow Wilson High School on Facebook and Twitter, rather than write another high school post. But then Facebook follower Chris Prestridge went out and took the same shot with his drone and sent it to me. And it’s cool! So now I kind of have to post both of these great then-and-now photos. (Thank you, Chris!)
In the photos we see Woodrow in the center foreground, Long behind it, the Lakewood Country Club at the upper left, and, in the background, White Rock Lake. Things haven’t changed hugely in the intervening 52 years — it’s still a pretty area, but things just seem more crowded. (How I long for the days of school campuses devoid of the clutter of what I used to call “temporary buildings” — but those buildings don’t seem to be “temporary,” because they never go away. And those displaced fields and playgrounds never come back.)
Here’s the same view today.
Below, the two photos, cheek by jowl. Click to see them bigger.
***
Sources & Notes
Top photo is from the 1965 Crusader, the yearbook of Woodrow Wilson High School; I found it on Flickr, here.
Many thanks to Chris Prestridge who “droned” the present-day photo yesterday, on March 14, 2017. Thank you, Chris! (And thank you, Chris’ drone!)
See another bird’s-eye view of both campuses — but one looking to the southwest rather than the northeast — in the Flashback Dallas post “J. L. Long, Woodrow Wilson — 1958,” here.
Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church… (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
Flipping through the pages of the 1967 Souvenir Program of the 74th Annual Session of the Missionary Baptist General Convention of Texas and Its Auxiliaries (…as one does), I kept coming across ads featuring photos of Dallas churches and wondered how many were still standing. Out of the twelve I’m posting here, all but three are still standing. That’s a healthy survival rate!
All photos are from the above-mentioned program for the Missionary Baptist General Convention of Texas, which convened in Dallas, October 17-20, 1967. All photos (which are larger when clicked) appeared in this 1967 booklet, but a few were older photos taken in previous years or decades.
*
At the top, Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church, 909 Morrell Avenue, East Oak Cliff (Rev. A. F. Thomas, Sr., Minister). The church is still standing and is still cool-looking — see it on Google Street View here. (According to a history of the church, the building was designed by J. C. Hibbard, the Assembly of God preacher who designed his own Oak Cliff church, the Gospel Lighthouse Church, which I wrote about here — the two eye-catching buildings are only a mile apart.)
*
People’s Missionary Baptist Church, 3119 Pine Street, South Dallas (Rev. S. M. Wright, Pastor). Still standing, here
*
Allen Chapel Baptist Church, 2146 Overton Road, Oak Cliff (Rev. J. R. Allen, Pastor). Still standing, here.
*
Morning Star Baptist Church (photo circa 1947, the year the brick church was built), 2662 Anderson Street, South Dallas (Rev. Howard Gill, Pastor). Still standing, here.
*
Good Street Baptist Church, 902 N. Good-Latimer (between Live Oak and Bryan) (Dr. Cesar Clark, Pastor). No longer standing.
*
Oak Hill Missionary Baptist Church, 4440 S. Oakland Avenue (now Malcolm X Blvd.), South Dallas (Rev. M. G. Solomon, Pastor). Drawing of their “future church building.” Still standing, here.
*
Bethany Baptist Church, 6710 Webster Street, Love Field area (A. L. Schley, Pastor). Still standing, here.
*
Munger Avenue Baptist Church, 3919 Munger Avenue (not to be confused with N. Munger Blvd.), near Haskell and Washington, in what used to be the thriving African-American neighborhood of North Dallas (Rev. B. E. Joshua, Pastor). Still standing, here.
*
Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church, 2525 Caddo Street, just a few blocks from Munger Avenue Baptist Church (Rev. G. B. Prince, Pastor). No longer standing. The property was sold to the Southland Corporation in 1983 — its location is now occupied by a Cityplace parking lot. According to the history of the church, Pilgrim Rest moved to 1819 N. Washington in 1985.
*
Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, 3611 Latimer Street, South Dallas (Rev. B. F. Briggs, Pastor). Still standing, here.
*
St. John Baptist Church, 2019 Allen Street, State-Thomas area (Robert H. Wilson, Minister). No longer standing.
*
New Zion Baptist Church, 2214 Pine Street, South Dallas (Rev. A. V. Voice, Pastor). Now Greater New Zion Church, this is my favorite of these twelve buildings, and it still looks good, here.
***
Sources & Notes
All photos from the Souvenir Program of the 74th Annual Session of the Missionary Baptist General Convention of Texas and Its Auxiliaries, which was held in Dallas in October, 1967.
Many thanks to George Gimarc for passing this wonderful little booklet on to me. I hope to share more from its pages in the future.
Yesterday I posted a bunch of ads (seen here) from the 1961 and 1962 yearbooks of Bryan Adams High School, and today I’m posting a bunch of photos of random school life from those same yearbooks. (All photos are larger when clicked.)
Above, band, drill team, and cheerleaders. (1961)
Below, the rigors of the art student. (1961)
*
Boys. (1961)
*
The Corals. The caption: “The Corals play an important role in the life of El Conquistador.” (El Conquistador is the name of the yearbook, and The Corals were a popular combo that played around Dallas in the late ’50s and early ’60s. I assume they were BA students.) (1961)
*
The Senior Ball, held downtown at the Sheraton. (1961)
*
Gymnasium drama. (1961)
*
BA drill team in the stands at a football game. “Beautiful Belles.” (1961)
*
The Up Beats. (1962)
*
The guy in the glasses is Sverker Olson, “our exchange student from Sweden.” He looks very happy. (1961)
*
I saw many, many photos of that guy on the right in the white shirt. He was either very popular or was slipping the photographer a buck every time he saw him in order to get as many photos of himself as possible into the yearbook. (1961)
*
I was in band in high school. We never got to play at the State Fair of Texas at the feet of Big Tex.
*
Grainy photo that’s interesting mostly because of how tiny downtown looked from the eastern shore of White Rock Lake back in 1962.
***
All photos from the Bryan Adams High School yearbook, El Conquistador — all are larger when clicked.
I love ads from high school yearbooks — especially when they feature students. Here are several from the Bryan Adams 1961 and 1962 yearbooks. (Click the ads to see larger images.)
Above, the J. C. Penney store in Casa View at 2596 Gus Thomasson. Great ad! (1962)
Below, Jackson’s Sporting Goods in Casa Linda. (1962)
*
Gingham Girl Dance Studio on Northwest Highway (“We Also Feature Baton Lessons”). (1961)
*
Lake Highlands Music Co. — guitar lessons by Ken Wheeler. (1961)
*
Casa Linda Barber Shop. (1962)
*
Ethel Shipp — female attire, from tots to teens and beyond; Casa Linda and Casa View. (1961)
*
Dallas Ice Arena — ice skating at Fair Park. (1962)
*
Cooter’s Village Camera Shop — Highland Park Village. (First ad 1961, second 1962)
*
Pop’s Spaghetti House (Frank Da Mommio and Pop Da Mommio), on Gaston, near Baylor. (1962)
*
Colbert’s in Casa Linda. (1962)
*
Stone’s Shoes, Northlake Shopping Center. (1962)
*
Love’s Fashions, on Oates. (Those striped pants are cool!) (1962)
*
Smitty’s Party Room, Bakery, and Coffee Bar, also on Oates Drive. (1961)
*
KBOX and their happenin’ djs: Jerry Clemmons, Johnny Borders, Pat Hughes, Chuck Benson, Bill Holley, and Gary Mack. (1961)
*
And my favorite ad because of its association to greatness: Belvick Electric Company, Garland Road. Greatness? Here’s a hint: the proprietors are Jerry Dauterive and Buck Dauterive. Maybe it’s just because I watch a lot of television, but any fan of the classic animated show “King of the Hill” (created by Mike Judge, who lived in Garland for several years) will recognize the name “Dauterive” — as in Bill Dauterive, Hank Hill’s sad-sack friend. It’s such an unusual name and there are so many Dallas jokes in the show that I figured the men in this ad must have some sort of connection to the TV show. It turns out that the character is named for series writer-producer Jim Dauterive, a native Dallasite and … a Bryan Adams alum! And Buck was his father. According to an interview in White Rock Lake Weekly, Jim Dauterive liked to slip neighborhood references into the show: he named a character in the show “Gus Thomasson,” had Hank Hill direct someone to a liquor store near White Rock Lake, and even snuck in a mention of Louanns on Greenville. So there you have it! (Ad from 1961.)
This print — titled “Dallas/The Big D” by native Texan William E. Bond (1923-2016) — is fantastic. I love everything about it. It was commissioned by Business Week magazine to be used as part of its “Business America” series, an advertising campaign showcasing fifteen American cities captured in woodcuts. Every element of this scene is great, but let’s look at a detail showing just the Dallas skyline, with a hard-to-miss Pegasus. I also see what looks to be the Mercantile Building and the Republic Bank Building in there. And … that sky!
Bond’s homage to Dallas was reproduced in the 1963 book Woodcuts of Fifteen American Cities from the Business Week Collection. Below, text from the book (my assumption is that the first paragraph is the copy that appeared in a print advertisement for Business Week — it appears that the ad campaign used the artists’ works collected in this book to illustrate the ads, with each ad mentioning local companies with large BW subscribership).
Dallas… leapfrogging ahead commercially and culturally. Cotton, cattle, and oil put the Big D on the map. But aircraft, electronics and machinery keep it moving. Companies like Texas Instruments (682 Business Week subscribers), Ling-Temco-Vought (106), Collins Radio (135), Dresser Industries (123). In Dallas, and everywhere in business America, men who manage companies read Business Week. You advertise in Business Week when you want to inform management.
And this was Bond’s bio with a quote from him on “the Big D”:
“Dallas is a great many things. It is a giant of a city in the midst of a giant country – full of life and energy and the will to grow and keep growing. Anyone who knows Dallas feels this spirit. And it is this feeling that I have tried to capture.”
Born in 1923 in Crandall, Texas, Mr. Bond attended the Art Center School in Los Angeles. He has won many gold and silver awards in art director and illustrator shows, including a gold medal in the New York Illustrators Show in 1962. Mr. Bond uses a variety of media, including paper prints, sculpture, and painting. He has been an agency art director most of his career, and is now a free-lance designer.
**
Bill Bond was born in Crandall, Texas in 1923, studied art at the Art Center School in Los Angeles, and spent several years as an award-winning commercial artist in Dallas. He worked as an advertising art director for The Dallas Times Herald, the Sam Bloom Agency, and Tracey-Locke; during this time he frequently participated in group art shows around the city. When he retired, he focused his creative talents on sculpture, becoming known for his wildlife pieces and Western bronzes. He died in Kerrville in 2016 at the age of 92.
***
Sources & Notes
The book that features a reproduction of this print is Woodcuts of Fifteen American Cities from the Business Week Collection (New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Inc., 1963). From the introduction:
One of the principal methods of communication in the 20th century, and one of the biggest businesses, is advertising. Here, too, industry has regularly and effectively used fine art – in the creation of some memorable advertising campaigns.
From 1960 to 1962 Business Week commissioned fourteen prominent woodcut artists to illustrate its “Business America” series. Reproductions of the fifteen woodcut illustrations which were produced appear on the following pages.
Thanks to Bob Dunn for posting an image of Bond’s print in the Retro Dallas Facebook group. I liked it so much I went out and bought a copy of the (large) book! A few copies are available onlinehere.
1965 photo by Ezra Stoller. It appeared in the December 1, 2016 New York Times magazine as part of a slideshow, here; it was a companion to a short article about Stanley Marcus by James McAuley, here.
I never thought of myself as a fan of lime green upholstery until I saw that salon furniture. The wallpaper is a bit … busy (in a tasteful, sophisticated way…), but that furniture is, as they say, to die for. (And the door that disappears into the wall is a nice touch.)
The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Love Field, 4/20/69 (Jones Film Collection, SMU)
by Paula Bosse
One of the advantages of living in a major American city is that all the biggest entertainers visit at one time or another. Let’s take three of the biggest entertainers of 1969: Jimi Hendrix, Glen Campbell, and Tiny Tim. All were huge, and all came to Dallas. And, luckily for us, they were captured on film in interviews by reporters from WFAA-Channel 8.
For me, without question, the most exciting interview was the one with Jimi Hendrix, who, standing on the tarmac of Love Field with bandmates Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding on April 20, 1969 (yes, 4/20…), gives a great, relaxed interview to a very lucky Channel 8 reporter, Doug Terry. (I love the look on Terry’s face throughout the interview.) Watch it here:
A few screenshots (click to see slideshow):
April 20, 1969, WFAA-Ch. 8 News (Jones Film Collection, SMU)
4/20/24 UPDATE: After several years of trying to contact the reporter, Doug Terry, I finally heard from him! Here are a few paragraphs from his email to me (used with his permission), with some interesting tidbits about how some of these interviews were conducted:
I was still a college student most of the time I worked at WFAA. I handed in my resignation after covering the north Texas pop festival in that same year. [Watch one of Doug’s Texas International Pop Festival reports from Lewisville here.] Your comment about being in a large city and its advantages was something that I did not fully grasp until years later. The access was wonderful, I saw Hendrix at least three times, on one occasion being in the dressing room with a camera when he warmed up for a show (that footage is nowhere to be found).
There are two aspects to mention about that interview. First, I was a weekend reporter and late night news anchor at Ch. 8 and I assigned myself to go interview him. In those days, one could call up the airlines when a notable person was coming in and they would give the flight number and arrival time. Amazing. Most of the people at the station at that time probably had no idea who Jimi was and wouldn’t have cared if they did know.
The other interesting point is the work of the photographer. Ordinarily, we did over the shoulder interviews, the camera to the back and side of the reporter. The fact that this was shot from the side made all the difference. As a shooter, he was not otherwise outstanding but this interview would be much less interesting if it had been shot in the traditional line-up sort of way. The two bandmates goofing around was distracting but great.
Thank you, Doug! I love this interview — I’m so glad you assigned yourself to the duty!
*
Jimi Hendrix appeared at least 4 times in Dallas:
Feb. 16, 1968: Fair Park Music Hall
Aug. 3, 1968: Moody Coliseum, SMU
April 20, 1969: Memorial Auditorium (where he was headed after the Ch. 8 interview)
June 5, 1970: Memorial Auditorium
July 28, 1968
Two surprising errors (grammatical and factual) appear in a Neiman-Marcus tie-in ad (of sorts) which states that Jimi would be at Memorial Auditorium, rather than Moody Coliseum. Despite the error, it’s cool that Neiman’s was expanding its cultural horizons to include someone like Jimi Hendrix in one of its ads (which was featuring teen fashions, but still). N-M has always had its finger on the pulse of current fashions — and Jimi Hendrix was certainly fashionable.
Glen Campbell was in town for several days in June, 1969. He arrived at Love Field on June 15 and was met by a “high-spirited throng” of teenage admirers. He was here to promote the release of the movie True Grit (in which he appeared with John Wayne), as well as to perform at Memorial Auditorium on June 19, 1969.
June 19, 1969
He was actually in Dallas the previous year, in March, 1968, to perform at the State Fair Music Hall with Bobbie Gentry. An interview with the pair begins at 3:57:
**
And Tiny Tim was in Dallas on June 17, 1969 to appear at a book-signing at the downtown Sanger-Harris department store. The signing was a bit more sedate than his previous visit to Dallas when he caused something of a riot on January 23, 1969 while making an appearance at the Melody Shop in NorthPark. I’m not sure what sort of crowd the Melody Shop thought they’d get for their little “autograph party,” but it’s safe to say they did not expect 5,000 over-excited teenagers. The news report the next day was peppered with words like “pandemonium,” “swarm,”“mob scene,” and “human wall.” (Read about that bizarre event here). His drawing power continued the next year when Tiny made his Dallas performing debut at … of all places … Abe Weinstein’s Colony Club, one of the city’s top “burlesque” houses. He was booked for an incredible 9-night run (!) in September, 1970. It was a major success. Dallas apparently loved Tiny Tim. And, of course, years later, Bucks Burnett’s Edstock and Burnett’s tiny Tiny Tim museum continued the Big D/Tiny Tim lovefest.
June 17, 1969
WFAA-Ch. 8 interview (screenshot)
***
Sources & Notes
Video is from the WFAA Newsfilm Collection, held at the Hamon Arts Library, Southern Methodist University; screenshots are from those clips. Any requests to license these clips (or any of the other thousands at SMU!) should be directed to curator Jeremy Spracklen.
4/20/24 UPDATE: Passages from former Channel 8 reporter Doug Terry are from an email to me on April 16, 2024, reprinted with his permission.
Hit the Dallas Morning News archives to find a little pre-Music Hall interview with Jimi Hendrix conducted by “YouthBeat Editor” Marge Pettyjohn: “A Real Experience” (DMN, Feb. 25, 1968). Her interview with Tiny Tim (“Magical Mystery Tour: On Meeting Tiny Tim,” DMN, Jan. 25, 1969) is also worth checking out, as is the Jean Kelly article “5,000 Kids Mob Tiny Tim” (DMN, Jan. 24, 1969).
While you’re in the archives, look for the interview with Glen Campbell at Love Field amidst the frenzied teenage girls: “High-Spirited Throng — Fans Mob Glen Campbell at Airport” by Maryln Schwartz (DMN, June 17, 1969).
Dallas teens loved Tiny Tim… (Sanger-Harris book-signing, June 1969)
by Paula Bosse
Tiny Tim — one of the most … unusual performers of the 1960s — was a hit with teenagers when he made his first appearance in Dallas at the Melody Shop in NorthPark mall on January 23, 1969. What had been expected to be a nice little autograph party which might attract a small number of fans and curiosity-seekers turned into something altogether unexpected.
Tiny Tim (…”Tiny”? “Tim”? “Mr. Tim?”…) had the unlikeliest of hits during the hippie-era: “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” a lilting little ukulele-accompanied song which had originally been a hit in 1929. Tiny Tim’s first few appearances on U.S. television must have caused a lot of heads to be scratched and/or jaws to be dropped. He was just kind of … weird. But gentle, and he seemed to be a genuinely nice fellow who just happened to have a penchant for songs from the megaphone-era of popular music. If you’ve never seen footage of a Tiny Tim performance, search for a clip of him on the Tonight show around 1968.
So anyway, Tiny was booked to do a little autograph party at the Melody Shop in NorthPark mall. I’m not sure what sort of crowd they thought they’d get, but it’s safe to say they did not expect 5,000 teenagers. The news report the next day was peppered with words like “pandemonium,”“swarm,” “mob scene,” and “human wall.” Who knew a 36-year-old man who strummed a ukulele and sang songs from the Victrola-age in a nasal falsetto would whip up that much enthusiasm amongst Texas teenagers?
My favorite description of the “riot” was this one:
Inside, a disheveled Tiny Tim was crouched on the floor behind a row of electric organs….. “Pretend he’s not in the store,” directed a manager. Tiny Tim, his shirttail out and his orange, green and brown tie twisted to the side, huddled alone on the floor. (“5,000 Kids Mob Tiny Tim,” Dallas Morning News, Jan. 24, 1969)
The story was even picked up by wire services. (Click article below to see a larger image.)
Amarillo Globe Times, Jan. 24, 1969
Tiny was back in Dallas a few months later, this time to do a book-signing at the downtown Sanger-Harris. (Yes! He wrote a book!)
June 17, 1969
No riot was reported this visit, but Sanger’s still packed by fans who wanted a book signed by Mr. Tim (who signed with a pink quill pen). While in town, he give a little interview and an impromptu performance at a press conference (am I the only person who sees shades of Jeffrey Tambor here?):
*
Also in 1969, he took time out to pose with KLIF on-air talent Paxton Mills, Dave Ambrose, Deano Day, Hal Martin, Sande Stevens (not sure if she worked for KLIF), and Jim Taber, seen below.
But wait, there’s more… he was back in Dallas in September, 1970 for a NINE-DAY engagement (two shows nightly) at Abe Weinstein’s famed downtown burlesque house. (I don’t know if the strippers took the time off while Tiny was in residence or if they might have entertained between his sets.) Here’s a clip from a press conference during that visit:
And, why not, here’s an early publicity photo of Herbert Khaury, the man who would one day become famous as the singer Bing Crosby once described as having (I paraphrase) a vibrato big enough to throw a Labrador through.
***
Sources & Notes
The 1969 Chanel 8 video is from the WFAA Newsfilm Collection held by the Hamon Arts Library, Southern Methodist University; it is posted on YouTube here (the first image and the three color photos of Tiny Tim are screenshots I captured from the video); the 1970 footage is from the same source and can be found on YouTube here.
KLIF promotional material found on eBay several months ago. The back of the card lists the KLIF’s top 40 of the week, here.
Glamour shot of Mr. Khaury found somewhere on the internet.
One would be remiss in not mentioning Tiny Tim’s other ties to Dallas, namely his association with Bucks Burnett’s Edstock and Burnett’s tiny Tiny Tim museum from the 1990s. I’d link to articles in the Dallas Observer, but every time I go to the DO site my computer freezes. I encourage you to seek out these articles yourself.
More on Tiny’s January, 1969 visit to Dallas can be found in these Dallas Morning News articles:
“5,000 Kids Mob Tiny Tim” by Jean Kelly, with photo (DMN, Jan. 24, 1969)
“Magical Mystery Tour: On Meeting Tiny Tim” by Marge Pettyjohn, “YouthBeat” editor, with photo (DMN, Jan. 25, 1969)
I’m not in the Casa View area very often, but I was driving through last week and noted that a lot of the elements of the shopping center looked as if they were original to the buildings — specifically the little metal doo-dads along the top of the canopies over the sidewalks. I came across the photo above tonight and was happy to see those little doo-dads back when they were relatively new. The shopping center is a little confusing to me, but I think this is what that building pictured above looks like these days. (Why, why, WHY did someone think this “remodel” of the buildings was a good idea! Slapping on a new facade and removing the decorative metal doo-dads was an unfortunate decision.)
The Sears store pictured above is actually the second Sears in Casa View. The first store opened in October, 1956 at 2211 Gus Thomasson (here’s what the location of the first store looks like now — metalwork still there but that cool brick exterior has been painted over). It was Dallas’ fifth Sears store and opened in the still-under-development Casa View neighborhood. It wasn’t a full department store — its merchandise was limited mostly to appliances and automotive products. It was also a place to pick up catalog orders. (Click photos and ads to see larger images.)
Oct. 25, 1956
Apparently the store was so successful that in March, 1964, a brand new Sears opened up in a five-times-larger location (2310 Gus Thomasson) across the street — the photo at the top of this post was probably taken when it was in its first months.
March 12, 1964
Its interior — seen below in all its pristine, blinding whiteness — is fantastic. (Is that woman in the apron serving cookies she’s just baked?)
*
The reason I was confused by the shopping area is that it was built in phases. The first part was built in 1953 and was originally known as Casa View Hills Shopping Center. (Click the ad below to see a larger image.)
Oct. 4, 1953
But then the ownership changed hands in early 1955, and it was renamed Casa View *Village* and reopened in April under the new name.
In the meantime (I might have this chronology a bit out of whack), Casa View Center had been built in 1954, diagonally across the street. And then in 1955, construction began on an expanded Casa View Village. (This might have been its second expansion. Casa View was hopping in the mid-’50s!) And Sears had had stores in both Casa View Village and Casa View Center. It’s all kinda confusing.
The Casa View Shopping Center (I don’t know what its official name is these days, but I’m going with this) is looking a little ragged these days, but it still has a quirky charm, and I’m happy to see it still chugging along after 60 years.
***
Sources & Notes
Photos by Squire Haskins from the Squire Haskins Photography, Inc. Collection, UTA Libraries Special Collections. More info on the top photo showing the exterior of the Sears building can be found here; more info on the interior photo is here. (Click on the thumbnails on the UTA pages to see very large images.)
Main Street mosaic…
Postcard and info, eBay
Architect’s rendering, Sept. 1966
