Manufacturing | Flashback : Dallas

May 7, 2024

On the Line at Coca-Cola — 1964

Gleaming!

by Paula Bosse

The photo above shows the sunniest factory floor I’ve ever seen. You don’t think of factories filled with sunlight, but this is what it looked like inside the new Coca-Cola bottling works at Lemmon and Mockingbird in 1964. It’s gone now (as is that UNBELIEVABLY FANTASTIC ANIMATED NEON SIGN that made me look forward to nighttime drives to Love Field). All that remains is the small syrup plant (from 1948?). (…I think it’s a syrup plant. Or a warehouse. Or something syrup-related.)

The new plant opened in June 1964. The building had floor-to-ceiling glass — I’ve read reminiscences of people who remember driving by and seeing the work going on through those huge windows. I don’t know if there was bottling work going on after dark, but here’s a grainy photo from a Dallas Power & Light ad that shows the building at night, lit up like a stage.

Dallas Power & Light ad (det), June 1964

Speaking of which, The Dallas Morning News wrote this:

The bottling room, which fronts on Lemmon, has a glass front 254 feet long and 26 feet high to provide a view of the bottling process to the passing public. (DMN, June 9, 1964)

Free show!

The woman featured in an Employers National Life Group Insurance Company ad (below), might be the same woman seen in the photo at the top. Manning her station.

Employers National Life ad (det), June 1964

And what was rolling off the automated line? Coke, Sprite, and Tab. And something called Mission (grape and orange drinks). 1,860 bottles a minute (!).

Back to the sign for a second. I haven’t invested a LOT of time in a search (but *kind of* a lot…), but I have been unable to find footage of that truly wonderful, mesmerizing neon Coca-Cola sign. Living in an age of Instagram and YouTube, we just expect to find this sort of thing quickly, without having to set aside large chunks of time to devote to searching. If YOU know where film/video of that sign might be hiding… SPEAK UP!

A couple of shots of the exterior:

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Sources & Notes

Top photo and last two photos are all by John Rogers and were probably taken around the time the plant began operation in mid-1964; all are from the John Rogers and Georgette de Bruchard Collection, UNT Libraries Special Collections, via the Portal to Texas History, here, here, and here.

A shorter version of this post previously appeared on the Flashback Dallas Patreon page in November 2023.

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4 Comments

August 21, 2023

Dr Pepper Bottling Plant, Second Ave. & Hickory — ca. 1938

Transfixed by Dr Pepper-laden conveyor belts

by Paula Bosse

Before Dr Pepper moved into its fabulous art deco HQ at Mockingbird & Greenville (RIP…), the company’s Dallas bottling works was located at Second Avenue & Hickory Street, from about 1927 to 1948. The building (seen below) still stands.

The images in this post are from a DP manual for bottlers, with numerous photos taken in the Dallas plant. All photos in this post are from that manual (more info is at the end of this post), which every true Dr Pepper superfan (or the dogged collector of obscure soft-drink ephemera) should probably have! All captions are from the booklet.

Above, “Interior of Dallas bottling plant in operation.”

Below, “Model syrup factory, bottling plant and general home office of Dr. Pepper Company, Dallas, Texas.”

“Water stills, Dallas plant, supplying water for syrup making.”

“General view chemical laboratory, Dallas.”

“Chief chemist, Mr. H. Buttler, Dallas, Texas” (Howland Buttler is also seen in the photo above).

“Water cooler and carbonating equipment, bottling plant, Dallas.”

This is my favorite photo: “One section of sugar storage, Dallas — you see a supply sufficient for about a week. Interior view of sugar storage floor, Dr Pepper factory building, Dallas. Only the finest, pure cane sugar is used, a grade and quality superior even to the finest table sugar. Exacting standards must be maintained by refiners to meet our specifications, lest the slightest taste or odor from impurities creep into the Dr. Pepper syrup.” (A few years ago, I stumbled across a crazy story about Dr. Pepper — and other soft drink manufacturers — involved in buying black-market sugar, which was a violation of war-time food rationing, as WWII came to a close. Read about this case in the post “Halloween Party? Don’t Forget the Dr Pepper! — 1947” — scroll to the bottom.) Shout out to Sugar Land!

“Syrup compounding and manufacturing unit at Dallas, Texas. Interior view of syrup room, Dr. Pepper factory, Dallas. Note flood of sunshine through modern factory-glass windows; floors, walls, ceilings, as well as equipment, immaculately clean. Glass-lined mixing tanks in center and at right are of 300-gallon capacity, and behind these are 500-gallon steam-jacketed, glass-lined kettles, where hot process simple syrup is made. Entire syrup manufacturing process is modern, efficient and sanitary.”

“Modern soaker and washer — one of two units used in Dallas plant.”

“Modern crown sifting equipment, Dallas.” (More on crown cork bottle caps here.) (And, weirdly, I wrote about a Dallas company that manufactured those caps in the post “The Crown Cork & Seal Co., Dallas Branch — ca. 1910.”)

“Low pressure unit — bottler and crowner.”

“Final inspection, Dallas bottling plant — ‘candling’ filled bottles.”

“Automatic case stenciling machine.” This is an important part of the manufacturing process I hadn’t thought about….

“Bottle storage, Dallas plant.”

Battered front cover and title page:

dr-pepper-manual_title-page_crop

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Sources & Notes

Photos from “Dr. Pepper Bottler’s Manual: A Manual of Proved Principles and Practices Governing Successful Operation of Dr. Pepper Plants” (Dr. Pepper Company, Dallas, Texas, Nov. 1938); this booklet was found on eBay — for sale for $499.99.

More Flashback Dallas posts featuring Dr Pepper can be found here.

Please consider following me on Patreon, where I post new content daily — for as little as $5 a month!

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13 Comments

February 22, 2023

John W. Smothers’ Tin Shop, Hall & Floyd

Smothers (in car) and employees, ca. 1913

by Paula Bosse

John W. Smothers (1869-1925) came to Dallas from Huntsville, Missouri around 1890 to begin his career as a “tinner” working for a family friend/in-law, Frank T. Payne. By 1905, Smothers had married a girl from back home, had a child, and had apparently done well enough in the trade to buy a lot on College Ave. (now N. Hall St., in Old East Dallas) where he built his own tin-manufacturing shop, specializing in various sheet metal work.

smothers_ad_1909-directory
1909 city directory ad

It looks like this business lasted until about 1918, when Smothers retired and sold the building to his old friend, F. T. Payne. It became a grocery store in 1919. Smothers died in 1925 at the age of 56 — his death certificate lists the cause of death, somewhat alarmingly, as “exhaustion and malnutrition” following a long illness — an extreme case of St. Vitus Dance.

smothers_tin-shop_photo_ancestry via Ancestry.com

Originally 212 N. College Ave., the address of Smothers’ tin shop became 912 N. College Ave. in 1911 when new addresses were assigned around the city. (See the location of the shop on a 1921 Sanborn map here.) It sat diagonally across the street from Engine Company No. 3, seen below in a photo from about 1901:

fire-dept_engine-co-3_gaston-and-college_1901 Fire station, Gaston & College, ca. 1901

College Avenue was renamed and became Hall Street around 1946, and the address of the old tin shop building changed again, to 912 N. Hall Street, which is in the area now swallowed up by Baylor Hospital (see what 912 N. Hall looks like now on Google Street View, here).

***

Sources & Notes

Top photo found on eBay. A copy is also in the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University — it can be accessed here. The SMU photo (apparently from the collection of Ralph Smothers, John’s son) has a notation on the back which reads “912 College Ave. <now Hall St.> about 1913 or 14? John Smothers [in car], [James E.] Curly Wilson left, Bob Critcher right.”

Photo of the fire station with the ghostly horse is by Clifton Church and is from the Dallas Fire Department Annual, 1901, which can be viewed in its entirety on the Portal to Texas History, here. (I used this image in my 2016 post “Dallas Fire Stations — 1901.”)

(“Tinner” was not an unusual word to have come across in the early part of the 20th century, but in the 1910 census, the enumerator was either confused or did not understand what was being said, because Smothers’ trade is listed as “tuner” — it looks like the enumerator then just made a weird leap to attempt to explain this and added “piano” under “General Nature of Business,” which Ancestry.com then repeats in its OCR-generated records. That “piano tuner” profession caused me a lot of confusion! To add insult to injury, OCR tells us that his occupation in 1900 was “turner,” and an illegible entry in the 1920 census transforms him into a “retired farmer”! Always approach census record information with a grain of salt — for many, many reasons!)

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February 13, 2023

Tex-Mex in a Can (with Bonus Chili-Burger Recipe) — 1953/1954

cuellar-recipe-bk_ebay_det

by Paula Bosse

So the other day I was browsing through eBay, hoping to find something Dallas-related that I’d never seen before. And a Cuellar’s (“QUAY-YAR”) recipe pamphlet popped up. And it is fantástico! I remember El Chico frozen dinners, but I don’t remember El Chico canned foods, and that appears to be what the Cuellar family of Dallas started off with when they decided to branch off from their expanding Tex-Mex restaurant dynasty. The canned foods first appeared in late 1949 or early 1950 under the “El Chico” brand, and just as it was really starting to take off nationally, the company was forced to rename the line “Cuellar’s” in 1953 because of a copyright lawsuit; in 1954, after a year of court appeals, they were allowed to go back to using “El Chico.” (Read more about this manufacturing business in my previous post, “El Chico Foods/Cuellar Foods.”) Initially, the company produced only canned goods. Including, yes, tortillas in a can. TORTILLAS. IN. A. CAN. It appears this circular tin originally came with a dreaded key to open it, like Spam and canned hams. So if you wanted some tortillas, you really had to put the work in (and make sure you were current with your tetanus shots).

In addition to the tortillas (which I assume were flour tortillas, but I’m not entirely sure about this), the line of El Chico canned Tex-Mex foods included staples such as chili con carne (with beans and without), tamales (wrapped in corn shucks), enchiladas, beans (fried and not), enchilada sauce, tamale sauce, hot sauce, green chiles, jalapeños, menudo, “taco filler,” taco sauce, Mexican-style spaghetti (!), something called enchimales, and Mexican-style rice (I have never heard of cooked rice in a can). And, I’m sure, many more products. One newspaper ad touted the fact that you could concoct a full meal for a family of 6 using only 5 El Chico canned foods for $1.85 (which, somewhat shockingly, is the equivalent today of about $22.00).

El Chico canned food ad, April 1951

But back to that recipe pamphlet I stumbled across on eBay, which would be from 1953/1954, the period when El Chico was forced to use the “Cuellar’s” name for their canned foods. The recipes are interesting — not only were these dishes unfamiliar and “exotic” to most people in the U.S. at the time (meaning that El Chico felt the need to inform readers that “‘tacos’ in Spanish means ‘sandwiches'” and that quesadillas were “cheese turnovers”), but the recipes also have occasional odd little flourishes which seem unusual and may indicate restaurant hacks or traditional preparation tips I am unaware of (guacamole salad calling for a teaspoon of butter, for example). You’ve got recipes for alarming dishes such as “Tongue a la Cuellar” (first ingredient: “one large or two small tongues”). not-alarming-but-unusual dishes such as scrambled eggs made with a can of chili and hominy, as well as the more mundane dishes like tacos (in which the cook is instructed to use toothpicks to keep the tortilla “closed” during deep frying).

But my very favorite recipe is something so spectacular that I can’t believe this hasn’t made its way to the State Fair of Texas food tents. Seriously, if any of you SFOT food vendors or maverick entrepreneurs decide to develop this dish, please remember you learned about it from me as you rake in the cash!

Okay. Take a deep breath, because this is just GREAT.

“CUELLAR CHILI-BURGER — WITH CHEESE”

Place a can of Cuellar Chili con Carne in refrigerator overnight.
Remove both ends of can and push chili con carne out
Using sharp knife slice chili into approximately 1/4” slices
Dip slices in regular pancake batter and fry in deep fat
Have buns ready with slices of cheese melted on same
Place fried patty, along with diced onion, on buns and serve — will make from 8 to 10 chili-burgers

Wow! It’s a chili-burger without a burger. How does this even work? Granted, this was back in the day when canned chili was very, very fatty — I remember opening cans of (delicious) Wolf Brand chili as a kid and marveling at the orange congealed grease (come to think of it, I’m pretty sure I probably used the open-can-at-both-ends-to-push-it-out technique, a la jellied cranberry sauce, and it retained its can-shape in a saucepan until heated). But wouldn’t these slices just disintegrate while deep frying, even if they were really cold (frozen even) and really congealed? My brother has suggested it might work along the lines of a Baked Alaska, in which the ice cream inside the dessert doesn’t melt as it bakes. Regardless. The joy I’ve gotten from reading this recipe and envisioning a bizarro dish made from deep-fried slices of canned chili dipped in pancake batter makes up for the fact that I will never attempt to make it (molten, melting “chili patties” on a hamburger bun would not only be unbelievably messy to eat but perhaps physically painful as well). But I fully endorse and applaud the concept of the Cuellar Chili-Burger — it’s brilliant! “Fair food” ahead of its time. Thank you, Cuellar test kitchen! (Dear readers: PLEASE MAKE THIS AND SEND ME PHOTOS!)

CUELLAR’S
REAL MEXICAN FOOD MADE BY A REAL MEXICAN FAMILY

For authentic Mexican Foods you should select only the Cuellar label. The emblem of the “Sombrero” and the “Smiling Mexican” will always be your assurance of the very finest of ingredients, blended for flavor-association and pleasing, invigorating taste treats that are invariably thrilling. So different! So exotic! So wonderfully blended that you will make Cuellar Foods a regular eating habit in your own home — and a new and exciting experience for your guests.

Cuellar Foods, Inc.
Dallas, Texas

1951

el-chico_logo

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Sources & Notes

Most images in this post are from the recently ended eBay sale, here (scroll down).

This pamphlet inspired my previous post, “El Chico Foods/Cuellar Foods,” which contains a history of El Chico’s food manufacturing business.

cuellar-recipe-bk_ebay_det_sm

9 Comments

April 26, 2020

Texlite, Borich, Pegasus

by Paula Bosse

Texlite. If you’re a lover of all-things-Dallas, you should know that name. Texlite made many, many, many, many, MANY enamel, electric, and neon signs, including, most famously, the rotating Flying Red Horse — Pegasus — which arrived in Dallas in 1934 to sit atop the city’s tallest building, the Magnolia Petroleum Building, serving as a beacon, a landmark, and as a sort of city mascot.

Texlite’s roots went back to 1879 when Italian immigrant Peter Samuel Borich (1849-1932) arrived in Dallas. His obituary noted that he was a graduate of the Royal Italian Naval School and that he served in the Italian Merchant Marine before he arrived in Dallas, where he established the Borich Sign Co. A very early location of his shop is said to have been on the current site of the Magnolia Building (and Pegasus), on Sycamore Street (now Akard). (See the post “19th-Century Sign-Painting and Real-Estating” for more about this location.) He appears to have been the go-to sign-painter for decades and was a very successful businessman.

The Borich company eventually branched out (and eventually became Texlite, a separate entitity) to become a pioneer in electric and neon signs: in 1926 Texlite built and sold the first neon sign west of the Mississippi, in St. Louis (their first neon sign in Dallas was a sign for the Zinke shoe repair store (1809 Main) which depicted an animated hammer tapping on a shoe heel).

The Borich sign company focused on painted or printed signs while Texlite handled the electric signs. P. S. Borich retired in the 1920s and moved to Los Angeles after the death of his wife. The last time the Borich company name appeared in the Dallas directory was 1930 (when it looks like it became United Advertising Corporation of Texas, owned by Harold H. Wineburgh, who was also a Texlite partner/owner).

During World War II, Texlite, like many manufacturers, jumped into war-production work, making airplane and ship parts; during the Korean War they made bomber fuselages.

I don’t know when Texlite went out of business (or was acquired and merged into another company). As successful as Texlite was (and it was incredibly successful), what more important achievement could it have had than to have been the maker of our iconic Pegasus?

Here are a few random images from the Borich/Texlite history. First, a great ad from 1949, when Pegasus was a fresh 15-year-old. “It’s Time For a Spring Sign Cleaning.” (Click to see a larger image.)

1949 ad

And another ad, this one with a wonderful photo, from 1954.

1954 ad, via Flickr

In 1949 Texlite built a huge new factory in an industrial area near Love Field, at 3305 Manor Way. Below is the architectural rendering. The caption: “New home of Texlite, Inc. is being completed at 3305 Manor Way at a total of $1,000,000. The new, two-story plant, providing 114,000 square feet of factory and office space, will provide facilities for trebling Texlite’s output. Grayson Gill is the architect, and O’Rourke Construction Company are the general contractors.” (Dallas magazine, Feb. 1949)

Below, the previous factory, located at 2900 Factory Street, also near Love Field:

I assume this 1940 sign was made by Texlite. Below are a couple of details, showing playful hints of Pegasus.

via Mecum Auctions

I wondered where Factory Street was — here it is on a 1952 map — it looks like it was absorbed into a growing Love Field.

1952 Mapsco

One of Texlite’s many theater clients was the Palace Theatre for whom they designed and installed a new electric sign in January, 1929 (at which time, by the way, the theater’s name was “officially” changed — however briefly — to the Greater Palace; the theater was renovated and enlarged, with a new emphasis on the Elm Street entrance rather than the entrance on Pacific).

Jan., 1929

Going back a couple of years, with the separate companies sharing ad space in the 1927 city directory:

1927 Dallas directory

And a photo of the Texlite building circa 1930:

Dallas Public Library

The first ad I found which had both the “Borich” and “Texlite” names together was this one from 1923 for the Cloud-George Co., a women’s clothing boutique (1705 Elm) run by the somewhat notorious Miss A. B. Cloud.

Sept., 1923

The company occupied several locations over the years — the location in 1902 can be seen here, at the right, looking west on Pacific (from the Flashback Dallas post “Views from a Passing Train — 1902”).

1902, via Free Library of Philadelphia

Dallas directory, 1902

P. S. Borich’s sign-painting wasn’t restricted only to businesses — he was also regularly retained by the city to paint street signs.

Dallas Herald, Aug. 6, 1886

And, below, the earliest ad I could find — from 1879, the year Borich arrived in Dallas. (Thanks to this ad, I can now add “calsomining” to my vocabulary.)

Norton’s Union Intelligencer, Nov. 1, 1879

Here’s an interesting little bonus: a Pegasus “mini-me” in Billings, Montana, created with help from the Pegasus experts in Dallas (click for larger image).

Billings Gazette, May 22, 1955

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Sources & Notes

Top image is a detail from a 1949 ad found in the Feb., 1949 issue of Dallas, the magazine published by the Dallas Chamber of Commerce.

Photo showing the exterior of the Texlite building circa 1930 is from the collection of the Dallas Public Library, Call Number PA87-1/19-59-36.

Check out another Texlite sign which I wrote about in the Flashback Dallas post “Neon Refreshment: The Giant Dr Pepper Sign.”

I’m always excited to see places I write about show up in old film footage. Watch a short (20-second) silent clip of Texlite workers striking in June, 1951 at the 3305 Manor Way location in WBAP-Channel 5 footage here (the workers were on strike in a wage dispute — more info is in the news script here); film and script from the KXAS-NBC 5 News Collection, University of North Texas, via the Portal to Texas History.

The company made tons of signs and exteriors for movie theaters around the country, including the Lakewood Theater (whose sign was recently re-neonized!).

Thank you, Signor Borich!

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21 Comments

January 5, 2020

The Crown Cork & Seal Co., Dallas Branch — ca. 1910

Bicycle, boys, clerk, horse-anchor, horse, wagon…

by Paula Bosse

Above, the Dallas branch office of the Crown Cork & Seal Co. at 600 N. Akard (at San Jacinto), currently the location of the swank Dakota’s Steakhouse, across from the T. Boone Pickens YMCA.

The Baltimore-based Crown Cork & Seal Co. (their founder invented the bottle cap in 1892) opened its Dallas branch at this location around 1909 and remained in this building until about 1913 when they moved their plant to Pacific Avenue.

According to its Wikipedia entry, the company, now called Crown Holdings, manufactures “one out of every five beverage cans used in the world, and one out of every three food cans used in North America and Europe.” That’s a huge share of the market!

I don’t believe the company still has a Dallas branch — the last news I found was that the company was about to begin construction of a new building in the Trinity Industrial District in 1956 to house a regional office and warehouse.

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Sources & Notes

Photo is from the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, DeGolyer Library, SMU Libraries, Southern Methodist University; more info on this photo can be found here.

More on William Painter’s revolutionary bottle-cap invention (still in use today) can be found here.

1 Comment

August 19, 2018

Dallas in “The Western Architect,” 1914: Businesses

by Paula Bosse

The continuing week-long look (…well, it looks like that’s going to be more like a two- or three-week-long look…) at the Dallas buildings featured in the July, 1914 issue of The Western Architect plods on. Today: business buildings. Nine of these ten buildings are, remarkably, still standing (some are even still recognizable!), and, as seems to be the trend with architecture of this period in Dallas, the powerhouse firm of Otto Lang and Frank Witchell dominates.

1. MKT BUILDING / KATY BUILDING, Commerce & Market, designed by architect H. A. Overbeck (who also designed the nearby Criminal Courts Building). This building (seen above) was built in 1912 as the general offices of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway; it has been spiffed up in recent years and is one of my favorite downtown buildings. An article appearing at the time the offices opened described the building as being faced with dark brick (“gun metal shade”) and light colored terracotta. The wide-angle photo below, which shows employees in front of the new building, is interesting because of the buildings seen to the left and right (all images in this post are larger when clicked). (See the building on a 1921 Sanborn map here.)

Dallas Morning News, Dec. 1, 1912

2. JOHN DEERE BUILDING, 501 Elm Street (northeast corner of Elm & Houston), designed by Hubbell & Greene. This building was built about 1901/1902 for the Kingman Texas Implement Co. (construction permits were issued the same week in 1901 as its also-still-standing-across-the-street-neighbor, the Southern Rock Island Plow Co., better known as the Texas School Book Depository). It is thought to be the earliest example of Sullivan-esque architecture in Dallas. The John Deere Plow Co. moved into the building around 1907 and built the warehouse, which extends back to Pacific. After the Deere Co. moved out, it was the home of apparel manufacturing and wholesaling offices for many years. (See it on a 1921 Sanborn map, here.)

ca. 1949, via Flickr

3. BOREN & STEWART BUILDING, 1801 N. Lamar (at Hord), designed by Lang & Witchell. This attractive building was built in 1913 in what is now the Historic West End District — the building is still standing. Boren-Stewart, billed in ads at this time as “Dallas’ oldest grocery house,” had been established in the late 1880s by Robert H. Stewart and Benjamin N. Boren. At the time of the construction of this new building, its president was R. H. Higginbotham (whose Swiss Ave. house was also featured in The Western Architect); its treasurer was A. W. Cullum, who would go on to form the Tom Thumb grocery store chain. (See it on a 1921 Sanborn map here.)

Lang & Witchell drawing, 1913

4. COTTON EXCHANGE BUILDING, 401 S. Akard (southwest corner of S. Akard & Wood), designed by Lang & Witchell. Built in 1911, this was the hub of the cotton market in Dallas, a city which, in a 1912 article in The Dallas Morning News, was described as “the greatest and largest interior cotton market in the world, handling cotton worth $100,000,000 per year” (about 2.7 billion dollars in today’s money!). The Dallas Cotton Exchange was handling up to one-third of the cotton grown in Texas and Oklahoma. This handsome building was vacated by the cotton people in 1926 when their much larger new exchange building went up at St. Paul and San Jacinto. (Read about the Dallas cotton traders unhappiness with not being acknowledged as one of the country’s most important exchanges in a March 20, 1912 article in The Dallas Morning News here.) (See this building on a 1921 Sanborn map here.) This is the only building in this group of ten that is no longer standing — the site is now occupied by a parking lot.

5. S. G. DAVIS HAT CO. BUILDING, 800 Jackson St. (southeast corner of Jackson and S. Austin), designed by Lang & Witchell. When it was built in 1913 it was advertised as “facing the new Union Depot” (which hadn’t yet been built and was three blocks away). The Davis Hat Company — a manufacturer and wholesaler of men’s hats — was established in Dallas in 1900. This building might be familiar to many people for its “Office Equipment Co. sign painted on the back exterior. (See the location of this building on a 1921 Sanborn map, here.)

6. BUTLER BROTHERS, 500 S. Ervay (between Young and Marilla, immediately east of City Hall), designed by Mauran, Russell & Crowell Architects (Harre Bernet, Dallas representative). This massive building (11 acres of floorspace before any additions were made) was one of the branches of the Chicago company which was known at the time as the largest wholesale business in the world. Construction began in 1910 (see a photo of the work in progress, by Vilbig Brothers Construction, here) and, over the years, various additions were made. When Butler Bros. sold the building in 1951, it had grown to 670,000 square feet and soon became home to the newly branded Merchandise Mart. The building still stands (as residences), but it doesn’t look a lot like it did a century ago: it was apparently resurfaced in the 1960s and currently sports a regrettable exterior color, which makes it look a bit like a large Hampton Inn. (See it on a 1921 Sanborn map, here.)

It even had its own artesian “deep well.”

November, 1910

7. “STORE AND FLAT BUILDING,” northwest corner of West Jefferson & Tyler, designed by C. A. Gill. Luckily I recognized this building — because I love it and have written about it before — because, otherwise, there’s very little to go on to determine its location. It was built in 1911 or 1912 for use as retail establishments on the ground floor and apartments (“flats”) and the occasional doctor’s offices on the second floor. Still looking good in Oak Cliff. (See it on a 1922 Sanborn map, here.)

1929 (Dallas Public Library photo, via Oak Cliff Advocate)

8. HUEY & PHILP BUILDING, 1025 Elm Street, designed by Lang & Witchell. Built in 1913-1914 for the Huey & Philp hardware company (founded in Dallas in 1872 by Joseph Huey and Simon Philp) — this building is still standing, but you’d probably never ever guess it. First off, it looks nothing like it once did: it’s much taller now and it was one of the many downtown buildings that went through bizarre refacings in the 1950s and ’60s — beautiful buildings were stripped of all their character and uglified, for reasons I can’t fathom. Anyway, the other reason it’s hard to believe this is the same building is that, when it was built, it sat on the northwest corner of Elm and Griffin; now it sits on the northeast corner. How does something like that happen? In the 1960s, Griffin was “realigned” and widened, in order to provide a north-south artery through downtown’s west side — part of this road construction meant that Griffin suddenly cut right through the 1000 block of Elm (it also did away with poor little Poydras Street). The old Griffin can still be seen in the Griffin Plaza walkway (here — with the old Huey & Philp/Texas & Pacific building to the left, now a hotel and looking nothing like the century-old building it is). Crazy. Huey & Philp closed its retail business in 1934 but continued for several decades as wholesalers. (Read more about this building at Noah Jeppson’s Unvisited Dallas site, here. And see a street-level early-1920s photo in the UTA collection here, with the Sanger’s building in the background at the left.) (See it on a 1921 Sanborn map, here.)

via Unvisited Dallas

9. SANGER BROTHERS BUILDING, Main & Lamar, designed by Lang & Witchell. One of the earliest Dallas business institutions (the Sanger brothers arrived in Dallas in the 1870s, at about the same time as Simon Philp), Sanger’s slowly acquired a ton of downtown real estate (for warehouses, etc.), but this building — their retail department store — was their centerpiece, and it grew and grew over the years. The expansion(s) of 1909 and 1910 included the addition of two floors to their already 6-story building, the building of a new 8-story addition which went up at the corner of Main and Lamar, and then when that was completed in 1909, another addition matching the rest of the store was built on the Elm Street side, resulting in a store taking up half a block of prime real estate (they would eventually own the entire block). More than a century later — now as part of El Centro College — the building still looks good. (See it on a 1905 Sanborn map, here, and a 1921 map, here.)

Here’s what it looked like before this flurry of construction began:

10. SEARS, ROEBUCK & COMPANY OF TEXAS WAREHOUSE AND CLUB HOUSE, S. Lamar & Belleview, designed by Lang & Witchell. When Sears, Roebuck & Co. decided to open their first branch outside of Chicago, their choice was Dallas. A huge warehouse was built along South Lamar in 1910. Then, in 1912 a second huge warehouse was built. And, in 1913 a third one. This growth was pretty spectacular. All three of these buildings were designed by Lang & Witchell (building 3 is the one seen below). The massive Sears complex is now known as South Side on Lamar, and it’s beautiful. (More on this clubhouse is here.) (See the Sears buildings in a 1921 Sanborn map, here.)

Next: the Adolphus Hotel.

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Sources & Notes

The Western Architect, A National Journal of Architecture and Allied Arts, Published Monthly, July, 1914. This issue, with text and critical analysis in addition to the large number of photographs, has been scanned in it entirety by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as part of its Brittle Books Program — it can be accessed in a PDF, here (the Dallas issue begins on page 195 of the PDF). Thank you, UIUC!

In this 7-part series:

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July 22, 2018

Dallas Ice Factory

Ice…

by Paula Bosse

Lordy, it was hot today. At one point I looked at my phone and it told me it was 112° (but thanks to the chill factor, it felt like a refreshing 110°). It’s 10:00 p.m. and it’s 100°. That’s too many degrees.

Above is a photo of a horse-drawn Dallas Ice Factory wagon and its driver. There was probably ice in there.

Here’s an ad from 1888 showing the factory:

1888 Dallas directory

Here’s an ad from 1894 not showing the factory:

1894 Dallas directory

Here’s a link to an 1899 Sanborn map showing you where the Dallas Ice Factory was located (in Old East Dallas, at Swiss and Hall): link.

That’s about all I can muster. It’s too dang hot.

***

Sources & Notes

Photo from a 2011 eBay listing, reproduced in The Dallas Observer by Robert Wilonsky; now owned by Peter Kurilecz.

Ads from Dallas directories.

Heat from the sun.

And here’s an ice-factory-related post I actually did some work on, when I wasn’t feeling like a sweaty, limp dishrag (…a long, long time ago…): “Oak Lawn Ice & Fuel Co.”

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May 20, 2018

Oak Lawn Ice & Fuel Co.

The fleet… (click to see larger image) / Photo: Krystal Morris

by Paula Bosse

Above, another great Dallas photo shared by a reader — this one shows the Oak Lawn Ice & Fuel Co., which sold ice to independent dealers and to retail customers. Krystal Morris sent in the family photo — her great-great-grandfather J. F. Finney is standing next to the horse-drawn wagon.

The first mention I found of the Oak Lawn Ice & Fuel Co. was in a notice of “New Texas Charters” in Dec., 1912 (there was a classified ad from Dec., 1909, but that appears to be either another company with the same name or an earlier incarnation of the business seen above). Below, an ad from 1913:

1913

The company was located at 3307 Lemmon Avenue, at the MKT railroad track (now the Katy Trail) — on Lemmon between the railroad tracks and Travis Street (see the location on a map composed of two badly-cobbled-together Sanborn maps from 1921 here). The location is marked on a present-day Google map below (click to see a larger image):

In 1917, the City of Dallas, in partnership with the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad began to eliminate grade crossings in the Oak Lawn area — one of those crossings was at Lemmon Avenue: Lemmon was to be lowered and the MKT tracks were to be raised. Oak Lawn Ice & Fuel Co. General Manager Clarence E. Kennemer (who, along with his brothers, operated something of an ice empire in Texas) was concerned about the negative impact of this construction on his business. (All images are larger when clicked.)

Dallas Morning News, Jan. 31, 1917

To the surprise of many, the ice company was awarded damages by the city.

DMN, Dec. 6, 1917

Things apparently continued fairly well until 1920 when the company began to experience tensions with its residential neighbors. Early in the year, city building inspectors responded to nuisance complaints and ordered the company to move its horse stables as they were too close to adjoining residences (ice delivery even into the 1940s and possibly 1950s was often done via horse-drawn wagons). Later the same year, still-unhappy neighbors filed suit to “force the company to remove its plant from the thickly settled residence district” (DMN, Dec. 1, 1920). The ice company appears to have won the lawsuit, since the company (under various names) was at 3307 Lemmon until at least 1939 or ’40, but these problems might have led them to build a new plant at Cole and what is now Monticello in 1922 (as with the Lemmon location, this new plant was also built alongside the MKT tracks). The mere prospect of this new icehouse was met with loud protests by the new neighborhood — before construction even began — but a judge ruled in favor of the ice people. Construction went ahead, and the plant was a neighborhood fixture for many years. (See the location on a 1921 Sanborn map here; “Gertrude” — near the top edge — was the original name of Monticello Avenue.)

In 1923, ads for the Oak Lawn Ice & Fuel Co. began displaying both addresses: the original location, 3307 Lemmon, was now being referred to as “Plant No. 2,” and the new location, 4901 Cole, was being referred to as the “Main Office/Plant No. 1.”

1923 Dallas city directory

By 1924 the company expanded as it absorbed other ice companies.

1924

By 1925, “Oak Lawn Ice & Fuel Company” had become “American Ice Co.” (another C. E. Kennemer enterprise).

1925

By 1933, American Ice Co. was swallowed up by City Ice Delivery Co.

1934 Dallas city directory

In the late 1930s or early 1940s City Ice Delivery Co. was acquired by Southland Ice (the forerunner of the Southland Corp., owners of 7-Eleven convenience stores). The Lemmon Avenue location became a meat-packing plant sometime in the mid-’40s (if neighbors were bent out of shape by an ice company, imagine how they felt about a meat-packing plant!); the Cole location became a 7-Eleven store and later a Southland Corp. division office.

But back to Jonathan F. Finney, the man standing next to the ice wagon in the top photo. He came to Dallas from Alabama around 1916 and bought a house at 3001 Carlisle Street, where he lived for most of his life in Dallas. His occupation was “ice dealer,” and he seems to have worked in both the wholesale and retail areas, as a driver, a salesman, and even for a while the owner of his own company. His great-great-granddaughter Krystal Morris (supplier of these wonderful family photos) says she believes he was the manager of the Oak Lawn Ice & Fuel Co. The 1932 directory lists him as foreman of the City Ice Delivery Co., and as he lived at 3001 Carlisle, it seems to make more sense he was working at the Lemmon Ave. location (which was less than half a mile away from his home) rather the Cole Ave. location. The actual address of the photo at the top is unknown, but it may show the Lemmon Ave. location when Finney was working as an independent ice dealer, standing beside his own wagon.

Below, the Finney family around 1920 (J. F., daughters Thelma and Viva Sue, and wife Wenona), and below that, their house at 3001 Carlisle (which was at the corner of Carlisle and Sneed — seen in a 1921 Sanborn map here).

Finney family, circa 1920 / Photo: Krystal Morris

3001 Carlisle, Finney family home / Photo: Krystal Morris

J. F. Finney, born in 1885, died in Dallas in 1962, long after the era of necessary daily ice deliveries to residences and businesses. The occupation listed on his death certificate was “painter” but I have a feeling “once an iceman, always an iceman.”

***

Sources & Notes

All photographs are from the family photos of Krystal Morris and are used with her permission. Thank you, Krystal!

The history of ice delivery is very interesting, especially to those of us who have never lived in a house without an electric refrigerator. Here are links-a-plenty on the subject:

“Icehouses — Vintage Spaces with a Cool History” by Randy Mallory (Texas Highways, Aug., 2000) here (additional photos can be found in the scanned issue on the Portal to Texas History site, here)
“Keeping Your (Food) Cool: From Ice Harvesting to Electric Refrigeration” by Emma Grahn on the Smithsonian National Museum of American History blog, here
“Delivering the Ice: Ice Wagons” — from an online exhibit based on an exhibit that was on display at the Woods Hole Historical Museum in Woods Hole, Massachusetts during the summer of 2015, here
“Portals to the Past: Golden Days of Home Delivery (ice, as well as bread, milk, groceries, etc.) by Waco historian Claire Masters, here
“The Iceman Cometh” by Dick Sheaff from the Ephemera Society of America blog, here

Here’s a fantastic little clip of a woman ice deliverer manning the tongs (and wearing heels):

And, lastly, the Southland Corp. to the rescue with an ad from Dec., 1948 with news of the arrival in Dallas of “genuine” ice cubes! “Now for the first time in Dallas: Genuine Taste-Free, Hard Frozen, Crystal Clear Ice Cubes delivered to your home!”

1948

All images are larger when clicked.

4 Comments

April 6, 2018

R. S. Munger’s Cotton Gin Manufactory

Elm & Trunk, the early years (detail of an ad from 1889)…

by Paula Bosse

When R. S. Munger moved to Dallas from Mexia around 1885, even he probably had no idea how revolutionary his patented inventions would become to the world of agriculture — he had several patents, but his “improved” cotton gin was hailed as the most significant advance in cotton ginning since Eli Whitney’s original invention. Munger had been producing his equipment for a while in Mexia, but he knew that in order for his company to grow, he would have to move to a larger city, one served by the all-important railroad. He arrived in 1885 and moved into an existing “East Dallas” building owned by the wealthy banker (and former cotton farmer…) William H. Gaston (who later became an officer of the company).

The following article appeared in an 1885 edition of the Dallas Herald. It is bulging with superlatives and grand statements which actually weren’t exaggerations: because of Munger’s relocation to Dallas and his products’ massive success, the city became a national hub of agricultural machinery manufacturing. This had a huge impact on Dallas’ economic development, and the unnamed writer of this article deserves credit for his prescient words. (Click to see larger image.)

Dallas Weekly Herald, May 28, 1885

Another article describes just what Munger’s “improvements” were and also has a description of his factory — the heart of which was a 25 horsepower engine (a quick Google search tells me that 25hp is the size of a standard outboard motor engine).

Dallas Morning News, Sept. 28, 1886

A very early want-ad:

DMN, July 28, 1886

(You can read about Mr. Munger’s career accomplishments in A History of Greater Dallas, published in 1909, here, and in the Handbook of Texas entry here.)

munger-r-s_find-a-grave R. S. Munger (1854-1923)

Fast-forward to today: the factory which Munger began in Dallas in the 1880s is somehow still standing and is known by most as the Continental Gin Building.

Here are a few very early ads of Munger’s cotton-gin-manufacturing empire, from city directories (the illustrated ads are full-page, which even in 1886 cost a pretty penny).

munger-improved-cotton-gin_1886-dallas-directory_listing Dallas city directory, 1886

Dallas city directory, 1886

Dallas city directory, 1888

Dallas city directory, 1889

***

Sources & Notes

Photo of Robert Sylvester Munger from Find-a-Grave.

All other sources noted.

An aerial view of the complex of former Continental Gin Co. buildings can be seen via Google here.

More on the Continental Gin Company can be found in these Flashback Dallas posts:

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Category: Manufacturing

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