University Park | Flashback : Dallas

March 14, 2022

The University Park Brown Books — An Unbelievable Resource!

Fill ‘er up in Snider Plaza, 1934

by Paula Bosse

You know how sometimes someone nonchalantly mentions something to you which should have been introduced by a fireworks display? That’s what happened when my friend Rod Hargrave sent me a link he had come across about a new online resource from the University Park Public Library: the city’s “Brown Books,” fully digitized. I made a note to check out the link when I had time but didn’t get to it for a week. I’m not the kind of person who uses “OMG,” but… O..M..G !! This is just unbelievably fantastic.

Here’s the blurb form the University Park Public Library post:

Brown Books at UP Public Library
March 2, 2022

Spend some time with one of the library’s newest resources! The City’s Brown Books contain thousands of subdivision records of individual construction permits for homes and some businesses across several decades. In these pages, you can find interesting and helpful information about the original structure. Data includes notations about square footage, construction date, original building price, along with details about the interior of the building and more. Over 98 percent of all documents include a photograph of the original structure.

PHOTOGRAPHS! Almost everything I looked up had a photo. I looked up addresses of places I’d written about – photos! I looked up businesses along Preston, Hillcrest, and Lovers Lane — photos! I looked at just about every business in Snider Plaza — photos! I even looked up the still-standing house my family lived in for a couple of years on Milton — photo! The earliest photos I found were from 1931. And all of this available to anyone with a computer — for free! Thank you, University Park Public Library!

And as the blurb says, not only are there photographs of the properties, but there is a whole history of the building, complete with renovation info, builder info, a drawing of the original footprint, etc. This includes tons of buildings which have been torn down — nothing ever dies in city/county records.

Below are some of the photos I found. Scroll down below them for instructions on how to access these records yourself on your computer.

Here are a few photos of businesses on “the drag” — Hillcrest Avenue, across from SMU. (Click pictures to see larger images.)

6200 block of Hillcrest, at Granada (in 1931). (See this property’s Brown Books page here.)

6209 Hillcrest (1959) — Jackson Arms, once my father’s home-away-from-home. (Brown Books page is here.)

6401 Hillcrest, at McFarlin (1931). The Couch Building, which burned down a few years ago — I wrote about that building here. (Brown Books page is here.) I **LOVE** this photo. I love the billboards on top of the building.

6407 Hillcrest (1948). Luby’s! What an interesting design. (Brown Books page is here.)

6601 Hillcrest (1931). The Mustang Garage — but instantly recognizable today as the home of JD’s Chippery and Cotton Island. (Brown Books page is here.)

And, a few Snider Plaza highlights. First, the photo at the top of this post, the Sinclair service station at 6600 Snider Plaza (1934). (Brown Books page is here.)

6600 Snider Plaza #313 (no date). The Beef Bar. (Brown Books page is here.) Another fantastic photo! BBQ in UP, before Peggy Sue (RIP).

6701 Snider Plaza (1931). Including the Varsity Theater (at the far left) — I wrote about this cool building here. (Brown Books page is here.)

6730 Snider Plaza (1931). A sandwich shop and a Hires Root Beer stand. (Brown Books page is here.)

6828 Snider Plaza (1941). Skillern’s Drugs and M. E. Moses. (Brown Books page is here. After a facelift, another photo is here.) I remember spending a lot of time in that dime store when I was a kid — it had a weird change in floor level, which looks like it must have been where a wall had once separated it from the space Skillern’s occupied.

7001 Snider Plaza (1946). Cabell’s. (Brown Books page is here.)

A quick jog over to 6001 Preston Road, at Normandy (1931). Country Club Pharmacy (it later moved to Inwood Road). (Brown Books page is here.) My mother worked for a few years as the office manager for the First Unitarian Church diagonally across from this drug store. When I was a kid hanging out waiting for my mother to finish work, I dropped a LOT of cash at the drug store on Archie comic books.

And, lastly, 4129 Lovers Lane (1947). A post-war duplex. (Brown Books page is here.) Every single time I drive down Lovers Lane, I always look forward to seeing this little house which has somehow managed to evade bulldozers. I love this house so much. And this is one of the very few times when I think that it has actually improved in appearance from its original design (see it today on Google Maps here). Hang in there, little house!

FIND YOUR HOUSE! OR ANOTHER (AT LEAST PRE-1970s) BUILDING IN UNIVERSITY PARK.

Go here. (This is the “welcome page” — if this doesn’t load, go to the UP Public Library blog post here and click through. If you get an error message, go back to “welcome page” and you should see the search page.)
Enter the address (number + street name) you want to find in the search box. You can also just type in a street name, and it will bring up all addresses on that street. (I typed in “Binkley” and got 18 pages of results — seems like overkill, but they’re all in chronological address order.) This works if you enter “Snider Plaza” — take a tour through the Snider Plaza of yesteryear. Some addresses will have more than one sheet. And there’s TONS of info on each property.

And that’s it! You’ve lost a day! Or several!

UPDATE: It appears this resource is no longer accessible by the general public. I haven’t checked, but my guess is that it is available only to University Park residents who have a library card. Please say it isn’t so, UP Public Library!

Not 100% sure where the boundaries for University Park are? See a City of University Park map here.

Enjoy!

***

Sources & Notes

Absolutely everything you see here is from the University Park Public Library and the Brown Books in their collection. This is such an amazing resource. Thank you, UPPL and the City of University Park for digitizing these records and putting them online for all of us to use!

And thank you, Rod, for alerting me to this resource which I will be using constantly!

DOES DALLAS HAVE ANYTHING LIKE THIS??? IMAGINE!

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12 Comments

January 20, 2022

When SMU Theology Students Were Sprayed with Insecticide at a University Park Lunch-Counter Sit-In — 1961

university-pharmacy-protest_WFAA_jan-1961_1 Bright’s Drug Store, 6327 Hillcrest, University Park

by Paula Bosse

This week the G. William Jones Film & Video Collection at SMU posted another fantastic clip from their WFAA News archive on their YouTube channel. This one shows an incident I had heard about since I was a child. It shows a peaceful “sit-in” demonstration at the University Pharmacy at the southwest corner of Hillcrest and McFarlin, across from the SMU campus. The sit-in was organized by theology students at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology to protest the owner’s refusal to serve Black customers at his lunch counter. The student demonstration was conducted by a group of silent students — it was a peaceful protest without violence. Until, that is, the owner, pharmacist C. R. Bright, called in a fumigator to set off a cloud of insecticide inside the pharmacy in an extreme attempt to run off the protesters. The students did not leave until Bright closed the drug store. Many of the students then picketed in front of the business as anti-protester demonstrators showed up to heckle and jeer, some waving little Confederate flags handed out by Bright. My mother, who lived nearby at the time and had recently graduated from SMU (but was not a theology student) was there, and she says she can still feel the burn of that pesticide in her throat and says that no one present that day could believe a person would do what Bright did. (And she’s in it! She’s seen sitting at the counter, engulfed by a cloud of insecticide.)

Here is the silent clip from January 9, 1961 (the direct link on YouTube is here):

I took the photo below at an exhibit at the downtown Dallas Public Library in 2017. It shows the students outside the pharmacy as a crowd jeers at them.

via Dallas Public Library

In 1961, there were only 4 or 5 Black students attending SMU. Black students were allowed to attend only the theology and law schools — there were no Black undergraduates until 1962, when Paula Elaine Jones became the first African American full-time undergraduate student at SMU.

In 1961, African Americans were routinely refused service at white-owned establishments in Dallas (as they were in the rest of the Jim Crow South). The sit-in at the University Pharmacy was the result of a Black theology student being refused service at Bright’s lunch counter. There had been a small demonstration at the drug store a couple of nights before the one seen in the film above — it ended when Bright closed early.

The sit-in that grabbed the headlines began around 10:00 on the morning of Monday, Jan. 9, 1961, when 60-75 SMU students, including Black theology students Earl Allen and Darnell Thomas, entered the drug store and sat silently at the counter and in booths. Allen and Darnell were refused service. In protest, the large group of students refused to leave. After about an hour, Bright was quoted by a WBAP news reporter as saying, “This is a good time to kill some cockroaches…” and called an exterminator service. When the exterminators arrived, they turned on fumigating machines inside the business, filling the place with clouds of kerosene-based insecticide which covered the students, the lunch counters, the dishes, the food, and the store’s merchandise. (Bright was a pharmacist, who was no doubt aware of potential physical harm this would cause.)

The students sat there, breathing through handkerchiefs and holding their ground, silent. A University Park policeman, Lt. John Ryan was there, but the police were not actively involved (although Ryan did have a handy gas mask). After half an hour, the students left when Bright closed the store. Bright re-opened an hour or two later (the lunch counter remained closed). Students silently picketed as hecklers jeered.

The SMU student newspaper — The SMU Campus — covered the sit-in. The article contained an unsurprising, unapologetic quote from the 75-year-old C. R. Bright:

Bright steadfastly refuses to integrate his lunch counter. Says the drug store owner, “We are not serving them now and we’ll never serve them.” He continues to explain that it “is against my principle” and “I know it would wreck my business.” (The SMU Campus, Feb. 1, 1961)

Bright retired soon after and sold the business to an up-and-coming young whippersnapper named Harold Simmons, who went on to build a multi-multi-multi-million-dollar empire from that first business investment.

via DeGolyer Library, SMU

via 1965 SMU Rotunda

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university-pharmacy-protest_WFAA_jan-1961_11_UP-policeman

UPDATE, BURY THE LEDE DEPT: Thanks to comments by two readers, I have learned that Christopher R. Bright was the father of former Dallas Cowboys owner H. R. “Bum” Bright. Oh dear.

***

Sources & Notes

All screenshots are from WFAA news footage from the WFAA News Film Collection, G. William Jones Film & Video Collection, Hamon Arts Library, Southern Methodist University; the clip has been posted to the SMU Jones Film channel on YouTube here.

Read coverage of the sit-in (as well as a critical editorial which called the protest “immoral”) in the Feb. 1, 1961 edition of The SMU Campus, the student newspaper — it can be accessed on the SMU Libraries website here, or it can be read in a PDF I’ve made, here.

Read a lively account of the sit-in in a WBAP-Channel 5 news script here (via the Portal to Texas History).

For those with access to the Dallas Morning News archives, the incident is covered in an article by Jim Lehrer: “Protesting Students Sit In, Walk Picket Line at Store” (DMN, Jan. 10, 1961).

Another great clip showing a historical lunch-counter protest in Dallas (the city’s first, I believe) in April of 1960 is also available on the SMU Jones Film YouTube channel — it can be viewed here. Here is a description of what’s happening in the footage: “Rev. Ashton Jones, a white minister from Los Angeles, and Rev. T. D. R. V. Thompson, Black pastor of the New Jerusalem Institutional Missionary Baptist Church, 2100 Second Avenue, together visit segregated lunch counters in downtown Dallas department stores; the peaceful sit-in protests take place at the counters of the Kress Department Store, the H. L. Green Department Store, and the Tea Room of Sanger Bros. department store. This was the first publicized demonstration against Dallas’ segregated eating establishments, and several members of the media — both white and African American — are covering the historic event (Silent).”

Lastly, in a related Flashback Dallas post, there was a previous University Pharmacy which was located, at separate times, on the northwest and southwest corners of Hillcrest and McFarlin — the owner of the very first University Pharmacy built the Couch Building, which can be seen in the background of the top photo of this post. That earlier post, “University Park’s “Couch Building” Goes Up In Flames (1929-2016),” can be found here. A pertinent 1965 photo from that post which shows Simmons’ University Pharmacy, the Couch Building, and the Toddle House (which was also the site of a 1961 sit-in by SMU students) can be seen here.

university-pharmacy-protest_WFAA_jan-1961_1_sm

5 Comments

July 18, 2021

Snider Plaza & The Varsity Theater — 1920s

The Varsity Theater, Snider Plaza, 1929

by Paula Bosse

Snider Plaza, the University Park shopping center near the SMU campus, was formally opened on June 2, 1927 when its centerpiece fountain was switched on as a crowd of thousands watched. The buildings weren’t completed yet, but it was a sure sign to everyone that a large project was underway in an area of town which was not yet fully developed.

It was announced in December 1926 that a 30-acre tract at the northwest corner of Hillcrest and Daniel had been purchased by Wichita Falls businessman Charles W. Snider (he had recently funded Snider Hall, the women’s dormitory at SMU) and University Park mayor J. Fred Smith from Miss Fannie B. Daniel, whose family had owned the land since 1851. The purchase price was $82,500 (which would be the equivalent of about $1.25 million in today’s money) (…let that sink in for a moment…). Snider Plaza, along with SMU, was both the heart of University Park and an impetus for real estate development around it.

Here’s an ad from October 1927 from the University Park Development Co. (click to see larger images) — lots were going for $1,890 ($30.000 today):

Oct. 1929 — Hurry!

Below are a couple of VERY early photos of Snider Plaza.

First off, the fountain. It was illuminated at night with rotating colored lights. The view is to the northwest.

And that was about it. A fountain, paved streets and sidewalks, and lots of streetlights. In the photo below you can see the fountain in the distance. And the office of Ralph Porter, the man who was the driving force behind Snider Plaza (see his photo in the ad above). There is still a Ralph Porter Co. real estate business — and, appropriately, it’s still located in Snider Plaza.

The Varsity Theater wasn’t built until 1929, even though a movie theater was always in the plans. I’m not sure what happened, but in 1928 it was announced that a new theater was going to be built as part of a 7-story building. The theater and retail shops were to occupy the first floor, offices would occupy the second floor, and furnished apartments would fill the top five floors (there would also be a parking garage in the basement). That’s all so weird to imagine. First off, apartments?! Secondly, that would have been the tallest building in the Park Cities! Buildings weren’t that tall in most of “suburban” Dallas in the 1920s. Also, the architecture is pretty bland, and very unlike the rest of the shopping area.

Architect’s conception, 1928

The stripped-down plans ended up doing away with the basement and everything but the ground floor for the theater and retail shops. And I’m so glad! I love the photo at the top, from 1929. What a beautiful, beautiful building! The architect of the building was Wyatt C. Hedrick of Fort Worth. The buildings of Snider Plaza were meant to be of uniform design. Like this. (If only they all still looked like that!) (Another photo I posted recently showing that uniform style is here.)

A photo from 1940 showing a partial image of the marquee:

1940, University Park Brown Books

The Varsity opened on Oct. 3, 1929 with “In Old Arizona” (the first talkie to be filmed outdoors). It became the Fine Arts in January 1957. A reader, Malcom Thomson — who was a very youthful theater manager during the early days of the Fine Arts (I think he was an SMU student at the time) — sent me the great photo below from February 1960.

Feb. 3, 1960 (courtesy Malcolm Thomson)

At some point — it’s so incredibly hard to believe that it seems like an urban legend — the Fine Arts Theater became an “adult” theater. Yes, Virginia, X-rated movies were screened regularly in the Park Cities. Oh dear.

The theater is long-gone, as is almost all of Snider Plaza’s original “look.” But it’s still a cool, quirky place, and it’s always interesting to explore (never quite as interesting as M. E. Moses was to me as a child, but so few places are). And as long as Kuby’s is still around to fulfill my Reuben and warm-potato-salad needs, I’m pretty happy.

A couple of quirky tidbits about the very early years:

SMU students were responsible in large part for operating the theater, because, of course, it offered them the opportunity to “obtain practical experience in show business.”
Also, the streets of the plaza were cleaned by “an automatic street-washing machine.” I’m not sure what that would have entailed, but I would guess that SMU students were glad to be let off the street-cleaning life-experience hook on that one.

And, on a personal note, several decades later, my father owned the very short-lived Plaza Book Store, which was located in the retail space just to the right of the theater (where, just a few short years earlier, he had worked as an usher — i.e. “obtained practical experience in show business” — while attending SMU).

***

Sources & Notes

The two photos of Snider Plaza from 1927 and the top photo of the Varsity Theater from 1929 were found in the absolutely fantastic book The Park Cities: A Photohistory by Diane Galloway. The first two are from the collection of the Dallas Public Library. Ms. Galloway’s credit for the photo of the theater reads, “Photo by Frank Rogers/Courtesy of Jerrry Washam/Ralph Porter Company.” I believe all three photos are by Frank Rogers.

1960 photo of the Fine Arts Theater is used courtesy of Malcolm J. Thomson (thanks, Malcolm!).

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14 Comments

June 28, 2021

Snider Plaza Safeway: Hillcrest & Lovers — 1930s

Safeway, Hillcrest & Lovers Lane

by Paula Bosse

The Snider Plaza shopping area opened in University Park in June, 1927, and an early grocery tenant was Killingsworth Self-Serving Food Store, which opened in 1930 or ’31. In 1934 the small Killingsworth chain of 12 Dallas stores was purchased by the Safeway/Piggly Wiggly company, and in March, 1935 the remodeled store was opened as a Safeway — it was newer, bigger, better, and more crammed-full of Stokely’s canned foods than any grocery store University Park had ever known. But in August, 1941 — before shoppers had gotten too complacent — it moved around the corner into another Snider Plaza location (3412 Westminster) — this one even newer! Even bigger! Even better! (And only half a mile from another Safeway which was just a hop, skip, and a jump away at 6207 Hillcrest.) (You can’t have too many Safeways.)

I haven’t seen many photos of the original architecture of Snider Plaza shops, so the photo above is pretty cool. (I really like that “Snider Plaza” was stamped on the curb.) I’m going only by the little map below, which appeared in ads when the bigger 1941 store opened, but I assume that the store seen in the photo above was at the corner of Hillcrest and Lovers Lane.

Aug. 1941, Safeway ad detail

And now I have a sudden craving for canned hominy….

***

Sources & Notes

Photos found on eBay in 2020.

UPDATE: As mentioned in the comments below, Dallas historian Teresa Musgrove Judd ended up as the winning eBay bidder of these photographs and plans to donate them to the Dallas Public Library.

snider-plaza_safeway_ebay_1_sm

8 Comments

April 25, 2021

SMU Campus, An Aerial View from the North — 1940s

(Squire Haskins Collection, UTA Libraries)

by Paula Bosse

When you see aerial views of the SMU campus, they’re usually looking to the north, toward Dallas Hall. Which is one reason this photo by ace photographer Squire Haskins is interesting. It’s also noteworthy because it shows “Trailerville,” the trailer camp set up on the campus from 1946 to 1953 for married war-vet students, and it also shows the pre-fab men’s dormitories, which look like army barracks. Housing in post-WWII Dallas was was very, very tight, and people had to make do and were crammed into all sorts of spaces. (See a very large image of this photo on the UTA website here.)

For reference, Mockingbird Lane is running horizontally at the top (I was wondering if that might have been the Mrs. Baird’s bakery (built in 1953) at the top left, but it’s not far enough east), Bishop Blvd. is in the center, and Hillcrest Avenue is at the right. And there’s also a whole lot of empty land — a startling sight if you’ve seen the present-day bursting-at-the-seams campus.

Here are a few blurry close-ups. First, Trailerville (which I’ve been meaning to write about for years!) — just northeast of Ownby Stadium:

Men’s dorms in temporary buildings which were removed in 1952/53:

And something that isn’t the Mrs. Baird’s Bread factory (scroll down to see what it was):

Thanks to the comments below by reader “Not Bob,” it appears that the photo of the long building at the top left corner — on the site later occupied by Mrs. Baird’s Bread — was once an armory for the 112th Cavalry (Troop A) of the Texas National Guard. The building was originally built in 1921 as the headquarters of the Wharton Motor Company, a short-lived automobile and tractor manufacturer. It appears to have closed by 1922 and the company was bankrupt by 1924. The 112th Cavalry (with about 40 horses) moved in at the end of 1927 — they were forced to move out by the end of 1930 because of neighbor complaints (and a lawsuit) about the horses being in such close proximity to residences. By the time of the photo above, it was the Town and Country food business which rented freezer-locker space to the public. Mrs. Baird’s Bread decided to build on the site in 1949 (with the intention, presumably, to raze the existing building) — construction began in 1952 and the factory opened in 1953 (incidentally, the factory was designed by legendary Dallas architect George Dahl). (I should write about the Wharton building sometime — it has an interesting history.)

The commenter (“Not Bob”) also linked to a similar view of the campus in 1955, post-Trailerville:

(DeGolyer Library, SMU)

By then, Central Expressway had been built and Mrs. Baird’s was cranking out that delicious aroma that filled the neighborhood for decades:

***

Sources & Notes

“Aerial view of the campus of Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas” is by Squire Haskins, from the Squire Haskins Photography Inc. Collection, University of Texas at Arlington Libraries; more information on this photo can be found here (click thumbnail photo to see larger image).

“1955 aerial view of campus from the north” — by William J. Davis — is from the collection of the DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University; more information on this photo is here.

smu-campus_from-the-north_squire-haskins_UTA_nd_sm

11 Comments

April 18, 2021

SMU Cartoon Timeline — 1935

Just the highlights…

by Paula Bosse

Here’s a handy little chronology of the first 20 years of Southern Methodist University’s history, found on the endpapers of the 1935 SMU yearbook, the Rotunda.

Click to explore (“glub”):

***

Sources & Notes

Images from the 1935 Rotunda, yearbook of Southern Methodist University.

For more on SMU’s first year, 1915-1916, see these Flashback Dallas posts:

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March 28, 2021

Jerry Bywaters: “City Suburb at Dusk” — 1978

Northwest Highway noir…

by Paula Bosse

You’re a Dallasite. You’ll probably immediately recognize the location of this (somewhat uncharacteristic) painting by famed Dallas painter Jerry Bywaters: it’s Northwest Highway, looking west from just past Hillcrest. Its title — “City Suburb at Dusk” — is a bit misleading. It was sort of a suburb (Preston Hollow) back when Jerry was a young man, but by 1978, when this was painted, its “suburb” days were long, long gone.

I love this painting. On the “suburb” side it’s got Kip’s, El Fenix, Centennial Liquor, and the cool curved Preston Tower. On the University Park side it’s got the silhouettes of the omnipresent water tower (once a much more pleasing shape than it is today, back when it was painted in a whimsical red-and-white checkerboard pattern), the spire of the Park Cities Baptist Church, and a Preston Center-adjacent office building. West Northwest Highway never looked so tranquil.

***

Sources & Notes

“City Suburb at Dusk” by Jerry Bywaters, 1978 — oil on masonite, 18 x 24, collection of G. Pat Bywaters.

Printed in American Art Review, Vol. XX, No. 1, 2008.

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12 Comments

August 2, 2020

Neiman’s First Suburban Store: Preston Road — 1951-1965

Original design by DeWitt & Swank, 1949 (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

In January, 1949, Neiman-Marcus announced they would soon begin construction of their very first “branch” store. It was to be built in the new “Varsity Village” shopping area on Preston Road, just south of Northwest Highway (on the east side of Preston, facing Preston Center). This store was referred to in early articles as their “town and country store.” The downtown store was running out of room (in fact the expansion and renovation of their downtown store was announced at the same time as this new “suburban” store) — and the new store was to provide 30,000 square feet of primo retail space.

The original idea for the store’s design is seen in the drawing above, which was accompanied by this caption in a Chamber of Commerce publication:

New suburban shop of Neiman-Marcus Company (pictured above in drawing by Roscoe DeWitt and Arch Swank, architects for the building) is scheduled for construction this year in Varsity Village on a plot 30,000 square feet facing Preston Road and extending from Wentwood to Villanova Drives. The store will conform to the general architectural plan of Varsity Village and will represent a total investment of about $1,500,000. (“Dallas” magazine, Feb. 1949)

I LOVE that drawing! Unfortunately, things changed between the time that DeWitt and Swank offered that initial drawing and the almost three years that passed before the store was actually completed. The store was expanded to two floors (with mezzanine and basement), and… I don’t know — it just lost all of its supercool sleekness. It went from mid-century-modern fabulousness to big boring blocks. I’m sure the interior was still fantastic (designed by Eleanor Le Maire), but that exterior is uncharacteristically (for Neiman’s) blah.

1951, via thedepartmentstoremuseum.org

But back to the decor. This store was aimed at suburban families — the shoppers were primarily stylish mothers with kids, so there was a lot of thought put into making the store appealing to children. The basement — which was home to the toy and nursery department — sounds pretty great, complete with a Willy Wonka-esque attraction: at the entrance was an enchanted forest mural and a giant cage filled with toy animals, and “in the toy shop there is a magic tree — one with a built-in dispenser that pours out an endless supply of orangeade” (Dallas Morning News, Oct. 14, 1951).

The store was designed in a Southwestern color palette, featured a glass mosaic, lots of Kachina dolls, a glass-walled landscaped patio, a specially commissioned Alexander Calder mobile, and it was an immediate hit. The denizens of the Park Cities and Preston Hollow would still have to make the trek downtown if they wanted a gown for that do at the country club, but for casual clothing for mom and a large selection of clothing for children and teens, the “town and country store” was perfect. And nearby.

It lasted until NorthPark opened in 1965. Realizing the Preston Road store would be unable to expand, Neiman’s decided to close the 14-year-old store and move into Raymond Nasher’s striking new NorthPark Center.

via Dallas History Guild Facebook page

Below, two night-time photos by Squire Haskins, taken on May 23, 1952:

via UTA Libraries

Instead of placing a “Grand Opening” announcement, Neiman’s teased the public with a “we’ll be opening soon-ish” announcement (in fact, the store opened exactly one week after the appearance of this ad). This ad describes that the new location will be more geared to families — to children (“from pram to prom”), adult casualwear, and gift items. With a restaurant and salon. The more typical Neiman’s couture lines and more expensive items would be available only “in town.” (Click ad to see a larger image.)

Oct. 8, 1951 ad

In the “Wales” column — a regular feature of N-M ads, with chatty text written by Warren Leslie (“Wa” from “Warren” and “les” from Leslie), a Neiman-Marcus executive and spokesperson and, later, author of the controversial book Dallas Public and Private) — the store’s opening is discussed, including the unexpected appearance of John Wayne (in town for the “Movietime in Texas, USA,” a promotional Hollywood caravan tour through Texas, packed with movie stars (watch cool footage here). Too bad about that orangeade, kids.

One of the features of the new store was a specially commissioned mobile by artist Alexander Calder which hung above the stairway (a bit difficult to see in the photo below, but it’s there!). This was the first permanent installation of one of Calder’s kinetic sculptures in Dallas. (The three photos below are by Denny Hayes.) The staircase was used for fashion shows (watch Channel 5 news footage from a swimsuit fashion show from April 25, 1958 here, via the UNT’s Portal to Texas History site — according to the news script, the last suit was priced at a whopping $500, which in today’s money, would be about $4,500). (UPDATE: Perhaps because of its current financial situation, Neiman’s decided to sell the Alexander Calder mobile, titled “Mariposa” — it was auctioned by Sotheby’s on Dec. 8, 2020 and sold for $18.2 million, far surpassing its high estimate of $8 million — more info and several photos of the sculpture can be found on the Sotheby’s site here.)

1954, via the Dallas Public Library (PA76-1/5388.1)

Those floor-to-ceiling windows and sheer draperies are wonderful.

1951, via the Dallas Public Library (PA76-1/5388.5)

ca. 1954, via the Dallas Public Library (PA76-1/5388.2)

The listing in the 1953 directory described the Preston store as “the New Preston Center Station Wagon Store.” That’s right, the “station-wagon store.”

1953 Dallas directory

In May, 1960 there was a relief drive throughout Dallas to send much-needed supplies to Chile, which had recently experienced almost simultaneous devastating earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, and avalanches. Neiman’s coordinated with several agencies and the State Department to rush food and clothing to Chile. The view in the screenshot below shows Preston Road looking south (watch the 1-minute Channel 8 news footage, via SMU, here).

After 14 years, the Preston location closed up shop in July, 1965. This coincided with the opening of the much larger Neiman’s store in NorthPark. Bye-bye, “suburbia”!

July 15, 1965 ad

The Preston Road building still stands, but it’s not very interesting-looking these days. I think I’d prefer the “blah” look from 1951.

Google Street View, 2017

***

Sources & Notes

Top image appeared in the Feb. 1949 issue of “Dallas,” a monthly magazine published by the Dallas Chamber of Commerce.

Photos by Squire Haskins are from the Squire Haskins Photography, Inc. Collection, University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Special Collections.

Photos by Denny Hayes are from the Hayes Collection, Dallas Public Library.

Image of the 1960 Chilean American Red Cross relief drive is a screenshot from the WFAA Newsfilm Collection, G. William Jones Archive, Hamon Arts Library, Southern Methodist University.

neiman-marcus_preston-road_dallas-mag_feb-1949_sm

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June 28, 2020

Highland Park High School: Ads from the 1959 Yearbook

City Downtown Mercury, 2100 Cedar Springs

by Paula Bosse

I love the ads from old high school yearbooks — especially the ones that featured students. Below is a sampling of advertisements from the 1959 Highlander, the yearbook of Highland Park High School.

Above, City Downtown Mercury, 2100 Cedar Springs — R. J. “Bob” Acton, manager. New and used cars. Cool sign.

Below, the Sam Snead School of Golf, 5960 Northwest Highway. Ad features HPHS golf team member Tommy Abbott. (Most images are larger when clicked.)

Hillcrest Hi-Fi and Records, 6309 Hillcrest.

Sanborn’s Hi-Fi Center, 5551 W. Lovers Lane. Featuring Jim Stiff and Brian Stiff and their loafers.

And because everyone was high-fi crazy in 1959, another one: Custom Music of Dallas, High Fidelity Specialists, 3212-14 Oak Lawn — Oong Choi, technical supervisor. (Oong Choi was listed in a 1956 newspaper article as being a philosophy student at the Dallas Theological Seminary who was presenting a lecture on the children of Korea.)

A & L Upholstery, 5617 East University.

Mr. Drue’s Beauty Salon, 6808 Snider Plaza — Duffy D. Houghton, prop.

Holiday Cleaning and Laundry, 5540 Preston Road, between St. Andrews and Mockingbird.

Cline Music Co., 1307 Elm Street.

Wall’s Delicatessen, 10749 Preston Road, at Royal Lane — Milton Wall and Rose Wall, props. Wall’s opened at Preston and Royal in 1950, one of the area’s first business — the landmark closed in 1987 when the family changed its focus to catering.

Preston State Bank, 8111 Preston Road. “Check the time — Check the temperature — And drive by often.” The time is currently 9:14.

Asburn’s Ice Cream, various locations. Featuring HPHS students Terry Coverdale and Susan Zadic, with impressively balanced six-dip cones.

Fabric House, 8317 Westchester. Featuring Patsy Wilson, who is shown contemplating “something swishy.”

Henry Miller Insurance Agency, 5010 Greenville Avenue. Featuring Venetian blinds.

Little Bit of Sweden restaurant, 254 Inwood Village. Featuring smorgasbord.

Village Camera Shop, 86 Highland Park Village — Al Cooter, owner. Featuring student Susie Stone.

W. R. Fine Galleries, 2524 Cedar Springs.

Friendly Chevrolet, 5526 E. Mockingbird Lane. Featuring HPHS students Mary Jane York, Sarah McNay, and Mary Lee Jones sitting in the trunk of a car.

The We Three Weber’s Root Beer drive-in, 5060 W. Lovers Lane.

Kathryn Currin Real Estate, 5964 Northwest Highway. Weird not seeing Ebby’s name on the roof.

Fear not, Ebby wasn’t very far away: Ebby Halliday Realor, 8400 Westchester, in Preston Center.

Dr Pepper, national headquarters on Mockingbird and Greenville (across the street from Friendly Chevrolet, above). Featuring HPHS students George Denton, Pat Pierce, and Kathy Thomas. “Frosty, Man, Frosty!”

A bunch of random ads: Prince of Hamburgers, 5200 Lemmon Avenue; Miller-Beer & Co. Realtors; Henry Nuss, Bookbinders, 419 S. Ervay; Roy Hance Humble station, 4831 McKinney Avenue; The Fish Bowl, 235 Inwood Village; Inwood Pharmacy; and Margie’s Dress Shops.

And the big “get” for the yearbook staff, an ad for Highland Park Village (see a larger image of the photo here).

***

Sources & Notes

All ads from the 1959 Highland Park High School yearbook, The Highlander.

8 Comments

December 1, 2019

Private Education in Dallas — 1916

The looming Ursuline Academy in Old East Dallas

by Paula Bosse

Here is a collection of photos and mini-histories of several of the top private schools that Dallas parents were ponying up their hard-earned cash for in 1916. Some were boarding schools, some were affiliated with churches, some were rooted in military discipline, some were medical schools, and some were places to go to receive instruction on the finer things in life, such as music and art. Sadly, only one of these buildings still stands. But two of the schools in this collection have been operating continuously for over 100 years (Ursuline and Hockaday), and two more are still around, having had a few name changes over the years (St. Mark’s and Jesuit). Here’s where the more well-to-do girls and boys of Dallas (…and Texas — and many other states) were sent to become young ladies and gentlemen.

THE URSULINE ACADEMY (above) — Mother Mary Teresa, superioress — the block bounded by Live Oak, Haskell, Bryan, and St. Joseph. This school for girls and young women was established in Dallas by the Ursuline Sisters in about 1874 — and it continues today as one of the city’s finest institutions. The incredible gothic building was… incredible. So of course it was demolished (in 1949, when the school moved its campus to its present-day North Dallas location). See what it looked like at its Gothic, grandiose height in a previous Flashback Dallas post here.

MISS HOCKADAY’S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS — Miss Ela Hockaday, principal — 1206 N. Haskell. Hockaday was (and is) the premier girl’s school of Dallas society — like Ursuline, it is still going strong (and, like Ursuline, it moved away from East Dallas and is now located in North Dallas). In 1919, three years after these photos were taken, Miss Hockaday would buy the former home of Walter Caruth, Bosque Bonita, set in a full block at Belmont and Greenville in the Vickery Place neighborhood — there she built a large campus and cemented her place as one of the legendary educators in Dallas history. (In 1920, Hockaday’s annual tuition for boarding students eclipsed even the hefty tuition of The Terrill School for Boys: Miss Hockaday had parents lined up to pay her $1,000 a year — now the equivalent of about $13,000 — to educate and refine their daughters at her prestigious institution.)

MISSES HOLLEY’S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS — Miss Frances Holley and Miss Josephine Holley, principals — 4528 Ross Avenue (at Annex). Another somewhat exclusive school that catered to young society ladies was the Holley school, established in 1908 by the two Holley sisters, who limited their student body to only 35 girls. The school (which is sometimes referred to as “Miss Holley’s School” and “Holley Hall” — and which was located behind the sisters’ residence) closed in 1926.

ST. MARY’S COLLEGE — Miss Ethel Middleton, principal — Garrett and Ross Avenue. This Episcopal-Church-associated boarding and day school for girls and young ladies was one of the Southwest’s leading institutions of learning for young women. When established in 1889, it was built outside the city limits on a “hill” — back then the area around the school was often referred to as “College Hill.”

THE TERRILL SCHOOL FOR BOYS — M. B. Bogarte, head master — 4217 Swiss Avenue (at Peak). The exclusive boys school in Dallas (which, after several mergers, continues today as St. Mark’s); the cost of a year’s tuition for boarding students in 1920 was $850 — the equivalent of about $11,000 — a very pricey school back then. More on the Terrill School can be found in previous Flashback Dallas posts here and here.

THE HARDIN SCHOOL FOR BOYS — J. A. Hardin, principal — 4021 Swiss Avenue. This prep school was affiliated with the University of Texas. It was located for a while in downtown Dallas and for a time at the location seen below in Old East Dallas, but in 1917 it either bought out and merged with the Dallas Military Academy or that school went out of business, because the Hardin School settled into the military academy’s location, which had been Walter Caruth’s old home, Bosque Bonita, at Belmont and Greenville, where boys were marching around doing drills until Miss Hockaday moved in two years later in 1919.

DALLAS MILITARY ACADEMY AND SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING — C. J. Kennerly, superintendent — Belmont & Greenville Ave. This “practical school for manly boys” opened up in 1916 in a large house which had been built by Walter Caruth in the area now known as Lower Greenville. The Dallas Military Academy lasted for only one year until the large house became home to the Hardin School for Boys in 1917 (and, two years later in 1919, it became the longtime home of the Hockaday School). If you didn’t click on the link for it above, now’s your chance to read more about the history of Caruth’s grand house, Bosque Bonita, here.

UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS — Very Rev. P. A. Finney, president — Oak Lawn Ave. & Gilbert. When it opened in 1906, this school was known as Holy Trinity College; its name was changed to the University of Dallas in 1910. The University of Dallas closed in 1928 because of lack of money; it was later known as Jesuit High School until Jesuit moved to North Dallas — the grand building was demolished in 1963. (See an aerial view of this huge building here.)

THE MORGAN SCHOOL (formerly the Highland Park Academy) — Mrs. Joseph Morgan, principal — 4608 Abbott. A co-ed school.

POWELL TRAINING SCHOOL — Nathan Powell, president — Binkley & Atkins (now Hillcrest) in University Park. I believe this is the only building in this post still standing — more can be read in the earlier post “Send Your Kids to Prep School ‘Under the Shadow of SMU’ — 1915,” here. (That is, in fact, a bit of the very, very young SMU campus seen in the distance at the bottom right.)

BAYLOR MEDICAL COLLEGE — E. H. Cary, dean — 720 College Ave. (now Hall Street).

DALLAS POLYCLINIC/POST-GRADUATE MEDICAL SCHOOL — John S. Turner, president — S. Ervay & Marilla (affiliated with Baylor Medical College).

STATE DENTAL COLLEGE — 1409 ½ South Ervay, across from the Park Hotel (more recently known as the Ambassador Hotel).

HAHN MUSIC SCHOOL — Charles D. Hahn, director — 3419 Junius.

AUNSPAUGH ART SCHOOL — VIvian Aunspaugh, director — 3409 Bryan. A well-established Dallas art school for 60 years. Miss Aunspaugh died in 1960 at the age of 90 and was said to have been giving lessons until shortly before her death. (The photo below of the exterior is the only one here not from about 1916 — that photo is from 1944.)

via Dallas Historical Society

dallas-educational-center_ca-1916_degolyer-library_smu

dallas-educational-center_front-cover_ca-1916_degolyer-library_smu

***

Sources & Notes

All images (but one) from the booklet “Dallas, The Educational Center of the Southwest” (published by the Educational Committee, Dallas Chamber of Commerce, and Manufacturers Association, Dallas, ca. 1916), from the collection of the DeGolyer Library, SMU Libraries, Southern Methodist University; more information on this publication — and a full digital scan of it — can be found at the SMU site, here.

The exterior photo of the Aunspaugh Art School is from the Dallas Historical Society, taken in 1944 by Dallas resident James H. Bell; more information on this photo is at the DHS site, here.

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Category: University Park

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