Vault | Flashback : Dallas

November 2, 2019

From the Vault: Teen Life at Highland Park High School — 1966

by Paula Bosse

High school yearbooks are a great source of cultural history. I really enjoyed browsing through the 1966 Highland Park High School Highlander. I liked it so much I wrote two posts in 2017 featuring fab HPHS photos and ads. Check them out in the posts below:

October 3, 2019

From the Vault: Operation AstroBowl — 1964

by Paula Bosse

I’ve been sidelined for the past few months as I’ve dealt with family eldercare issues, but I hope to resume regular posting soon. In the meantime, on the occasion of my being translated into Portuguese (!), I’m linking to the 2016 Flashback Dallas post “Bowling in the Sky — 1964” which details an airborne publicity stunt involving a tricked-out American Airlines freighter and professional bowlers Dick Weber and Sylvia Wene.

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August 13, 2019

From the Vault: 1907’s Gleaming New Power Plant

by Paula Bosse

Dallas’ new power station arrived in 1907, one year before the disastrous flood of 1908 — the catastrophic flood would almost certainly have had longer-lasting consequences had this new plant not been filled with brand-new machinery, which enabled the city to rebound remarkably quickly.

And, yes, the designers of the American Airlines Center (which today sits on approximately the same site) took design cues from the old power plant. Read more (and see some cool photos — and a link to the most exhaustive turbine-y article possible, published in 1907) at the Flashback Dallas post from 2015, “A New Power Turbine Station for Big D — 1907.”

August 1, 2019

From the Vault: Downtown’s Giant Neon Dr Pepper Sign

by Paula Bosse

Thirsty? Read about the cool, giant neon sign that once sat atop the Jefferson Hotel, in the 2015 Flashback Dallas post “Neon Refreshment: The Giant Dr Pepper Sign.”

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July 19, 2019

From the Vault: When the Sweat Hit the Fan — 1951

by Paula Bosse

Imagine working in an un-air-conditioned building when it had been over 100 degrees outside for a couple of weeks straight. You and your coworkers would be mighty peeved. And possibly unconscious. Southwestern Bell’s idea to combat this sweltering problem was to use electric fans and buckets of ice in hopes that their employees didn’t faint on the job. Read how Dallas telephone operators reacted to this “solution” in the Flashback Dallas post “Telephone Operators Sweating at the Switchboard — 1951.”

Keep cool, y’all!

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July 4, 2019

From the Vault: Celebrating the 4th of July at White Rock Lake — 1946

Calling Monsieur Seurat…

by Paula Bosse

One of my all-time favorite Flashback Dallas photos: Dallasites at White Rock Lake enjoying the first Independence Day following World War II. See this photo really big (and there’s a lot to see!) in the original post from 2016, “4th of July at White Rock Lake — 1946.”

Have a happy, safe, and relatively sweat-free Independence Day!

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July 2, 2019

Viewing the 1878 Solar Eclipse in North Texas

Waiting…

by Paula Bosse

Today there will be a solar eclipse, best viewed in Chile and Argentina. On July 29, 1878, there was also a solar eclipse — that one was fully visible in the United States, and the best place to observe it in Texas was Fort Worth. As seen in the photo above, interest in the event was high. A party of academics from Harvard and other institutions set up on the property of S. W. Lomax of Fort Worth. They were joined by Alfred Freeman, a photographer from Dallas who was a successful portrait photographer and who also sold his photographs of special events (such as this one of a 4th of July parade and this one of a Mardi Gras parade in Dallas) — he no doubt sold reproductions of his eclipse photos taken on July 29th. (He is not identified in this photo, but he may the second man from the right. Freeman is a pretty interesting person, and I hope to write about him soon.)

Here are a few magnified details.

Read several lengthy articles on the preparation for the viewing and the description of the eclipse itself in these contemporary articles (they may not be easily viewable on mobile devices):

“The Sun in Eclipse: How It Will Be Observed Here by Astronomers” (Fort Worth Daily Democrat, July 21, 1878)
“The Total Eclipse, A Grand Heavenly Phenomenon, A Most Brilliant Success, Scientifically and Otherwise” (Fort Worth Daily Democrat, July 30, 1878)
“The Late Solar Eclipse, History of the Observations at Ft. Worth” (Galveston Daily News, Aug. 1, 1878)

***

Sources & Notes

Top photo is titled “Total Solar Eclipse in Fort Worth (1878),” from the collection of Tarrant County College Northeast and can be found on the Portal to Texas History, here.

Newspapers linked above are also via the fabulous Portal to Texas History.

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June 23, 2019

A Few Photo Additions to Past Posts — #11

by Paula Bosse

Here are a few images I have added to old posts. (Click pictures to see larger images.)

Above, a photo from 1973 by Steve Fitch showing the Chalk Hill Drive-In. (Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Endowment for the Arts) And below, a 1947 photo showing the parking area of the Northwest Hi-Way Drive-In at Northwest Highway and Hillcrest (the view is to the northwest, with Hillcrest running from the lower left corner to the upper right). (Source: Dallas Public Library, George I. Gird Collection) Both photos have been added to the post “Dallas’ First Two Drive-In Theaters — 1941.”

Speaking of drive-ins, this postcard image featuring a comely Sivils carhop has been added to “Sivils Drive-In, An Oak Cliff Institution: 1940-1967.” (Source: eBay)

Speaking of food, this matchbook cover has been added to the post “The Filling Station on Greenville Avenue: From Bonnie & Clyde to Legendary Burger Place.” (Source: eBay)

This photo of the MKT depot and the Katy Flyer is GREAT. I’ve added it and the novelty snapshot of three MKT travelers to the post “Leaving Dallas on the Katy Flyer — ca. 1914.” (Source for both: eBay)

These two images of an MKT timetable from 1900 have been added to another Katy Flyer post, “M-K-T Railroad’s ‘Katy Flyer Route’ — 1902.” (Source: eBay)

Have you not heard of the “Caveteria”?! Then hie yourself over to “The Caveteria: ‘Marvelous Food at Moderate Prices.'” (Source: eBay)

And. lastly, the Keeley Institute was here to help. There were addiction problems-a-plenty in Big D as the 20th century approached. Read about them in the post “Under the Paw of the Tiger: Taking the Cocaine, Morphine, and Opium ‘Cure’ — 1890s.” (Source: Dallas Morning News ad, 1899)

May 20, 2019

From the Vault: A Walk Through Downtown — 2017

So much fantastic architecture!

by Paula Bosse

I visited downtown several times last week, and it’s always nice to be reminded that some of my favorite old buildings in the Central Business District have somehow managed to survive the wrecking ball and/or over-zealous renovators (I’m not sure which is a worse fate). Two years ago I walked around and took some photos of buildings I really love: see them in the 2017 post “Downtown Dallas, Last Week.“

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May 12, 2019

From the Vault: Research Challenge!

Mission: track down this house’s location….

by Paula Bosse

Some people look at research as tedious, some people look at it as fun. I definitely think it’s fun. I really loved researching the image above, which I approached as a chance to solve a mystery more than anything else: I wondered if I could find out where the house once stood, the only clues being in the message on the postcard — and I did! Read the original post from 2015: “Tracking Down a Photo Location & Discovering a City Pioneer: D. M. Clower, The Man Who Brought the Telephone to Dallas.” Follow along as I chronicle how I figured it out and what Dallas-history resources I used along the way.

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