Flashback : Dallas

A Miscellany: History, Ads, Pop Culture

Category: Zooming in on Details

Horses, Carriages, Horseless Carriages: Commerce Street — 1913

new-skyline_c1912_degolyer_smuWest on Commerce, from about St. Paul (click for larger image) / SMU

by Paula Bosse

The photo above is from the indispensable collection at SMU’s DeGolyer Library. It shows a very busy Commerce Street in 1913, taken from the top of the YMCA building at St. Paul, looking west. The two landmarks at either end of Commerce are the first location of the Majestic Theatre at 1901 Commerce (northeast corner of Commerce and St. Paul), seen in the bottom right corner, and the Adolphus Hotel at the top left. I love this photo, mostly because it shows horse-drawn conveyances and automobiles sharing the streets in an already car-crazy Dallas, something that might not be that noticeable at first glance until you start zooming in to see magnified details. Let’s zoom in. Way in. (All images much larger when clicked.)

1-rooftops-skyline

2-traffic-skyline-1

Dallas has begun to look like a big city.

3-traffic-skyline-2

Below, the building on the right with the steep steps is the old Post Office/Federal Building at Ervay. The Mercantile Bank Building was built on that site in 1942.

4-traffic-skyline-3

I love the detail below for a couple of reasons: first, the car at the curb at the lower right is parked next to what is purported to be the first gas pump in Dallas (the sign next to it that looks like a stop sign says “Oriental Oils” — more below); secondly, the ratio of cars to horses is pretty even.

5-traffic-skyline-4

A block east of the Oriental Oil gasoline feuling station is the Pennsylvania Oil Company feuling station, at 1805 Commerce. When I first saw this last year, I was so excited to discover this seemingly mundane little detail that I wrote an entire post about these early curbside gas pumps (read “Oriental Oil Company: Fill ‘er Up, Right There at the Curb” here).

7-gas-skyline-1

And a couple more close-ups of this exotic thing which I still find inexplicably fascinating.

8-gas-skyline-2

9-gas-skyline-3

So many wires, and tracks. The Harwood streetcar is cool, but that streetlight is cooler.

10-lamp-skyline-1

11-lamp-skyline-2

Below, a listing of most of the businesses seen along this stretch of Commerce, from the 1913 Dallas directory.

commerce-street_1913-directory***

Original photo is titled “New Skyline from Y.M.C.A., 1912 & 1913,” taken by Jno. J. Johnson, from the DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University; it can be viewed here. I have corrected the color.

The current Google Street View of Commerce looking west from St. Paul can be seen here. Very different.

UPDATE: This photograph is from 1913. The Busch Building (later the Kirby Building) began construction on the steel superstructure of the building at the end of December, 1912. The building had reached 13 stories by May, 1913 and was completed in November or December, 1913. I have updated the title from “ca. 1912” to “1913.”

All of these images are really big. Click them!

*

Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.

An Afternoon Outing with SMU Frat Boys & Their Dates — 1917

smu_omega-phi_dallas-hall_1917_degolyerCampus couples, 1917

by Paula Bosse

I came across three wonderful World War One-era photos in the SMU archives while I was looking for something else. You know how you can become enthralled by the charm of old photos and sit for long stretches of time staring at every little detail and wondering about the lives of the unidentified people who populate them? That happened to me with these. There is one particular young woman who stands out more than anyone else. Not only is she the best-dressed person in the photos, she also seems calm, collected, and serene. She looks friendly. She was probably very pleasant to have around.

These three photographs show a group of ten young couples and a pair of chaperones spending a beautiful sunny day together, with the highlight of the day being a trip to Highland Park’s Exall Lake. The men are SMU students, identified only as members of the Omega Phi fraternity. The women are identified merely as “dates,” but I’m sure that some of them were also SMU students. The photograph above shows the crowd gathered on campus in front of Dallas Hall. The woman in white looks like she’s on a pedestal, glowing in a spotlight. Below, a closer look at her stylish outfit (as well as a look at the young be-medaled WWI soldier next to her).

smu_omega-phi_dallas-hall_1917_degolyer-det1

And, below, a similar detail, but this one showing the daintily crossed ankles of another pretty girl, seated beside a sour-looking companion.

smu_omega-phi_dallas-hall_1917_degolyer-det2

And here’s the gang on the idyllic banks of Exall Lake. Diane Galloway included this photograph in her book The Park Cities, A Photohistory with this caption:

At one time a bridge crossed Exall Lake near the Cary house, shown in the distance. The photographer was standing on the bridge to capture this picture of well-dressed SMU students going boating on the lake. A trip to Lakeside Drive was one of the few off-campus excursions permitted in 1917.

I love this photo. If I didn’t know what the Turtle Creek area looked like, I’d be hard-pressed to identify this as Dallas!

smu_omega-phi_exall-lake_1917_degolyer

Here’s a close-up of the beatific, smiling woman in white. I like the kid lurking in the background.

smu_omega-phi_exall-lake_1917_degolyer-det1

And the boat.

smu_omega-phi_exall-lake_1917_degolyer-det2

And the sour-looking guy again, looking even more annoyed than before.

smu_omega-phi_exall-lake_1917_degolyer-det3

And here’s the crowd sitting on the steps of the frat house (which was located at Haynie and Hillcrest). The personnel has changed a little bit (they gained a woman and lost a man), but (almost) everyone seems pretty happy.

smu_omega-phi_porch_1917_degolyer

And, below, my very favorite detail from these three photos.

smu_omega-phi_porch_1917_degolyer-det1

After a bit of sleuthing, I found a picture of the house at the time these photos were taken. It was actually a residence which was, I think, being rented out to the small group of Omega Phis. They had a proper fraternity house built several years later.

omega-phi-house_rotunda_1917

The top photo had “1917” written on the back, so I checked SMU’s Rotunda yearbooks from around that time. Here’s a look at the men who were members of Omega Phi in 1918. Several of these faces match the ones in the photos of the afternoon outing.

omega-phi_rotunda-1918

And, below, a photo collage from the Omega Phi page of the 1917 Rotunda. Several of the women look familiar. I see the Woman in White in at least one of these snapshots.

omega-phi_photos_rotunda_1917

And here she is, close up. I hope she was as happy, intelligent, and confident in her real life as she appears to be in these photos.

smu_omega-phi_porch_1917_degolyer-det2

***

Sources & Notes

The three photos of the afternoon outing all come from the collection of the DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University:

  • “Omega Phi Fraternity members and their dates in front of Dallas Hall” is here.
  • “Omega Phi Fraternity member outing to Exall Lake” is here.
  • “Omega Phi Fraternity members and their dates on porch” is here.

The quote from Diane Galloway comes from her FANTASTIC book, The Park Cities, A Photohistory (Dallas: Diane Galloway, 1989), p. 24.

The ersatz Omega Phi fraternity house was located at 115 Haynie Avenue, just west of Atkins (now Hillcrest). (The photo of the exterior of the house is from the 1917 SMU Rotunda yearbook.)

omega-phi_map_19191919 map (detail), Portal to Texas History

I have absolutely no idea how college fraternities work, but it seems that when they formed on the SMU campus in 1915, the Omega Phi group was not actually affiliated with a national fraternity. They “petitioned” to be chartered by national groups, but they finally stopped trying after 11 years of, I guess, being repeatedly turned down — in 1926 they declared themselves to be an “independent society.” But one year later, they were granted a charter by the national Kappa Sigma fraternity. In the Dallas Morning News article announcing the news, this sentence was included: “The local chapter will be known as Delta Pi chapter.” I have no idea what any of that means, but if you’re really into these things, read the DMN article “Kappa Sigmas Grant Charter” (Sept. 26, 1927), here.

As for the identities of the women in the photos, it’s a mystery. I would assume, though, that at least some of them were the women mentioned in this little article about a cozy winter get-together at the Haynie Ave. house:

omega-phi_smu-campus_011917DMN, Jan. 19, 1917

If you’re not familiar with beautiful Exall Lake, you can watch a short, minute-long video of the lake’s history, produced to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Highland Park, here.

For other posts featuring photos I’ve zoomed in on to reveal interesting little vignettes, click here.

UPDATE: I stumbled across another photo of this group, from Diane Galloway’s book The Park Cities, A Photohistory:

smu_group-date_park-cities-photohistory_galloway

*

Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.

Brown Cracker Co. Cracker Wrappers

brown-cracker_ca1918_cook_degolyerThe saltine-wrapping room

by Paula Bosse

I will stop and look at great length at any photograph containing a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt in this photo belonged to the Brown Cracker and Candy Company, a large and important Dallas manufacturer and employer. The cracker, cake, and candy factory opened in 1903 in a brand new building in the industrial area just south of McKinney Avenue (the part of town that borders downtown, now known as the West End). Best known these days as the West End Marketplace building, the structure still stands and, in fact, has just been purchased and is about to undergo renovation.

brown-cracker_postcard_cook-degolyerDeGolyer Library, SMU

As the new building was nearing completion, the company charter was filed in April 1903, and just a few short weeks later, the factory opened itself up for inspection by the community.

brown-charter_dmn_040303Dallas Morning News, April 3, 1903

brown_opening_dmn_052903
DMN, May 29, 1903 (click for larger image)

The open house was packed — several thousand people (mostly women) showed up to tour the plant, fascinated by the inner workings of the city’s newest business, a manufacturer of crackers and sweet treats. Of particular interest must have been the two giant brick ovens on the the second floor, which used more than one ton of coal daily, and the huge copper kettles used in candy making on the top floor. There were also things like chocolate dipping machines, starch machines (?), and marshmallow heaters (I don’t know what that is, but I want to see one in action — could it have been a “marshmallow beater,” like the one seen here?).

brown-cracker_dmn-053103DMN, May 31, 1903

The main reason to open the factory to the public for inspection — other than as a PR-managed meet-and-greet — was to let the people see for themselves just how CLEAN the place was. This was at a time when unsanitary food handling and manufacturing practices were much in the news (see here) — concerns which ultimately led to the enactment of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 — and the above article stresses that visitors were impressed by the factory’s “spotless cleanliness” (“The floors they said could be eaten from without discomfort…”). In regard to the “cracker wrappers” pictured at the top, the company wanted to make sure everyone knew that their products were wrapped and boxed — gone were the days of shoppers dipping their (probably unclean) hands into the old “cracker barrel” full of loose, stale crackers.

crackers_dmn_040603DMN, April 6, 1903

Let’s take a closer look at the top photo, probably taken around 1920 (click pictures for larger images).

brown-cracker_ca1918_cook_degolyer_det2

brown-cracker_ca1918_cook_degolyer_det1

ad-brown_dmn_122003DMN, Dec. 20, 1903

sodaette-crackers(click to read text)

brown-cracker_1922-directory1922 city directory

brown-cracker_come-to-dallas_degolyer_SMU_ca1905ca. 1905

brown-cracker-greater-dallas-illustrated_ca1908ca. 1908

brown-cracker-co-lettrhead_1919_ebay1919 (eBay)

***

Sources & Notes

Top photo, titled “Wrapping Saltines at Brown Cracker and Candy Co.,” is from the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas image collection, DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University; it can be accessed here.

Written on the back of the photo: “Miss Bessie Manning, 2724 Roadwood [sic] avenue, Dallas, Texas.” Bessie Manning (born Bena Manina in 1899 to Italian immigrants), began working at the Brown Cracker Co. (with a brother and a sister) around 1917 but wasn’t living on Rosewood (later North Harwood) until 1919; she left Brown in 1921 or 1922. She isn’t identified in the photo, but she is, presumably, one of the women on the left; she would have been about 20.

bessie-manning_1920-censusBessie Manning’s occupation, 1920 census

The color postcard showing the Brown Cracker Co. is also from the Cook collection at SMU; it is here.

The Sodaette ad is from Library of Advertising by A. P. Johnson (Chicago: Cree Publishing Co., 1911).

The photo from about 1905 is from the promotional brochure titled “Come To Dallas” (Dallas: Dorsey Printing Co., about 1905), in the collection of the DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University; more info is here.

The photo at the bottom is from Greater Dallas Illustrated, The Most Progressive Metropolis in the Southwest (Dallas: The American Illustrating Company, 1908; reprinted by Friends of the Dallas Public Library, 1992). The informative company profile that accompanied the photo can be read in a PDF, here.

All other ads and clippings as noted.

Another very informative article which details the specifics of the building and its machinery — “New Dallas Industry, Brown Cracker and Candy Company About to Begin Operations” (DMN, Apr. 6, 1903) — can be read in a PDF, here.

To see the Brown Cracker Company’s specs on a Sanborn map from 1905, see here; to see where it is on a modern map, see here.

For current info on what’s about to happen to the building (much expanded over the years), see Steve Brown’s Dallas Morning News article, here.

And, yes, a teenaged Clyde Barrow apparently worked there briefly, for a dollar a day.

*

Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.

“Male Fixings” and Horse Manure — Akard Street, ca. 1906

akard-looking-north_cook-colln_degolyer_smu_ca-1906George W. Cook Collection, SMU

by Paula Bosse

This great photograph shows Akard Street looking north from just south of Main. I especially like the sign for “Male Fixings” (a store selling men’s clothing accessories). Let’s zoom in to see that sign better (click photo to see a much larger image).

akard-looking-north_cook-colln_degolyer_smu_ca-1906-det

I also like the guy with the bicycle, next to the barber pole at the lower right, and the lone woman crossing the street. (There is a little girl in a white dress on the sidewalk on the right — about to cross Main — but everyone else in this photo is of the gender that might well patronize a business called “Male Fixings.”)

As indelicate as it may be to bring up the subject … I assume there were people employed to walk around the streets with shovels to clean up after all those horses? I’ve actually thought of this fairly often. It had to have been a major, major problem back then. I’ve just looked it up. The average horse pulling wagons and carriages produced, on average, 30+ pounds of manure and several gallons of urine daily, deposited willy-nilly whenever the need arose (which was often). Multiply that by hundreds. This article isn’t about Dallas, but I highly recommend “The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894” — you’ll learn way more about the subject than you may want to — read it here. That lady crossing the street? I bet she spent a good part of every day hiking her skirts and dodging dung.

*

UPDATE: I’ve updated the title to this post several times (you’ll notice that the URL of this post shows a different location and year). After spending time to pin down the date, it appears this photo was taken between 1906 and 1909, when the Draughon Practical Business College was located at the southeast corner of Main and Akard — and the Oliver Typewriter Agency was located at 114 South Akard. The original annotation of this photo says the view is Main Street, with Akard in the midground, but it appears this photo was taken just south of Main Street looking north on Akard. The photo is confusing because the Draughon’s sign is seen here on the Akard Street side, not the Main Street side. The main tip-off is the cupola seen atop the building standing at the northwest corner of Main and Akard — it is the Rowan Building, which housed the Marvin Drug Store, which I wrote about here.

Draughon’s Practical Business College opened its first Dallas campus (but its 27th location across the major cities of the south) at the southeast corner of Main and Akard in March, 1906. By the time the 1910 city directory was printed, they had moved to another location (in fact, in their first ten years in Dallas they had moved five times!). I’m not sure how long the business college lasted in Dallas — at least through the 1970s, possibly longer — but the institution seems to still be in business after something like 130 years. (Click ads below to see larger images.)

draughon-business-school_dmn_0304061906

draughon-business-school_dmn_0315061906

***

This is another wonderful photo from the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University; it can be accessed (and zoomed in on) here.

Another interesting article on the “manure problem” is “When Horses Posed a Public Health Hazard” — a blog post from The New York Times (which tantalizingly mentions herds of pigs roaming the streets of NYC) — read it here.

*

Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.

Hot Lead: Linotype Machines at The Dallas Morning News — 1914

dmn_linotype_belo-coll_degolyer_1914Etaoin Shrdlu not pictured (click for larger image) SMU photo

by Paula Bosse

Above, a photograph by Charles E. Arnold showing the Dallas Morning News “machine room” in 1914, in which we see several Linotype machines and their operators. I have no technological aptitude, but, for some reason, I have been fascinated by elaborate machines like these my whole life. Even though computers long ago made these “hot metal” typesetting machines obsolete, it’s still kind of thrilling to see once-revolutionary contraptions in everyday use. I’m sure it was a deafening and monotonous job, but I’d love to have had the chance to operate one of those machines just once and churn out my own slugs of hot type. I love this photo, and it has lots of interesting things to zoom in on (click for larger images).

lino-1

lino-2

lino-3

lino-4

linotype

***

Sources & Notes

This photo is titled “Machine room at opening of Mechanical Building,” taken by Charles Erwin Arnold in 1914; it is from the Belo Records collection, DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University. I have had to tweak the color, because my image editor tends to turn the warm tones of the original into a harsh yellow — see a scan of the original photograph here.

See additional photos of linotype machines used at The Dallas Morning News, from the Belo/DeGolyer Library collection, here.

I lived in England for a couple of years, and while there, I was given an intensive lesson on the elaborately arcane rules of cricket. I finally understood the game perfectly! …for one day. Today I immersed myself in all-things linotype, and I completely understand how the machines worked. I’ll probably forget this by tomorrow, but today … YES! And it’s absolutely fascinating. You, too, can understand how they worked:

  • The Wikipedia entry is very clearly written — check it out here.
  • An industrial film from 1960 — viewable here — is WONDERFUL. Yes, it’s over 30 minutes long, but if you love stuff like this, the time will fly by! Seriously — it’s incredibly well-done.
  • In a video on YouTube — seen here — you can watch a retired linotype operator type on a (malfunctioning) WWII-era machine. (Imagine how loud an entire room of these machines would be.)

Another look at the linotype at work can be seen in the short film “Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu,” which documents the last issue of The New York Times using Linotype machines (in 1978) — you can watch it here.

Also worth watching is the recent entertaining documentary “Linotype: The Film” — you can watch a trailer here.

Don’t know the significance of “etaoin shrdlu”? I didn’t either until about an hour ago. Wikipedia to the rescue, here.

A very entertaining article to check out in the Dallas Morning News archives: “‘etaoin shrdlu’ The Mystic Symbol” by George Gee (DMN, April 12, 1925). In it Gee wondered what this exotic and mysterious “etaoin shrdlu” phrase could mean, going so far as to interview local “experts.” He obviously knew the secret, but he never did divulge it to his readers. Very entertaining. (As are the accompanying Jack Patton illustrations.)

All images larger when clicked.

*

Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.

 

Radio Broadcasting, 1922-Style

wfaa-control-room_belo_smu_1922WFAA “newsreader,” 1922 (click for larger image) Belo Collection, SMU

by Paula Bosse

This fantastic photo shows the interior of a little shack-like building on top of the old Dallas Morning News building at Commerce & Lamar, soon after WFAA radio had begun broadcasting in the summer of 1922. There are so many things I love about this photo. Let’s explore the details. (All pictures are larger when clicked.)

*

The Magnavox speaker/monitor.

wfaa-control-room_belo_smu_det1

*

The booster seat and the shoes that need a shine.

wfaa-control-room_belo_smu_det2

*

The announcer at work. (I’m assuming this telephone was being used as an early microphone?) The newspaper is The Dallas Journal, sister publication of The Dallas Morning News which owned WFAA radio. The headlines appear to be about the nationwide railroad and coalminers’ strikes, both of which had been getting more and more violent throughout July of 1922 (violence surrounding the railroad strike led to Texas Governor Pat Neff declaring martial law in Denison that month).

wfaa-control-room_belo_smu_det3

*

The control panel (which has its own fan).

wfaa-control-room_belo_smu_det4

*

And an open window around the corner, in the supervisor’s office. Cross-ventilation and oscillating fans might not have been hugely effective in keeping operators and machinery cool in the summertime.

wfaa-control-room_belo_smu_det5

*

Here’s another view of the “Operating Room,” as published in the DMN on June 25, 1922, the day before WFAA began broadcasting.

wfaa_operating-room_dmn_062522DMN, June 25, 1922

***

Photo titled “WFAA Radio Original Control Panel” from the Belo Papers collection, DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University; it can be viewed here.

A companion post to this, “WFAA’s ‘Altitudinous Antenna System'” — which contains a background of WFAA’s debut and several photographs — is here.

Other Flashback Dallas posts on Dallas Radio and TV are here.

Click pictures for larger images.

*

Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.

A Distant Dallas Hall on the Horizon — 1914

dallas-hall_continental-gin_det_1914A clear line of sight, from Deep Ellum to SMU (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

A quick “bonus” post: a detail of an incredible photo of the Continental Gin building which shows a ghostly Dallas Hall looming in the distance. Dallas Hall was the first building on the SMU campus, and in 1914 — a year before classes began — the far off building was way, way out in the country. SMU is a little over 5 miles from Deep Ellum. That’s quite a view.

***

This detail is from a photo featured in a previous Flashback Dallas post, “The Continental Gin Complex — 1914,” which can be seen here. I’ve just added this detail — and two other magnified details showing Baylor Hospital and the old Ursuline campus — to the post.

The original photograph, titled “Continental Gin Company on Elm Street, Facing North” by Charles Erwin Arnold, is from the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection housed at the DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University. The photo and its details can be viewed here. It really is one of my favorite historical Dallas photos ever.

*

Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.

 

“New Dallas Skyline” — 1913

1913-pano-3Dallas skyline panorama detail, 1913 (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

On April 1, 1913, one of Dallas’ most prominent photographers, Jno. J. Johnson, took a wonderful panoramic photo of the Dallas skyline. Dallas was, even then, boasting an impressive skyline. I’ve zoomed in a bit on the photo, breaking it down into four separate images. Johnson’s original photograph, titled “New Dallas Skyline — April 1, 1913,” is below. (Click to enlarge all images.)

dallas-panorama-skyline_april-1913_LOC(Click this photo!)
*

Below, the first portion of the photo.

1913-pano-1E. Eppstein & Co., wholesale distributors of whiskey and cigars, was at 1300-1302 Jackson.

*

1913-pano-2Above, the second portion, showing S. Akard Street, looking north — at the end of the street is the 6-month old Adolphus Hotel (then the tallest building in Dallas), built by beer baron Adolphus Busch, located on Commerce Street, catty-corner from his other hotel, The Oriental (the darker building in the center, with the distinctive top-knot on its northwest corner). The Praetorian Building (on Main) — a previous “tallest building in Dallas” — is the still tall-ish white building, second from the right.

*

The third portion (at the top) shows, I believe, Wood Street, looking east. The Post Office tower on Commerce can be seen at the far left. At the top, to the right of Wood Street (at S. Harwood) is the still-familiar sight of the First Presbyterian Church dome (brand new — the paint inside and out was probably still wet when this photograph was taken); to the right of the dome is the also-still-standing (and beautiful!) Scottish Rite Temple, also brand new.

*

1913-pano-4The final portion shows what I guess would be considered the northern edge of The Cedars? I love old photos that show residences in what we now consider the Central Business District. It’s so weird seeing these houses! The hulking turreted building at the top is Butler Brothers (built in 1910-11) at 500 S. Ervay; it later changed its name to the Merchandise Mart, and it is now undergoing renovation.

***

Panoramic photograph by Jno. J. Johnson, from the Library of Congress, here.

For those who want to play along at home, a 1919 street map of the area can be found at the ever-indispensable Portal to Texas History, here.

Click pictures for much larger images.

*

Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.

Lively Street Life Outside the Dallas Morning News Building — ca. 1900

dmn-bldg-c1900-degolyer_smuCommerce & Lamar (click for larger image) (DeGolyer Library, SMU)

by Paula Bosse

A photo showing the bustling streets surrounding the newly-expanded Dallas Morning News building, back when it was located at Commerce and Lamar streets. Below, a closer look at turn-of-the-century pedestrian traffic. Click pictures for larger images.

*

dmn-bldg-det1I love the man on the far left … contemplating posting a few illicit bills?

dmn-bldg-det5

dmn-bldg-det2Those curbs!

dmn-bldg-det3Journos.

dmn-bldg-det4A woman either stooped by age or bending over to pick something up, a woman with a carpet bag, and a high-off-the-ground buggy which illustrates one reason those curbs needed to be so high.

***

Photo titled “The Dallas Morning News building, Commerce & Lamar” from the Belo Records 1842-2007 collection, DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University; it can be viewed here.

Other views of the building from 1900 can be seen in these posts:

  • “Loitering In Front of The Dallas Morning News Building — ca. 1900, here
  • “The Dallas Morning News Building, Inside and Out — ca. 1900,” here

More posts where I’ve zoomed in on historic Dallas photos can be found here.

Click pictures for larger images.

*

Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.

The Allen Street Taxi Company

allen-st-taxi-co_cook-degolyerAllen St. Taxi Co. / George W. Cook Collection, SMU

by Paula Bosse

This has to be one of my favorite “unknown Dallas” photographs that I’ve come across. It shows the Allen St. Taxi Co. — in the State-Thomas area — at 1922 Allen Street (now pretty much vacant land under the Woodall Rodgers freeway). My ability to date cars is not good, but from city directory information, it seems that this photo might date from somewhere between the mid-1920s to around 1930. The owners/proprietors of the company were listed as John Leonard and Andrew Short in the 1929 telephone book. I wonder if they are in this fantastic photo? Let’s look a little more closely at some of the details. (All pictures larger when clicked.)

allen-st-taxi-co_cook-degolyer_det2Those phones!

allen-st-taxi-co_cook-degolyer-det4I love these guys. All business.

allen-st-taxi-co_cook-degolyer_det5“Bullweed.” What is all this writing? I love the guy’s face looking out of the window.

allen-st-taxi-co_cook-degolyer_det1“Dallas.” Car-people know exactly what make and model this vehicle is. …I am not one of these people.

allen-st-taxi-co_cook-degolyer_det3

***

Sources & Notes

Top photo, titled “Allen Street Taxi Co.,” is from the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University; it can be viewed here.

The first “official” listing of the Allen St. Taxi Co. was in the 1929 city directory. The address at that time (which usually reflected information supplied the previous year) was 1907 Allen St. It didn’t appear again in the directory until 1932 when it was listed at 2816 Juliette St. In 1933 and 1934 it was listed at 2114 Hall St. In 1936 and 1937 it had moved to 2217 Hugo. And in 1938, the taxi part of the business seems to have fallen by the wayside, and it became Allen St. Transfer.

In 1925 there were only three official cab companies listed in the city directory. But the rough-and-tumble world of taxi cab service in the unregulated ’20s and ’30s was pretty intense. There were a lot of unlicensed jitneys rolling around town, especially, one would assume, in the segregated black neighborhoods of the city unlikely to be served by white-owned companies. My guess is that this might have been how the Allen St. Taxi Co. began.

For more on the go-go-go competitive world of taxi service at this time, see my previous post, “Washington Taxi Company: ‘Call George!'” here.

*

Copyright © 2015 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.