Flashback : Dallas

February 10, 2019

A Few Photo Additions to Past Posts — #10

by Paula Bosse

Time again to add bits and pieces of stuff I’ve come across recently to old posts.

The first addition is the photo above, showing a once-familiar site upon approaching Six Flags Over Texas. This has been added to the inexplicably popular “The Hyperbolic Paraboloids of the Prairie.” (Source: Texas Highways magazine Facebook page — 1961 photo by Willis Albarado)

Below, a photo of the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink eye-popping “ballyhoo” adorning the entrance to the Capitol Theater for the 1936 showing of Marihuana, now a cult classic. (“Weed with roots in hell. Can they take it just once and then quit? Women cry for it, men will slay for it.”) (Movie promotion isn’t what it used to be.) This fantastic photo has been added to one of my favorite posts “‘Delusions of Affability’ — Marijuana in 1930s Dallas.” (Source: George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University) (All images are larger when clicked.)

This ca. 1875-1880 photo of the R. F. Eisenlohr store and “German pharmacy” (southwest corner of Main and Field) has been added to “The Eisenlohr Family and Dallas’ First Christmas Tree — 1874.” (Source: DeGolyer Library, SMU)

Nothing all that exciting, perhaps, about this matchbook art, but it’s atmospheric. It’s been added to “Gene’s Music Bar, The Lasso Bar, and the Zoo Bar.” (Source: eBay)

This article on Dallas’ historic cemeteries near where the current City Hall was built has been added to “The Historic Masonic, Odd Fellows, and City Cemeteries.” (Source: Historic Dallas magazine, July, 1985, via UNT’s Portal to Texas History)

My family’s neighborhood “special occasion” restaurant was Kirby’s steakhouse on Lower Greenville. I recently came across a 1987 Channel 5 news report on the closing of the long-lived restaurant (it had started out as a Pig Stand in the 1920s). I’ve added this screenshot and the link to the news report (which can be watched here) to the post “My Birthdays at Kirby’s: Filet Mignon for Everyone!” (Source: KXAS-NBC 5 News Collection, UNT Libraries, via the Portal to Texas History)

The Associated Press photo below — which shows a police officer posing with confiscated contraband seized in raids of the homes of the city’s “enemy aliens” (in this case Germans and Italians) — has been added to the post “‘Enemy Aliens’ and the WWII Internment Camp at Seagoville,” along with a United Press article from Feb., 1942.

Lubbock Avalanche, Feb. 26, 1942 (click to read)

Three views of the DP&L power plant because, why not?, has been added to “DP&L’s Twin Smokestacks.”

via DeGolyer Library, SMU

via Squire Haskins Collection, University of Texas at Arlington

source unknown

I keep adding photos of the old East Dallas railroad depot to the post “The Old Union Depot in East Dallas: 1897-1935” — it may be getting a bit much. I’m adding three more anyway.

via DeGolyer Library, SMU

“Your Dallas of Tomorrow” (1943), Portal to Texas History

I’ve been contacted by several people who live in the converted factory now known as “2220 Canton” about the (FANTASTIC!) main photo I used in the post “Canton Street: Poultry, Pecans, and Future Luxury Lofts.” Only because I had to figure out where that photo had been taken do I now know about Olive & Myers, the furniture manufacturers who once occupied a sprawling hub of buildings in the Farmers Market area. I’m adding a few images to that post for you, enthusiastic 2220 people.

ca. 1905, DeGolyer Library, SMU (link lost!)

via DeGolyer Library, SMU

Legacies, Spring 2013, via Portal to Texas History

Centennial ad, June, 1936, above (with very large detail below)

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February 8, 2019

Casa Linda Aerials — 1940s

Enjoy that wide-open space while you can… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

Here are two fantastic aerial photos showing the Casa Linda area east of White Rock Lake. The one above shows the very early days of development of the Casa Linda Plaza shopping district. The first building was the Casa Linda Theater, which opened on August 9, 1945 (the grand opening feature was “The Affairs of Susan” starring Joan Fontaine and George Brent). The theater (now Natural Grocers) can be seen at the middle left. Buckner Boulevard (Loop 12) runs diagonally in this photo, from the lower left to the top right; Garland Road runs horizontally just above the theater. The then-new Fire Station #31 (which opened in the summer of 1947 and is still in service) can be seen on Garland Road, above and to the left of the theater. (See this same view in a current aerial view from Google here.)

Also visible in the above photo is the sorely-missed Pegasus-topped service station at the corner of Garland Rd. and Buckner.

Below, a view from the other direction — this time looking toward the southeast. This aerial photo was taken by Lloyd M. Long in 1941. Carl M. Brown, the developer of Casa Linda, had already begun turning farmland into a new residential neighborhood — the shopping center was still years away. The land which would eventually become Casa Linda Plaza can be seen just left of the center of this photo — Garland Road can be seen running from the lower right to the upper left (from East Dallas toward the city of Garland). (To get your bearings, see a “labeled” version of this photo from SMU’s Edwin J. Foscue Map Library, here.)

Edwin J. Foscue Map Library, SMU

Opening of Casa Linda Estates, Oct. 1937 (click for larger image)

***

Sources & Notes

Top photo was posted in the “Dallas History (Before 1960)” Facebook group. The person who posted the photo gave the date as March, 1945, which seems incorrect, as the fire station was not built until 1947.

The second aerial photo, “Casa Linda and Vicinity, Dallas, Texas, Looking S.E. from 9,500′ (unlabeled),” was taken by Lloyd M. Long on March 1, 1941; it is from the Edwin J. Foscue Map Library, SMU Libraries, Southern Methodist University and can be accessed here. (The “labeled” version can be found here.)

Read an extremely enthusiastic profile of Carl M. Brown and his Casa Linda dreams in a 1953 “Story of Free Enterprise” article here.

The Casa Linda Shopping Center Wikipedia entry is here.

10 Comments

February 5, 2019

Stoneleigh Pharmacy / Stoneleigh P

The pharmacy’s soda fountain… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

I’m pretty sure I was in the old Stoneleigh Pharmacy before it became the Stoneleigh P, but if so, I have no memory of it other than sitting at the fountain. I might have had a grilled cheese sandwich and a milkshake. I’ve definitely been in the “P” post-1980 — in fact, my father’s bookstore used to be across the street from it, and it was definitely a mainstay for great hamburgers.

Despite the location being so familiar, I didn’t know about the history of the old Stoneleigh Pharmacy, so when I came across the (slightly blurry) photo above and the one immediately below, I thought I should look into what was happening at 2926 Maple Avenue before the arrival of the Stoneleigh P.

The Stoneleigh Pharmacy was the anchor of a small strip of shops which were built in 1923 at Maple and Wolf, directly across from the brand-new Stoneleigh Court, which, though now a hotel, began life as a very fashionable apartment-hotel (an apartment house with hotel amenities). There were concerns about a shopping strip in what was then a residential area, and the city tried to stop the construction. (Most images are larger when clicked.)

Dallas Morning News, Feb. 25, 1923

But the city lost and the building was completed.

DMN, July 8, 1923

I looked everywhere to find a period photo, and this is the best I could do — it appeared in a special section of The Dallas Morning News which coincided with the opening week of the Stoneleigh Court.

DMN, Oct. 14, 1923

Here’s a drawing:

DMN, Oct. 14, 1923

The interior of what was originally called the Stoneleigh Drug Store, at 2926 Maple Avenue:

DMN, Oct. 14, 1923

And a description of what sounds like a showplace of a drugstore, including Circassian-walnut fixtures inlaid with ebony:

DMN, Oct. 14, 1923

Its neighbors, in 1927:

Maple Ave., 1927 Dallas directory

The drug store was owned by a company presided over by Royal A. Ferris, Jr., whose banker father had, until 1913, owned what many considered to be the most beautiful house in Dallas — Ivy Hall (which was situated at Maple and Wolf, diagonally across from the pharmacy, and which would become the site of the Maple Terrace Apartments in 1924).

The drug store changed hands several times, until 1931 when pharmacist Henry C. Burroughs acquired it — and he was there for the long-haul, owning it until 1970. (H. C. Burroughs is also notable for having served on the very first Dallas City Council, having been elected in 1931 when the city of Dallas adopted the city council-city manager form of government.)

Henry C. Burroughs, 1950s

In 1973, the pharmacy stopped being a pharmacy when it was purchased by a group of investors including Tom Garrison, who renovated the old drugstore into a neighborhood bar/pub, while still retaining a drugstore “theme” and naming the new endeavor the Stoneleigh P. It was an immediate hit with the intellectual/artistic crowd, attracting denizens of the (then-funky) McKinney Avenue and Oak Lawn neighborhoods, Stoneleigh Hotel guests, Maple Terrace residents, and staffers from nearby KERA.

It was “happening” but not obnoxious — although the Lou Lattimore ad below — featuring a “glitter jeans” “knockoutfit” (yes, “knockoutfit”) which “can make you outsparkle the gang at the Stoneleigh P” — might have one thinking otherwise. (It was the ’70s, man.)

Lou Lattimore ad, January, 1974

Everything seemed to be going along swimmingly when, in the early hours of January 26, 1980 a huge fire engulfed the group of buildings on the southeast corner of Maple and Wolf — according to newspaper reports, at least 15 “major pieces of equipment” and 75 firefighters responded to the multi-alarm fire. The 57-year-old building burned to the ground. Watch the WBAP-Ch. 5 News report here (with additional footage here).

A few screenshots from the above-linked news report:

Garrison rebuilt, and the new Stoneleigh P opened in the summer of 1981. It still stands and is something of a Dallas institution. It’s now an unbelievable 46 years old. Here’s how it celebrated its 18th anniversary:

1991 ad

I’m certainly glad it’s still around. I’ve got some great memories of the Stoneleigh P (except, maybe, for that one New Year’s Eve in the ’80s…).

***

Sources & Notes

Top two photos found on eBay. They appear to have been taken by the Liquid Carbonic Corporation, manufacturers of soda fountains — read all about the company here.

Stoneleigh Pharmacy label (with red letters) is from Jim Wheat’s Dallas County Texas Archives site. (J. T. Covington was associated with the pharmacy from about 1925 to 1927.)

Videotape screenshots are from the WBAP-Ch. 5 News report on the 1980 fire; footage is from the KXAS-NBC 5 News Collection, UNT Libraries Special Collections, Portal to Texas History.

Photo showing the interior of the Stoneleigh P was taken in 2015 by Paula Bosse.

An entertaining interview with Stoneleigh P owner Tom Garrison can be found in the 2017 D Magazine article “History of Dallas Food: Tom Garrison’s Stoneleigh P” by Nancy Nichols, here.

Stoneleigh P website is here.

stoneleigh-p-fire_sign_012680_ch-5-news_portal

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February 3, 2019

Dallas Football Through the Decades

Tom Landry, Texas Stadium, 1971… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

Here are a few football-centric Dallas images to enjoy on this football-centric day.

Above, Dallas Cowboys’ coach Tom Landry in 1971, surveying with wonderment the then-under-construction Texas Stadium (via UTA Special Collections).

1905: Early days of local football. In 1905 there were hopes of getting up a “heavyweight team.” Prospects were iffy. (All images are larger when clicked.)

Dallas Morning News, Sept. 3, 1905

This was at a time when football injuries — and DEATH — were not uncommon.

DMN, Oct. 13, 1905

1911: The Dallas High School team at Gaston Park (a popular sporting field which is now the site of the Dallas Music Hall at Fair Park). This photo was taken on December 16, 1911 — that day they defeated Fort Worth High, 15-5.

George W. Cook Collection, DeGolyer Library, SMU

1918: The Love Field eleven was made up of military personnel based at the airfield during World War I. They played other military teams in the area, venturing as far as at least Waco.

George W. Cook Collection, DeGolyer Library, SMU

1920s: The “State Fair of Texas” stadium predated the Cotton Bowl. This aerial photo shows what was probably the University of Texas vs. Vanderbilt game, which took place on Oct. 13, 1928 during the State Fair of Texas. (Vanderbilt won, 13-12.)

From “Dallas As a City In Which To Live” booklet, SMU

1920s: The SMU Mustangs took on the University of Missouri Tigers at Ownby Stadium.

From “Dallas As a City In Which To Live” booklet, SMU

1932: Speaking of the SMU Mustangs, then-local sports superstar (and Olympics medalist) Babe Didrikson — who was proficient in every single sport she tried — was given the opportunity by SMU coach Ray Morrison to give football the old college try: he coached her in passing and receiving and even allowed her to suit up in an official uniform. She tried out her football moves for the pubic during a scrimmage in Ownby Stadium on September 18, 1932.

One of the most interesting features of the program from a football fan’s standpoint was demonstration of several of the Ponies’ famous scoring plays, in fast and slow motion. Babe Didrikson, Dallas’ famous feminine athlete, took part in the slow motion exercises and proved herself somewhat of a polished gridder — adding more fame to her long list of athletic achievements. (DMN, Sept. 18, 1932)

Boston Globe, 9/23/32; Pottsville [PA] Republican, 9/28/32

1933: The stadium which would eventually be named the Cotton Bowl looks a little otherworldly in this Lloyd M. Long aerial photo.

Edwin J. Foscue Map Library, SMU

1940s: Dal-Hi Stadium (later P. C. Cobb Stadium) was the home field for six Dallas high schools.

In December, 1949, Dal-Hi served as the practice field for the University of North Carolina team while in Dallas for the January 2, 1950 Cotton Bowl match against Rice University (which Rice won, 27-13). I like this snapshot — downtown looms like a ghost in the background.

via “Dismal Day in Dallas”

1950s: Dallas had a pro team before the Cowboys — the Dallas Texans. Here’s their ticket office, at 1721 McKinney Avenue. (From the article “Gone and Forgotten, The Dallas Texans of 1952” by Thomas H. Smith, from the Spring, 2005 issue of Legacies.)

via Legacies

1950s/1960s: Dallas high school football coaches who were all connected at one point (either as players or coaches) with Booker T. Washington High School: the legendary Raymond Hollie (head coach at both Booker T. and Roosevelt), Marion “Jap” Jones, and Sam Briscoe.

John Leslie Patton Papers, Dallas Historical Society

1960s: A quaint Dallas Cowboys locker room.

via Pinterest

1981: In the tradition of other comic-book heroes appearing in Dallas to save whatever needed saving (here and here), Spider-Man and the Hulk stopped by to help with some football-related issue. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders appear to have been involved.

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January 31, 2019

From the Vault: #1 in Junk

by Paula Bosse

Who was the top man in junk in turn-of-the-century Dallas? It was F. J. Hengy, who, when not practicing his junk business, seems to have spent all of his free time in court suing and being sued. Read about this interesting early Dallasite in the Flashback Dallas post from 2015, “F. J. Hengy: Junk Merchant, Litigant.”

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January 29, 2019

Temple Emanu-El, At the “Northern Limits of Dallas” — 1957

Temple Emanu-El, 1957… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

Above, the new, not-yet-landscaped Temple Emanu-El in 1957, at the northeast corner of Hillcrest and Northwest Highway; this aerial view is looking north from Northwest Highway. (The view today, via Google Earth, is here.)

In 1952 Temple Emanu-El’s congregation purchased eighteen rolling acres of Caruth farmland from Earle Clark Caruth, at what was then described as “the northern limits of Dallas.” This was after a lengthy period of consideration by leaders of the congregation over whether they should accept the gift of developer and artist Sylvan T. Baer of eleven “wooded and rolling” acres in Oak Lawn along Turtle Creek which he had offered as the site of a new temple. Even though Baer’s attractive site was more centrally located than their long-time South Dallas location (a definite bonus, as the congregation wished to move closer to the North Dallas area where most of their members now lived), the Turtle Creek site was ultimately deemed to be too small, too far from the North Dallas area they preferred, and too restrictive as far as the ability to finance construction. (Though rejected as a religious site, Baer’s very pretty land eventually became the home of the Dallas Theater Center.)

Temple Emanu-El — home to the largest reform Jewish congregation in the South — hired Dallas architects Howard R. Meyer and Max M. Sandfield to design their new home (with William W. Wurster of the University of California serving as consultant); the project was announced in 1954, and dedication ceremonies of the finished building(s) took place in February, 1957, probably around the time the photos below and above were taken.

Feb. 2, 1957

Below, the first Temple Emanu-El, built in 1876 at Commerce and Field, designed by architect Carl G. DeGrote. It was dedicated May 28, 1876 (read the extensive coverage of the ceremonies as printed in the Dallas Herald here — click “zoom” to read). After a move to their next location, the old temple became the University of Dallas Medical Department in 1900; it was demolished around 1906.

Temple Emanu-El, first location

Later, as a medical school (DHS photo via NIH)

The second site was at the corner of S. Ervay and St. Louis, in The Cedars, built around 1898, designed by architects J. Reilly Gordon, H. A. Overbeck, and Roy Overbeck. Following another move in the ‘teens, the building was converted into a Unitarian Church; it was demolished in 1961 to make room for R. L. Thornton Freeway.

The congregation moved into its third location about 1917: a new Hubbell & Greene-designed building at South Boulevard and S. Harwood, where they remained until the move to the new Hillcrest location. This building was demolished in 1972.

The congregation officially moved to their fourth (and current) location, in North Dallas, at the beginning of 1957, led by Rabbi Levi A. Olan.

Texas Jewish Post, Sept. 30, 1954 (click to read)

***

Sources & Notes

First three photos by Life magazine photographer Joe Scherschel, © Time Inc. More than 100 photos from this assignment can be found here and here. Supposedly there was a cover-story on the new building, but all I’ve found is this one-page photo-with-caption from the Feb. 25, 1957 issue. If anyone has info on a lengthier Life story, please let me know.

Drawing and article announcing the new Temple Emanu-El are from the Texas Jewish Post (Sept. 30, 1954), here. (UNT’s Portal to Texas History has fully-scanned issues of the DFW-centric Texas Jewish Post — 1950-2011 — accessible here. All issues are searchable, and all have articles, photos, and ads — it is a fantastic resource.)

Read a description of the just-completed first Dallas synagogue from the Dallas Herald (May 28, 1876), here (column 4); read the surprisingly lengthy coverage of the official opening ceremonies, which includes a history of the events which led to the building’s construction, in the May 30, 1876 Herald, here (columns 1-4). (To read the articles, click the “zoom” tab above the scanned page.)

Read the Temple Emanu-El entry in the Handbook of Texas here.

The history page of the Temple Emanu–El website is here.

Head to the Dallas Morning News archives to read about the art and architecture of Temple Emanu-El in the article “A Temple of Art, Architecture — The Forms Merge In Well-Designed Emanu-El” by architecture critic David Dillon (DMN, Dec. 24, 1984).

A comprehensive history of Temple Emanu-El and Jewish life in Dallas (well-illustrated with photographs) can be found in the book A Light in the Prairie, Temple Emanu-El of Dallas, 1872-1997 by Gerry Cristol (Fort Worth: TCU Press, 1998).

All images are larger when clicked.

2 Comments

January 27, 2019

“Enjoy That Dallas, Texas Hospitality”

by Paula Bosse

…Or else!

“Easy to reach … hard to leave.”

***

Sources & Notes

Images from a great 1950s matchbook, found on eBay — like these.

2 Comments

January 21, 2019

Allen & Cochran: Allen Street Drugs, St. Peter’s Academy, St. John Baptist Church — ca. 1946

Allen Street Drugs at Allen & Cochran… (photo: Dallas Public Library)

by Paula Bosse

Above, a group of men and boys gathered outside Allen St. Drugs — 1920 Allen Street, at the corner of Cochran — posing for famed Dallas photographer Marion Butts. Behind the group is St. Peter’s Church and St. Peter’s Academy, a Catholic church and affiliated school for black children (at 2018 Allen); facing St. Peter’s (but out of frame) is St. John Baptist Church (2019 Allen). This was a busy and well-traveled intersection for the African American neighborhood of “North Dallas.”

St. Peter’s Academy — which was still around into the late 1980s — was built in 1908, largely due to the urging of black entrepreneur Valentine Jordan and his wife Mary Jordan who were impressed with the education provided to the (white) students attending the Catholic Ursuline Academy; they requested that Bishop E. J. Dunne open a similar school for black children, and Bishop Dunne obliged. Before it was named “St. Peter’s Academy,” it was known as The Sisters’ Institute (named for the Sisters of the Holy Ghost). Elementary and high school classes were taught, and boarding options were offered to girls. In the mid 1960s the school had 600 (predominantly Protestant) students.

Dallas Express, Sept. 6, 1924

Dallas Express, Aug. 27, 1921

Dallas Express, Jan. 6, 1923

Dallas Express, Jan. 13, 1923

st-peters-acad_negro-in-tx_1935_lg
St. Peter’s Academy, circa 1935

The large St. John Baptist Church was a fixture of the community, led for many years by its pastor Ernest C. Estell.

Dallas, Texas Negro City Directory, 1946-47

Sadly, these buildings are no longer standing. St. Peter the Apostle is located in a new building at Allen and what is now Woodall Rodgers Freeway, and much of their congregation is of Polish ancestry, with services conducted in both Polish and English. The drugstore seen at the top sat on land razed for construction of Woodall Rodgers. The view today can be seen here.

Allen St., between Munger & Hallsville — 1944-45 Dallas directory

1952 Mapsco (star indicates location of Allen St. Drugs)

***

Sources & Notes

Top photo by Marion Butts, from the Marion Butts: Lens on Dallas Collection, Dallas Public Library. More information on the work of Mr. Butts may be found here.

Most images are larger when clicked.

January 19, 2019

From the Vault: Dali Does Dallas — 1952

“A Dali-an door!”

by Paula Bosse

Salvador Dali visited Dallas in February, 1952 on a lecture tour. Not only was he delighted to find this oddly slanted doorway at Union Station, he also said that while in Texas he had been astonished to find himself dreaming in vivid technicolor. Read the original Flashback Dallas post “Salvador Dali Brings ‘Nuclear Mysticism’ to Dallas — 1952,” here.

January 17, 2019

Caterpillars On the Job at Ross and Market — 1922

Roadwork in the warehouse district…

by Paula Bosse

I’ve loved vintage and historical advertisements since I was a child. Since becoming more focused on Dallas history, I’m always excited to find old ads with photos of recognizable Dallas locations, like the one below for Caterpillar tractors, which was printed in the Saturday Evening Post in 1922. (Click to see a larger image and read the rousing tribute given to these “motorized outfits” by City Engineer George D. Fairtrace.)

The photo shows a Dallas street maintenance crew grading Ross Avenue at the intersection of N. Market in 1922 (see the current Google Street View here). Every building seen in the photo is still standing in the Historic West End:

Southwest General Electric Co., 1701 N. Market (it was later occupied by the Higginbotham-Pearlstone Hardware Co.)
Federal Glass & Paint Co., 1709 N. Market
Fairbanks, Morse & Co., 1713 N. Market
Texas Ice & Cold Storage (partially visible at the right), 701 Ross (until recent years the long-time home of The Palm restaurant; in 1922 it was, I believe, a brand new building)

Google Street View, 2016

Bing Streetside, 2015

Thank you, Caterpillar ad!

***

Sources & Notes

1922 Caterpillar ad found on eBay, here.

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