Trick or treat, y’all. Cemeteries (see Part 1 and Part 2) aren’t the only places to go to get in the mood for Halloween. Here are some scary faces seen elsewhere around town:
Beasties on the Al Hayne memorial fountain (1893), Lancaster at Main.
A serpent-tongued Mayan face flanked by griffins on the Blackstone Hotel (1929). (And if you are columbaphobic—afraid of pigeons—the scarier, the merrier!)
More griffins on the Blackstone Hotel.
Creatures on the Woolworth Building (Clarkson, 1926).
And on the house of oilman Richard Otto Dulaney at 1001 Elizabeth Boulevard in Ryan Place.
Griffin on the old central post office building (Hedrick, 1933).
Lamp post base at the old central post office building.
Light on its feet: Also at the old central post office building, the base of a four-footed lamp post.
Graffiti portrait on the Jennings Street underpass.
Mural on the wall of the Southwest Community Center.
Faces on the horse fountain water trough (1892, reconstructed 1999) at the courthouse.
A detail on a wall of the fine home (1906) of real estate millionaire James F. Moore on Quality Hill, now part of the Woman’s Club compound on Pennsylvania Avenue. I think that what we’ve got here is the body of a bat and the head of Lee Van Cleef. Anyway, it’s real scary.
This two-headed, cloven-hoofed bas-relief on the Hotel Texas (Sanguinet and Staats, 1921) has always creeped me out.
Finally, these three faces (two of them almost identical) peer down from the shadows under the eave of the little Atelier Building (1905) on West 8th Street between the former Barber’s and Thompson’s bookstores. In case you are ever asked on a quiz show, the Atelier Building was the temporary home of the contents of the Carnegie Public Library when the library’s new building was being built.
The Atelier Building originally housed a bank. These three guys probably were loan officers.
Based on that base, brass creepy THING at the main PO, I must use snail mail more often. Or endure the eyes!
OK, i sent hallowe’en cards to fam & friends via good old USPS. I feel safe.
Good attempts to repel werewolves. In Austin they use moonlite towers . . . the only thing that works.
Thank you for sharing…thoroughly enjoy all the interesting and esoteric things you gift us with.
Thank you for your kind words, Harry. I had fun with that Halloween series.
Based on the recent experiences I had getting a new loan, the bottom three are probably loan underwriters. The loan officers might appear in a future, more angelic post…
Coincidentally I was shooting some angels at Oakwood Cemetery just yesterday. Not a “Next Teller Please” sign in sight.