Another year is almost history. As we ring out the old and ring in the new, seen around town are some signs of times gone by:
Iron Age artifact: The badge of the defunct Missouri-Kansas-Texas (Katy) railroad still adorns the overpass (1931) on Morningside Drive north of Katy Lake.
The crowned head of candy: King Candy Company on East 8th Street.
Fossil fuel: Sign at Paul Lemon’s restored Sinclair gas station on McCart Avenue. (The Filling Stations That Time Forgot)
Jack Shelton’s plumbing company was located at 1128 South Main Street from 1949 until 1965. The lettering on the storefront is tiled.
On Davis Boulevard near the TEXRail crossing.
Also near the TEXRail track, hanging in a back yard, is the sign that hung at Cromer’s Ace shop downtown. Cromer’s Ace duplicated keys and repaired locks, sold and repaired bicycles, and repaired small electric appliances.
Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar is housed in the building on Houston Street that once was a W. T. Grant store. The “Grant” sign is at the top of the building.
Smoke signal: The faded ghost sign of Owl brand cigars on the east wall of the Cantina Cadillac building on West Exchange Avenue. (More ghost signs)
Hush, puppy: “That’s my dog, Tige. He lives in a shoe. I’m Buster Brown. Look for me in there, too.” Buster Brown and his dog Tige began selling shoes in 1904. These two metal signs hang on the wall of Cooper Footcare Facility on Southwest Loop 820. In a full-page ad in 1930 Leonard’s Department Store promised that Buster Brown shoes would impart “glorious foot health for boys and girls.”
The Rocket’s red glare: The Rocket Club on Jacksboro Highway featured entertainment such as Trudine the quiver queen. The building now houses a muffler shop.
Frozen in time: In front of a building (1912) at the corner of West Allen and Fairmount streets in Fairmount hangs this faded sign for Boswell Dairy’s ice cream. The Boswell family began selling fresh milk from its grocery store in 1900, established a dairy near Saginaw about 1901.
Update: The Boswell sign, I am told, now hangs inside the building, which now houses the Arise Africa ministry. The Fairmount building housed a neighborhood grocery for at least fifty years.
Say it with Green Stamps: W. F. Laurence fine flowers on Magnolia Avenue. This building now houses Fixture Kitchen and Social Lounge.
Roll model: Firestone service store (1930) on West 7th Street. The building today is part of the Firestone Apartments.
The merchant of 7th Street: Montgomery Ward building (1928) on West 7th Street. Today the building houses retail and residential.
“All points beyond”: Santa Fe freight depot (1938) on Jones Street. Today the building houses the Fort Worth center of the University of Texas at Arlington.
Eighty cents per car: One of Fort Worth’s yoostabe drive-in theaters, the Meadowbrook, on Riverside Drive. Today homeless people use the theater’s screen for shelter.
Three more yoostabes: Azle Theater on Azle Avenue, Berry Theater on Hemphill Street, Poly Theater on Vaughn Boulevard. The Azle Theater building recently housed a Zumba center. The Berry and Poly have been vacant for years.
The Merchant of Vaughn Boulevard: Rox-Ex exterminating company on Vaughn Boulevard. The building is vacant today.
A Dodge, a date, and a double cheese: Clover Driftwood drive-in restaurant (later the Boardwalk lounge; today the lot is cleared, but the sign survives) on Lancaster Avenue and the Clover drive-in restaurant (now a bank) on Rosedale Street. Herman and Odell Allen owned the Clover drive-ins and the Clover Grill and Club downtown.
“Always good”: Ashburn’s ice cream parlor on Rosedale Street. Today Texas Wesleyan University owns the building.
The original dollar store: The Mehl Building (Clarkson, 1916) on Henderson Street housed the business of numismatist Max Mehl. Today the building is office space.
Speed dial: Phone numbers had just six digits when this Sanguinet and Staats-designed building (now owned by XTO Energy) on Calhoun Street was the Binyon-O’Keefe storage warehouse. Cattle baron C. A. O’Keefe also built the Blackstone Hotel.
“Half the fun of having feet”: The Solomon shoe store building (1903) on Houston Street now houses a bar.
“Convenient credit terms”: Joe Daiches credit jewelers in the Gause Building on Houston Street. Today the building is vacant.
In the sweet by-and-by: The Vandervoort’s dairy plant on South Main Street is now owned by Kroger.
“All aboard!”: track signs of the Texas & Pacific passenger station. Today the building houses lofts. (More railroad signs)
“Better groceries for less”: Piggly Wiggly sign on the building that now houses Old Home Supply on College Avenue in Fairmount.
Main packer backers: Armour and Swift signs on Exchange Avenue. In 1902 Louville Veranus Niles announced that Jonathan Ogden Armour had been elected president and Gustavus Franklin Swift vice president of the Fort Worth Stockyards Company as construction of the two packing plants was about to begin. Today almost all of the buildings of the two packing plants are gone.
Happy new year and “take a cup o’ kindness yet,” y’all, for auld lang signs.
Hello Mike,
I would like to tell you how much I have enjoyed your website for
about four years now.
Reading it daily the new norm for me.
What I like most is seeing how the town
grew in all directions and learning how streets and neighborhoods got their name.
I worked for the City of Fort Worth and you have connected a lot of
trivial puzzle pieces.
Also I just lost a good friend
born in 1931 and lived entirely
in Fort Worth.
He would remember and ofttimes
expound and confirm . I liked to hear about the Westbrook Hotel and other happenings in
Down Town Cow Town !
As another year of fine reporting
comes to a close ,
~ Thank You Mike ~
for telling us about this
Queen Of The Prairie .
Thank you so much for your kind words about my blog, Mr. Allison.
A bit of trivia for you Mike. As a freshman coming from Forest Oak Jr High about to join and be part of of the Poly Marching 100, we were required to buy our own black leather marching shoes to match every one else. All of us were directed to the Red Goose shoe store in downtown. I wish I still had mine, but they were passed on to my sister after me. I think they were the most expensive shoes I’d ever owned in my life! We were required to keep them polished and shined to pass inspection
Happy New Year to you Mike and again Thanks for the Memories ???- Marian
Happy New Year to you, Marian.
my mother’s aunt was sally sansom(related to the sansom family of sansom park), who had sally’s flower shop on camp bowie, and the sign is still there though the business is different and the building is much smaller. my mother said she was a successful business woman starting in the 40’s, she had a home off vickery and westridge, called sally’s valley. it’s a family story, and also one of ft worth, i think. i really enjoy your site. thank you.
Thanks, Debra. I have a post about three of the Sansoms.
Sally’s Valley house was designed by nationally known architect Charles Dilbeck. A romantic architect of European period houses. It still stands and has been well restored, though one can just get a glimpse of it beyond the security gate on the East side of Westridge at the bottom of the hill. As a youngster, I roamed the woods that were part of the property that stretched all the way to the present Bryant Irving.An old Black man had a tiny house on a pond on the eastern side of these woods, and had lived there so long that it was said that he was a homesteader. He had a pen for horses where folks from Como kept their horses for the Fourth of July parade. Sally through big parties that spread through the landscaped grounds and included fashion shows.
There are so many more, that you could post from now to 2030 and still miss some. Rock Island for one.
In fact, I have a separate post on railroad signs, mostly on bridges and overpasses.
I actually saw a Gulf fillin’ station in business up in Gainesville recently!
Say, have you seen any Mission Soda signs around Fort Worth?
No, Dennis, I have not. Loved Mission cream soda.
The current owners of the Fairmount Grocery have requested the FW Landmarks Commission to allow them to take downw the “Boswell” sign and ‘display’ it inside the building. In my opinion, not an appropriate for this historic sign.
Thanks for letting me know. I hope the sign stays outside. But if it disappears I’ll hope it’s inside the building, not at the landfill.
I am confused by the Montgomery Plaza sign. Are we saying goodbye to the condos already? The use of the word plaza makes me think of Ward Plaza at Berry and Riverside, which closed years ago.
Walter, I included the Montgomery Plaza sign just as a reminder that the building yoostabe a Montgomery Ward store.
These Auld Lang signs kindle some great memories…many thanks Mike
Thank you, Kelly.
Great stuff Mike. Always look forward to seeing what you post.
Thanks and happy new year, Keith.
Mike, I love, love, love the panther abovethe handlebars. And looking at all these old signs is just really a stroll down memory lane, especially the theaters. My degree in comparative anatomy came from the Meadowbrook Drive-in and the Twin on Lancaster.
Thanks, Ken. Wish the background weren’t so cluttered, but Photoshop is a slippery slope. I was a Mansfield Drive-in man myself. My 1951 Pontiac always could sense place and time: It would never start at the drive-in when my date’s curfew was nearing, and we had to leave. And getting a jump start from the study buddies behind the steamed-up windows in the car beside us was never easy.
Happy New Year to you Mike! Keep up the good work!
Thanks, Bev, and happy new year to you. Thanks for reading.