The “Other” Main Streets: From Pep Boys to Doughboys (Part 3)

Today, while everyone else is downtown for day 3 of the Main St. Fort Worth Arts Festival, we continue our tour of the “other” Main streets, beginning at the Trinity River and moseying north (see Part 1, Part 2).

Paddock Viaduct (1914) and courthouse (1895).

bridge paddock reflection 1Arch of the viaduct.

reflection bridge paddock blue moonPaddock Viaduct under a blue moon.

View from the Paddock Viaduct toward the confluence of the Clear and the West forks of the Trinity River and another historicon, the power plant, which opened in early 1913.

power cornerThe old power plant.

A panther on a building of the Pate family’s Texas Refinery Corporation (originally “Panther Oil & Grease Manufacturing Company”).

building 2411 north main piggly

From 1920 to 1933 the building at 2411-13 North Main housed a Piggly Wiggly grocery store. Note the brickwork above the windows.

grocery piggly 1342 mainAnother former Piggly Wiggly store at 1342 North Main.

The building (Sanguinet and Staats) at 1540 North Main, now a restaurant, was built about 1913 as a police and water department substation and later housed a Lions Club, a Fort Worth public library, and other municipal offices. It was built on a corner of the Marine School grounds.

Well-preserved ghost sign on the alley wall of the Maverick Hotel (1906) at Exchange Avenue.

Brick paving and the Thannisch Block Building (1913) at Exchange Avenue.

(North Main, like several other Fort Worth streets, was paved with bricks made in Thurber. Watch a 1930s silent documentary on the Thurber brick plant. Fort Worth’s North Main Street is shown at the time remaining of -1:00.)

main thannisch 2Corner of the Thannisch Block Building.

bench from doors stockyards mainBench made from doors.

On the north wall of the Lehman Dry Goods Company building (1919) at 2457 North Main is a ghost sign advertising Royal Crown Cola: “best by taste-test.” The wall sign probably looked like the vintage metal sign in the inset.

lodge masonic stockyardsbuilding stockyards lodge 1244Masonic Stockyard lodge 1244 (1910) at 2408 North Main.

Detail of the Auto Tire and Top Building (1929).

first impressions stockyards columns at 26thFormal entrance to the Stockyards area.

horse ryon'sNorth Mane: Horse at Ryon’s Saddle & Ranch Supply.

Merchants Exchange Building (1911).

longhorn north main 2animal cow cattlemenTwo denizens of the Stockyards area on North Main.

The “Other” Main Streets: From Pep Boys to Doughboys (Part 4)

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4 Responses to The “Other” Main Streets: From Pep Boys to Doughboys (Part 3)

  1. Mellinda Timblin says:

    The most beautiful thing about your photography is the way you capture the patterns.

  2. earl belcher says:

    Super cool. Ref part 2, the neat old car at S and S. When I was a kid I thought it would be neat to live inside. So you went under the viaduct, at night, with a full moon. You are a true reporter all right. I hope you had a Mac 10. Police intel has homeless folks down there. There are lots of ghosts on North Main . . . so be careful.

    • hometown says:

      Thanks, Earl. That little car was up on that pole before the fathers of the current S&S mechanics were even born.

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