Archive for January 2014
East Hill in the Snow …
I decided to post a few more of these snow scenes from back in February 1957 to show how much snow Pensacola received …Now on 1/29/14 we have an ice storm and everything comes to a stand-still. The Interstate is shut down and almost all of the bridges in the surrounding counties have been closed, so essentially you cannot travel anywhere between Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties. The photo above is a scan from a transparency of the park on 12th Avenue and Gonzalez Street in East Hill. I have posted other views of this park that my father had made from this time in earlier posts, but I do not believe that I have posted this exact one before. You can see the old Winn-Dixie grocery store at the other side of Gonzalez Street. On the far left side, you see a corner of the old Sacred Heart Hospital … I have recently run across a photo that my father had taken of a group of nurses standing outside in the snow that I have not posted yet, but could not find the folder I placed it in. I will spend a little time looking for it this afternoon later, it is a cute photo of a group of nurses having fun in the snow. Here is one more new snow scene …
This is corner of Cervantes and 14th Avenue, back when Cervantes was a two lane road … the house on the right is still there on the corner, I am not sure about the one on the other side of the street, but I am inclined to say that it is. I have some more photos from California that I will post in the next day or so and I have some other random images that I have worked-up of Pensacola. I hope that everyone made it through the ice storm without any damage. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
UPDATE: The white house in the bottom photo is no longer there … this is just a vacant lot now with a huge oak tree what looks to be about the center of the lot. Someone had emailed me about this when I posted these images. There does not appear to be a For Sale sign in the lot, so I guess that the oak tree sits in such a way that you cannot build anything on the lot, but I am not sure. Thanks for the comments … Frank
California Bungalow …
I have found some more negatives recently from one of my father’s trips out to California in the 1940’s and 50’s to visit his sister, Lucille. I have no idea about the history behind these two images, other than the fact that they were made somewhere in California … could be Los Angeles, maybe Modesto … who knows. But it looks like the type of place that you would find Humphrey Bogart walking out of after received a call in the middle of the night from an unknown stranger that said he would find a blond hair starlet lying dead across the bed if he went to this bungalow off of Sunset Boulevard. I guess that I have read too many detective novels or have seen too many black and white films form the 1950’s. Here is one more view …
Maybe someone out there might recognize where this is … I have really been surprised of all of the people from Modesto California that have viewed this site and commented about certain areas in the past. This place just looks like a generic photo of a California motel / apartment from the 1950’s, so I do know really expect much. I is just fun to speculate and imagine some story behind these old photographs. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
The Corner of Baylen and Government Streets …
I found this image years ago and just set it aside … it really did not do anything me until it dawned on me that the Professional Building was torn down to make the new Court House Annex / Clerk’s Office. Also, this George’s Grill was popular with the Downtown Crowd. I have no idea why my father made this photograph, but I am sure it was for an insurance adjuster … must have been a bad accident here at this intersection. You are looking east toward Palafox Street and you see Mayes Office Supply and Printing business next to the Professional Building on the north side of Government Street. I can still remember when Mayes and the Professional Building were there in the 1960’s and the 1970’s, but I do not remember George’s Grill.
One more thing, this is my 300th post on this blog. I never made it this far when I had it over on Blogger. I hope to keep this going for quite some time because I still have thousands of negatives and photographs that I can post. One of the most important things that I have learned is that just because an image does not have any “meaning ” to me, someone out there on the internet usually recognizes someone in the photo or the location in the photo and will comment. Making me glad that I took the time to post the image. One such image is the one that I titled ” First Methodist Musicians “. I have received some nice comments and a few calls about that image … and I sat on those images for years before I posted them. So thanks for looking and as usual, all comments are appreciated and I do respond to all of them, even though it might take me a while to getting around to writing. Please check back … Frank
Wholesale Furniture Warehouse …
This business was located on the north side of Mobile Highway and you saw it on your right when came over the viaduct that crossed the railroad tracks from Brownsville. In fact, I believe, that this building is still there. Obviously, it has been remodeled and reconditioned since the 1950’s when this photo was taken. I have no idea who owned this business / building and I was also curious if this owner had anything to do with the furniture stores over on “T” Street. “T” Street has become the flea market and antique haven for Pensacola in Brownsville. Please notice that I did not refer to them as ” junk stores”. I have driven by on “W” Street on Saturdays and almost end up in a wreck with cars pulling into the parking lots, so that can get to stores on “T” Street. It has been years since we have gone ” shopping ” over on “T” Street … we are at the stage of trying to get rid of all the junk, I mean antiques, that we have accumulated through the years. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Guest Blogger at ” Airports Made Simple ” …
I want to thank Deborah over at the blog Airports Made Simple for allowing me to be a guest blogger. She had seen this blog and was interested in the airport / airplane images from the 1950’s that I have shared with everyone. I apologize for the title of this post, I could not think of a title that had a better ring to it than the lame one that I wrote in the headline bar. I am sure that I will change it when I give it some thought. Her blog has a lot of information for people that fly on a regular basis … various airline pluses and minuses, airport tips … too much for me to write here. I included a link to her post on my Liberace photos, so once you get to her site, you can navigate around and see what she has and is interesting to you.
The photo above is one of several that my father made of an Eastern Airline plane on the tarmac at the Pensacola Airport back in the 1950’s. I have posted a few other images from this ” set ” before, but I never got around to working this image until recently.. So this is a new image and for those of you who used to fly into Pensacola back in the 1950’s, I hope that it brings back some fond memories. If anyone that reads this has some photos of the interior of the Pensacola Airport from back in the 1950’s and 1960’s, I would be interested in seeing them. Especially the restaurant and the check in counter for Eastern and later National Airlines. I ran across some photos that I had made from back in the 1970’s when then had remodeled the airport and I will post them later. The thing that sticks out the most to me are all of the cigarette ash tray holders through out the airport … pretty considerate! Thanks again for Deborah for asking me to be a guest blogger and please check out the link that I included in the first paragraph … she has a large readership with experienced travelers, so if you have any questions, this would be the place to ask them. Thanks again for looking and please check back … Frank
Romana Street in the 1950’s …
This panorama was made in the 1950’s, not sure of the exact year. This is looking west on Romana Street toward downtown Pensacola. On the left side of the street you see a Pittsburgh Paint Shop and then you have the Pensacola News Journal Building which takes you to the end of the block. Across the street is the Morrison Cafeteria building. I have some posts earlier where I show some interior shots of the kitchen and the table areas. Then I had several exterior viewsof Morrison’s before they renovated later. Local businessman Quint Studer has just purchased the Pensacola News Journal building and is planning to tear it down. I believe an article in the local PNJ in the last week or so said that he plans on constructing housing in it’s place and possibly some offices. Pensacola is really going to be going through some new changes in the next few years … we will just have to wait and see how all of this pans out. I am still not convinced that what was done to the end of Palafox Street was worth tearing down the old Municipal Auditorium. Most of the buildings that they built at the end seem vacant, however they are very nice and attractive. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
PHS Twirler …
I have several more of the these twirlers from the Pensacola High School Band of the 1950’s that I put up in the next month or so. I am not sure if she is a band majorette or a baton twirler, but I am sure someone out there will correct me and let me know who this is and the year. Thanks again for looking and please check back … Frank
First Methdist Musicians …
This is a group of musicians from First Methodist Church in downtown Pensacola Florida on Wright Street from the 1950’s. I believe that the organist’s name is Morrison, but I am not positive about that. None of the other musicians look vaguely familiar. Here is one more of the group …
I know that someone out there will see this and let us know who they are, it just might take a little time. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Clubbs Baseball Team 1957 …
I have quite a few of these negatives from Clubbs Junior High School from back in the 1950’s and I will post more in the future as I clean them up. I have a lot of these type of images showing a few sports teams, the band and several other groups. I cannot believe that so many people see people that they know in these photos and I usually get a pretty good response out of posting them. I was only four when this photo was taken, so obviously no one looks familiar to me. If anyone recognizes any of these athletes, please feel free to comment. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Doc and Kitty in Front of The Town House Motor Lodge …
This is “Doc” and “Kitty” from the tv show Gunsmoke. They were in town back in the middle 1950’s for the Fiesta. I have posted some other photos of them in earlier posts, but I never could find this image until recently. It was in terrible shape and I had already cleaned it up once before, but I never could find it. So when I ran across this image, I went ahead and cleaned it up … again. This is the only photograph that I can find of the exterior front of the Town House Motor Lodge. The two men in the photo are Lynn Toney on the far right and the man helping Amanda Blake is the owner of the Town House and his last name was Head, but I do not know his first name. The front of the Town House was on Cervantes … you should could not do something like this now on Cervates without risking getting hit or run-over. If anyone had any contact with “Doc” or “Kitty” when they were in town, please share your story with us … I would be interested in hearing them. I have a photo of the two of them holding me up that I will post for a laugh … I cannot remember off the top of my head if I already have, so I will check. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Update (1/7/14) : Some people say that the man helping Amanda Blake out of the wagon is John R Jones, who at one time was a local politician … I want to say Property Appraiser, but I could be wrong there. I had said that the man was Mr. Head, who owned the Town House Motel with his wife. Personally, I do not care who it is, that is not the reason why I posted the photo. Please remember, this is a blog for photography, not for identifying correctly the individuals shown in the images. If we do, fine, if we do not, fine. Thanks for looking … Frank
Frank Hardy Made My Photographs Two 
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