Archive for the ‘1950’s’ Category
Palafox Street …
This is at the top of Palafox Street where The Confederate Memorial stands and the road has to go around the memorial to continue on north. The house that you see on the right side of the image is where The First Baptist Church is located today. This photo was taken when it snowed in Pensacola back in 1957 ( could be 1958 ), but I believe it is 1957. I have it somewhere around here and I will go check later to make sure of the date. I will post some more this coming week, I have a few already to go. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Brownsville Cycle Company … Part Two …
Here is one more of the Brownsville Cycle Company. Someone made a comment on the other post I had about this company and said that Brownsville Cycle Company purchased the first Honda Dealership in Pensacola. You see the street marker ( you do not see them much anymore ) that says ” P St “, so this must have been the corner of “P” and Cervantes. The thing that grabs my attention is the … phone booth! I bet you have not seen one of those in years. In fact, I cannot remember the last pay phone that I have seen in months. Tom Thumb on Garcon Point Road removed the one that was located next to the ice machine a year or so ago. I did not realize that until I asked where it went after looking at this photo. I guess that I am not as observant as I thought I was. Anybody know about this turning into the first Honda Dealership, feel free to share more info with us. Thanks again for looking and please check back … Frank
Community Chest …
The Community Chest was before my time, but to me it looks as if it could have turned into the United Way. I found these negatives several years ago and did not think anything about them. I ran across them the other day and saw the prominent names of the different divisions … it looks like a “Who’s Who” of Pensacola business men and women from the 1950’s. I have no clue who the man in the photo is, he could be someone who works for the Community Chest for all I know. There are 4 or 5 negatives that go along with this one that I will clean-up and post later. Thanks for looking and let me hear from you … Frank
I Like Ike …
Here is a Tyke for Ike … If Ike’s campaign had used this kid, I am sure that he would have won in a landslide. Here is one more …
I do not what the kid has in his hands, but it looks like some type of political card / advertisement for Eisenhower – Nixon. Thanks for looking and checking back … I am sorry that I have not posted much in the past few weeks, but I have been busy with other things. However, I have been scanning new negatives and getting photographs ready to post. So you should see quite a few in the next few weeks, I just hope that they are interesting to some people out there besides me. Thanks again for looking and please keep the comments coming … Frank
Fiesta Parade 1955 …
These are two from the Fiesta Parade of 1955. I just found them the other day and they show downtown Pensacola very well. I have scanned them all, but have only worked up these two, but they are in good shape, so I will post the rest in a few weeks. This looks like a float with the Kid’s Court, but that is just my guess, since I do not see a name on the float.
Here are a couple of clowns … notice that they are on Palafox Street next to Christ Church and that Palafox at this time was still paved with bricks. I have no idea who these clowns are, but everyone around them are smiling, so they must be doing their jobs. My all-time favorite clowns were the guys from the jail that were always the last ones in the parade scooping up after the horses … I wish my dad would have taken some photos of them. They always made me laugh and I told my mother that I wanted to be just like those guys, since they always looked like they were having so much fun! My mother always told me that I should have some higher aspirations, but at five, I did not know what she was talking about. Only later … Thanks for looking and commenting … Frank
Anderson Trailer Sales …
I do not remember this business, so I do not know where it was located or anything. It looks vaguely familiar, but that is all. Below is another view of the trailers …
Nice looking trailers. I have a number of posts worked-up and ready to post, but just have not been on line much recently. Thanks for all the comments and let me hear from you … Frank
Brownsville Bicycle Shop …
Here is one view of the business … I have another that I will post later. I do not remember the business, but I believe that the building is still at this corner of “P” and Cervantes Street. The one thing that grab’s my attention is the phone booth on the right hand side of the image. Most kids now days cannot even remember payphones, so a phone booth is out of the question! Clark Kent jumping into a phone booth to change into Superman always come to my mind when I see a photo of one … I almost said when I see one, but other than in a photo, I cannot remember the last time I ran across one. I know, the Navel Museum has one in one of the displays. Thanks for looking and I will post that other photo in the next few days … Frank
Chemstrand Plant in Pensacola Florida 1950’s …
Above is a view of the plant at night back in the 1950’s. Chemstrand was at one time the largest manufacturer of synthetic fiber ( Rayon was one ) that was used in carpets, rugs and anything else that needed synthetic fiber. All of the fiber was loaded onto spindles and shipped to their respected buyers, Mohawk Carpets would have been an example. At one time back in the 1950’s through the 1970’s, I would guess that Chemstrand was in the top five of employees in Escambia County Florida. Even though they had photography department, we were hired for miscellaneous jobs at the plant. Below is the same photo run through the Lucis Art Filter.
Some of the detail in the highlight areas are retained better than in the photo at the top. I do not know anything about this photo … the area of the plant this photo shows, etc. I enjoy looking at these types of commercial images and I have found a handful of these types of images in my last find
Port of Pensacola 1957 …
These two images were made in one of the warehouses that was located down at the Port of Pensacola back in the 1950’s. That is a fertilizer called ” Chilean Nitrate” that used to be shipped in and out of the Port. There are ten negatives or so in the negative envelope and I have only worked up these two. The two images above look as if they would have been printed on photographic paper… pretty much straight photographic prints. The two below are the same images, but I have also ran them through the Lucis Art Filter in Photoshop that I have talked about earlier in this blog. The details in the shadow parts of the image are brought out and parts of the image that you might overlook are brought to the fore-front.
I like the contrast better in the second set of images, but really do not care for the guy filling the sack on the left side, so I might remove him in the future. The people in the photos add a sense of scale and you can tell how large the warehouse is. I have an image of it empty and I will post it once I have cleaned it up. Thanks for looking … I have been scanning new negatives that I have just recently found over the last few days ( several hundred ) and I will have a lot of new posts in the next few months. As usual, all comments are welcomed and appreciated … thanks again, Frank
Pensacola Dons Player ” Youngdahl ” …
This Dons player’s name was ” Youngdahl “. I do not know anything about what what position he played or any of his stats. The thing that is funny to me is the guy way in the back behind the fence … I do not know what he is doing or if he even knew that he was in the photograph, but I guess people have always been people in the background trying to make fools of themselves. Here is the same photo below that was worked on with the Lucis Art Filter …
The filter really accentuates the details in a b&w photo … the guy in the background and the ads on the back wall, along with the dirt in the outfield, all have a distinct and different look from just a straight b&w scan / print. Thanks for looking and commenting … I have been busy with other things and have not spent much time on this blog lately. I have found a stack of negatives that I found years ago, but put somewhere so that I would not lose them and ended up miss-placing them until a week ago. I have not scanned any of the negative s and I plan to do so in the next few weeks, please check back. Thanks again for looking … Frank
Frank Hardy Made My Photographs Two 
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