Archive for the ‘Pensacola Business’ Category
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
12TH Avenue in Snow … February 1956 or 1957 …
This photo was made in front my father’s old studio on 12th Avenue back when it snowed in February, back in the late 1950’s … maybe 1956 or 57, I am not really sure. You can see the old Moulton’s Drug Store in the distance … this really takes me back, I can still see this scene as if it was yesterday. This little shopping area was always busy and 12th Avenue always had a lot of traffic. Then when Friendly Service and Winn-Dixie closed down, this whole area became a ghost-town in the early 1980’s for 5 or 6 years. Thanks for looking … Frank
Sun Motor Tester at Son Motors …
This is another image that I ran through the Lucis Art Filter and it really makes it stand out. A straight b&w photo is interesting, but does not have the contrast and detail that this print has now. I do not have much to add … Thanks for looking … Frank
The A&P on 12th Avenue …
This is a promotional photo at the old A&P grocery store on 12TH Avenue across from St. Christopher’s Church. The car is a Ford Torino and I would guess that it would be around a 1972 or 73. I know someone out there will know … The old A&P closed down in the late 1970’s and was converted in a Ronald McDonald House. They built a larger facility on Bayou Blvd and have moved, so I do not know what is in there now. I can vividly remember shopping in the old store like it was yesterday … Winn-Dixie and Friendly Service had closed down and this was the only grocery store left on 12TH Avenue. I do not know any of the people in the photo, as usual, but that is not really my purpose. Thanks for looking and let us hear your comments … Frank
Pure Oil Stations …
How many of you can remember going to a ” Filling Station ” and having someone come out to your car to ” service ” your car? And be happy to do it! I do not recognize any of these ” attendants ” or the stations were they are working. These photos were made back in the 1950’s and I did not start driving until 1969, but I can still remember going to service stations. I do not think that they were phased out until sometime in the late 1970’s and maybe up until the mid-1980’s, when everything became ” self-serve “. This FHP patrolman looks like a nice guy … I bet he would let you off with a “warning”, something that the FHP patrolman now seem to have never heard of. A speeding ticket back in the 1950’s most likely only ran $25 or so, now, you are looking at upwards of $200 or more.
The sign on the wall says C.E. Bowden and that name does not register anything to me. The area next to his building looks like a row of buildings that you might find in some of the rural towns around the Florida Panhandle back in the 1950’s. I am thinking Marianna, Chipley, Milton … some little town off of Highway 90.
This looks more like it could have been made around Pensacola. The lady looks happy … to be riding around in a car with no air conditioning and a car full of kids … in the summer. My how times have changed. She is a soccer mom and she does not even know it! I have a few more of these negatives that I will post in the future. Times were much simpler then … how many times have you heard that before? Thanks for looking and let us hear what you think … Frank
Pensacola Flying Club …
This is one of the first photos that I can say that my father ever made and I would say the date is somewhere around 1930. The name on the bottom of the print said ” Roy Brewton ” and I think that the kid on the left is him. I have another photo of a group of guys and he is in the photo also. I never heard my father ever mention his name, so I do not know anything about him or the other guy in the photo. I thought that the plane was interesting and I have seen other photos of planes with the same inscription. If any of you “old-timers” remember anything about the Pensacola Flying Club, I would love to hear from you or if anyone remembers a Roy Brewton from back in the 30’s. Nice looking kid and he looks as if he might have been given a ride in this guy’s plane, or rather the Pensacola Flying Club’s airplane. Thanks for looking and please let me hear from you … Frank
The “New” Medical Center Clinic on Palafox Street …
This a photograph of the first Medical Center Clinic that is located over on Palafox Street. It has been abandoned for years and has really fallen into a state of disrepair. The original scan is posted below …
As you can tell, I removed the people from the side of the building and the telephone poll out front. I probably would also have removed the street sign next to the telephone, but I wasted to much time on the telephone pole. For future reference … there is not a magic wand in Photoshop that magically removes people and objects without leaving any traces. It takes a lot of selecting, cutting, pasting, masking and blending to get these photos to look like the top photo. Most people do not realize hoe much work is entailed to get all of this to blend seamlessly and to look believable. I have shown one image of the Hotel San Carlos that I have a before and after view … at some point I might put together all of the steps involved in creating these images. Thanks for looking and let me hear what you think … Frank
Frank Hardy Made My Photographs Two 
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