Archive for the ‘Pensacola Waterfront’ Category
Random Images ….
Here are several images that I might or might not have posted before. The first one of the ribbon cutting at the Bay Bridge entrance is new, I believe. The rest I might have posted along time ago, but I had just run across them again and thought that I might post them again. Here we go …
The top photo of the ribbon cutting is new and if anyone recognizes any of the people, please comment. I have no clue who any of the people are, as usual, but I am interested in knowing who they are. The aerial photo was taken before the Municipal Auditorium was constructed, so that must have been around 1954 or so. I think that the auditorium was completed in 1955, but that is just a guess for me. This Dons group was 1959 I believe…how about that Hopkins Boarding Sign on the the back fence wall? If anyone knows anything about any of these photos, please comment. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Pensacola Pier ….
I ran across this negative years ago and just set it aside. Someone had brought me this print to copy back in the 1980’s and I made me an extra copy. This is the end of Palafox Street and I want to say that this is taken in the 1930’s. The strip of land on the back side would be where the Port Royal Development is built today. No idea who took the photo, but if anyone has any information on this image, please feel free to comment and share anything that you might know. Thanks for looking and please check back. One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2017 is to try and post several times a month. I have been busy with other ways to share my photography ( Instagram is the main one ) and have sort of ignored my two blogs. But no worry, I still have thousands of images to work through and post, so don’t give up on me yet.
Home Show at the Pensacola Municipal Auditorium …
I am going to start off with this young lady displaying the new colorful rotary dial phones from Southern Bell and Telegraph. It comes in a variety of beautiful colors, however, since color film did not become used wide-spread until the 1960’s and this is 1956, you are just going to have to take this lady’s word for it. There is only one model of phone at the present time, but it does come in eight beautiful colors … as you can tell from the various tones of phones. Be the first on your block to get rid of your basic black phone … the start of phone envy!! Moving on to soft drinks …
Two magnetized Royal Crown Oven Mitts for only 50 cents and two RC bottle caps. I almost will wager that this is one of the first promotions in stores back in the 1950’s. It is hard to believe that before this time the retailers had yet to utilize store promotions. All of that untapped consumer advertising gone to waste for those previous years. Well friend, no need to worry, because in the next thirty years or more they would more than make up for years of no promotions. It is hard to even imagine the decades before without in-store promotions. And let’s not forget the radio stations and TV stations getting involved, along with magazines and newspapers. Your head should be spinning now in ” promotional heaven “… It has only just begun! Thanks for looking and if any of you remember this Home Show down at the Pensacola Municipal Auditorium, please let us hear from you. Thanks again … Frank
Water Skiing on Bayou Texar …
I have posted some photos from this ski show that the ski club had back in 1979. I ran across these photos a while back and have been sitting on them for a while, so I thought that I work them up to post. I remember getting some comments when I posted the other ski club photos and thought that you might enjoy looking at them. As usual, I do not know who any of the skiers are since they are younger than me. I would guess that the boy and girl on either ends of the group above might be Bonifay children, but as usual, I could be wrong. Here are some of the group skiing …
That is all for now. I have not gotten a lot of images worked up to post, but I am working on a few as I write this. Please check back and feel free to leave any comments that you might have … Frank
Bayou Texar …
This is Bayou Texar around 1920, if I had to make a guess. I would also guess that this area would be south of the Cervantes Street Bridge. The grass flats are still in the area and the oak trees on the bank are still there. Someone had brought me this image to copy thirty years or more and they told me that it was a photo of their family. The photo was in horrible shape and they did not want to spend the money to have the image restored, so I just copied the print and made copies. I found the negative and scanned it, then worked it up in Photoshop in an hour or so. And that is what you are seeing here. I do not know who the photographer was, but it looks like an image that might have been created by Cottrell, who was located in downtown Pensacola at the time this photo might have been made. But as usual, that is only a guess and I could be completely wrong. I can not remember who brought this print to me either, it was such a long time ago. I have been busy with other things the last month or so and have not posted much, but I have not forgotten this blog and plan to keep it going for some time in the future. I have been posting to my Instagram account and here is a link. I post everything from my personal images to photos that I have put on this blog. I like the way Instagram works and the people that respond to my images are different than the ones that are just looking at blogs. I have tried Twitter and have it linked to my blogs along with Facebook, but I do not really care for either one of those, especially Facebook. That is it for today and I will be back with some new photos in several weeks. Let me hear from you if you have any comments or questions and thanks again for looking … Frank
Port of Pensacola …
Here are some more images of the Port of Pensacola from back in the 1950’s. I had posted some others a year or so back of men working in this warehouse that I thought looked fairly interesting.. There are some more but they are mostly of people at what looks to be a cocktail party or something and I do not know who any of the people are in them. Here we go …
A primary product at the Port of Pensacola during this time was fertilizer I have been told. Not really sure if it was imported or exported, but I am sure that someone out there will know and can enlighten us. One thing that I do not want to hear is how the Port has been awash in red – ink for the last fifty years … I am fairly sure that the Port was in the black for a few years back in the 1960’s. I also do not want to hear from any nay-sayers that the Port should be closed down and made into condos like that did at the foot of Palafox Street. That project has turned out great or at least it looks great. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Another One From The Port of Pensacola …
This is one taken in a warehouse down at the Port of Pensacola from back in the 1950’s, maybe around 1955. I had posted another one like it with another man bending over loading a sack with this nitrate in the photo, but I removed him in this image. I have always thought that this photo had an interesting look to it. I ran it through the Lucis Art filter in Photoshop to add some contrast to an otherwise “flat” image. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
The Fisherman …
I just called this one ” The Fisherman ” for lack of anything else. I ran across it the other day and thought that it looked somewhat interesting, especially the sky. It looks like it could have been made over in Gulf Breeze along the Sound or maybe even the Bay. One thing that stood out to me was how clean the beach looks … now a days you can not go too far in any direction without running across beer cans, plastic bottles and anything else that people throw in the water or leave on the beach after a picnic. I have a good number of images worked up that I plan on putting up in the next few days, so please check back. I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving, we did. Thanks again for looking … Frank
Re-Worked Images …
No … I have not been in jail … or the hospital … or have I died …. I have just been busy with other things over the past few weeks and have not been posting any images recently. One thing that I have been working on lately is re-working some of my images and putting a textured overlay on them. I am surprised at how much you can change the look and feel of an image by just adding some texture in Photoshop. The ” old-school ” way was to do it in printing on textured paper, but you were also very limited by the few printing papers that you could select or by running the finished print through a texture-creating machine. I have been doing some reading and found a technique that I that would be interesting and am starting to create some new images from old images. The image above of Pensacola Bay around 1950 is an image that I thought would lend itself well to texturing and I think that it succeeded. Also, a gift to my viewers, this image is an 8×10 full resolution sized file. So if you want to down-load the file ( right click and Save as … ) you can make a print to keep. Just call it an early Christmas gift. Most of all of the other images on this blog are sized for the web for easy loading and viewing … nothing bothers me more than having to wait minutes for images to load because the photographer was not considerate enough to resize the image or images. As usual, all comments are appreciated and welcomed. Please check back, because I forgot to mention that I have been doing some scanning a lot of new negatives. Thanks and please check back … Frank
Pensacola In The Early 1900’s …
These are images that someone had brought to me thirty years or so ago to copy and make prints. I must have given the negatives to the person because all I have are the prints. The thing that impressed me about these images was how sharp they were. Whom ever the photographer was that photographed these scenes must have had an incredibly sharp lens, along with fact that were shot on 8×10 film. I have seen 8×10 images that were no where near as sharp as these prints. The prints that the person brought to me were contact prints, so I am sure that that played a part in the prints sharpness. The image above was of the Escambia Hotel. I have no idea where the hotel was located, but I would imagine that it was either in North Hill or in downtown Pensacola. I also believe that these prints were taken somewhere around 1910. The next one is of the train station in downtown Pensacola …
This is the old L&N Train-Station in downtown Pensacola. The Crown Plaza Hotel across from the Pensacola Bay Center on Garden Street is there now. The street in the back of the station is Wright Street. I can remember this station as a kid in the 1950’s. I would go down there with my father and pick-up packages that would come in on the train. The floor inside the station was black and white tile in these geometric patterns. It was all open – no air conditioning – and I always remember it having lots of people coming and going, sitting around waiting for their train or to pick-up someone or moving packages all over the place. I was too young to really understand what was going on, but it did fascinate me with all the activity. The next image is one of Ferdinand Square on Palafox Street …
The building on the left side of the frame is what today is called the TT Wentworth Museum. At one time it was the Pensacola City Hall. You can read the signs on the side of the buildings in this image and the ships in the harbor is visible. This park is still pretty much today as it was over a hundred years ago, except with more foliage from the trees and the shrubs. I do not put up many other photos from other photographers unless I think that the images are somewhat relevant to Pensacola or are related to other photographs that I have posted in the past. And I think that these fall into that last category … anyone from Pensacola can relate to these images. Thanks for looking and I have some more current images that I will post shortly. As always, all comments are appreciated … so if anyone out there remembers the old L&N Train Station or the Escambia Hotel, please let us hear from you … Frank
Frank Hardy Made My Photographs Two 
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