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[57boxman]

Sanger Brother Department Store Main St, Dallas, Texas.



El Centro College Dallas Main St, Where the Sanger Brothers Department store was in the 20's



The Sanger Brothers parking garage was constructed across the street from the the store in the 20's where El Centro College is today. The store is long gone but, the parking garage lives on today. The garage was one of the first parking garages in Texas, with 110 parking spaces. Along with parking customers’ cars, the building housed a complete motor department store which had every need fore the car.. In a 1926 the woman car owner could shop & have her car washed or greased in the garage,



Sangers began in1868, then Sanger-Harris in 1961 A. Harris of Dallas, began 1887 then Federated in 1961. In 1965 the Co.s built a new downtown Dallas store @ Pacific and Akard St, to replace the flagship stores of the 2 COs. In January 1987 it merged with Foley's.. Sanger-Harris stores are known for their columns and mosaics architecture. The first building was the Downtown Dallas store. The S/Hs branch stores that were built after 1965 all feature this iconic design. The mosaic was scraped off the down town store when DART moved in to the location.



Today, the Dallas downtown Sanger building is the DART Headquarters at Pacific and Akard St, Dallas, Tx.
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[57boxman]

Good U luck gas station Dallas, Tx



The Good Luck Gas Station on Ross Avenue, built in 1939, was a art-deco gas station. The Good Luck closed in 1982 — gone were the days of the full-service gas station. Preservationist temporarily saved the building by getting a tear down moratorium. But the moratorium ended, the station was demolished in December 1982.A similar Good Luck still stands at the intersection of Cadiz and Lamar streets, but it doesn’t function as a gas station.



GLOCO (Good Luck Oil Co.) service station, Cadiz St., Dallas, after restoration. "This former Good Luck Gas Station was built in 1939. Its 35-foot-tall tower was once outlined with red neon
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[57boxman]

Big Tex is a 55-foot (16 m) tall statue and marketing icon of the annual State Fair of Texas held at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas. The figure has become a cultural icon of Dallas and Texas. Since 1952 Big Tex has served as a cultural ambassador to visitors, and the prime location in the fairgrounds serves as a traditional meeting point.



Before Big Tex became Big Tex, he was a giant Santa Claus in Kerens, Texas, east of Corsicana. This photo was taken in 1949. Two years later, the giant figure was purchased for 750 dollars by Dallas banker R.L. Thornton, then president of the State Fair of Texas and later mayor of Dallas. Big Tex made his debut at the State Fair in 1952. (The Dallas Morning News)



Big Tex in the 50's



BIG TEX 2012 before he had an electrical short in his boot causing the fire shown below.



Big Tex on fire 2012. A sad day in Dallas for all Texans. The Fire made the national news feed. I was in California when I saw the report of the fire on TV. When Big Tex's burned hulk was taken out of the Fair, he was covered with a tarp and fair goers lined the road out of Fair Park to pay their respects as Big Tex passed by .



The new refurbished Big Tex 2013

Big Tex welcomes fairgoers with his friendly drawl of "Hoooowdeeee, fooolllllks!" and makes regular announcements throughout the duration of the State Fair of Texas. His booming voice has been played by only a few men over six decades, who perform every day of the fair from a booth known as the "doghouse".

Al Jones, a WRR FM 101.1 dj, was the first voice of Big Tex. Al spoke for Big Tex for three years. Radio announcer Jim Lowe, the most well-known voice of Big Tex, performed for 39 continuous years until 1998. Dan Alexander stepped up for the next two years. In 2001 a statewide competition and contest, held live at the Cotton Bowl, announced Sonny Ray Stolz as the next voice of Big Tex. But after only one season Sonny decided not to continue due to what he considered unprofessional treatment by Fair officials and the Fair brought in runner-up Bill Bragg in 2002. (Information provided by Sonny Ray Stolz personally)
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[57boxman]

Then and now - Commerce St Viaduct, Dallas Texas. Circa 1965 - 2012
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[57boxman]

Reunion Tower, Dallas, Texas.



View from Reunion Tower of Dallas's Downtown District.

Reunion Tower is a 561foot observation tower and one of the most recognizable landmarks in Dallas, Texas. Located at 300 Reunion Blvd. The tower is part of the Hyatt Regency Hotel complex. Reunion Tower was completed in 1978, along with Hyatt Regency Dallas at Reunion.

At night, the globe at the top of the building is illuminated with 259 custom LED fixtures, manufactured by Altman Lighting and are controlled by various computer-generated patterns and colors. The globe is also used for special events, such as lit green for St. Patrick's Day or blue for World Autism Day.

The tower's name sake was the La Renuion Settlement. La Réunion was a socialist utopian community formed in 1855 by French, Belgian, and Swiss colonists near the forks of the Trinity River in Texas, USA. The Reunion Tower in downtown Dallas is about three miles east of the colony site. The founders of the community were inspired by the utopian thought of the French philosopher François Marie Charles Fourier.

Although more than 350 European colonists eventually made La Réunion their home the experiment eventually failed. Financial insolvency due to lack of new settlers and developer over reaching in land purchases made for the demise. Texas weather also doomed the settlement which only lasted 18 months. The colonists cultivated wheat and vegetables, however they did not produce enough for their needs or in time. A blizzard in May 1856 destroyed the colony's crops and turned the Trinity River into a sheet of ice. That summer the Texas heat created drought conditions, and what was left of the crops became a feast for an invasion of grasshoppers. In 1860 the nearby emerging town of Dallas incorporated La Réunion into its land area; the remaining skilled colonists were absorbed into its specialized workers.
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[57boxman]

The Swiss Sky-Ride fair attraction was constructed in 1964 at Fair Park, Dallas, Texas. On the last day of the State Fair Fair of Texas in 1979 a gondola of the Swiss Sky-Ride fell 85 feet onto the Midway below. A fair goer took a photo of the accident in progress. One of Swiss Sky-Ride gondolas swayed from the wind and became jammed as it passed over a supporting post. Three other cars slammed into it, causing two of them to fall. One person was killed and seventeen other were injured. Firefighters had to help more than 80 people down from the s Sky-Ride after the accident. The Sky-Ride was closed permanently after the accident and dismantled. In 2007, the fair built a new 65-foot-high Texas Sky Way gondola ride with new and special safety features.
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[57boxman]

The Cotton Exchange Building circa 1920's



Dallas Cotton Exchange 1942.



Location of the former Cotton Exchange building. The photo was taken 2012.

The Dallas Cotton Exchange Building was a 17-story tan brick and concrete building on the corner of North St. Paul and San Jacinto Streets in downtown Dallas, Texas. It was built in 1926 and was for decades Dallas' second-tallest structure . Dallas grew into the largest inland cotton market in the U.S. Even though Dallas had become the financial capital of the cotton industry, by 1971 the Cotton Exchange housed more Baptists than brokers because of offices rented to nearby First Baptist Church.

By 1987 the building sat vacant. When preparing for the raising of the building workers had to remove asbestos laced concrete panels. While removing the panels it was discovered that the building's original 1926 exterior was intact. The old exterior still had its stone lions, which had been a signature architectural detail of the building. The lions now grace the Maple Avenue entrance of the Stoneleigh Hotel.

On June 25, 1994, the building was destroyed. The site was eventually acquired by First Baptist Church, which has plans to open a campus on land that includes the former Cotton Exchange Building footprint.
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[57boxman]

The Thomas Building 1314 Wood Street Dallas Texas



A link to a video of the demolition/implosion of the Thomas Building.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qm3940_n-Y

It took only a few seconds — and 300 pounds of explosives — to turn the 88-year-old Thomas Building into a pile of rubble.
In November of 2012 the eight-story Thomas Building on Wood Street in downtown Dallas imploded.

For nearly 20 years, the Thomas Building has stood vacant, but it has a storied place in Dallas history. It was built by Dallas cotton tycoon Mike Thomas in the 1920s, when the cotton industry was booming. Located next to the old Cotton Exchange building, it housed Thomas’ business and other cotton brokers.

The brick and carved stone building was designed by Anton Korn, a Dallas architect who designed dozens of Park Cities mansions in the 1920s and 1930s.

More recently, the building had fallen into neglect. In 2004. The building collapsed into debris under the supervision of Dallas Demolition, a family business founded by Roy Lohden.

Over the decades, the Lohden family has overseen several notable implosions, including several structures at First Baptist Church.



Present photo of the former Thomas Building Location
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[57boxman]

Ft. Worth, TX ca. 1950
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[57boxman]

1950s Cars on Freeway in Fort Worth TX c.1960, Skyline
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[57boxman]

A painting of the old Lewisville Feed Mill truck sitting outside the Feed Mill in Lewisville, TX. The Feed Mill was an old school farm supply for many years in Lewisville. It closed for business several years ago, however, the structure and out building, silos and scale still remain. The owner drove the vintage truck to open the Feed Mill everyday. He parked it front of the Mill just as depicted in the painting however, in later with main street becoming an one way street the owner parked the truck facing left to right. Residents would routinely see the old truck driving around Lewisville as the owner used the truck as his daily driver.



Lewisville Feed Mill.
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[57boxman]

The Cowboys' first quarterback and first owner: Eddie LeBaron and Clint Murchison in front of the Cotton Bowl

I thought it was Don Meredith. I know Don signed the first contract to be a Cowboy.
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[57boxman]

Lewisville, Tx's old Huffines Car Dealership at the corner of Main and Mill before it moved out to the new highway 35.



Lewisville, Tx's old Huffines Car Dealership building at the comer of Main and Mill 2012. You can still see the Huffines markings over the garage door facing Main Street. Far to the right you can see the old Lewisville Feed Mill.
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