Wow, I don't believe it. Blogger let me post a photo!

Here's a piece of Heavy equipment I admire. I'd like to tear up some pavement with this huge saw. Or I'd like to apply it to blogger's photo center, which has been muy difficult lately.

More of Dallas in the fog

This was the old red standstone courthouse from the late 19th century. I think it's a lovely building, known affectionately as "Old Red." Then just beyond is the Bank of America building which is the one with 6 miles of green neon along its edges, and a construction crane.

Dougherty's Airway Drug

Super-cool old neon on this old Dallas pharmacy Dougherty's, established in 1929, although the original location was in Oak Cliff, which is the section of Dallas just west of downtown. The famous outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow attempted to rob the original Dougherty's, but the old guy was packing some heat of his own and would not be robbed that day. More on Bonnie & Clyde & their Dallas doings in a later post.

I don't know if they still have one, but this drug store had a soda fountain from 1943 through the very recent past. They may still have one, but it's not mentioned on their website.

Foggy night in Dallas

Sorry to use a pic I posted earlier in the week on my other blog, but problems with my DSL company have plagued me and prevented me from even poting on some days recently. Next week I switch to internet through my cable provider, to my delight.

I loved this ghostly echo of the ring of lights. The light fixture is incredibly tall and over the intersection between a highway and a major city street. The lamps are on a big metal ring and a pulley mechanism inside the pole is utilized to lower the ring to change lamps, when necessary.

Something old, something new

I adore the juxtaposition of this older building downtown on Ervay nestled amongst the modern giants. It's short (relatively!) and sassy, and manages to hold its own while maintaining its dignity amongst all the steel and glass that seems to dominate its surroundings. An elegant structure. Love it.

Starfish seafood joint on Davis

This structure probably started life as a Dairy Queen, which is a Texas chain of fast-food joints dating from the 50s. I'll need to post one of those, now, clearly.

Starfish has this really cool 50s era galaxy font, which really fits the style of the structure. I haven't eaten there, but it looks like it may have gumbo, crawdads and Cajun (Louisiana-style grub)> Neat place, and looks like the building had a very streamlined and well-designed make-over. I'll have to eat there and report back.

Up Main Street from Griffin Street

This photo was taken from the sunroof of my car while driving, not aiming, obviously.

Bambi Beauty Salon 1940s building

Lee Harvey's - Cool dog-friendly Dallas Bar

LEE HARVEY'S
2ND SEMI-WHENEVER
CHILI COOK-OFF
AND BUTT SCRATCHIN' FIESTA
SATURDAY 10/21/06
COOKING STARTS @ NOON
JUDGING AT 3PM
DRINK SPECIALS ALL AFTERNOON
NEED A RECIPE?
WWW.CHILI.ORG

Art Deco Theater on Davis Street

I love this old structure with it's deco-green tiled facade. The stack of rondelles to the left of the corner entrance are covered over with chicken wire, presumably to keep the pigeons from roosting there. I'll bet this place looked swell all lit up with neon in its heyday.

Horseshoe pitching

This is my pop pitching horse shoes at a local country-style fair (not the State Fair of Texas, though). My dad and his brother were a team, and won the entire competition. Having grown up in the Southern USA, horseshoe pitching has been a part of family life all along for me. I don't know if this is a regional, strictly American, or an international passtime. I just know it's lots of fun and we like it here.

Oak Cliff Mirror & Glass

This is on Beckley Avenue which is across the Trinity River from Downtown. This sign may be viewed from the Interstate 30 bridge across the Trinity near the Main Post Office. Love this sign - always have.

Raven Pharmacy

Raven Pharmacy on Jefferson St in Oak Cliff. The Raven sign rotates slowly.

Marlo's House

Wow - I 'bout blew a gasket when I spied Dallas has a Mennonite eatery. I'll have to stop by for grub one day and give you a full report.

Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant Mockingbird Lane

This Italian eatery is called Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant. Some people swear this is the best pizza in Dallas. I wouldn't know-- me no likee pizza. I've always heard that this is where the local mafia-types would hang out in the old days. Agan: who knows? Judging by the style of the neon, I'd date this from the 40s or early 50s. Love the font and neon.

Neiman-Marcus Christmas Lights

Last week I was driving up Ervay when I happened past Neiman-Marcus where they were putting up the Christmas lights already.

Dallas' First Phone Office

This funky little building is a residence now, but was the first structure in Dallas to house a little phone exchange and operators. It's located by Seegar St between Akard and Ervay Streets about a block from Old City Park.

Sonny Bryan's Smoke House

Myron mentioned this place, I suppose Sonny was the father of Red Bryan who founded the steak house on Jefferson I pictured last week in its current incarnation as El Ranchito restaurant. Sonny Bryan's is located on Inwood road just North of Harry Hines Boulevard and not far south of Love Field Airport.

I poked around the 'net and tried to find out if they are related, but Dallas was founded by John Neely Bryan.

Aaron Spelling Birthplace

This scrubby little motel on Browder St in Dallas is on the very site where the venerable Aaron Spelling--creator of Charlie's Angels-- was born. Of course, when he was born here, it was a scrubby little house, and not yet this fine classy establishement.

This next bit came from my August 17 entry on my Fatale Abstraction blog about this motel:
I went to an event on Tuesday and met a man who grew up in Dallas and he told me something incredibly funny.

In the 1960s he was in his early teens and his mother made him go to their church in east Dallas every Saturday to help one of the older men to do the lawn and tidy the place up for services the next morning. The end part of their ritual always involved a drive downtown to the post office between St. Paul and Ervay streets to mail the church bulletins out to the flock.

Then the man would continue on down Ervay all the way to the Uptown Motel - the scrubby little place I told you about(where Aaron Spelling was born), where apparently the rooms were permanently booked by prostitutes. They pulled into the motor court and all the ladies came out running saying "Hi, Sugar!" and the like. Of course, with boy in tow, he wasn't there on official business, just dropping by to be neighborly and say hello.

The man told him that he saw the news on TV that JFK had been killed while sitting in a bed in that motel, and that two days later, he was sitting in the same bed when he saw news that Lee Harvey had been killed.

I said "what are the odds?"

Downtown Bank Tower

This is a bank tower I worked in for a while downtown, something like the 33rd floor. I always wanted to work downtown in an office of some sort. I fancied I'd wear cute little suits with funky shoes and flounce around pretending to be oblivious to how cute I actually was.

So when I got this job at a bank, it was for afternoon-evening hours, not in-contact-with-the-public, i.e., no reason to overdo the garb for mere mortal co-workers. Not exactly the glam downtown "That Girl" kind of existence I'd envisioned. Oh well. You can't win them all, and I should have taken it as a sign when I dropped my cell phone in the toilet on the first day of employee orientation.

El Ranchito Restaurant - Interior

Myron confirmed for me with a Dallas Historical Society message board that El Ranchito on Jefferson is, indeed, the original location for the venerated Red Bryan's Steak House. Anyway - I'll try and post one more better & closer picture of the exterior with its higgledy piggledy brickwork. Neat stuff!

El Ranchito Restaurant - Muy delicioso!

THIS is the place I go when I'm hankering for Mole Chicken but don't have the time or energy to make it myself. Mole Chicken is superb, by the way. Mole sauce (pronounced mo LAY) is powdered roasted chili peppers, cocoa powder and oil - golly - is it ever rich. They bring about 5 paper napkins with this dish, because if you eat it right, you WILL get a greasy mess all over your hands, and it's so worth it.

This structure was built in about the 1940s, and I believe it was the steak house where Myron's family used to come to dine in the 1950s, Red Bryant's or somesuch. I'm sure Myron will fill us in as he was a child in Oak Cliff all those years ago. It features wonderful woodwork and higgledy-piggledy brick, and I just love the whole building. Actually, minus all the pinatas, I'd love a house made exactly like this place. Charming!

2 more photos here to come

If Planet of the Apes had Parking Garages...

...they might look exactly like this one...

Photo snapped out sunroof of car while driving - not aiming.

Dirt Behind the Daydream

A homeless man set up camp in the abandoned Texas Theater entryway. I almost stumbled upon him, and I tried to be quiet and not disturb him.

Texas Theater on Jefferson

The Texas Theater was where the Dallas Police apprehended Lee Harvey Oswald after the killing of JFK in Dallas. I was sad to see how delapidated the sign has been allowed to become, even though this is not the original sign from the facade. It's still a lovely piece of architecture, in my eyes. Around the upper right corner of the facade you can see that the original brickwork underneath the paint is two different colors of brick arrayed in a striped pattern. The stripes are clearly visible on the old photograph.

You can see a 1932 photograph of this structure over on today's post at my Fatale Abstraction blog.

Mauve taxi. Ew.

I would expect Alamo cab to have sand-colored cars.