The Broadway construction project is moving right along. It’s in the 500 and 600 blocks now. Here’s a view looking east.
Bricks and cobbles
I haven’t been lucky enough to have been around when the construction workers have unearthed the old trolley tracks, but I CAN see the bricks and cobblestones that made up the original street.
Looking west down Broadway
The three-story brick building on the left had been a coffee house, but Niece Laurie Everett of Annie Laurie’s Antiques, diagonally across the street, said it is closed now. The old Star service station used to be on the right.
Just beyond the coffee house was my old hangout, Nowell’s Camera Shop. The original cabinets are still visible through the windows. My elbow prints are probably still on some of them from the days when I drooled over new toys.
Old Broadway stories
Here’s a piece that has links to all of the Broadway stories I could remember writing.
Brother Mark took photos of the construction in the 200 block of Broadway.
Ken, Mary Ann Nowell and I played around with developing and enlarging pictures back in the day. There was a lot more there than just the show room out front. The Nowell’s were very special people.
Nowell’s camera shop was the only place my family shopped for cameras and supplies. I also earned my photography badge in that shop thanks to the patience of a very kind man. Mr. Nowell, who lived in the 1700 block of Themis, walked to, or home from, work most days. I don’t know that I could have kept up with his fast pace.
I credit two people with helping lay the foundation for my interest in photography: Ken Steinhoff, who introduced me to that old 4×5 Speed Graphic at Central High, and Bill Nowell, who so patiently coached me through the selection of cameras and darkroom equipment, films, and papers as I fell deeper into my love affair with the art. As much as I appreciate what digital photography makes possible today, I still miss the almost-sacred aroma of developer and stop bath and that very faint scent of optics in Nowell’s Camera Shop, a scent that, when it reaches me on rare occasions still today, takes me right back to that shop on Broadway in the 1960s and 70s.
Thanks for the kind words. It was either get folks hooked on photography or stand around grade schools offering little girls candy. If you’re going to be a pusher, go for the button kind.
Nowell’s was a second home for me too! I am surprpised they retired, i dropped enough paychecks there to keep the economy of the third world balanced.
I learned a lot about photography just talking to Mr. Nowell. Great guy. A photography store like Nowell’s is a thing of the pass now. i am not sold on buying on line. I sill like face to face contact.
Mr. Nowell made both my engagement and wedding rings. My dad’s store, Simpson Appliance, was just down from Shivelbines at 525 Broadway.
Bozema, MT has such a store and the owner is a 30’s age young lady. She is great and has super empoloyees. My daughter just bought her camera there (thanks for the help, Ken) The store has been in business for many years, but the owner wanted to retire and they were lucky to have someone interested in buying and expanding to meet the demands of the new photo folks and equipment. I am sure there are stores located around the country that still ofer personal service and knowledge, but they are harder and harder to locate! As Ken told me the other week, working with those stores on-line and by phone can be just as personal – just not “in person”.
Don’t remember for sure which block of Broadway I’m remembering, but there were two of the coolest shops of the day: Import-Export and March Hare. They had everything a coed from the early seventies could possibly wish for: candles, incense, posters, earrings, sandals. A walk down there on Saturday afternoons was all but mandatory. Anyone else remember those shops?
The names sound familiar, but they weren’t the kinds of places I hung out in.
I remember the store well. And yes, every Saturday must include a trip to March Hare.
We always called it a hippie store.
Did it move to Main Street in downtown?
Do you remember a store downtown called “The Place”??
It was a clothes store. Of course it carried the best hippie clothes.
We had to go there every Saturday.
Such a fun time back then
I don’t recall the import-export shop but The March Hare was owned and operated by Marsha Edwards, a creative and somewhat eclectic woman. Marsha had a very interesting store and was a bit ahead of the time for that period in Cape.
Might be interesting to find out what Marsha’s been doing since her ‘March Hare’ days. Also, since Import-Export was located just 2 or 3 doors down from March Hare, I’m wondering whether it might have been copied from Marsha’s ideas. The two shops were quite similar in atmosphere and in type of merchandise offered.
Laura, When “The March Hare” was going out of business, I went in and bought a small oval shaped picture of “The March Hare”–it hangs in my hallway–I liked the store and when I pass the picture my memories go back.–