News photos that have grown whiskers and have become history
I can’t help but be drawn to the World War I private standing vigil on the county courthouse lawn in Jackson. Click on the photo to make it larger.
This isn’t the first time I’ve shot him, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Here are some early posts with him in it.
When I was driving east on Independence from Kingshighway, I expected to see a big empty spot where the old Plaza Galleria, the ice skating rink, used to be, but the space was even more empty than I thought. This photo is looking south toward the back of the Town Plaza Shopping Center.
Among the missing buildings was a strip of businesses, including Trish’s Place. I was never in the joint, but Missourian photographer Laura Simon showed up on May 31, 2014, to shoot a gallery of photos of the closing of the local watering hole.
I don’t know how many times Mother has said, “Turn here and go back to look at Elk’s Lake.” I’m usually on the way to someplace important like Wib’s BBQ, so I drive right past it.
On this day, though, I heeded her directions to turn off on Limbaugh Lane, just past North County Park. (It’s a right turn, not surprisingly.) After a few twists and turns, Limbaugh Lane becomes Elk Lane.
It passes Elk Lodge #639, then goes down and curves past a baseball diamond. The road is marked 10 mph, by the way.
When the view opens up, you get a whole bunch of beautiful views of Elk’s Lake.
Guess I should have listened to her years ago.
Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.
I’m a sucker for buildings with names, so when I was driving down North Ellis south of the Broadway Theater, I had to snap a quick picture of the Mildred Apartments. The place is a little shabby these days.
In fact, a young man showed up on the police blotter for “maintaining a disorderly house” there not too long ago. I suspect that the citation wasn’t for something as mundane as not picking his socks up off the floor.
The January 21, 1921, Missourian carried a front page story “How Builders View the Situation.” Theodore Ochs, president of the Union Lumber Company, and with 20 years in the lumber business, said things were going to bounce back now that the War was over. “I do not propose to cut the pay of a single man of the many who are working for me, but expect them to merely produce more than they have in the past.”
Ochs continued, “I intend building a six-family apartment house on Ellis Street in the spring, which will be almost identical to the Mildred Apartments I built there some time ago.”
The newspaper columns were full of stories about things happening in the apartments and to its inhabitants. There were lots of bridge parties and social organization galas. James Kinder II was quarantined with the mumps in 1936. Lightning hit the structure in 1920, “all lights in the building being snuffed out except those in one apartment.”
In 1927, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis H. Butler of that address “motored to Advance, Glenallen and Lutesville Sunday. They said the roads were in good condition all the way.”
E.W. Boyer advertised in 1927 for stenographic work: “Addressing envelopes, typewritten letters, shorthand or copying; 5 cents for original, long or short letter; 3 cents for each additional carbon copy; neatness and accuracy guaranteed. Phone 768.”