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The Garland Landmark Society, Inc.

Downtown Garland Photos

Embree's Business District, shown here ca. 1887,

lay on either side of Mewshaw St., now Avenue D.,

between present Glenbrook Dr. and the Santa Fe

tracks, where that railroad's first depot appears.

Embree and the new Duck Creek township to the

north were joined in 1888 with a common post office

designated "Garland."

The Garland Square was unpaved when this photo

framed its northwest corner of present State and

5th Streets is the Garland Hotel. Across the street

is the Citizen's National Bank, Garland's first bank,

founded in 1895. Successive banks operated there

until 1929, and in 1933 the building was expanded

to become Nicholson Memorial Hall.

The National Bank of Garland, the city's second

bank, was capitalized at $50,000 by local investors

in 1906. Standing to the right of the tellers window

in the freshly appointed bank lobby on the

northwest corner of the square, were John T. Jones,

the bank's first president and A.R. Davis, the cashier

and first full-time employee.

The capable, friendly staff at Morrison's Garage

stood ready to serve the growing number of Garland

motorist ca. 1910. A.V. Morrison, Sr., local agent for

Overland Automobile Co. of Dallas, is shown leaning

on a car fender at the garage, which was located at the

southeast corner of present 7th and Main Streets.

The Citizens National Bank float for the 1911

Garland Stock Show is pictured in front of the

home of bank resident T.N. Hickman. Located

at the southwest corner of Main Street and

Glenbrook, the home was later occupied by

M.D. Williams, who demolished the structure

and recycled some of its lumber into a funeral

home on the site in 1930.

The Garland News Float for the 1911 Stock

Show parade proclaims that the News is

"always there." Publication of the original

Garland News, which traced its genesis to

The Duck Creek News in 1887, was terminated

in 2001, but a new and unrelated Garland News

appeared in 2006 and is still here.

The Flook boys, Cyril and Cecil, are shown here ca. 1914

on the Garland square in a wagon used for deliveries from

The Garland Grocery. The store was purchased by their

father in 1913, and was located on the square's north side.

This photo shows the east side of the square with the

Garland Hotel at the northeast corner.

The west side of the square hosted only horse-drawn

buggies when this image was made (ca. 1915), the

year Texas Power & Light Co. strung electric wires

through town. The pole on the corner beside the bank

building appears to support one of Garland's four

electric street lights, which illuminated the square.

Shoppers in full dress milled casually about the

south side of the Garland Square during the

afternoon on DollarDay, April 3, 1915. Only a

few months before the outbreak of WWI this

group concentrated on a drawing for a horse

and buggy. The image was made from the upper

stories on the square's west side.

"Mainline" protestant churches including Baptist

(forefront), Presbyterian and Methodist, are pictured

ca. 1915 in successive blocks along the east side of

9th St. The Christian Church, located a block north

of the Methodist, is not visible, since it's building

fronted on 8th St, now Glenbrook Dr.

Dollar Day was a monthly promotion by downtown

merchants,one of whom advertised the first event,

held in April of 1915, with signs on his automobile.

Streets around the square, however, were roped off

against motor traffic to protect an estimated 5,000

who attended the event.

Garland's first motorized fire truck, surrounded

by members of the Volunteer Fire Department,

is parked in front of the C. M. Brown Ford agency.

Predating the city's water system, the unit featured

a soda-ash extinguisher transferred from the

department's existing two-wheeled cart to a 1917

Ford truck chasis.

“The Ford House” was opened here ca. 1917 by Carl M.

Brown to complement his operation in Mesquite. Besides

featuring automobiles, the showroom served as a hangout

for local business and professional men. Still standing at

614 Main St., the building subsequently housed the city’s

Chevrolet dealership.

The 1917 Reo Touring Car had "jump"seats

allowing it to carry up to 7 passengers, and

it might have still smelled new when this

local family was photographed. Through

automobile ownership was ballooning, Texans

registered fewer than 195,000 vehicles

statewide in 1917.

Garland's new fire truck is shown ca 1917 resting

sideways across parking spaces on the west of the

square in front of Handley's Drug Store. Noticeably

absent from the vicinity of it's only truck were members

of the Garland Volunteer Fire Department, who may

have adjourned inside to Handley's soda fountain.

Morrison's Garage, shown here in the early '20's,

provided gas, tires and mechanic service to the

exploding population of automobile owners in the

early 20th century. This establishment was located

at the S.E. corner of present Main and Seventh

Sts., neither of which was a hard -surface road.

Morrison’s Garage, shown here during the late ‘20s in

its brick-veneered incarnation that replaced an earlier

version, reflects the growing success of auto-related

businesses. The building hosted Pontiac and Ford

dealerships when such businesses were located

downtown.

The 1923 model ambulance and hearse, both

manufactured by Sayers and Scovill, lined up

at the curb of the D. Cecil Williams residence,

1200 W. Avenue F. The vehicles were regularly

garaged behind the house, since the Williams

Funeral Home was located on the town square

and had no vehicle storage. Dorothy Ruth Williams

stood on the running board of the hearse for this

photo.

This service station, pictured here in the 1920s, was

the genesis of various enterprises operated by various

members of the Shugart family for more than 50 years.

From this foothold at the northeast corner of present Main

and Glenbrook, the family expanded east and north, adding

home appliances and furniture to the usual inventory

of Sinclair Oil products.

The Garland Hotel stood on the northwest corner of

present State and 5th St. The building was originally

part of a dormitory constructed at the northeast corner

of present Avenue A and 9th St. for Garland College.

The hotel burned in 1932

The "A&P" Grocery Store opened at the southeast

corner of the square in 1926. The Great Atlantic and

Pacific Tea Co. was Garland's first national chain

gracer, and unlike most of the locally owned stores,

they ran a cash-and-carry business. Shown here

ca. 1936 are manager P.H. Burleson and employee

Barney Nichols.

Roy Rogers and Smiley Burnette got a special welcome

when they visited Garland in 1938 to promote their new

picture "Under Western Stars," shown at the Plaza

Theater downtown. Their route to the ceremonies on the

square took them directly under these banners on Main

Street. Eventually voted best picture of the year, the film

provided Rogers his first starring movie role as a singing

cowboy.

Roy Rogers and Smiley Burnette flanked Garland High

School band director Howard Taylor in front of Nicholson

Memorial Hall for this 1938 photo. The school band turned

out for the Garland Theater's promotion of Under Western

Stars, later voted the best western of that year.

Scogins Cafe, owned by Fulton and Ollie Scogin,

is pictured here about the time of it's opening in

October of 1945. Formerly operated as Boyd's Cafe,

the redecorated eatery was located on the north side

of Bankhead Ave., now Main Street, between 1st and

3rd Sts. and advertised "Garland's Finest Foods."

The Anderson & Routh Service Station, located at

129 Bankhead (now Main), is shown about the time

it was opened after the close of WWII. A haunt for

local fisherman of all ages, the station sold boating

supplies, fishing gear and minnows as well as

gasoline. Business continued under the surviving

partner, Cecil "Utz" Routh, until 1983.

Nelson's Blacksmith Shop worked on automobiles,

farm implements and anything else broken or dull.

Owner Fay Nelson and his son, P.J. "Pete" Nelson

pose ca. 1946 in front of the Model T Ford roadster

owned by Nelli and Bud Rogers of Rowlett. The

Nelson establishment sat near the northeast corner

of State and 5th Streets on the south side of the

present Garland City Hall site.

Nick’s Cafe is pictured here in 1946, after one of its

grease fires. Opened by H. A. Nichols near present

Main and 1^st Sts. in 1935, the popular eatery was

relocated in 1940 to the east side of the Duck Creek

shopping district at present Garland Ave. and Ave. D.

The last fire destroyed it in 1954.

U.S. Highway 67 once ran down present Main

Street and South Garland Avenue into Dallas.

Motorist, such as these shown in a 1936 Ford

Club Cabriolet, endured overflows at Rowlett

Creek, the Santa Fe crossing and the 6th Street

stop light at the southwest corner of the town

square. In 1935 federal traffic planners

recommended changing the route to its current

path at the eastern edge of the city.

Scott Sandwich Shop, shown here in the early '50's,

debuted on Christmas Day in 1933 offering 10-cent

hamburgers and 35-cent plate lunches around the

clock. Glen and Roxie Scott's eatery soon became

a regular stop for Garlandites of all ages. The shop

was grouped with a service station, tourist court and

veterinary office at the present site of Bank One

building on the west side of S. Garland Ave. Scott's

closed in 1964

Garland Clinic and Hospital was a private facility

opened in 1954 by Dr. Robert E. Speegle on Marion

Dr. at Resistol. With an emergency room, delivery

room, X-ray facility, surgery, laboratory and 11 beds,

it attracted specialists and provided Garland’s first

alternative to Dallas hospitals. The campus now

houses the Las Brisas Residence Club.

Garland Police Officers Paul Carvin, Jack Keller,

O.B. Caraway, L.P. Trammel and Bobby Bradfield

were caught by this photographer in front of Garland

High School, where they waited for lawbreakers

during the early'50's. Today's Police Department

dates itself from 1951, when voters approved a city

charter providing for a council-manager form of

government.

The J. C. Jubilee, a Labor Day fundraising

celebration of the Garland Jaycees, has occurred

annually since 1946. This 1956 photo caught

W.J. "Mo" Wooldridge, monitored by his son,

Jay, painting a promotional Jubilee sign on the

window of Skillern's Drug Store in the shopping

center at Miller Rd. and S. Garland Ave.

An aerial photograph looks east between present

Main and State Sts. ca. 1958, when the downtown

water tower was still in place. The Nicholson Hall

and Library was still standing on the east side of

the square, then used for parking,and the present

city hall lay years into the future.

The Duck Creek shopping district, shown ca. 1950,

collected itself gradually on both sides of present

Garland Ave. at Ave. D. This view looks northeast

past several businesses on the east side toward the

Garland High School Campus. It includes a two-story

home that housed Moore’s Dining Hall and later the

Roan Apartments.

The Drunkard, whose cast is shown, was billed

as a fundraiser by Garland Civic Theater in 1968,

the group's charter year. GCT staged the melodrama

inside a borrowed room at 905 State St. Adult tickets

for performances during its three-week run cost $1.25.

The Cemetery Oak towers over Garland Memorial

Park on S. Garland Ave. near Miller Rd. Estimated

to be 150 to 200 years old, it was probably planted

by a crow or a squirrel. The Texas Forest Service

certified this Quercus Shumardii as Metroplex

Champion, the largest of its species among Dallas,

Tarrant and their eight adjoining counties.

The Santa Fe Depot of 1901 was the railroad’s

second in Garland and was located south of the

track crossing at present Main St. This image,

taken before 1972, when the building was turned

180 degrees and relocated 150 ft. north, shows

the control windows facing the track.

The Santa Fe Depot was constructed in 1901 on a site

150 yds. SW. The building sat on the west side of the

tracks, just across present Main St. from Roach Feed

& Seed, but was moved to its present location in 1972,

allowing previously disconnected segments of 5^th St.

to be joined.