‘Pre-fires’ 1948 photo: Mystery, history and lots of memory

By Mike Brown - Editor - Rockdale Reporter

2015-05-07

The photo above has been circulating on that Internet thing for about a week and it’s

prompted a lot of interest.

It’s the south side of the 100 block of East Cameron Avenue (US 79) in 1948.

It’s pretty cool for several reasons, one of which is that it depicts this block way

before it was altered by two devastating fires that claimed several buildings on Jan. 20,

1974, and Dec. 11, 2002.

The comments are of two kinds: “Gee, I remember that!” and “Gee, what was that building

with the columns next to the Dixie Theater?” To answer the latter. It was the old

Citizens State Bank Building, constructed before World War I.

After the bank closed, the second floor became Rockdale’s telephone switchboard for many

years.

If you look closely, you can see the little swinging sign out front with the Bell

Telephone logo.

Really old-timers can remember hearing the operator ask “number please” when they called.

And some local phone patrons got where they could recognize the voice on the other end.

“Hello Juanita, ring up Floyd at the barber shop for me” to use a Mayberry analogy.

The switchboard ladies could look out across the street at the Elite Cafe, a popular

eatery of the era.

More than once the “911” call of its day was for an operator to tell the caller: “I see

the doctor’s car. He’s in there drinking coffee. I’ll get him on the way.”

On either side of this “Greek temple” in the photo are historic Rockdale businesses. To

the left is Singer’s Grill, a legendary eating/entertainment place purchased by Tommy and

Vera Thompson the previous year to this photo.

In addition to memorable food, it featured a live country-western band every morning in a

30-minute session broadcast over KTAE in Taylor.

Singer’s Grill got its name from its first owner, Charlie Moore, who loved to sing and

would do so at the drop of a hat.

He even organized a community chorus.

Vera Thompson—later Miller—first worked at Singer’s Grill and later in life ran dress

shops and children’s shops next door, on the corner.

Name of the corner business in 1948 in this photo had eluded us over the weekend but

Cindy (Thompson) Jensen, daughter of Tommy and Vera, came to our rescue.

She remembered it as a beauty shop. Look closely and you can see the front ‘B efore the

fires’ view of the south side of East Cameron’s (US 79) 100 block in 1948 shows a lot of

history, buildings that are gone forever, except in memory, time. door is open in the

picture. No AC in 1948. Around back was B. Ashby’s gun shop.

The Singer’s Grill and Vera’s Heaven to Seventeen — that’s what the corner business

became in later years—a children’s clothing store, burned in the 1973 fire.

Amazingly, a firewall in the then-vacant “Greek column” building held and saved the rest

of the block.

That included the Dixie Theater, which was full of kids watching the Walt Disney feature

“The Vanishing Wilderness.” They were evacuated that Sunday afternoon in 1974.

On the day in 1948 this photo was taken, The Dixie was showing “I’ll Be Yours,” starring

a Deanna Durbin, a heart-throb of the era.

Now, here’s a shocker to probably everyone under the age of 95.

A photo on page 21 of Dr. Lucile Estell’s book “Images of America: Rockdale” shows a

World War I-era crowd gathered in front of the Dixie Theatre.

Except the Dixie Theatre is not where we “all” remember it. It’s where Singer’s Grill

came to be at a later date! No, really.

Anyone remember?

Back to 1948. West of the Dixie is Holley’s Red & White Grocery Store. You’re a real old-

timer if you remember that one.

And next to Holley’s is E. M. Peebles & Sons, a huge hardware (and more) store that would

have been right at home on Congress Avenue in Austin.

It was vast and fun to explore and had a life-size paster cast of a white horse. The

building housed Arledge Antiques and Ballard Carpets & More when it was destroyed in

2003.

The Peebles building was the old Henne & Meyer Store (H. C. Meyer was a longtime Rockdale

mayor) that was built in 1881, just seven years after Rockdale was incorporated.

Next door is the Bit of History building. That’s apparently the only “survivor” today in

this photo.

Note the little white signs at the far left of the photo are for US 79 and US 77. Highway

79, then as now, is Cameron Avenue.

But Highway 77 also ran through downtown. It came in from the north as Ackerman, then

followed Cameron for a couple of blocks, turned left and exited town, under the railroad

underpass, as South Wilcox.

Remember the sign just past the underpass that said: “Corpus Christi 212? “ I do.

Last, but far from least. Doesn’t it look good, 1948 or not, to see all the downtown

Rockdale parking spaces fall filled up!

mike@rockdalereporter.com