Handwriting on the back of this photograph identifies it as "Crazy Fiz 1930s" It is a section of the Crazy Water Bottling Plant, where carbon dioxide appears to have been added to the mineral water in order to compete with the popular soft drinks of the era. Note the bottling machine in the right foreground of the picture. Women are packing the carbonated "fizz water" for shipment.
Notes that accompany the photograph read: "Picture taken near the top of the thousand steps which used to climb East Mountain up NE 3rd Street. Path can still be seen going up the side of the mountain at this point." The souvenir picture was taken in the 1930's, and is believed to have been taken at the photographer's cabin, where the winding donkey trail formerly crossed the steps.
A note by A.F. Weaver identifies this group as "Left to right: Lions, Cary Lodal, Moon Mullins, Charlie Johnson, "Santa Claus", Jess Pervine, Noble Glenn." The last four are pictured as sitting on the running board of a General Motors truck, which appears to be loaded with wrapped gifts. (No connection is known or implied, but since the "Santa Claus" in the picture is not identified, an interesting bit of local history is offered by way of suppletion: Rancher Charley Belding, a bachelor living west of Palo Pinto, was known annually to contribute (anonymously) truckloads of Christmas Gifts for needy children in the county.) Note the Hexagon Hotel in the upper right corner and the two gasoline stations, Gulf and Sinclair (H.C.) The picture appears to have been taken on the east side of N. Oak Avenue in about the 500 block. The Lion's club, mentioned in the title, is a service organization.
Pictured here is the Lion's Club "Woman-less Wedding", a Community Entertainment Production sponsored by the local Lion's Club as a fund-raiser for local charity, and popular around the 1930's and 1940's. Participants are identified as: Seated; J. B. Courtney (Miss Fortune), Charles Williams and Noble Glenn (Miss Applied). Standing; Cary Lodal, Dr. Holder, Bob Joiner, Jess Purvine, Cecil Young, Charlie Johnson and Frank Burney (Mae West).
This photograph appears to be taken from a picture post-card, which includes the old Methodist Church, the Baker Hotel Garden, the Baker Water Storage Building, and the Welcome Sign on East Mountain. It is a rare view. The home of Druggist Dr. C. F. Yeager on NE 2nd Street in the picture was still standing at the time of this picture. During construction of his Hotel, Mr. Baker visited Hot Springs, Arkansas; and he was so impressed with the Arlington Hotel that he stopped building construction, and moved the hotel a block further west. He converted the basement, already built, into a swimming pool (only the second hotel known to have a pool at the time), and an underground laundry. The Methodist church has since been rebuilt, the water storage building has been removed, and the "Welcome" sign has been relocated further east to greet visitors from its new location overlooking Elmwood Cemetery.
Dr. H. H. Milling was the first of Mineral Wells' "rubbin' doctors." He operated the Mineral Wells Sanatorium at 315 NW 1st Avenue before building this sanitarium in the 2500 block of SE 6th Avenue - the old Millsap Highway) about 1929. The building was later sold and renamed Irvine Sanitarium. It now [2010] belongs to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, is located at 1400 SE VFW Highway (a branch of SE 6th Avenue), and houses VFW Post 2399. Dr. Milling also owned 60 acres on Pollard Creek in north Mineral Wells that were donated to the state of Texas to use as a State Park, which became SP8. During the Great Depression of the 1930's, the WPA and the CCC made several additions to that park to improve its recreational value: Bridges, a small dam, steps up the mountain, restrooms, etc., all using native sandstone. When Milling Park was determined by the state to be surplus property, it was deeded to the city and later renamed North City Park.
The Mineral Wells High School marching band is shown here performing on a football field in the late 1930's. The band director at that time was Mr. Dave Brunswick. See also "Mineral Wells High School Concert Band."
A copy of a newspaper clipping, the caption identifies members of the Mineral Wells Mounted Police "57 years ago." Identified are: "Uncle Billy Wood" on his white horse (not a member of the force); Bob Pate; Paul Craig; Jim Barrett, probably Chief of Police at the time; Paul Granbury. All are reported to be deceased at time of printing. The picture was furnished to the paper courtesy Mrs. Paul Granbury. The sign on the building at the far left of the picture has been tentatively identified as a Livery Stable. Though the sign is visible, the distance has made its contents extremely obscure. The first city hall was located at the corner of First Avenue and Third Street, with a fence to hold impounded livestock. The rounding up of stray livestock was the primary duty of the mounted police in 1910. Two more more individuals were also forbidden to fight in public; no-one was permitted to use obscene language; playing cards for liquor. The renting of houses for the playing of cards was also forbidden. Teams were not allowed to be unhitched while attached to wagons, and vagrants were fined $10- In short, the police team were kept busy. These details are taken from "The Mineral wells Police Department 1882-1988" by Kaye Ashby, in the custody of the Boyce Ditto Library.
Panoramic photograph of Lake Mineral Wells. An island, visible in the center of this picture, was initially accessible only by boat; but a wooden walkway eventually connected it to the concrete dam.
The 1936 opening of the brick highway from Mineral Wells to Weatherford, now known as Highway US 180. This was a Works Project Administration (WPA) highway, built during the early "Great Depression" recovery period. The photograph is looking west toward Mineral Wells, and the Baker Hotel may be seen faintly on the horizon at left center of the picture.
Mineral Wells' Sewerage Disposal Plant was built on the site of the former Elmhurst Park on Pollard Creek, approximately 2 miles SSW of the city. The city obtained the park property, and built the sewerage treatment plant during the recovery from the Great Depression of the 1930's. Shown here is a photograph of a clipping from a newspaper.
The back of the photograph exhibits a note that this picture was copied from the "Burro", which is the Mineral Wells High School yearbook. The "Sewing Room" was a classroom in the Lillian Peek Home Economics building on the grounds of the high school. The Lillian Peek cottage was built by the WPA in 1937, and was the first free- standing house built specifically for Home Economics education in the State of Texas. It was "Current state of the art" when it was completed. The building now [2008] houses the Creative Arts Center, and is used by the local Art Club as an art workshop and museum.
Identifying information on this photograph is lacking, but it appears to portray a supervisor in the Crazy Bottling/Crystals Plant catching up on the paperwork produced by a day's business.
A view of Mineral Wells from East Mountain, looking West-Northwest is shown here. The Crazy Hotel is visible in the near-left part of the picture, and the Nazareth Hospital in the middle-left, a block Northwest of the Crazy The Norwood Clinic (with its stately white columns), a block northeast of the Nazareth, is located near the center of the picture.
The Gibson Well Company purchased the Sangura-Sprudel property in 1908 for the sum of $30,000. It was to be operated as the Gibson Well property thereafter. An unnamed company shipped twenty-five carloads of water to an equally anonymous firm in Chicago in March of that year. The Gibson Well, Pavilion, and Park property covered the entire block, bordered by NW 2nd and 3rd Avenues and NW 6th and 7th Streets. The Gibson Well buildings were on the north side of the block, and the Crazy Water Well Company Bottling Plant was across NW 2nd Avenue--to the east. The Crazy Well Company maintained ambitions to build a large plant to the north of the Gibson Block, at 300 NW 7th Street, in 1921. Two buildings remained of the Gibson Well property in the 1920's, but the land was still used as a park. 1927 saw the operation of the Crazy Hotel (It was reputed to be the "Center of Everything in Mineral Wells") with its park at 300 NW 6th Street. Hence, the name of the park in the title. The property now [2008] belongs to, and is occupied by, the First Christian Church.
This is apparently the picture of a picture of a fund-raiser performed by the Lion's Club. It consisted of a play in which men all played the roles of women. Identified (in print) are the three "ladies" in front: J. B Courtney (Miss Fortune), Charles Williams, and Noble Glenn (Miss Applied). Also identified (in holograph) is Cecil Young, third from the right, presumably among the standing "ladies."
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