Boyce Ditto Public Library - 2,830 Matching Results

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[A Corner of NW 1st Avenue and 9th Street]

Description: This picture may be found on page 138 of "Time Was..." by A. F. Weaver. The caption says, "George P. Barber residence, built in 1907 at the corner of NW 1st Avenue and 9th Street..." Dr. Barber, an early Doctor and financier in the city, joined with George W. Slaughter to donate land for Elmwood Cemetery. He established Barber's Addition (a housing development) in the north part of the City, and built a small lake for the City's first municipal water supply. The legend on the poster att… more
Date: unknown

[An Early Panoramic View of Mineral Wells, Texas: 1882]

Description: This photograph is an early panoramic view of Mineral Wells (taken approximately in 1882) from East Mountain, looking Southwest. Numbers on the photograph represent specific locations: 1. Judge Lynch's cabin, location of the first mineral water well; 2. N E 1st Avenue (second water well dug); 3. Oak Avenue and Hubbard Street; 4. Present location of the Fire and Police Station; 5. South Oak Avenue; 6. The Commercial Hotel (present location of the Gas Co.) 7. NE 1st Avenue business distri… more
Date: 1882?

[The Baker Hotel Entrance]

Description: Shown here is the main entrance to the Baker Hotel, which went directly into the hotel lobby. The hotel had twelve stories, of which all rooms were outside ones. They were reached by an elevator with the Baker Crest on it. The building was steam-heated, and hollow-tile partitions made each room quiet. There were no exterior fire escapes--just fire-proof stairwells. … more
Date: 1936?

The Opening of the First Season at Mineral Wells

Description: A.F. Weaver obtained this cartoon from a jocular booklet titled "Inside Story About the Waters", now in the Palo Pinto County Album collection (q.v.). The booklet is written in the nineteenth-century burlesque tradition, and is not meant to be taken seriously. See also the cartoons "The First Well Was Dug Here in 1877" and "Mr. Lynch on His Way to Discover Mineral Wells."
Date: unknown

Mr. Lynch On His Way to Discover Mineral Wells

Description: This picture is a photograph of a cartoon. See also "Opening of the First Season at Mineral Wells" and "The First Well Was Dug Here in 1877." Please note the centipede, illustrated along with other forms of wildlife. Also, please note the Indians, who appear to be friendly. A.F. Weaver took this cartoon from a jocular booklet titled "Inside Story About the Waters" (q.v.) that is in the Palo Pinto County Album collection (q.v.) It is written in the nineteenth-century burlesque style, an… more
Date: unknown

The First Well Was Dug Here in 1877

Description: This photograph illustrates a cartoon. "1880" is written in ink at bottom of the photograph, evidently in correction of the cartoon. Lynch arrived in what would later be Mineral Wells in 1877. His first well, dug to forty-one feet in 1878, was dry. The second well, drilled deeper, was in 1880. Please see also "Opening of the First Season at Mineral Wells" and "Mr. Lynch on His Way to Discover Mineral Wells." The cartoon appears to have been taken by A. F. Weaver from a jocular bookle… more
Date: unknown

Piedmont Hotel - [The Second Piedmont Hotel]

Description: This photograph occurs on page 104 of "Time Was in Mineral Wells" (first edition) by A. F. Weaver. The caption reads: "The Second Piedmont Hotel located on 2nd Avenue [sic] and East Hubbard was demolished to give room for the Baker Hotel Garage. It was used as an office for the Army Engineers during the construction of Possum Kingdom Dam." This hotel was probably located on the same site as the first Piedmont Hotel, which was built by a Colonel Duke of Weatherford, Texas, (a two story… more
Date: unknown

The Bimini

Description: The Bimini Mineral Baths, at 112 NW 4th Street, was built by Goodrum, Murphy and Croft, contractors in the early 1900's. The Bimini later became the Wagley Bathhouse. Dr. Wagley was an early pharmacist in Mineral Wells. The El Paso Morning Times in 1909 states that the re-building of the Bimini (the building here illustrated) will cost "...over $35,000." What the equivalent amount could be in modern-das dollars remains unknown. … more
Date: 1900?

[The R. B. Preston Building]

Description: Written on back of the photograph is: "R.B. Preston Building[,] Corner of Mesquite & Wall." A 1909 City Directory lists the address of the Preston Building as 110-116 North Mesquite, currently the location of the Baker Hotel, built at this location in 1929. The back of a duplicate picture indicates that the building was the Masonic Building; the 1909 directory lists the Masonic Hall at 113 S. Mesquite--the next block south.
Date: unknown

[A Letter from Mrs. William Wehunt to A.F. Weaver]--dated to About 2002

Description: The letter shown is from "Mrs. William Wehunt", who was the former Katherine Brookshire, whose father owned a furniture store in Mineral Wells. The bank referred to in the letter is believed to have been the Bank of Mineral Wells, that failed in 1924. It had been Mineral Wells' first bank. The Brookshire family of Mineral Wells is believed to be distantly related to the founder of the chain of Brookshire grocery stores.
Date: unknown
Creator: Katherine Brookshire Wehunt

[The Hexagon Hotel], Southside

Description: This photograph is a cleaned-up version, by A.F. Weaver, of the Hexagon Hotel, at approximately the time of its completion. (The site has been cleaned, and the trash removed.) Construction of the Hexagon Hotel started in 1895, and it opened for business in 1897, to ameliorate Mineral Wells' torrid summertime heat years before air-conditioning became available, its design was such that it could catch every vagrant breeze, and cool the hotel. … more
Date: 1897/1959

Texas Trade Review

Description: An early street scene showing buildings and a horse-drawn wagon is shown here. Written in lower left corner is "Texas Trade Review." The sign over the sidewalk reads "D.M. Howard." There were several D.M. Howard stores (see page 122 in "Time Was...", second edition). This scene was probably on Mesquite Street in the 100 block. It is undated, but the unpaved road, and the horse-drawn wagon, suggest the latter part of the nineteenth century.
Date: unknown

Star House

Description: The Star House was built about 1900,and owned by Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Ramsey. This 34-room hotel was situated at 315 west Coke Street. A colophon at the bottom of the picture, barely legible, reads: "1903 Ramsey House Mineral Wells, Texas John Ramsey Ima Ramsey." Johnathon Joseph Ramsey was born in Alabama on July 14, 1846; he died on January 31, 1914. He lies buried in Jefferson, Oklahoma. The people named were gone by 1909. The hotel was named "the Windsor Hotel" thereafter. … more
Date: unknown

The History of Elmhurst Park Housing Project

Description: Elmhurst Park, on Pollard Creek about one mile-and-a-half of the southwest corner of Oak and Hubbard streets, closed when the trolley from the city to the Park ceased operations in 1913. The City of Mineral Wells received the park property, in a lawsuit concerning the builder of the park, one Major Beardsley (q.v. in the description field). A housing project was opened there about the time the nation began mobilizing for World War II, and construction of Fort Wolters began. (At one time, For… more
Date: 1960?

[The Golens Livery Stable]

Description: This picture, labeled on the back as "Golens Livery Stable", shows a wagon, three hacks and a buggy, each pulled by a two-horse team. The hack on the left (the white horse on the right of the team) has a "Green's Transfer" sign on it. The hack in the middle has a passenger and the one on the right has three. The man in the foreground is likely the livery stable's owner. An assistant is visible in the stable doorway. Hacks and buggies were typical of the transportation that Mineral Wells… more
Date: 1882?/1897?

[Some Gentlemen in Front of the Oxford Hotel]

Description: Seated in front of the Oxford Hotel, from left to right, are: R.B. Preston, Mr. Dick from Millsap (seen shockingly, for that time, in shirtsleeves), and Stith Edmondson. (Mr. Edmondson was an early sheriff of Palo Pinto County.) Dr. J. H. McCracken can be seen in the window. The First State Bank and Trust Company was located in the corner of this building, later called the Firstron Building. A sign on the building in the left corner states "$15.00 Fine for Spitting on Sidewalk". … more
Date: unknown

[The Welcome Sign]

Description: The WELCOME Sign (shown here) was fostered in 1922 by George Holmgren, the Texas Rotary Club's Governor, following a convention of the Rotary Club in Mineral Wells. The twelve-foot letters were built in Mr. Holmgren's San Antonio iron works by Mr. James Calvert, who was 17 years old when he and his father were commissioned to forge the letters. Mr. Calvert had played trumpet in the "F" troop cavalry as well as playing in the Frank Bird Orchestra in the Baker Hotel. Mr. Holmgren then gave the… more
Date: 1972

[The Crazy Hotel After the Fire of 1925]

Description: A handwritten note on the back of the photograph identifies the picture as "Crazy Hotel southside [sic] after fire of March 15, 1925." Shown is the skeleton of the first Crazy Hotel, after a fire destroyed the entire Crazy "complex." The original hotel complex consisted of the two adjoined hotel sections with a common lobby, the Crazy Flats (a drinking pavilion with rooms for rent), a Bath House, and a drugstore (in which the fire started). The second Crazy Hotel opened two years … more
Date: March 15, 1925

[A Group of Hikers]

Description: This photograph shows group of two young men and six ladies on an outing in 1905. Note the walking "canes" held by several of the ladies. They appear to be resting at the souvenir photograph stand on the mountain trail about half-way to the top of East Mountain. Hiking to the top of East Mountain was a popular pastime for health seekers in the "City Built on Water" around the turn of the century.
Date: 1905
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