Frisco City Rephotography

Downtown Frisco City: Then and Now

2010-12-10T13:10:00.006-06:00

This rephotographic tour of Frisco City will cover as many buildings as possible of the downtown business area beginning on the south end, at the intersection of Central Avenue and Bowden St./Hwy 21, and examining the west side of Bowden St. toward the north end and former Frisco Theater. Then, beginning with J.J. McWilliams & Son at the intersection of Bowden St. and the Excel/Frisco Hwy., the tour of the east side of Bowden St. travels back south toward Central Avenue.

For many of these businesses, I can only estimate dates of their existences from ads and interviews. I hope at a future time to find concrete dates for the comings and goings of businesses from tax records and insurance maps. The interviews featured in this blog cover a period from about the 1940s to the 1960s, so information on the building and the numerous businesses that cycled through it is loosely confined to those decades.

To start the "tour," select a building from the menu on the left.

For now, welcome to Frisco City.

RC Cola, Hendrix Tractor

2010-12-02T09:32:00.000-06:00

The first building on this stretch was the old RC Cola Bottling Company from the 1930s until the late 1970s.

1968 Friscola yearbook ad

D&D Furniture offices
November 2010

Annie Laura Tatum, a long-time Frisco City resident, remembers a popular RC ad:

Lou Dunn, another Frisco City resident, names his favorite RC-Nehi beverage.

The adjacent building was occupied by Lee Motor Company from 1921 to at least 1940, then by Hendrix Tractor Company from the 1940s-late 1960s.

Lee Motor Company
1940

Hendrix Tractor
1950 Crimson-White yearbook photo

D&D Furniture Factory Outlet
November 2010

Hendrix Tractor
1957 Crimson and White yearbook ad

D&D Furniture Factory Outlet
November 2010

This strip of buildings now houses the main offices and showrooms of D&D Furniture Factory Outlet.

Admiral Byrd's station

2010-12-01T08:58:00.001-06:00

The corner building on the southwest end of the downtown area functioned as a service station for a number of years. At one time it was owned by a man called "Admiral Byrd." He may or may not have actually been an admiral, according to interviewed residents, but he certainly had a commanding personality.

A former childhood employee of Admiral Byrd's, Tim Taylor, describes an experience he had (literally) acquitting two out-of-towners exposed to the Admiral's censure.

The corner building is now enclosed and is part of Ray's Hardware, one of the few businesses still open in the downtown area. Parts of the original walls of Admiral Byrd's station are still visible inside Ray's.

Admiral Byrd's station
1957 Friscola yearbook ad

Ray's Hardware
2010

Ray's Hardware and Supply

2010-11-29T23:02:00.002-06:00

The next building houses Ray's Hardware and Supply, which began in 1959 and is still in business today.

1966 Friscola Yearbook ad

October 2010

Back door of "main building"
May 1965

October 2010

Ronnie Ray, son of founder Roy Ray, describes the growth of the store into adjacent buildings.

Post-remodeling and eexpansion 1976

October 2010

Interior, late 1970s. Pictured from left to right are Roy Ray (father), Vince Ray, and Ronnie Ray.

October 2010
Ronnie Ray is the only surviving member of the trio.

Ray names a few of the businesses the adjacent buildings housed prior to the hardware store's expansion.

A mid-1950s photograph shows Admiral Byrd's service station to the left of the original Ray's Hardware building and the white-fronted "dime store" Ray mentions to the right: the Ben Franklin Store.

The two small buildings on the far side of the Ben Franklin Store are now 1) a storage facility for Ray's Hardware and 2) two hair-styling shops.

Through 51 years in operation, Ray's Hardware has had to change its lines of mercandise to adapt to the changing needs of more mobile, but still relatively rural, customers.

Ray's Hardware has long been a fixture on the northwest corner of town, and, by all indications, its prospects for remaining so seem bright.

People's Bank

2010-11-28T23:49:00.000-06:00

An alley separates (and has always separated) the current Ray's Hardware buildings and style shops from the old People's Bank building.

People's Bank was established in Frisco City in 1914, when the town was still named Jones Mill. I have been unable to find picture of the building from this era, but it is obvious from the above photograph that even the alley's side was adorned with arched windows and doors.

Documents from the bank themselves reflect part of the town's history: its name changes. A blank check names the bank's location as "Roy, Alabama," and a 1925 check names the town "Jones Mills, Ala."

The bank building was remodeled between 1969 and 1970, and, in addition to a new facade, the bank gained the adjacent building, which had been a movie theater and then a Western Auto store in preceding decades (1940s, early 1950s-1969).

1972 Friscola yearbook ad

November 2010

By the mid-1980s, People's Bank had merged with United Bank and had moved to a new building just south of the downtown stretch of buildings.

The safe and tellers' desks are still inside the deteriorating building, which is now used for storage.

Western Auto

2010-11-27T04:13:00.001-06:00

The building taken over by People's Bank in 1969 once housed Frisco City's first movie theater (1940s) and, from the early 1950s until 1969, the Western Auto Associate Store.

Theater

Annie Laura Tatum remembers going to the movie theater there in the early 1940s.

The steps Mrs. Tatum mentions still lead up to the building and are visible in the photograph below. No picture of the original theater has been yet located for this project.

November 2010

Western Auto

The Western Auto Associate Store hosted its grand opening in this building iin the mid-1950s.

Grand Opening
mid-1950s
Photo by Max McAliley

November 2010

Grand Opening mid-1950s
Photo by Max McAliley

Lou Dunn describes the store's varied merchandise lines, partially illustrated by the photographs below.

1959 Crimson and White yearbook ad

A second ad from 1959 Crimson and White yearbook

Liles Building

2010-11-26T04:56:00.000-06:00

The next building is the Liles Building, which housed Roy Hardware from at least the 1930s to the 1960s.

Verlie M. Sawyer stands in front of Roy Hardware in the late 1930s.
Photo courtesy of Ginny Sims Hudson

The "Furniture" end of Roy Hardware can be seen here in the early 1950s.
Photo by Max McAliley

November 2010

Jimmy and Fredia Tatum (and briefly Ronnie Ray) describe the store below.

Lou Dunn remembers a purchase he made at Roy Hardware in the mid-1950s.

For a short while in 2009 and 2010, the Liles building housed the Frisco Family Fun Center, an limited arcade game venue. It is now vacant again.

Eddins General Merchandise, Byrd's Sundry Store

2010-11-25T06:07:00.000-06:00

The decaying building adjacent to the Liles Building housed many different businesses.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the W.R. Eddins General Merchandise store was located there.

Late 1930s
Photo courtesy of Ginny Sims Hudson

From the mid-1940s to mid-1950s, the building was home to Byrd's Sundry Store and The Diner Cafe.

Early 1950s photo by Max McAliley

November 2010

1948 Crimson-White yearbook ad

At some time during the 1950s, the building supposedly housed a pool hall, but it has been difficult to locate information about or photographs of this era in the building's history.

Also, at an undetermined time, Tatum Furniture used the building for a discount retail store. That store's name remains on the windows of the building.

Today, the building is only a shell of what it once was.

November 2010

Hotel

2010-11-23T13:54:00.001-06:00

Godwin's Hotel was one of two downtown hotels in Frisco City's heyday (the other was in an old two-story house, the McMillan home).

The hotel building has 27 rooms upstairs, with about 4 bathrooms, according to current building owner Jimmy Goram, who repaired the roof of the building in 2005. Until 2004, when Hurricane Ivan damaged the roof, people had been renting rooms upstairs, though the hotel had long been closed.

The hotel had been in operation at least since the late 1930s, when the picture below was taken.

A cafe inside was called Jaye's Cafe and seems to have been in existence during the Depression years and into the early 1950s. An interview with Jimmy Goram revealed stories about Jaye's regionally-acclaimed 10-cents-per-gallon soup.

1965 Friscola yearbook photo
The picture appears to have actually been taken in around 1950.

October 2010

From about the early 1950s until the mid-1970s, the building housed Godwin's Hotel and Cafe.

1954 Crimson and White yearbook ad

1952 Crimson and White yearbook ad

Lou Dunn, a Frisco Ciy resident, describes the building.

Th building is now used for storage.

Jitney Jungle, M&M Supermarket, Oscar's Video Rental

2010-11-23T06:38:00.000-06:00

The building on the north side of the hotel housed two different grocery stores at different times from the 1940s to the 1970s: a Jitney Jungle and M&M Super Market/Frisco Supermarket.

A mid-1950s photo shows the building as M&M Supermarket.

Mid-1950s photo "West Side Bowden St.-Frisco City, Ala."
Courtesy of Dot Sims

November 2010

M&M Supermarket
1959 Crimson and White yearbook ad

M&M Supermarket 1959 Crimson and White yearbook ad

Though under the same ownership, the store advertised as Frisco Supermarket in 1962:

1962 Friscola yearbook ad

The last business to occupy the building was Oscar's Video Rental, which closed between the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Barnes Grocery

2010-11-22T07:24:00.001-06:00

This shell of a building was used, perhaps for most of its existence, as a grocery store. Two different grocery stores operated there: first, Fancy Grocery, according to ads in Friscola yearbooks, was in business there from the mid-1940s to the late 1950s.

1954 Crimson and White yearbook ad

2010

Barnes' Grocery and Market moved into the building in the late 1950s and maintained business there until at least the mid-1970s.

1970 Friscola yearbook ad

Tim Taylor, who bagged groceries at Barnes' Grocery as a youth, describes the store's layout below.*

*The photographs that are in the video also appear below for more slowly-paced viewing.

1959 Crimson and White yearbook ad

2010

1960 Friscola yearbook ad

2010

1964 Friscola yearbook ad

2010

1962 Friscola yearbook ad

2010

1959 Crimson and White yearbook ad

2010

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the by-then roofless building was used as a courtyard by the owners of Burney's Buds and Bloomers, a flower shop in an adjacent building. The mural on the left wall in the 2010 pictures was painted during that time.

McNeil's Department Store

2010-11-21T10:36:00.000-06:00

The corner building next to Barnes Grocery opened as McNeil's Department Store in 1926 and remained in business until the late 1970s.

McNeil's 1928
The Monroe Journal Centennial edition 1966

1952 Crimson and White yearbook ad

McNeil's sold ready-to-wear clothing, sewing materials, shoes, and other clothing items.

1958 Crimson and White ad

1974 Friscola yearbook ad

November 2010

In the late 1990s, the McNeil's building housed a flower and gift shop called Burney's Buds and Bloomers, which also served sandwiches and milshakes. During that time, the adjacent remains of Barnes Grocery were converted into a dining courtyard for the shop.

Half of the building is now used for storage, and the other half contains a private painting studio and a private collection of historical memorabilia, much of it from Frisco City.

Hendrix Motor Co.

2010-11-21T07:44:00.000-06:00

Hendrix Motor Company was located in the V-shaped lot next to McNeil's Dept. Store and was in business during the 1940s through the 1960s.

1957 Crimson and White yearbook ad

J&E Cleaners 2010

1956 Crimson and White yearbook ad

J&E Cleaners 2010

The building now houses a dry cleaning business.

Jones Mill Post Office

2010-11-20T07:52:00.001-06:00

One building in a lot behind Hendrix Motor Company was the old Jones Mill Post Office, which survived from 1915, when Frisco City was actually named "Roy," but the building operated as the "Jones Mill" Post Office for several years, before the post office moved to a building closer to the downtown center.

The old post office building deteriorated until 1976, when an enthusiastic group of Frisco City women undertook its renovation as a bicentennial project.

The Jones Mill Post Office is now located just south of the downtown area in a space designated as Jones Park. The building shares the spot with the J.W. Jones house, the Jones Mill Jail building, a historical marker, and a caboose from Frisco City's namesake, the "Frisco" line (St. Louis & San Fransisco Railroad).

Members of the Women's Club decorate the old Post Office building for the town's centennial celebration, 1988

October 2010

Though the building houses some memorabilia, its openings to the public are limited.

GULF Station

2010-11-19T23:39:00.000-06:00

The GULF Station was one of many service stations in the downtown area in the 1950s and 1960s.

Early 1950s photo of downtown's north end
The GULF Station is on the left, and a Pan-Am station is on the right. Notice the price of gasoline.
Photo by Max McAliley

Tim Taylor describes the abundance of gas stations on the north end of town during the "boom era" of the 1950s and 1960s.

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The GULF station remained in operation, though under varying ownership, through the 2000s. The ECON station in its place today closed in 2009.

Gulf Station 1950s
Photo by Max McAliley

Inoperative ECON station
2010

Frisco Theater

2010-11-17T08:13:00.000-06:00

The "block building" theater, the Frisco Theater, opened in the early 1950s and stayed in business into the 1960s.

Early 1950s photo by Max McAliley

November 2010

1963 Friscola yearbook ad for Frisco City Tractor and Implement Co.
The side of the theater is visibile in the background.

November 2010

Frisco City residents Lou Dunn, Jimmy Tatum, and Annie Laura Tatum tell some of their memories of experiences in the theater.

Residents describe the workings of the theater:
Jimmy and Fredia Tatum, Lou Dunn, Annie Laura Tatum, and Tim Taylor

The theater was the last movie theater open in Frisco City.
The building is now a warehouse for D&D Furniture Factory Outlet.

J.J. McWilliams & Son

2010-11-15T20:54:00.000-06:00

J.J. McWilliams opened his general mercantile store in 1912 with Oscar McNeil, who opened McNeil's in 1925. What became J.J. McWilliams & Son continued until the late 1970s.

1958 Crimson and White yearbook ad

Quality Auto Parts 2010

1970 Friscola yearbook ad

Quality Auto Parts 2010

1968 Friscola yearbook ad

Jimmy and Fredia Tatum describe a few unique items in McWilliams' mercantile line.

Hayes' and Norris' Barbershops

2010-11-13T08:04:00.001-06:00

Just next to J.J. McWilliams & Son, a barbershop, carved out of an irregularly-shaped space, operated for many years. The shop was first owned by a Mr. Hayes in the late 1940s through the 1960s, and in later years (late 1960s-1990s, roughly) Mr. Burell Norris owned it.

Below Jimmy and Fredia Tatum remember Mr. Hayes' shop.

In 2010, Mr. Norris donated his shop to "Revive Frisco City," a non-profit civic group interested in restoring buildings and recruiting businesses for the downtown area. Revive Frisco City is currently renovating the building, which will be used either as a "reading room" or a main office for the group.

Below are photos from November 2010, after several layers of flooring were removed. Roof repairs are currently underway.

Charles Florey Building

2010-11-12T11:58:00.001-06:00

The Charles Florey building, the two-story building in the foreground of the picture below, was an important fixture on the east side of Bowden Street from its construction in the 1920s to its destruction by fire in 2001. Charles A. Florey ("The Man Who Has Everything"); had a mercantile store in the building in its early years (1920s-late 1930s?), but many different businesses operated there over the span of its existence.

Mid- to late-1950s photograph
in 1961 Friscola yearbook

The building was an imposing structure in the downtown area, only rivaled by two other two-story buildings, the hotel and the Coca-Cola bottling plant, the latter of which can be seen further down the street in the above photograph.

November 2010
City hall in the immediate foreground and the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in the center are the two recognizable buildings from the previous photograph that remain in the section of town affected by the 2001 fire.

Charles Florey Building (Tatum Furniture)

2010-11-12T11:16:00.002-06:00

Between the Florey building and the city hall building on its left, a covered spaced housed the single fire truck that served the fire department. On the first floor of the building, a drug store shared space with varying businesses over the years: in the late 1940s, J.N. Youngblood's mercantile store occupied the space, but was soon replaced by Tatum Furniture and later Bowen's Cafe.

Tatum Furniture

1956 ad from Friscola yearbook
Just behind the men under the striped awning is the "garage" for the town's fire truck.

Annie Laura Tatum, who started Tatum Furniture with her husband 1946, remembers her father using the store space for a unique purpose:

1957 Friscola yearbook ad

1960 Friscola yearbook ad

Mr. and Mrs. Tatum ran the store for about 30 years.

Their son, Jimmy, below describes with his wife Fredia the workings of the store, including the delivery truck he drove when he worked at the store in his youth.

1957 Friscola yearbook ad

The truck on the left is the mentioned "courting" truck.

Charles Florey Building (Bowen's Cafe and Dentist's Office)

2010-11-12T10:39:00.007-06:00

Bowen's Cafe

Bowen's Cafe replaced Tatum Furniture on the left side-ground floor of the Florey building toward the late 1950s.

No pictures of Bowen's Cafe have been located for this project, but an amusing ad surfaced in a 1966 ad to The Monroe Journal newspaper (published 9 miles away in Monroeville).

Jimmy and Fredia Tatum describe the cafe below.

Just to the right of the furniture store/Bowen's Cafe building, a set of stairs led to apartments and doctors' offices upstairs, most notably the office of Dr. S.A. Weeks.

Dr. Weeks's Office

Dr. S.A. Weeks set up his practice upstairs in the Florey building in 1952.

1955 Crimson and White yearbook ad

The experience of a visit to Dr. Weeks is best described by his patients themselves:

Charles Florey Building (Drug Store)

2010-11-12T10:00:00.001-06:00

The right side--bottom floor of the Florey building was, for these decades, almost always occupied by a drugstore (which changed ownership several times but remained in operation throughout the building's existence).

1970 Friscola yearbook ad

November 2010

Some Frisco City residents (Lou Dunn, Jimmy and Fredia Tatum) describe the drugstore and some of the items it sold.

1964 Friscola yearbook ad. The woman on the far left is Mrs. McCants, who made sandwiches, etc. The man standing on the far right is "Pink" Albritton, the drugstore's owner.

1971 Friscola yearbook ad

November 2010

Most people who remember the drugstore in the 1950s and 1960s seem to particularly remember the man who operated the soda fountain and made milkshakes, Jack Blanton.

Blanton works at the soda fountain in the lower left edge of the photograph.
1955 Crimson and White yearbook ad

Blanton stands on left with other drugstore staff members ("Pink Albritton" is third from left). 1956 Crimson and White yearbook ad

When the Florey building burned in 2001, two other buildings between it and the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. building were also destroyed. At the time of the fire one building was vacant and the other was a closing jewelry and gift shop.

November 2010
The back corner of the Coca-Cola building is visible on the right.

McLendon's theater

2010-11-11T11:40:00.000-06:00

At one time a movie theater stood adjacent to the Coca-Cola building (on the Florey building side).

This theater, owned by the McLendons, was one of two downtown movie theaters operating at the same time (late 1940s-early 1950s). Though no photographs of it have been located for this project, its story is told below.

Coca-Cola Bottling Co.

2010-11-10T12:11:00.000-06:00

The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Frisco City began as a subplant in Snider (a community later incorporated into Frisco City/Jones Mill) in 1908. The building downtown was completed in 1923, and in 1930 the bottling company became a first-line franchise plant in 1930. By 1966 the bottling plant served 38,000 people in Monroe and neighboring Escambia, Conecuh, and Baldwin Counties. It continued operation until the late 1970s.

According to several residents, Frisco City had a secret that allowed Coca-Cola great success there:

Lou Dunn describes the bottling plant's building.
(Ignore dog Max's interruption)

Passersby could watch this machine in action.
Photo from late 1940s or early 1950s, Courtesy of Fredia Tatum

Mrs. Broughton, bookkeeper and Fredia Tatum's mother, in the Coca-Cola office.
Photo late 1940s or early 1950s courtesy of Fredia Tatum

Jimmy and Fredia Tatum describe the tradition of Coke-drinking in downtown Frisco City.

Today the Coca-Cola building is a warehouse for D&D Furniture Factory Outlet. Stay tuned for a D&D staff story of opening the old safe in the Coca-Cola office.

Toyland

2010-11-01T23:11:00.000-05:00

In the 1960s, a warehouse owned by Ray's Hardware stood in the now-vacant area on the south side of the old Wilkerson's Radio and T.V. Service building.

Ronnie Ray
December 1963

Ronnie Ray
November 2010

Ronnie Ray, son of the founder of Ray's Hardware, describes the warehouse's unique purpose and his role in its operation.

It is unclear whether this photo was actually taken in Toyland, but the "Toyland" sign and extensive Christmas decorations are suggestive of that location. The photo is undated, from the collection of Max McAliley.
If the photo is not of Toyland, it is most likely of a section of the Western Auto Associate Store.