Scottsdale, Arizona.
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Jackson, Wyoming.
Central City, Colorado.
Lewiston, Idaho.
Elgin, Illinois.
Galena, Illinois.
Homestead, Florida.
Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.
Vintage Postcards: Street Scenes Across The US – ’50s-’60s
– Posted on September 6, 2024
I’d like to visit Jackson in the mid ’50s before it was turned into the St. Moritz of the Rockies.
My drive through Telluride Colorado yesterday did not leave a good impression, other than a great hike outside of town. Jackson WY has some nice modest (though probably not in price) residential neighborhoods. Telluride is so crammed into the canyon that it felt more like the Manhattan of the Rockies. My first visit … maybe my last. The (parked nose to tail) curbside scene in 2024 may be interesting in 40 years. Rivians far outnumbered Teslas, but Outback, 4Runner, F150 plus generic rental cars were the norm. Fewer Harleys than other towns I’ve been in the past week; KTM and brand-mate Husky are the most numerous motorcycles.
That’s what I assumed about Telluride. We were there last in 1988, and it was on its way to Aspenification already, although much of the old charm was still there.
Now I hear Leadville is getting seriously gentrified; that was something of a last holdout.
What are the chances there’s an American brand sedan in all of Jackson right now?
Tesla. Lots of them, though I suppose most are Y or X so not strictly sedan. Rivian outnumbered Tesla in Telluride yesterday.
Ralph, it’s probably been reduced to a rusty `63 Chevy pickup behind a barn somewhere by now.
Sorry to sound so negative above. I’ll blame Paul for triggering me 😀. Thanks for a fun trip back in time, Rich!
LOVE THE PACKARD STATION SEDAN IN THE Albuquerque, New Mexico POSTCARD.
Me, too. Probably did not hold up well under the New Mexico sun. I had a Marx tin toy car based on that model when I was a kid and loved that thing. Had the painted lithography showing paint and trim and the occupants through the “windows.” The Packard, Hudson, and Studebaker in that picture are reminders of the many independents that were still around when I was growing up.
That’s the car that jumped out at me too. Real wood! Get busy varnishing it… these are rare I know though I can’t find sales figures.
also a step-down Hudson and packard woodie station wagon!
Spotted the Million Dollar Cowboy bar in the shot of Jackson. Great place. S good freind. John Lonefeather was bouncer when we visited. We stayed on the TNT Ranch in Moose Wy. a “Suburb of Jackson. Up the road toward the Tetons. Scottsdale is very familiar. the downtown area is but a few miles away. Of course, it has changed a bit.
That view of Scottsdale looks like an Old West tourist trap. Did it have one?
I was rather disappointed revisiting Old Albuquerque in 2008 after 40 years, partly because I’d completely forgotten it was surrounded by New Albuquerque. And I was older than 7, so more discerning.
By any chance, were these originally black&white photos that were recolored? Just curious.
So many stores ( Woolworth, Sears, Rexall Drugs, et al) like these classic cars are now unfortunately GONE With the Wind! In my own home town, everything is upscaled. Historic buildings torn down and placed with monstrous ugly boxes while SUVS, crossovers and a few melted jelly beans flood the overcrowded streets. As Archie and Edith sang, Those WERE the days.
“Gee, our ole, “Lasalle” ran great!
Sears still has about 10 stores left (they’ll be gone soon) and Rexall has a few more (and many in Canada). The Food Locker chain is all that’s left of Woolworth.
It seems every one of these “main streets” had a Woolworth, G.C.Murphy, McCrory, or S.S.Kresge.
As la673 indicated above, the Rexall drugstore brand, still exists in Canada. With 385 locations, and 8,000 employees. I do find their branding, and architecture quite attractive. There is a nearby location, less than 1.5 kms, from my home.
From Wikipedia: McKesson Canada purchased Rexall in December 2016 for $3 billion from the Katz Group of Companies.[5] At the time, it was estimated that Rexall had an average annual revenue of approximately $2.0 to $2.5 billion.[6] Around this period, one of the major rival pharmacies in Canada was Shoppers Drug Mart.[7
There are still quite a few in the US too – one is a 20 min. drive from me – but I think these are former franchises (or whatever the retail equivalent is), leaving them independent of each other with no overriding central organization anymore.
There is still a thriving Woolworth chain in Germany that was spun off from the US company decades ago.
Looks like Homestead, Florida hasn’t changed all that much. But what surprised me most about the Then-and-Now comparison (below) was that the Royal Palm Drug Store on the corner still had the original neon Rexall sign on the building as of 2021.
Sadly, the more recent Google images show the building is now a restaurant and the Rexall sign is no longer there.
StreetView link here:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/gkb3SVm3yoN9ZT786
I love the Packard Station Sedan (thanks Alan and CA Guy for identifying that, as I certainly couldn’t) in front of Woolworths in the Albuquerque photo.
I know that outdoor signage like what’s shown in most of these photos went out of style and that at the time that happened many said “Good Riddance!”, but imagine how popular that stuff would be nowadays if it had survived. Maybe it’s absence that makes the heart grow fonder, but I am always surprised by how nice a 2-story neon-lit sign looks nowadays and how prized those are in the locations where they’ve survived.
Well, the Log Cabin restaurant in Galena is still there and so is its sign.
Postcards of this vintage would be actual color photos.
What fascinated me was the rarity of station wagons and the complete absence of pickup trucks even in these mostly small town settings. How tastes change.
Kim, before I scrolled down far enough to read the location, I knew that was Galena!! I’ve eaten at the “Log Cabin” at least a dozen times, and love the food! Yes, the sign was the tip-off; still there after 6-7 decades! A beautiful little town I used to go to often when I lived in Chicago.
The “Scottsdale AZ”, pic looks like a “chamber of commerce”, staged pic.
The “woody wagon” in the “Albq” , street scene is big, menacing, eye catching.
I wonder how often those “wooden cars”, succumbed to termites?
In the “Elgin IL”, pic; what is the “SPIESSC”? Dept store? Anyone know?(anyone know how it’s pronounced?)
“Elgin” was either the neighboring, or hometown in the the “Roseanne” show.
Joseph Spiess Company was a chain of specialty department stores based in Elgin, Illinois, United States. Throughout its 75 years of existence, it only opened 5 stores. Founded in 1921 it went out of business in 1996.
T/y. “Pgh” had “Joseph Horne” company. Think there were more then five stores. ((not many more though))
Met “Mario Lemieux” there in the early/mid “80’s”.
Long since lost the autograph pic though..Grrr.
I’ve been to many of these towns and I wish I could go back in time to when these photos were taken.
I am most familiar with Central City. It was quite the ghost town for nearly a century. Incredible history. The land it sits on is riddled with toxic mines, it is surprising the town still hold up. I used to travel from Golden to Central City/Blackhawk to visit and look at the gold mining sites, mills, old roads, etc. It all changed when Colorado gave this town the right to hold gambling. For a decade it looked like a smart move, with busses full of seniors lining the narrow streets in front of the blackjack halls and gaming resorts. There is a huge gaming hotel in Blackhawk. Every weekend, the busses rolled in with the seniors, and then emptied out after dark. The money spent went into the pockets of the out of state owners. What we got were the taxes, the infrastructure improvements and the crowds.
I first visited Jackson Hole in 1968 and it was not the photo in this series anymore. Yellowstone and Grand Tetons auto traffic is stupendous, even then, and it lost its charm decades ago.
Galena pretty much looks the same. A popular weekend trip for Chicagoans like me.
CARS: What is that car mid street on the Central City shot? It looks British? I just can’t place it, but I think it has a slanted frown-shaped grille with the parking lights in each corner. Opel? Renault?
Dude, that is a `55-`56 Simca Aronde! Chrysler handled Simca until the early to mid 60’s when they dropped that line and they pulled out of the US market.
We went to Central City a few times on our yearly vacations to the Rockies in the early ’60s. My first experience with a serious “ghost town”. Happened to drive through it in more recent years and I hardly recognized the place, what with that huge casino. Looks like Didneyland now.
I love the top scene. The 57 Chevy driver looks longingly at the new DeSoto, thinking “If only Herb had bought one of those. As the DeSoto driver looks on the Chevy convertible, thinking “if only I’d picked out one of those.”
No, that DeSoto is an ADVENTURER! Even that Chevy driver would want DeSoto’s version of a Chrusler 300C/D.
In 1986 sold my ’58 NYer convert thinking I could find a ’58 Adventurer convert. Big mistake. I did find a ’59 right here in NY (and passed on it) but never did find a ’58.
Came back here to point out that there are Woolworths in 3 of the 9 street scenes. That’s a real “and one day I realized they were all gone” thing. I can still recall the smell of those stores (can’t describe it, but perhaps you know what I mean). I don’t recall much specifically that we regularly bought there, but going to spend time in their “pet section” (we did once buy turtles there…and had them for about 25 years) was my retail go-to experience…before I discovered plastic model kits and diecast cars, which of course were also sold at Woolworths.
Oh, and my second favorite car in these pictures is the Buick parked in front of the Log Cabin restaurant in Galena, IL.
I think Woolworth’s smelled a bit like a concoction of balsa wood, brown paper, coffee and nicotine, with a subtle hint of camphor as an undertone.
Perfect! Ought to make it into a perfume.
Ah yes, Woolworths. Over here they sold the Airfix plastic kits, mostly in polythene bags in those days, 2/- each (that’s 10p in ‘new’ money, but the equivalent of about £1.60 – US $2 now). I still have a few bits of some of those kits including a restorable 1904 Mercedes in 1/32nd scale.
My parents moved to rural Southeastern Ontario, in the summer of 1975. As a kid, I observed that many farmers had pickup trucks for doing the farmwork. And sedans, for taking the family into town for shopping, or other social events. Thus partially explaining, the lack of pickups, in small town main street photos.
First saw Phoenix and what was called Scottsdale in 1970. Didn’t see Phoenix again until 2010 when moving my father back to the Bay Area. From what I saw of the area then they can keep it as the Phoenix of 1970 was a nice cooler place. Way more concrete on the ground not to mention 4 million more people.
Main street in Huntsville, Ontario, 1964. Huntsville, located in Central Ontario, and considered a southern gateway to the Canadian Shield, and the Algonquin Park Region. Note, the aesthetically out-of-place fluorescent tube street lighting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Shield
This is the America I imagined from reading the car ads in old fifties National Geographics.
As a kid, I had trouble imagining a world where a big Ford Customline or Fairlane was a ‘standard size’ car, and that there could be cars even bigger! Where a V8 was thought of as normal, and a six was seen as the cheapskate alternative. Was it any wonder we thought of America as an unbelievably rich country? 🙂 It wasn’t just Hollywood that gave Aussies that perception, it was your cars too.
These cars used to seem huge – and yet they’re much the same size as modern SUVs.
Lovely images that bring back so many memories .
I wish I could still buy rose tinted prescription glasses .
-Nate
The picture of Elgin appears to have been taken in 1961 (judging from the color of the license plates).
I could have been there that day. My family moved to the area in 1960.
Is that a black and red VW bus in the left foreground in the Lewiston, Idaho photo?
Wonderful website. Brings back memories and times that seem now to be wonderful.