Subway Station, Rockaway Beach, NY –1975.
Doc’s Place, Boston, MA –1976.
Evergreen Tavern, Portland, OR –1976.
Main Street, Ocean Park, Santa Monica, CA –1977.
Beach Bazaar boardwalk, Cape May, NJ –1978.
University Ave., St. Paul, MN –1976.
Lexington Hotel, Lexington, NY –1976.
Tile Store Block, Detroit, MI –1976.
Tower Theater, Houston, TX –1977.
Boardwalk Street, Seaside Heights, NJ –1978.
All photos by John Margolies from the Library of Congress.
That poor 67 Delta in NY
My first thought too.
This is how I remember the 1970s, as a very car aware little kid, in Southern Ontario. Brougham Challengers in ugly colours, with generic wheel covers. Many cars, particularly full-sized cars, in unattractive, almost depressing colours. Autos remaining from the 1960’s, in dilapidated condition. Except those driven by meticulous old timers. They were consistently conservative/frugal models. Never saw 1950’s cars, they were long gone.
In the first pic, these generic Coke-sponsored signs were popular with mom and pop diners, and general stores everywhere. So often, the food being absolutely dreadful.
Owner-purchased mud guards were a common sight, in more northern regions, in the late ’70’s. Few less attractive, than these white vinyl and ‘stainless steel’ versions. Owners naively thought, they would prevent rust. Though, they did probably prevent some paint chipping. Yosemite Sam, and R Crumb ‘Keep on Truckin’ motifs, popular on pickup-applied mud guards.
’70s tack.
In many of these groups of old photos we’ve seen lots of Rexall signage, along with Wallgreens, but this may be the first case of Montgomery Wards, not once but twice. The Large sign in the Portland scene, presumably on the top of their store, and one of their service trucks. I don’t remember every seeing a Ward’s service truck before, I do remember seeing lots of Sears ones though and they even persisted in my area after all but one of the stores were gone.
Any way you look at these photos, good or decrepit conditions, the collection is terrific. Thanks.
Love the rather rare (even then) dark green Gran Fury cab in that Detroit pic.
The Spitfire MKIV in the last pic by the boardwalk is shockingly nice. It was at least 4-5 years old by then and usually they had nose dings from other cars bopping them in parking lots.
Isn’t “Seaside Heights NJ”, “Buce Springsteen’s” hometown? (or region)
Also that “Doc’s Place” was pictured ((I believe)) here, or “Hemming’s” maybe, with later model cars out front.
Like the “Gremlin” in “Detroit”.
OMG! Tower Theater, Houston TX, in the gay Montrose neighborhood. I was there in the late 70s, More of an art theater, classic movies and live shows. Rocky Horror Picture show, I was there. What fun.
Sounds like the Strand Theater on Newport Ave. in the Ocean Beach area of San Diego. Those midnight Rocky Horror shows were something not to miss, not necessarily due to the show, but due to the crowds who always showed up for the shows in the 70’s.
Thanks! Now I have to see Airport 77 again…
I looked up The Evergreen Tavern, and while it looks a lot like the building occupied by Bearing Service on NW Everett it’s actually on NW 26th and Upshur and is now a studio and a hipster barber shop with a typically monochrome Audi and Tesla out front
I wonder if the building was originally a dealership considering the large doors on the right which could have been the service department.
The Doc’s Place building in Boston is still standing. Sort of. It looks like the building itself has been turned into a covered parking garage. It’s unusual to see a regular building gutted (with the facade kept intact) and turned into a parking garage, but that looks like what’s happened here. In the modern image below, you can see a garage door has been cut into the building on the parking lot side.
Google StreetView link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/eXJuBFPreXW6jWAa7
Hmmm…
The Evergreen Tavern in Portland looks like a cheery place, but I think I’d pass.
I’d take the ’67 Plymouth GTX parked outside though.
I enjoy shots like this, when the cars we all love were just transportation!
The Lexington Hotel in Lexington, NY was still there the last time I was through there several years ago and took a bunch of photos of it. At that time, it seemed to be in the midst of some renovation. It was/is an impressive structure…even if it did look about ready to burn down. (Google seems to still think it’s there)
I found the Lexington O L building on Google maps streetview but unfortunately they missed the street right in front of it. You can see it from the side. No signs and it’s not in good shape – missing siding etc.
Lexington is pretty much in the center of the Catskills region, is tough to access from any the Thruway, and has been pretty much in economic decline since the time that the photo in Rich’s post was taken. It’s escaped the land grab and gentrification that has befallen Ulster county (e.g. Woodstock and Kingston that have pretty much been taken over by Pandemic transplants and weekend residents from NYC). So, it’s not surprising that the Lexington Hotel has taken so long to bring back to life. Like so much there, it seems likely to languish for years. Beautiful scenery and much to photograph though.
The Challenger is interesting to look at because it is such a familiar profile to me now after a whopping 16 years of that basic shape being in production in modern times,dare I say it’s almost boring(compared to the vehicles surrounding it). Yet thinking back as a car loving 90s kid when nothing looked like them it would otherwise be the standout car to me in that photograph.
Wow. Seaside Heights was the place to be in the summer of ’78 to this North Jersey High Schooler. And enjoyed many a meal at that very JR’s over many summers. I can smell the boards, the suntan oil and the salt air and hear the far-off screams of delight from the rides on the pier.
There is no Rockaway NY. There is a (Rock, rock) Rockaway Beach. There is a Rockaway NJ. But I can’t figure out what the SUBWAY signed building with four telephone booths (!) in front is supposed to be, but all the phone booths would indicate something like an actual subway station. The subway that terminates on Rockaway peninsula in NYC is elevated and the sign isn’t what MTA would use, or the Subway sandwich shops either. Rockaway NJ doesn’t have a subway.
Anyone?
I noticed that too. Rockaway Beach, NY and Rockaway Borough, NJ.
It’s Rockaway Beach, NYC. The building is still standing – it’s a big building for a subway station because it’s the end of the line, and the station itself was built as a railroad station in the 1800s:
Google StreetView link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/yruNL92deWFH6wWQA
That explains the NY Central style romanesque windows. I looks like a smaller version of the old White Plains station and some other Harlem Division buildings
That’s the end of the line for the A train at Beach 116th St. in Rockaway Park NY.
The station is indeed at ground level.
Today it looks much the same, sans phone booths and angle parking.
There are many Rockaways, e.g . Far Rockaway, Rockaway Beach, Rockaway Park and nearby in Nassau County East Rockaway.
FWIW Queens, located on Long Island, is the only NYC borough that uses village names from prior to incorporation in 1898.
I recognized the Cape May “Beach Bazaar” photo immediately. Since the late 90s, the wife and I have been frequent visitors to New Jersey’s southernmost tip (our last visit there being about a month ago), and I had not been aware that this particular conglomeration of shops has existed since at least the late 70s. That little mini-mall of sorts, now known as the Akroteria, still exists in the same place today – and, aside from having had some aesthetic updates and different businesses operating there, the layout is about the same as was shown in the ’78 photo. The gorgeous Victorian structures seen in the background have also largely remained intact.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/oL3hBbY5t1i92Cag9?g_st=ic
Was at that Monkey Wards in the Portland photo many times as a kid with my dad in the 70’s. Don’t know if the building is even there anymore. Probably not.
All these make me homesick .
THANK YOU for sharing ! .
-Nate
That old Wards building is still there. But now they call the area, Montgomery Center if I remember correctly. Also, that little Pinto looks like the one I had in 72
Nice looking Plymouth in the 3rd picture Portland OR. Not the wagon, the RED one.
Seaside Heights is where Jersey Shore ( Snooki, The Situation, J-WOWW, DJ Pauly) was filmed.