spot cash

 

Don't plan on buying your groceries at the Spot Cash - not only is it closed, it's only a shell of itself.  The grocery store served downtown Matador, according to newspaper ads, from the 1950s to the 1970s (they even gave Green Stamps).  But surely these elegant brick buildings housed other concerns during the heyday of the ranch town.  The owners proudly claimed the storefronts with their initials--their names probably lost to forgotten history.

 

Matador, Texas

2.19.2017

the store where you can do better

 

Abe Kessel had several stores in Slaton.  The building he constructed for Kessel Dry Goods in 1929 is now an events venue.  What's cool is that, in this adjacent vacant lot, is planned a neon sign park featuring old signs from the town.

free lunch

 

The feral cats in Lubbock have friends.  One had just dropped off Friskies and water for the cats living at the old power plant.  Located at 5th and Avenue J, the electric plant was the first in Lubbock and dates back to 1917.  Its occupants are now cats and pigeons.



do not block alley

 

The sign on the corner admonishes motorists "do not block alley."  That's because what appears to be a ghost sign actually advertises a working dry cleaners.  There is easy access in the alley to the door as well as a 24 hour drop box. I found historic downtown Coleman quite interesting and well-worth the detour from the highway.

 

Rhyder X-Press

108 E. Liveoak

Coleman, Texas

 2.19.2016

Except today in Coleman, Texas!  There was a Piggly Wiggly in this building at 114 Pecan Street in 1929.  The popular grocery chain started in 1916 and has 600 stores in 17 states, just not Texas! The second story of the building was the Central Hotel.  The fancy ironwork on the fire escape and sidewalk railing are neat.

Coleman, Texas
2.19.2016

watch that first step

 

This former hotel in Slaton is past its prime.  Paint traces are about all that remain of the exterior staircase.  Slaton started out as a railroad town when Santa Fe purchased the townsite in 1911 and designed its street pattern after the layout of Washington, D.C. Although dismissed by President Washington, Pierre L'Enfant is credited with the national city plan which consisted of a grand avenue and a grid of streets crossed by diagonal avenues.  The "grand avenue" of Slaton was a brick boulevard from the train station to the courthouse square.  The result is that downtown Slaton has irregularly shaped blocks radiating from the square.  That means that many of the buildings on the corners are triangular or the so-called "flat iron."  This hotel, like its counterparts, has a narrow front on the street.  This evening I spoke with a man who had purchased the triangular building across the street.  He wanted the two-story hotel but said it was pretty run down and required too much work.  He was busy installing a bathroom and kitchen as part of a studio apartment.  The real find?  Original tin ceiling when the drop ceiling was removed while opening up the 12-foot interior.

 



 

Slaton, Texas

what light through yonder window....

 

 

This commercial building on Texas Avenue has new life after sitting vacant.  A few months ago the lower front section got a new paint job and landscaping.  Recently work was begun on the second floor with removal of all the old metal frame windows and roof repair.  I don't much about the history of the building except it was built in 1943 and during the 1960s was the office of I. G. Holmes, who was a noted Lubbock photographer.

 

1602 Texas Avenue

Lubbock, Texas

window bars

 

Most people zipping along the Marsha Sharp Freeway probably don't notice the alleyside of buildings like I do.  This morning I finally exited and got a closer look at this barred window which keeps getting my eye. The front side of the building is much less interesting--all boarded and painted a solid color.  Businesses on that stretch of road have had a rocky path.  In Lubbock's early days this passage was the main route north to Plainview and Amarillo as well as towns in between.  Immortalized by the Maines Brothers in a song written by Terry Allen, "Amarillo Highway" was how the road was known for years.  State Highway 9 was one of the original 26 Texas highways and in 1919, its routing followed the Amarillo Highway, which became US 87 in 1957  and later I-27 (completed in 1992).  If those name changes weren't enough, Lubbock had designated this road as a city street naming it Avenue H.  Everybody living north of Lubbock used Avenue H  to get to "town", and knew they had arrived downtown after emerging from the railroad underpass just south of this building.  In 1957, Spur 326 forked off US 87 along North Avenue Q and busy drivers bypassed Avenue H. The city fathers decided to rename the street in honor of Lubbock native Buddy Holly and in 1996 another name was applied to the street.  Whatever the reasons, this building has lost its identity and is vacant -- barred windows and heavy mesh screens protecting its empty interior.

 

337 Buddy Holly Avenue (previously known as Avenue H, US 87 and SH 9)

on the corner of 4th Street (obliterated by the Marsha Sharp Freeway service road)

Lubbock, Texas