Opened in 1933, and then rebuilt on the same site in 1949, Fife's Poodle Dog restaurant advertised "Good Food" with a variety of items ranging from hamburgers to fancy seafood. Interior view of serving area; carts full of clean cups and glasses, silverware drawers and clean plates on counter in a U-shaped kitchen area. Rollaway serving table with used dishes and dirty pan in containers is next to a metallic cabinet. A black rotary phone is hung on an adjacent wall. TPL-9691
Diners (Restaurants)--Fife; Poodle Dog (Fife); Business enterprises--Fife; Equipment;
Four delivery trucks owned by the Maxwell Petroleum Company are parked near the company headquarters at 520 East "D Street in August, 1951. These Chevrolet trucks are labeled with the company name on their doors and appear to be carrying Mobil gasoline. In the background are large holding tanks for petroleum products. Maxwell Petroleum had merged with General Petroleum Corporation of California to form one of the largest gasoline distributors in the country. According to the 1951 City Directory, Maxwell retained its name and kept a separate listing for business purposes. Maxwell was owned by H.D. Maxwell and Osie Thomas. Photograph ordered by South Tacoma Chevrolet. TPL-8464
Maxwell Petroleum Co. (Tacoma); General Petroleum Corp. (Tacoma); Chevrolet trucks;
In 1948 Mueller-Harkin Buick moved into their new building at 455 Saint Helens Ave. They officially opened at their new address on December 6, 1948. This building was large enough to supply the public with all their automotive needs, from selling new and used vehicles to repairing and replacing automobile parts. The 1951 Tacoma City Diretory list Rudolph Mueller as President and John Mueller as Vice-President. In 1953 Rudolph Mueller retired and the Buick agency was sold to Brus Buick.
Sears Roebuck and Company Department Store, Automotive Department. This elevated view of the automotive department, taken on September 5, 1951, shows tires on right, four tables with oil, seat covers, auto accessories, batteries and mufflers on right back wall. The automotive section seemed to be set next to appliances, including stoves.
Elevated view of Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s parking lot taken in summer of 1951. The Sears parking lot is nearly full; this was the top of a multi-tiered parking garage recently built by Sears. Angled parking provides most efficient use of parking space as many of Sears' customers take advantage of the free parking while shopping. Craig Furniture and Schoenfeld's buildings are visible in photo.
Sears, Roebuck & Co. (Tacoma); Parking garages--Tacoma; Parking lots--Tacoma--1950-1960; Craig Furniture, Inc. (Tacoma); L. Schoenfeld & Sons (Tacoma);
The pillars in the new parking garage at 13th and Market create a forest of concrete trees in this photograph from August of 1951. In 1951 Sears, Roebuck & Co. built a parking garage to help provide inexpensive, plentiful parking for their downtown customers. Sears offered one hour of free parking. Thirty years later, in 1981, Sears moved their store to the Tacoma Mall. This garage, which stands across from the downtown YMCA, became the Cornerstone Building.
Interior view of grocery store. Rows of assorted candies, chips, cold remedies and laundry products fill this portion of an unidentified grocery store in a late fall, 1951, photograph. The grocer seems to have made maximum use of a limited space in order to put as many different products out as possible for customers to purchase. A Toledo brand scale stands by to weigh any item necessary.
View of "New" Tacoma Hotel from the southeast, main facade and south side wall. Duncan's Tacoma Hotel Garage to the south of hotel, Tacoma Savings and Loan (Bowes) Building to the North. Hotel (1908) and Bowes (1909) by Heath and Twichell, Architects.
Hotels--Tacoma--1950-1960; Tacoma Hotel (Tacoma); Tacoma Savings & Loan Association (Tacoma); Banking--Tacoma--1950-1960; Banks--Tacoma; Heath & Twitchell (Tacoma);
Jensen Fuel Company, located at 6238 South Tacoma Way, were dealers in wood, oil and coal. The company was owned by Everett R. Jensen. Attached to the main building was a 24 hour self-service unit where a customer could pay for sacks of prest-o-logs or sacks of coal. View of man retrieving sacks of each fuel item; he has his hand on the coin box. A small sign above the prest-o-log dispenser indicates that seven prest-o-logs could be bought for 60 cents; another sign states a sack of egg coal would cost 65 cents. Photograph ordered by F.D. Dickinson.
The Jensen Fuel Company was housed in a concrete block structure with glass block curved windows in addition to a large plate glass window. The business had its name in large neon letters on a ledge above the doorway. A hanging sign inside the store indicated that Quaker heaters, oil burners and furnace stokers could be purchased there. A 24 hour self-service unit was attached to the main building; a customer could stop by when the business was closed and still buy sacks of coal and prest-o-logs. Owned by Everett R. Jensen, Jensen Fuel was located at 6238 South Tacoma Way. Photograph ordered by F.D. Dickinson.
Jensen Fuel Co. (Tacoma); Fuel supply; Signs (Notices); Electric signs--Tacoma--1950-1960;
Ernie's Lakewood Center Service, a Union 76 gas station. Man servicing automobile at left. The Lakewood Center Service was located at 9404 Gravelly Lake Dr. S.W. and was operated by Ernie Eichler.
Lakewood Center Service Co. (Lakewood); Automobile service stations--Lakewood--1950-1960;
The Pacific Oerlikon Co. were electric equipment manufacturers. According to the 1951 City Directory, they were located at 3001 No. Starr and Lloyd Morgan was listed as manager. View of machinery manufactured by Pacific Oerlikon in photograph taken on September 18, 1951. It possibly could be a type of drill. Photograph ordered by Pacific Oerlikon.
Scene from the Grand Opening of the Gay Nineties Room at Steve's Cafe (later commonly known as Steve's Gay '90s.) Employees pose in Nineties costumes, with frilly garters on their sleeves. Steve's was owned and operated by local restaurateur John Stanley and Steve Pease, the "unofficial mayor of South Tacoma." They merged Stanley's coffee shop and Pease's tavern in 1949 when, with the passage of liquor by the drink, Pease found he needed a restaurant in order to retain his liquor license. Providing new and unique environments and entertainments during the next twenty years, such as the Cable car room and the Opera House with its can can dancers, the Gay '90s remained a popular tourist attraction throughout the fifties and sixties. They closed in 1977. (TNT 4/4/1951, pg B6-B7)
Progress photograph of Puget Sound Bank's new parking lot, formerly the Tacoma Transit garages. A steam shovel and trucks are being used for excavation and hauling away of the debris.The bricks from the Transit building demolition were used to fill in the warrens left below ground from the street car days. The ground has now been leveled and the site looks more like the parking lot it will become. The parking lot will measure 320 ft by 144 ft and will have a capacity of 126 automobiles. Bank customers will be able to enjoy a half hour of free parking in which to attend to their banking needs. The lot will also employ an attendant during hours of operation, 8:30-5 weekdays. Schoenfelds Furniture, at 1423 Pacific Ave., can be seen in the background of the picture. (TNT 5/24/1951, pg. 23)
Tacoma Transit Co. (Tacoma); Tacoma Transit Co. Garage (Tacoma); Puget Sound National Bank (Tacoma); Progress photographs--1950-1960; Steam shovels; Banks--Tacoma;
The receptionist counter at the Town and Country Beauty Salon, Inc., at 815 Pacific Ave. To the left of the padded counter is a display of honey oil shampoo. Other brand names include Copacabana, Contessa and Kurlash eyelash curlers.
Beauty shops--Tacoma--1950-1960; Town & Country Beauty Salon, Inc. (Tacoma);
Mohawk window display at Selden's Home Furnishings and Carpet store. A heavily brocaded sofa with a coffee table and end tables sits in front of a large patterned floral wallpaper in Selden's display window. S.C. Selden, a Parkland native and graduate of Lincoln High School, opened his own store in 1940 across from the Sears store on Broadway. He sold linoleum, window shades and carpeting. With the advent of World War II, carpet was not available but business was booming in blackout shades. Their shade assembly shop operated 16 hours a day, six days a week. After the war, the company scrambled to enter the post war housing era.
Furniture stores--Tacoma; Home furnishings stores--Tacoma; Selden's, Inc. (Tacoma);
The kitchen at the Viking Smorgasbord was furnished with the latest in modern equipment including odorless gas equipment. Well trained staff were selected by John E. Berglund and Maja Lisa Lindberg, both professionals in food catering. (TNT, 4/14/1951, p.C-5)
An elevated view of the large service area at the 72nd Street Serve & Save gasoline station. Attendants are busy with three automobiles at the two gasoline pump islands while many more automobiles and their drivers wait their turn. Ordered by Time Oil.
Automobile service stations--Tacoma--1940-1950; Gasoline pumps--Tacoma--1940-1950; Time Oil Co. (Tacoma); Seventy-Second Street Serve & Save (Tacoma); Automobiles--Tacoma--1950-1960;
Progress photograph of quonset hut construction in the K Street shopping area. Puget Sound National Bank was providing temporary quarters for their K Street Branch while a new building was constructed. Ordered by Condon Company.
Banks--Tacoma; Banking--Tacoma--1950-1960; Puget Sound National Bank (Tacoma); Progress photographs;
Felkins Fine Foods (A.G. Felkins No. 13) is located in a two story building built using concrete blocks. Posters in the front window offer rhubarb 2 pounds for 15 cents, butter for 69 cents per pound, and oranges 8 cents per pound. Ordered by the Holroyd Company.
The 1950s were cruising years for teenagers in everywhere USA. Carhops delivered burgers and cokes on trays that attached to rolled-down car windows. Cruising was car hopping--teenagers met friends and wannabe friends at these 1950s social gathering places. In Tacoma, Busch's Drive-In restaurant was the place to be on Saturday nights. Bill and Thelma Busch bought the former Triple XXX Barrel Restaurant in 1943 and it remains today as Busch's Restaurant along with the memories of "cruising". TPL-830
Drive-in restaurants--Tacoma; Automobiles--Tacoma--1950-1960; Night photographs; Electric signs--Tacoma--1950-1960; Buschs Drive In (Tacoma);
Exterior of house #7222, a one-story wood frame, two large windows on frount and door with three steps. Ordered by H.C. Little Burner Co., 95 Connecticut St., Seattle, WA.
H.C. Little Burner Co. (Seattle); Houses--Tacoma--1950-1960;
Holroyd's booth at the 1951 home show at the College of Puget Sound Fieldhouse. The display features photographs of homes using products from Holroyd Company and built by Modern Construction. Several of the photographs featured in the display were taken by the Richards Photography Studio. Ordered by the Holroyd Company.
Holroyd Co. (Tacoma); Concrete products industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Concrete; Exhibitions--Tacoma--1950-1960; Exhibit booths--Tacoma; Greater Tacoma Home Show (Tacoma);
