In These Days of Modern Times (2)

Sometimes I just like to be silly on this blog, so here we go.

In October 2021 I did one of these pieces using photos of Amazon deliveries to our house. Here's the introduction:

"We seem to have had a lot of Amazon orders delivered lately [for some mysterious reason!], and many of them come with an email and a photograph of the item(s) on our porch. I present some here for the general amusement of the  readers to show the endless variety of Amazon delivery placement on this porch. The pumpkins are keeping watch. 

A tip of the hat to all the anonymous Amazon drivers and photographers out there.

To be continued, I'm sure..."

That intro referred to Halloween pumpkins we had on the porch at the time.

In this post I've chosen photos from the same month, different years. Believe me, there were a lot of other choices, so these are just a sampling. 

As the man said, to be continued, I'm sure.... 

July 2023

July 2024

June 2022

June 2024

March 2023

March 2024

December 2021

December 2023

September 2022

Some nice shadow effects...

September 2023

Here's an outlier, left at the side door.

Birmingham Postcard: Electrik Maid Bake Shop & Restaurant

I recently added this postcard to my collection and decided to find out what I could on the business, "The South's Finest Retail Bakery & Restaurant". I didn't uncover much, but here we are.

A business named the Electric Maid Bake Shop filed incorporation papers with the state on November 15, 1929. The Bizapedia site where I found that information did not include an address, but gave the names of three incorporators: Bessie Helms Clark, Ralph Clark and S.J. Redmon. Via Ancestry.com I found these individuals, all living in Andalusia in Covington County. Bessie [1897-1995] was married to Ralph, an attorney who died in 1963. In the 1910 U.S. Census S.J. Redmon was listed as a carpenter. Huh. 

Well, that strangely named shop may have operated in Andalusia, not Birmingham. Let's move on.

The BhamWiki site has a massive listing for the occupants over time of addresses along 20 Street South in the Magic City. Lo and behold, at the address 1014 20th Street, we find the Electrik Maid Bake Shop operating from 1941 until 1953. The last image below is taken from the 1945 Birmingham Yellow Pages and shows the bakery, designated "No. 1", phone 7-5871. That spot on 20th is now occupied by the Homewood Suites Five Points South. Other business once located on the site include Piggly Wiggly, Winn-Dixie, and the Five Points Music Hall. 

I next found the business later in the 1950s at the Alabama Company Directory site. That listing describes a Jefferson County incorporation on April 25, 1956, for the Electrik Maid Bake Shop. Three individuals were listed, and I located some information about them via Ancestry. William S. Levey was 25 years old in the 1950 U.S. Census, living in Mountain Brook and his occupation given was partner in a retail bakery. He died in 1996 and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery. All I found on Mary Joe Rice were dates, born in 1924 and died in 1972. Ralph Bryant Tate was a 38-year old attorney in 1950, living in Birmingham. He died in 1999 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery. 

According to the Directory, the business was dissolved on February 12, 1957, less than a year later. Perhaps the partners had a falling out. At any rate, as we can see on the card, the bakery AND restaurant operated in the Shephard-Sloss building at 2011 Highland Avenue when the card was issued. Bhamiki's entry for Highland Avenue tells us the business was located there from 1946-1964. The address has also been the location for an antique shop and several bars over the years.

I suppose we can conclude the Electrik Maid Bakery etc [what a strange name!] was open  until at least 1964. Further research into old telephone directories, city directories, etc, would probably turn up more details. 

As we learn from the back, this "Natural Color Post Card" was manufactured by the E.C. Kropp Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was active from 1907 until 1956. Thus the card is perhaps early or mid-1950s. We are also informed that the Electrik Maid "offers the public the finest in Home Cooked Meals and Baked Delicacies" and is "Recommended by the American Automobile Association." 

You can actually visit the Electrik Maid Bake Shop today, but you'll have to go to Biloxi, Mississippi. That so-named business has operated there for over 100 years. The use of "Electric" or "Electrik" Maid has popped up in other areas of the country as well.

Isn't historical research fun?

More comments below some of the images. 

This photo is from Google Maps and taken May 2024. The door in the center and window to the left in the building now at 2007 Highland Avenue would seem to match the postcard view. 

Birmingham Yellow Pages 1945

 

Native American Quarry in Lamar County

This site where Native Americans quarried something from sandstone is located on private property in western Alabama in Lamar County near Beaverton and Guin, north of US 278 and near the Marion County line.  In the late 1920's my maternal grandfather, Rev. John M. Shores and Guy Gilmer were on a hunting trip and found the quarry. 

In the fall 1966 and spring 1967 two trips were made to the site by the authors of the article below, my dad Amos J. Wright, Jr. and Bart Henson, as well as Rev. Shores, my mom Carolyn Shores Wright,  Bart's wife Bettye, my younger brother Richard and yours truly. On one of those trips Emmett Cantrell, who had lived on the property as a boy, helped relocate the site, a sandstone outcropping that runs along a creek for several hundred yards.

The article by Dad and Bart appeared in the December 1968 issue of the Journal of Alabama Archaeology published by the Alabama Archaeological Society. I have reproduced most pages of the article here. They note that little had previously been written about Native American sandstone quarries. The discs resulting from this work may have been used for ceremonial purposes or shallow bowls. Cutting or drilling tools of jasper similar to those found at another site were in abundance at this one.

Conical holes were also found, but their use was unknown. The authors suggest the holes could have been used as part of the quarry work, used in ceremonial activities or in grinding of grain, seeds and/or nuts. 

In one of our recent forays through family memorabilia, Richard and I found the photographs taken on December 16, 1966, and in May 1967 during the visits. I scanned some and have included them below as an addendum to the article. 

Richard is not in this photo and says he must have been wandering in the woods or something.

A Quick Visit to Fayette

Last August I posted an item about the visit my brother and I made to the Fayette Art Museum the month before. In this post I wanted to offer photos and information about the city of Fayette itself.

The town is located in northwest Alabama and is the seat of Fayette County. That county was created by the legislature on December 20, 1824, from parts of Marion and Tuscaloosa counties. The town of Fayette predates the county, having been incorporated in January 1821. The town had several different names until a November 1898 vote settled on the same name as the county. 

The city and county once depended largely on agriculture, but now various types of manufacturing employ over a third of workers. The population of Fayette in 2020 was 4329, and of the county 16, 321. One of the oldest businesses in Fayette is the Golden Eagle Syrup Manufacturing Company founded in 1928. 

Fayette's business district burned on March 24, 1911; structures destroyed included the county's sixth courthouse, which had cost $40,000 to construct. A new courthouse, costing $59.000, opened the following year. A roof and interior renovation in 1999 cost more than $2 million, a million of which was donated by a local philanthropist. Photographs of the sixth courthouse and the seventh one soon after construction can be seen in the Hughes book cited below.

More comments accompany some of my photographs. 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Hughes, Delos. Historic Alabama Courthouses: A Century of their Images and Stories. NewSouth Books, 2017, pp 64-65

National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Alabama, eds. Early Courthouses of Alabama Prior to 1860. 1966, pp 30-31

Rumore, Samuel A. Jr. Building Alabama's Courthouses: Fayette County Revisited. The Alabama Lawyer 2000 March; 61(2): 104-105

We enjoyed a great lunch at Fannie's, surrounded by some local art. This eatery is in the same block as the courthouse. 

The courthouse lawn has a Civil War statue and the Fayette County Veterans Memorial 1990 that lists the county's casualties in World War I and II, Korea and Vietnam.

The Fayette Art Museum is located in this building, along with the Civic Center and the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame.

Art in the community and the schools is supported by the Sipsey Art Alliance formed in 2014.

Frogs can be spotted around town.

The Fayette Depot was originally constructed by Southern Railway in 1887; this similar structure of brick replaced the wooden one in 1913. Unfortunately, the museum was closed when we visited Fayette.