John Vachon Photographs Gadsden in 1940

I seldom revisit older posts on this blog, but I'm doing that here. In December 2014 I posted "Christmas Shopping in Gadsden in December 1940". In that piece I wrote, 

"These nine photographs were taken by John Vachon in Gadsden, Alabama, apparently on a Saturday in December 1940. Vachon was one of a number of photographers who traveled America from 1935 until 1945 documenting conditions and activities during the Depression and WWII for the U.S. Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information. He worked for the OWI in 1942 and 1943. Almost 8300 of his photographs can be seen here. Vachon was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1914 and died in 1975."

Those nine photos and some further comments are below. In this post I add two more of Vachon's Gadsden photographs that have nothing to do with Christmas but were taken at the same time. I included in the previous post  some background on my connection with Gadsden and discussion of details in some of the photos. I repeat that information below and expand on those details.  

I've also done a post on Vachon's photo shoot with Marilyn Monroe in Canada as a lame attempt to connect MM with Alabama. A not-so-lame attempt--Marilyn Monroe and Truman Capote--is coming soon. 

FURTHER READING 

John Vachon’s America: Photographs and Letters from the Depression to World War II. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2003

John Vachon [1914-1975]

Source: Wikipedia

In the upper left you can see a bit of the Christmas decorations hanging everywhere along Broad Street, Gadsden's main street at the time and the location of Vachon's photographs. 

As you can see below as well, he seems to have taken many of these shots from the second story of some building. 

On the right a temporary "Grant's Toy Land" sign hangs above the store's permanent one. Grant's was a variety store chain that operated in the United States from 1906 to 1976.

That sign on the left says Lane Drugs. In the photo below with the Texaco sign, you can see Lane's storefront and this sign from another angle. Oddly, I did not find a Lane Drugs in the February 1940 Gadsden telephone directory. 

Behind the Lane sign is the Guarantee Shoe store sign seen again below. In the background on the right are the Texaco sign as well as signs for Hagedorn's, Hoffmans Jewelers [listed in the June 1933 city phone book], Belk-Hudson, Economy Auto Stores, Sterch, and Coca Cola. 

Even in a much larger version of this photo there are a number of signs on both sides of the street I can't make out. 

The Etowah County courthouse is prominent in two photographs; the other one is below.

Are these gentlemen carrying just-purchased Christmas presents?

A Texaco sign is visible here. The ad below is the only one for a Texaco station I could find in the February 1940 Gadsden telephone directory.

Across the street is the storefront and sign for Lane Drugs. Across the street from that business, diagonal from the Texaco sign, is the Grant store on the corner. 

Chestnut Street runs parallel to Broad and is one block over, so I presume this station is the Texaco one being advertised on the sign above. 

Here we can see signs for Guarantee Shoe Company, Allen Finance Plan Loans,  and the Raines and Raines law firm. The shoe store was listed at this same 412 Broad Street address in the June 1933 phone book. In that year, W.G. Raines practiced law solo with a courthouse address; perhaps by 1940 a son had joined him at this office. 

On the right can be seen the signs for Hoffman Jewelers and Belk-Hudson. 

The time appears to have been high noon when this photo was taken. 

One of Vachon's non-shopping photos captures housing near a Gadsden cotton mill. The mill may have been the Dwight Manufacturing Company, which operated from the late 1890's until 1959. 

Hats belonging to steel and cotton mill workers in the vestibule of a Baptist church in Gadsden. The dog is a great touch. 

In the 1940 U.S. Census Gadsden had a population of almost 37,000. Many seem to have come downtown that December Saturday to take in the shopping opportunities; no doubt many others from surrounding Etowah County were there too. The streets and sidewalks are crowded with cars and people in the shopping photographs. One of Vachon's photos has an artistic tilt to it.

These items caught my attention because I was born in Gadsden and over the years visited my paternal grandparents there many times. I remember my grandmother taking me to that Grant's store when I would stay with them for a week in the summers in the late 1950's and early 1960's. I also have numerous other ancestors buried in cemeteries in the area. 

My grandparents and father [who had turned 14 in August of that year] may have been in the crowd. This Christmas was probably another sad one for them. My father's older sister had died just before Christmas in 1939 at the age of 18. Of course, by the Christmas following this one the United States would be at war.