What have we here? It's a photo of Hodel's Drug at the BaseMar Shopping Center in Boulder, Colorado. It was here that Oscar Hodel went to work each day and filled out the ledger that I eventually acquired.
The photo was taken in 1956 -- the year that Hodel's Drug (and I think the shopping center itself) opened. While looking at the photo, I noticed something interesting. Check out the signs for the other shops (click to enlarge):
It's a little hard to read some of them but they say:
Laundry•Dry Cleaners
[Illegible] Pastry Shop
Hardware
[Illegible] Barber Shop
Dairy Foods
Flowers
So four of the six signs are completely generic, indicating a category of commerce rather than a shop name -- odd. I must say, I would have been very disappointed if the Hodel's Drug sign simply read "Pharmacy."
(Special thanks to Wendy Hall of the Carnegie Branch Library for Local History in Boulder for providing the photo.)
As some of you know, I live in Brooklyn, New York. Fortunately, I came through Hurricane Sandy completely unscathed -- no flooding, didn't lose power, didn't even have any trees come down on my block or in my back yard. Same goes for my Mom and my brother, both of whom live in the New York area.
Obviously, millions of other people weren't as lucky. If you and/or someone close to you were affected by the storm, hang in there -- we're all thinking of you. In a bit of cosmic irony, however, on Wednesday I broke my arm in a bike accident. Typing is now very tricky, so content here on the PermaRec site may be spotty for a bit. Thanks for understanding.
Slate update: As you may have guessed, the storm has futher delayed the publication of the next full-length PermaRec article on Slate. Will they get it up next week? Hope so.
It is fun to see what you unearth in your ledgers or photos. When I check the city directory for 1956, this is what I read for businesses in the BaseMar Shopping Center:
ReplyDeleteHodel’s Drugs
Model Cleaners
Elite Pastry Shop
Base Mar Hardware
Anchor Barber Shop
Base Mar Dairy Foods
Lindon’s Floral and Garden
Busley’s Super Market
Baseline Service gas station.
I think it was so generic because that part of the shopping center is far from the street and so if they could only highlight one or two words, they went for the type of product instead of the name of the business. I will have to try to find another photo of the center so you can see how far from the road they were.
Wendy Hall - Carnegie Branch Library, Boulder, CO