Today's scans are not the usual fun or silly subjects I tend to share, so I hope that you find them interesting, at least. Years ago I found some slides mixed in with other random stuff; they were taken a day or so after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated (on Friday, November 22, 1963) while his motorcade traveled through Dallas. So these were taken almost exactly 61 years ago.
This first one shows the sign to the Whittier Quad (now called "The Quad at Whittier"), which is located at the corner of Whittier Boulevard and Painter Avenue. In Whittier, in case you hadn't guessed! It was built in 1953 and expanded in 1965 with the addition of a 3-story, 248,000-square-foot May Company California department store. Arcadia-based Hinshaw's and Pasadena-based Nash's were other major tenants.
Here's a photo (from Wikipedia) showing the current sign for The Quad at Whittier.
This next photo is also from the city of Whittier - Sackett-Peters was a hardware store, located at 15214 Whittier Boulevard. I like their sign! It appears that the location is now a Harbor Freight store.
Major-
ReplyDeleteI still have a jacket from Hinshaw's, that dates from the early to mid-1960's. (Clearly, the original signage from the Whittier Quad is the classier of the two). That Matador Red automobile is a 1953 Buick - with the 'tooth grille' removed - for some reason.
Thanks, Major.
Interesting, and kind of spooky, that you came across these slides taken so soon after the assassination.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a car guy, but isn't that red-orange car a 1950s model? It's got all those rounded edges like cars had in the '50s.
I agree with you about that Sackett-Peters sign. It's got style! They coulda just had the cylindrical pole supporting everything, but they added that yellow diamond-shaped element; and that made all the difference!
Ah, Nanook confirms my suspicions about that car being a '50s model. 1953; the year I was born!
We don't need to be silly and irreverent every day. The occasional serious mood once in a while cleanses the palate, so to speak. Thanks, Major.
Nanook, I still have two jackets and a couple pairs of dress shoes, which came from the Hinshaw's department store in Whittier. The Hinshaw family had a second store, in Arcadia, CA. My mom had worked in that store as a gift wrapper, while she was in college!
ReplyDeleteThere were two of those original "Quad" signs. The one in the photo was along Whittier Blvd. The second one was on Painter Ave. They remained standing until the late eighties/early nineties. I spent a lot of time shopping at The Quad, during my childhood and teenage years. I even remember when the original outdoor shopping center had a roof put over it, during the big indoor shopping mall construction "boom" of the 1970s.
Throughout my childhood, I had hamsters, parakeets and hermit crabs, which all came from "Palmer's Pet Store," which was located in The Quad. I also remember going to some seasonal "haunted houses," which were set up in a vacated dime/drug store in The Quad. And speaking of "haunted" things, my Haunted Mansion Game, which I posted images of back in 2016, also came from a store in The Quad. Did I mention that I spent A LOT of time at The Quad???
And I actually have some stepping stones, which came from Sackett-Peters' nursery. They were in my mom's backyard for decades, but when she decided that she no longer wanted them, I took them!
If you look in the background of that Sackett-Peters image, you can see a Broadway department store. That was a part of Whittier's second outdoor shopping mall, also built in the 1950s, which was also covered over in the 1970s. That mall was torn down around 2004, but the Broadway building is still standing, and currently houses one of the last few operating Sears stores.
I should have mentioned that the original Quad shopping center was also torn down, and rebuilt as one of those sprawling outdoor shopping centers with a very poorly planned layout. The Hinshaw's building was the only thing that survived, but it is now divided, and contains a Staples, and a Burlington Coat Factory.
Thanks for these images, Major. They bring back many fond memories!
Oh, and R.I.P., J.F.K.!
These are an interesting record of a moment in our nation’s history, when businesses and schools across the nation closed in mourning for the death of a sitting President.
ReplyDeleteMy parents, newlywed young Republicans, took the train from Detroit to DC and waited in line most of the night that Sunday to pay their respects as he lay in state in the Capitol rotunda. They then waited outside Monday morning as his funeral procession passed by before getting back on the train and heading home. They were back in the classroom teaching Tuesday morning.
I can’t imagine something like this happening today. It was a different time.
Note the Standard gas station in the background of the first photo. You can see the Chevron logo underneath the Whittier Quad sign. The logo changed in 1968, narrowing the white stripe and adding the word “Chevron.”
Thanks, Major.
Major, these are interesting photos of a sad moment. The mourning for the President is the first real-world event that I remember. The funeral procession was on every TV channel. Flags everywhere at half-mast, theater marquees with epitaphs, and businesses closed, as we see here. I pray we never see such times again. I fear that if we do, half the nation will mourn and the other half will exult, no matter which side is which.
ReplyDeleteThe signs are fabulous, regardless of their messages. I wonder what the striped building (far right of photo 2) might have been? Hamburger stand?
Thank you for posting these.
JG
As Chuck and J.G. said, I don't think businesses would be closed these days for a tragedy like this. People would feel sadness but also would want to keep going on with regular activities. The Santas billboard in the Sackett-Peters photo is interesting, I'd have thought Christmas advertising didn't start as early as it does now. I can imagine the somber Thanksgivings that year. Thanks, Major.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures could be no later than November 25, as that was the day of mourning. I most certainly remember that time. The nation literally came to an abrupt halt. Thanksgiving seemed so out of place that year. We had digested shocking news and kept the TV on continually with the news and its aftermath. Hard to describe other than perhaps 9-11to the current generation. KS
ReplyDeleteNanook, very cool that you have a jacket from Hinshaw’s… I’m not really aware of how big of a chain of stores that was. I wonder if the Buick belonged to the photographer, who may have pulled over spontaneously to snap these pictures?
ReplyDeleteJB, even if Nanook hadn’t already ID’d that car, I’d feel pretty confident that it was from the 1950s. I didn’t spend any time really researching that automobile! I love signage that plays with interesting shapes and colors, and both of these examples do just that. I know that today’s photos are not the usual lighthearted offerings, but I thought that they were so historically interesting.
TokyoMagic!, I need to let the other readers know that I sent these to you long ago (knowing that you were familiar with Whittier), and that you related many of your personal memories of The Quad and Sackett-Peters. By the time I got around to creating a blog post with the photos, I wrote some very basic text, and then never got around to working on it further. I gather that The Quad was an important part of Whittier back in the day, I would imagine that you mostly went when your mom brought you. Unless you were driving a car at a young age?? Wow, I had no idea that there were ANY operating Sears stores anymore, I thought they’d all closed. There was on near my mom’s house up until a few years ago, and I went to buy a shirt; the selection was so terrible I walked out empty-handed. It kind of made me sad. I remember going to their auto service department for things like a new battery or new tires back when I first started driving. When I looked for modern photos of The Quad, it definitely did not resemble what little you can see in that one picture, I guess it’s “par for the course” that the old mall was torn down. Thanks TM!
Chuck, I was tiny baby when Kennedy was assassinated, but my brother, less than two years older than I am, claims to remember being aware that *something* was going on. Interesting that your parents actually went all the way to DC for the procession, etc. Years ago, one of the major networks (I think CBS?) played the TV broadcast day from November 22nd complete and without modern commercial interruptions, including the soap opera that was airing when “the event” first happened, it was chilling to watch. Thank you for pointing out the Standard gas station sign!
JG, I see what my older brother watches on YouTube and elsewhere, and it is pretty clear that there are many “sources” that seem bent on tearing people apart, hating other people, calling anyone different “stupid”, etc. I don’t know if it’s how they really feel, or if it is all for the sake of clicks. I suspect it’s a combination of both. Either way, it is depressing as heck. Maybe I’ve said too much.
Kathy!, there is a part of me that would want to try to keep things going as normally as possible, I still remember going to a Marie Calendar’s restaurant with some classmates on 9/11, we were all kind of shell-shocked, but didn’t want to be sitting at home by ourselves.
KS, yes, I kind of suspect that these photos were taken on Sunday the 24th, the streets look so devoid of activity. But it’s hard to be sure. As I said to Chuck, even watching the newscasts 50 years later, the events of that day had a powerful effect.
Major....I should add that Lee Harvey Oswald was murdered on live TV on the 24th...which I witnessed. This only added to the surreal nature of that time. KS
ReplyDeleteMajor, yes....I would go to The Quad with my mom. We'd separate and then meet up at a designated time. I guess the exception to that would be when we were there to buy "back to school" clothes for my brother and me. Otherwise, my brother and I would normally spend our time either in the pet store, or the book, toy, and record departments of the May Co. and Hinshaw's stores.
ReplyDeleteI happened to go to that Whittier Sears store exactly one year ago, this month. I needed a microwave and over the years, I had gotten used to buying "Kenmore" appliances, even though I know they sold that name and brand off a few years back, just like they did with their "Craftsman" tool line. The store was mostly empty with huge sections of wide open carpeting without any racks or shelving. There were a few glass display cases, but those were empty. It was shocking...and like you said, SAD! I asked someone in the kitchen appliance department, about microwaves (because I wasn't seeing any). They sent me over to the other side of the store (the mostly empty side), where there were two little shelves attached to a wall, with two lone microwaves on display. Again, sad! I didn't purchase anything, and on my way out, I asked someone if the store was going to be closing. The salesperson said that there were no plans to close that store, and that in fact, they were opening new Sears stores, including one that had supposedly just opened in Burbank. That's fine and dandy, but I don't see myself going into a Sears store anytime in the near future. :-(
As of November 2024, the SEARS in Whittier and Burbank (california) are still open for business.
ReplyDelete