Fox Theater

Timpson, Texas

I'm not very good with textures because I've been unable to concentrate long enough to figure out the layers application on PhotoShop.  Or maybe better said, I want it now and get frustrated if the learning process is too complicated.  But I have figured out how to import some textures into the little friendly PicMonkey program and I find it an invaluable helper to overcome the washed-out nature of a harsh Texas sun.

Jerome, Arizona, Streetscape

Last summer while in Arizona I spent a day in Jerome.  It's one of the most amazing places to take photos.  In anticipation of my upcoming trip I thought I'd give you a little taste of Jerome.  I'm not sure I'll make it back there this trip, but if you ever get the chance, you should spend a day in this scenic place.  It was once a thriving mining town, then became a certifiable ghost town, and now since the late 1980s has and is seeing a resurgence.  It is built on a mountainside and the once crumbling buildings have been restored to their wondrous early days.  It is a mecca of fun shops and is filled with Arizona copper mining history.

Babbitt Brothers ~ Flagstaff, AZ

The Babbitt brothers - David, George, William, Charles, and Edward - came to Flagstaff in 1886 to go into the cattle ranching business.  They established the C.O. Bar Ranch on lands between Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.  The historic C.O. Bar is one of the largest cattle ranches in the Southwest and continues in operation today.  It was named C.O. for the former Babbitt home of Cincinnati, Ohio.  

By 1889, the Babbitt brothers also had established a general mercantile store in Flagstaff.  This store supplied goods such as oil lamps, saddles, wool shears, canned food, hardware, and trade blankets to the trading posts which were beginning to spring up across the vast Indian Country of northeastern Arizona. The building is across the street from the historic Monte Vista Hotel, and the Coconino County Courthouse is hidden behind the trees in the upper right.

Streetscape ~ Jerome, Arizona

Driving past the Surgeon's House

Streetscape ~ Logansport, Louisiana

Several of you commented on the previous post about Logansport being a ghost town or at least dying.  Yes, many of America's small towns are dying as jobs no longer support families and the rural villages give way to urban sprawl.  But how can any town who exhibits a rodeo cowboy suspended by wires on the main drag or who has a beautiful rusty old truss bridge that the train still crosses four times a day (at least!) across a wide, magnificent river that marks the boundary between two states be called a ghost town?  Maybe tomorrow, but not today!

Streetscape ~ San Augustine, Texas

San Augustine has long been known as the Cradle of Texas Independence

Old Nacogdoches Opera House

The Old Nacogdoches Opera House is one of the prominent buildings on Main Street in Nacogdoches.  The entire downtown area is considered a historic district and almost all the buildings have plaques giving some of their history.  The plaques dedicated to the Opera House are on the side of the building (the white signs in the lower right).  One plaque gives the history of the building and the other is a brief biography of Diedrich Anton Wilhelm Rulfs who is frequently referred to as the Master Architect of Nacogdoches.

In about 1831 the Mitchell Hotel, a stagecoach inn, was constructed on the site.  In 1889 the property’s owner wanted a place for theatrical companies to stop over as they traveled between Shreveport and Houston and commissioned Rulfs to build an opera house.  The ground floor housed the ticket office and a general merchandise establishment and a confectionery shop.  The theater was located on the second floor.

The theater did host operatic performances, but the majority of the touring shows were plays, melodramas, occasional burlesques, and magic shows.  The Marx Brothers first developed their improvisational style of comedy here.  The plaque describes an event involving the Marx Brothers as follows:  “During their act around 1907, a disturbance on Main Street caused most of the audience to run to see what was happening.  Accounts differ, but either a runaway horse or mule kicked a cart to pieces and dragged it down the street.  The Marx Brothers, angered by the loss of their audience, began to race about the stage in a frenzy of comic behavior.  Their parody of their own burlesque and their antics on stage brought the audience back and launched a new direction in their comic careers.  According to Groucho Marx, this performance even spawned the first Groucho-ism:  ‘Nacogdoches is full of roaches.’  He and his brothers were also arrested shortly thereafter for playing euchre, a popular card game, on the porch of their hotel.” 

The building ceased to be a theater in 1923.  A new owner replaced the original red brick façade with one of less ornamentation and renamed the building the Cason Building.  Over the next 80 years it was home to several different retailers and professional offices.  In 2001 the D.K. Cason Estate donated the structure to Stephen F. Austin State University’s Real Estate Foundation for an art center and today it houses the Cole Art Center.  The Nacogdoches Photography Association holds its monthly meetings on the second floor. 

Street Scene ~ Henderson, Texas

Fox Theater ~ Timpson, Texas

From the archives:  August 2009