Top photo is looking North on Second Street on a snowy morning. Notice the absence of the city hall building (aka. The Mayor's Office). A fire destroyed it and the jail and it had not been rebuilt at this time.
Next is the building on West Main that held a number of businesses, at this time Miller's Furniture and Appliance store.
Center: The old original Waters' Funeral Home with it's gazebo and sitting area around a goldfish pond. Chairs in the foreground are in the old Prather home yard where the photo was taken from.
Mr. Garley McVey blows sediment from the water system in the next to last photo. We really had some good water in Baldwyn. I didn't realize it until I moved around over the years and found that all ground water in wells isn't great to drink without treatment.
And last is shown the old water tank that we would climb to see around the countryside. At the halfway point, you could see the transmitter tower lights of WBIP in Booneville. If you were lucky and Slim Weldon wasn't around, you could go all the way to the top and write your name with a 10 cent can of paint from the Western Auto Store (no spray cans in those days). Also notice the fire siren mounted on a crossbeam. This old tank served the town for many years but is now gone.
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Photos from various sources, Betty Massengill, Clarene Evans, and old newspapers.
18 comments:
I have been on the first landing of the old water tank, too. Wrote my name in pencil, all I had with me at the time.
I was member of Civil Air Patrol, which met underneath Water Tower at old City Hall. We must have done a good job looking for Russian planes because there were never any attacks in Baldwyn area.
Carl, when you said "go all the way to the top" did you mean the roof of the tank? I did just that at least twice. Or did you mean the lower catwalk at the bottom of the tank? That is where we would paint our name on the side??
I must have meant all the way to the tank. The catwalk was as far as I ever went. That was a feat in itself - Constable Jim Strange caught us and made us come down the first time I ever went up the tower, late on a Summer Sunday afternoon.
P.S> Does anyone remember that Sunday incident? There were at least three or possibly four of us involved in that. Were any of you present?
I remember when the old jail and mayors office burned. I think it was in the seventies maybe. a group of us had been to tupelo and after getting home we saw the smoke and stopped at the fire. it was smoldering and we were told that someone was in jail at the time and was killed. It was insinuated at the scene that it was set on purpose. Was this fiction or am I dreaming or what?
We bought our first radio/record player and later a new television set from that furniture and appliance store, but it was owned by another person at the time. I think it was a Mrs. Mullinax. Anyone verify that?
Thomas, I am not privileged with much information of that fire, but what I heard years ago was that some inmates set a mattress on fire from smuggled cigarettes and matches. Hopefully someone with better info can help us out. The watchman was on his rounds when it happened, I remember hearing, but it was too late to save anyone when he returned to the building.
Anonymous 4:48 PM;
That would have been Mrs. Grace Mullinax (or Mullinix). We also bought a TV from her business in 1951. I bought quite a few records there also (78 RPM) everytime I had some spare change.
Grace Mullinix died in 1994 at a ripe old age of 90. Her husband Clovis had died in 1948.
C. V. Grisham, Forrest Grisham and Bruce McElroy may have originally owned that furniture store. Not sure whether Mrs. Grace bought it from them or just ran it.
Jim Miller, can you help out on this?
dont think ms mullinix ever was associated with furn store on corner--she had a store up street abt where clark richey is now--then moved across street into what became Hassells
The HotPoint store on the corner in the 40's into 50s was grocery owned by Bruce McElroys father-cant remember what was between McElroys & Millers furniture--Mr Raymond was there a long time before Tom Hassell bought it & operated a furniture -we bought it in the 1980s along with bldg next door & converted it to a CPA office/Wayne
Mr. Will McElroy owned the grocery store on the corner for a long time and then sold it to Cecil Nanney. Grace Mullinax and husband Clovis did operate a store that sold appliances, televisions and other electrical accouterments. They didn't have a repairman, so William "Buster" Tapp (Cliff's son) would come home from Memphis every weekend and repair the TV sets. They definitely were in the store second to the East from Mr. Will's grocery.
Mr. John Bryson managed the operation of the store owned by Mrs. Grace, a sweet lady. She was Mr. Bryson's sister, I believe.
Barbara & Brenda could probably bring out more facts on the store, but it was a nice store run by nice, honest people which is enough for me.
Clarification. The photo of the funeral home was taken from the Prather yard - this is the old Stocks home that the Prathers owned (they owned essentially the entire block from Clayton Street to the street at the funeral home and between Second Street and Third Street at that time). The Prathers rented the old Stocks home to the McVeys and Mrs Earline McDonald.
Tom Shellnut reminded me of the Prather home dinner bell that was rang everyday to signal that the noonday meal was ready. Everyone that heard it usually took lunch break at that time, too, including the "shirt factory" workers.
My grandparents also rented that Stocks house for a few years in the late 30's and early 40's. Mom and I moved in with them shortly after I was born (Jan 1942)while Dad was in Camp Wheeler, Ga.
One of my favorite memories of the Prather yard was the beautiful weeping willow tree that I used to play under in the late 40's. mc
WOULD SOMEONE GET OUT THERE OLD BHS ANUALS, I DON'T REMEMBER THIS MANY CLASSMATES NAMED ANONYMOUS.
Seeing the old water tower reminded me of the horrible fire in the Mayor's office and jail. I was on the fire department at the time. We were all alerted to a fire by a "fire phone" system that rang in ten homes when the fire number was dialed. This was controlled from the city hall/jail and was taken out by the fire. Since no fire phone service was available, we had to be called one by one to respond to the fire. My brother-in-law Dale Chisholm found out about the fire when someone came to his storm house because the tornado siren was sounding. This was caused by the fire shorting out the switch to the siren causing it to stay on. Dale called me asking about the weather when we received the call to the jail. By the time we got there the building was mostly afire except the corner of the jail where the prisoners were. Someone had a fog nozzle running at high pressure trying to keep fresh air going inside to the prisoners. By the time we got the fire out and the ambulance crew got them out, it was too late.
The "official" cause of the fire was ruled electrical since there was conveniently a switchbox on the east wall but all the firemen saw the "V" burn pattern from inside one of the cells indicating that the fire started low on the floor in one of the cells. I always wondered why this was ruled electrical since we all saw it and agreed it started in the cell.
I remember seeing the water tank glowing from the blaze as we approached the scene that night. That was by far my worst experience while on the volunteer fire department.
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