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The buildings -- all of which are still standing -- house an assortment of businesses. While it's not possible to read the curve of lettering on the display window just to the right of the telephone pole, it is possible to make out "Millinery" in the white-on-black sign attached to the building's canopy. Neal's Soda Fountain was a local landmark, still open into the 1950s -- the building says "Guy Neal" on its cornice. (There's a 1930s view of Neal's Palm Garden in the "Advertising and Miscellaneous" section To the right of the Neal Building, a second-floor window is lettered with an unreadable name and "Law" -- it's still a law office. On the ground floor, the sign proclaims "Tresslar's" and something I want to make "Banjo Store," although that's probably just wishful thinking on my part. (Actually, I suspect it's "Drug Store." The "History of Washington County 1916-1976" includes a photographic circuit of the square. The photograph for the northeast side is of an earlier date than this one. The business in the Neal Building is "Guy Neal, Groceries & Queensware," and next door is "H.C. Hobbs Northside Drug Store." A sign above the canopy says "Republican Leader," indicating that the newspaper had offices on the second floor.)  The Cosmos series
This card is one of a series that may have been published for sale at Neal's by a publisher called Cosmos, which used a newsboy as its logo on the back. The cards in the Cosmos series are linked by their subject matter -- Neal's Soda Fountain and the Millport Knobs, as you'll see in the description of the next card in the series. I have four cards from the series and know of two more -- same photographic style, same printing quality, same paper stock -- though there may be more. The cards are unnumbered and not identified by anything other than the Cosmos logo:
The cards appear to be nicely printed lithographs on an unfortunately soft stock that has yellowed quite a bit (if it was ever actually white to begin with). None of the Cosmos cards have been used, and they bear no indication of a publication date. I'm inclined to date them to the mid to late 1920s on the strength of the general style of the automobile at left center in this view. (12/30/00) |