Volume 10 , Issue 2

Alva Square Winter 1945-46

"I saw your photo of the Enid square and thought you might like to look at a photo of Alva's square. I'm pretty sure this aerial shot was taken sometime during the Winter of 1945-46, judging from several clues in the photo. It was used on one side of the membership cards for the Alva Chamber of Commerce and this one belonged to my father-in-law, Noel Taylor. I'm amazed at how well it 'blew up' on the computer. The photo must have been snapped with a great camera.

Notice how many cars are parked around the square in the old 'center parking' days. The center parking even extended west of the square for one block on both Barnes and Flynn Streets, as you can see.

I don't know who took this photo, but I have a pretty good suspect in mind. Since I'm not sure, however, I'll keep that to myself.

The square of that day is a far cry from the square of the late 1940's and early 1950's. From an old phone book of the era, I was able to reconstruct a diagram of the square showing 156 businesses on or adjacent to the square in the mid-1940's, and that did not include all of the real estate, law, dental, doctor and other specialty offices that were located in walk-up offices on the second levels of many of these buildings. It was a different place and a great place at that time.

On Saturdays, you had to weave around people while walking down the sidewalk! Four movie houses and four drug stores, two dime stores and a couple of sweet shops made it a 'kid's heaven'" -- JIM
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