Volume 6 , Issue 22

Okie's NW Corner

It may have seemed like dejavu last weekend, late Friday night around the midnight hours when the Alva sirens began to wail -- firefighters, volunteer firefighters were called to battle a blaze in the 500 block of Barnes Avenue in Downtown Alva, Oklahoma. Alva has seen a few business buildings burn to the ground in it's past histories. There was the Monfort Drugstore fire in the '50s and the Riggs Building in the '60s/70s era. The Monfort Drugstore fire brought out crowds to watch the destruction -- they lined the 600 block of Barnes Avenue that year. Not sure what the crowd was like last saturday morning as the business building owned by the City of Alva burnt to the grown in the 500 block of Barnes.

Last weekend the building housing the Alva Sewing Center and Dean's Repair Service was destroyed by the fire that was fueled by the gusty Oklahoma winds that blew last weekend. Some of you old-timers might remember that location as the spot where you watched many an afternoon of matinees at the Ritz Theatre on one side and visited Hester Drugs on the other side. If you don't date back that far, you might remember Holder-Southern Drugstore residing at that location before it moved a few doors east to the old JC Penney building. This writer remembers when Holder-Southern Drugs was on the main level and the Rebekkah lodge, Theta Rho girls organizations used the upstairs for their meetings. You can read the Alva Review Courier, dated 23 May 2004 for more information about the fire last weekend. Although, another midnight fire burns, destroys another NW Oklahoma landmark... we still have our Okie Legacies, memories of how it was in the past. We would love to share your memories of Hester Drugstore and the Ritz Theatre in our weekly OkieLegacy from time to time. Send them to Linda.

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