Uploads from Wystan, tagged brickpavement

Parker & Watts Circus parade on State Street, Ann Arbor, July 8, 1939.

nobody@flickr.com (Wystan) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:10:40 -0700

Wystan posted a photo:

Photo sold in an eBay auction, September, 2011.

Parker & Watts Circus parade on State Street, Ann Arbor, July 8, 1939.

nobody@flickr.com (Wystan) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:45:31 -0700

Wystan posted a photo:

Photo sold in an eBay auction, September, 2011.

Main Street looking South from Washington, Ann Arbor, c. 1906

nobody@flickr.com (Wystan) — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 13:27:58 -0700

Wystan posted a photo:

"You could find anything you could think of, at Hoag's!"

Those were words an elderly woman used in the 1970s while recalling Hoag's Home Supply store, a legendary Ann Arbor variety emporium of her youth. A combination department store and five-and-ten, Hoag's (pronounced "Hoyg's") flourished in the first decades of the twentieth century. By the 'teens, the store ran frequent full-page and half-page advertisements in the Ann Arbor Daily Times-News. But in the 1920s, Hoag's faced competition from two national dimestore chains, Woolworth and Kresge's, whose Main Street outlets opened right across the street. Unable or unwilling to update its aging building, Hoag's sold it to the First National Bank of Ann Arbor, which tore it down and erected a skyscraper on this corner. (The snazzy new bank headquarters opened in 1929, the year of the great Wall Street stock market crash -- which in hindsight could be viewed as bad timing: but that's another story.)

Hoag's moved to a smaller location two blocks east on Washington, and across the street, but it didn't last long after that. Gerald Hoag, a son of the store owners, later enjoyed a career of 50+ years as manager of the Butterfield chain's movie theaters in Ann Arbor, including the Majestic, the Whitney, the Michigan, the Campus and the State.

Brownette P14473 -- Washtington St. Traction Depot, Ypsilanti, Michigan.

nobody@flickr.com (Wystan) — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:33:15 -0800

Wystan posted a photo:

Parker & Watts Circus parade on State Street, Ann Arbor, July 8, 1939.

nobody@flickr.com (Wystan) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:05:55 -0700

Wystan posted a photo:

The Parker & Watts Circus had a brief existence, in 1938 and 1939 only. Photo sold in an eBay auction, September, 2011.