Pacific-Akard parking garage, 1950s

As a casual collector of vintage photos and local ephemera, I am frequently on the lookout for unique and historical items. A few months ago, I came across a listing for an old Ektachrome slide dating to the 1950s, one which depicted a seven story parking garage somewhere in Dallas. Other than the city and the decade, no further information was available. Where exactly was this garage, and is it still standing today? It was an intriguing mystery, and one worth solving for someone with an affinity for local history. If the photo was indeed taken in Dallas, the slide would make a great candidate for my vintage photo collection, and I thus set about attempting to identify the building and its (perhaps former) location.

I began by trying to determine where in the city the garage was likely located. I didn't recognize the building itself and I'd never heard of Thurman Randle, but based on the size of the garage, I determined it would almost certainly have been somewhere in or around Downtown. After that, my research consisted mostly of digging up historical references or advertisements for the sporting goods store on the ground floor. A bit of deep-dive sleuthing through old newspaper archives and some determined use of Google Street View eventually yielded the results I was looking for: the location was the corner of Akard and Pacific, and the garage, opened in July 1956, is indeed still standing today. Having now positively identified the site, I moved forward with acquiring the original Ektachrome slide. As is the case with most Ektachromes I've encountered, the original image has faded to near monochrome. An attempt to restore some semblance of the original colors failed miserably, and thus the photo is presented here in a black and white conversion.

At the time of its opening, the 350 car capacity parking garage was the latest utilization of a lot that had already seen a long history of use by wholesalers, dealers, and even theatrical performers. A Dallas Morning News announcement from August 1907 advertises "214 N. Akard, good retail room, $18. HANN & KENDALL."¹ By November 1909 the spot had become the home of the Bradford Company's large downtown grocery store, which was purchased by Consumers Wholesale Grocery ("Groceries to Consumers at Wholesale Prices") in February 1913. The location served a brief stint in 1919 as a Red Cross workroom benefiting European refugee children ("All women are asked to call and receive supplies and instructions..." as stated in a period advertisement)² before being taken over, come February 1920, by the Dallas Automobile Sales Company, which sold used vehicles "in first-class condition" and advertised cash paid for "all late model standard makes of automobiles."³ This enterprise was in turn succeeded by the Swinehart Tire & Rubber Company, which took the reins by the next year. Following the Swinehart company, the space was occupied by the Lyric Theater, which opened in November 1923 and closed sometime before February 1936, by which time the existing building was scheduled for demolition to make way for "a new $10,000 modernistic structure."⁴ Notices in the Dallas Morning News in 1948 scream out adverts for Warehouse Cut Rate Liquors. Finally, on July 23, 1956, owners Trammell Crowe and Eugene Locke opened the current parking garage, which has taken up the 214 N. Akard Street location for the past sixty-eight years.

And what of Thurman Randle, the business on the ground floor of the garage that was the key to solving the mystery of its location? Inside its doors - according to various advertisements, at least - you could find firearms, fishing tackle, film cameras (both still and motion picture variants) and related equipment, as well as photo developing, making Thurman Randle an interesting hybrid of a sporting goods and photography store rolled into one. Upon the opening of the new garage, the chain relocated its existing 208 N. Akard Street location to the ground floor of the new garage, with free parking on offer with a purchase of $1 or more. By 1959, the store (according to advertisements placed in the Dallas Morning News) had lost its lease and had turned to liquidating its stock. The historical record appears to go dark from that point until 1975, when newspaper advertisements promote a Beks fast food location, supplanted later that same year by ads seeking a manager, cashiers, and sundry restaurant staff for J.B. Hamby's. Somewhat more recently, the space was home to Miguel's Cantina, which offered Tex-Mex food and drinks circa 2003.

Today the parking garage remains in use, operated now as private parking. The DART rail line runs in front of it on Pacific Avenue, and present-day Thanks-Giving Square is only a minute's walk away. As of this writing, the space once occupied by Thurman Randle is an adult bar going by the name of Carpé Lounge. Before discovering the old Ektachrome slide, I had likely passed by this structure dozens of times without ever taking any special notice of it. At the end of March, I made my way out to the corner of Pacific and Akard armed with my camera and took a picture of its current appearance, which is now cosmetically quite different from what would have been seen in 1956. As with so many other structures in and around Downtown, it sits quietly and largely unnoticed, giving no hint of its small part of hidden Dallas and Dallas area history.