Edmund McCurdy Hastings Home - 202 S. Lawrence Street

This home was built by Edmund McCurdy Hastings (my great, great grandfather) in the mid 1850's.  It was located at 202 South Lawrence Street (directly across the street from the Gerald home).The home remained in the Hastings family until 1923 when it became the second  YWCA in Montgomery; the first YWCA was the Baldwin home on South Perry.  I remember this home as a child, but I believe it was torn down in the 1960's and a law firm was built on this corner.  A new building was constructed on Perry Street to house the YWCO. (photo and caption courtesy of Millie Thomas)

317 Clayton Street

317 Clayton Street was a classic old Victorian house located at Five Points in Cottage Hills sitting several houses east of the wonderful old Farley Home at the intersection of Clayton and Goldwaithe. At some point during the early twentieth century the house was divided into apartments and rooms which were rented to Military and Civil Service personnel at Maxwell. Mrs. Mae Williamson Blackwell purchased the house from Dr.Tuttle and lived in a large apartment on the first floor for approximately fifty years. George Griffith, a local antique dealer, bought the house in the mid 1970's and converted the house into his antique shop. Later the house was sold to Tracy Larkin; he used the house as a nightclub. After that, the house was vacant for a while, then destroyed by fire. The entrance to the backyard of this house was on Caroline Street next to the the Caroline Courts Apartments.

 

The Candlelight Restaurant was directly across the street from 317 Clayton.

 

The original brick wall with niche is all that is left. At one time there was an iron gate at the street entrance along with an iron hitching post.

(photo and caption courtesy of Sue Bell)

 

The Candlelight Restaurant

The Candlelight Restaurant was directly across from 317 Clayton Street. It was owned by Charles Z. Capanzes (1894-1942) who was from Thebes Greece.

1914 Past and Present in the Cradle of Dixie

This is a silent movie made in Montgomery in 1914 by the Chamber of Commerce. It features many local citizens of the day with shots of Union Station, Court Square, the Capitol with concrete steps, S, Perry Street, The Confederate White House at its original site on Bibb and Morningview.

The original deteriorated film was discovered in the Treasury vault during the Capitol restoration circa 1985.  The Archives sent the film off for restoration since it was very poor quality. I don't know how long the original movie was, but this is all that could be salvaged. The restoration was pretty badly done with some clips being reversed and part of another story being inserted in the middle of the first one. The restored movie is in two parts. The first part is the story of wedding couple celebrating at Morningview. The second part is a recreation of Jefferson Davis inauguration.

The movie starts with a wedding party arriving at Union Station. They then proceed down Commerce, down S. Perry Street then to Morningview. In the middle of the story about the wedding party, the story of Jefferson Davis inauguration is inserted, and then the movie goes back and finishes the story about the wedding party. It is a remarkable film and I am so glad I can present it to you. Thanks so much to Sue Bell for sharing her video with me.

Ready to Spread My Wings

My intent is to make this a continuation of the Times Gone By fan page on Facebook. I want to make the photos and stories available to people who aren't on Facebook and this seems the easiest way. As I add a new post to the Facebook page I will also add it here. I would like to encourage everyone who isn't on Facebook to please consider joining. The Times Gone By page there has thousands of photos and stories about Montgomery history. It is worth joining Facebook to become a fan of TGB! This is my first try at a blog so be patient!