[R.L. Polk & Co.'s Mineral Wells City Directory, 1920] (open access)

[R.L. Polk & Co.'s Mineral Wells City Directory, 1920]

The city directory for Mineral Wells, 1920, embraces a complete alphabetical list of business firms and private citizens; a directory of city and county officials, churches, public and private schools, banks, asylums, hospitals, commercial bodies, secret societies, street and avenue guide, etc.
Date: 1920
Creator: R.L. Polk & Co.
Object Type: Book
System: The Portal to Texas History

In The Good Old Days

This picture is accompanied by a newspaper article that chronicles the activities of a group of men repairing the public highway between Mineral Wells and Palo Pinto in the year 1920--before the Texas Highway Department was created. Pictured are the following people: Harold Guinn on left with spade. J. L. Miller on truck fender. Standing, left to right: Red Taylor, George Oliver, Johnnie Liveley; Irl Preston and W. T. Tygrett shaking hands, with Joe Dillon standing between them. Also standing in the background are Clarence Wewerkka, W. C. Caldwell, W. I. Smith, and Lawrence Davis. The photograph is listed as courtesy of W. T. Tygrett.
Date: 1920
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

[Photograph of the New Suspension Bridge at Lover's Retreat]

This is a photograph of a suspension bridge for pedestrian traffic across Eagle Creek at Lover's Retreat. Formerly a public park, and now on private property, it was located four miles west of Palo Pinto on the old Bankhead Highway (now U.S. Highway 180).
Date: 1920?
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

We lost our job at Mineral Wells, Texas

This is a picture that was found in Mr. Weaver's collection, and captioned "We lost our job at Mineral Wells, Texas." This type of advertising was used by most of the drinking pavilions in this popular health resort to tout the beneficial effects of Mineral Wells' waters. There were numerous testimonials attesting the truth of such claims. When the Food and Drug Administration began to enforce the nation's drug laws vigorously in the mid-1930's, however, there were no rigorous scientific test data to document such claims, or to warn of possible side effects that taking the mineral water might cause. Consequently, this sort of advertising was banned after the 1930's.
Date: 1920?/1930?
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

The Crazy Well Water Company

This picture shows a photograph of two pages from a water-bottle-shaped brochure about Mineral Wells. The "Appendix" referred to on the verso folio refers to a series of burlesques printed on previous--unseen--pages. Recto describes the four types of the water and the various ailments that they are expected to cure. The brochure notes that number four water is purgative, and should be used in moderation, but at frequent intervals.
Date: 1920?
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History

The Davis Wells; The Davis Baths

Pictured here is a semi-ornate brick building (with a socle presumably of stone), advertising the Davis Wells and the Davis Baths. This enterprise is not listed in A.F. Weaver's "TIME WAS in Mineral Wells...." The picture appears to have been excerpted from a larger photograph, as the legend "Davis Baths" (not visible in the picture) appears on the negative. Polk's Directory for 1920 lists "Davis Mineral Baths" (proprietor, Dr. Eldred A.--the "A" stands for "Albany"--Davis) at "210 1/2 N. Oak Avenue." The business cannot be found in the 1909 or 1914 Polk's Directories. However, the 1914 Polk's Directory shows a Dr. Davis as living at 514 East Throckmorton [presently, in 2014, NE 1st Street] with his wife, Helen. The name of the bath house was changed to the "Buck Head" (or "Buckhead", as some sources have it) at some as yet unknown date.
Date: 1920?
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Photograph
System: The Portal to Texas History