A handwritten note on the back of the picture identifies this as "Crazy Hotel Pavilion 1940 Cigar Stand and Shine Stand." Please notice Leon Cross, the "Shoe-shine boy", who operated the stand for years, in the white shirt to the left of the Shine Stand. This pavilion is off the hotel lobby, behind and west of the elevators of the second Crazy Hotel. A fire started March 15, 1925, in the drugstore next to the bath house of the first Crazy Hotel which adjoined the Crazy Flats (second Crazy Pavilion). The fire destroyed all the businesses in this city block. The second Crazy Hotel opened in 1927, and incorporated all of the previous enterprises into one building covering the entire city block. The drinking bar, from which Boyce Ditto served mineral water for many years, is at the opposite end of the pavilion, left of the shoe-shine and Cigar Stand, with its striped awning. In its heyday during the health-spa era of the "City built on Water," the bar served four different strengths of mineral water. The bar is still in existence today although inactive. The mezzanine around the drinking pavilion was lined with offices, primarily those of doctors.

A radio show, broadcast at noon and advertising Crazy Water Crystals over the Texas Quality Network, became so popular that the radio gang found themselves in great demand for personal appearances. To accommodate their audiences, the band traveled in their own bus, shown here. On the back of the photograph is stamped "A. F. Weaver Photography 412 North Oak Avenue Mineral Wells, Texas 76067." Dated: 1940. Please note: ZIP codes were not in existence in 1940. Its appearance here with the date of 1940 cannot be easily explained.

The Crazy Water Bottling Plant and Crazy Water Tower are shown here. The plant was built in 1919 at a cost of $85,000, and is located at 300 NW 7th Street. The location was once the original site of the Sangcura-Sprudel Wells Pavilion. The Sangcura-Sprudel Pavilion was moved and converted into a rooming house, which burned in 1973. Notice the home in the background. The date on back of photograph is given as 1940.

Shown here is an interior view of the Crazy Crystals Plant. "Crazy Water" was evaporated, and the dissolved solids precipitated as crystals which were then packaged and shipped all over the United States, Canada, England and Australia. By dissolving the Crazy Water crystals in water, the purchaser was able to reconstitute "mineral water" and secure the benefits of one of the earliest "instant" beverages without the added cost of the supplying company's shipping water.

A picture of the interior of the Crazy Bottling Plant, ladies are shown bottling Crazy Fiz, a copyrighted beverage created by infusing cooled mineral water with carbon dioxide. The men shown here appear to be checking the process in preparation for the bottling of the Crazy Fiz, while the ladies bottle and crate the finished product for shipment. Note the plant's scrupulous cleanliness, and the fact that all employees are dressed in white.

This view of Mineral Wells High School, taken from the east in 1940, shows the 1884 "Little Rock School House" (Mineral Wells' first public school) on the north side of the high school. The larger school was built at 101 NW 5th Avenue in 1915. The second high school in Mineral Wells, it still [2008] stands. Three other high schools have been built since the last class graduated from this one in 1955.

The east side of the second Crazy Hotel in the 400 block of N. Oak Avenue is illustrated here. Across NE 3rd. street, to the left, is Renfro's Drugs (at 319 north Oak Street). The low building on the right is the Hotel's drinking pavilion, and has a sign on it proclaiming a public auction of homes, business sites and farm land to take place January 20-21-22. This is a rare view (from the North-East) of the north back side of the hotel. Cars, of the late 1930's, are double-parked and visible in the middle of the street along the east side of the Crazy. (Head-in angle parking in Mineral Wells was changed to parallel parking in 1938, shortly before America was drawn into World War II.)

Book describing the history of the U.S. National Guard in Texas including a written description of involvement in actions as well as lists of various important persons and locations. It also includes a pictorial yearbook of the members of the National Guard for 1940.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Palo Pinto, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.