Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
Pensacola, Florida, circa 1910. "Louisville and Nashville Railway station." Where libations for the parched traveler are a mere stagger away. View full size.
I'll bet the adjacent Alabama county was dry as a bone, if not the whole state at that time. That would account for the plethora (I do know what it is, El Guapo!) of liquor stores shouldering up to the station.
A pint or two of Guinness has been an Irish lunch for a long, long time.
Some time ago I was looking through a reference on food values, and found that beer has all you need but protein. so beer and steak will see you through quite well.
Mail or Paddy?
[Mail ("USM"). - Dave]
A river guide friend always refers to his beers as "sandwiches." So apparently the concept is not new.
Only two women traveling at this time. Considering the bars in the area, they are pretty clean outside except for the one bottle I found.
My (late) doctor used to say, "Beer is a poor man's bread."
Favorite vignette in this rich scene: the handshake.
Judging by the shadows on the "telephone pole" at the right side of the picture and the shadows elsewhere, I bet it is close to noon on this day.
In the short 10 years after this picture was taken, Prohibition would have done a number on the businesses adjacent to the RR station. The four visible storefronts were all selling booze. In theory these merchants were driven out of business, but they probably survived somehow. The Sheriff of Escambia County (of which Pensacola was the county seat) was removed from office by the governor for not enforcing the Prohibition laws. Also sacked, two thirds of the police force.
My father's family is from Pensacola, so I'm always excited to see northwest Florida photos. This station, at Tarragona and Wright streets, opened in 1882. A new station (still standing) opened in 1913, just across what is now I-110, at the corner of Alcaniz and Wright.
Check out that odd railcar on the right. The entire end of the car opens like a garage.Some boxcars were equipped with end doors for loading autos and such, but this car has a smokejack on the roof, indicating this was a railroad maintenance car of some sort.
Beyond that car on the upper right of the photo, is the front of a locomotive, with a smokestack from a Matthew Brady photograph. The large funnel stack indicates this was a woodburning loco.
Railroads of the deep south burned wood for fuel long after the practice was ended elsewhere.
If beer is considered pure liquid food,I submit a bratwurst as an example of pure solid beer.
... that sfter sampling all of the different shops' offerings, you might start to see weird things like this!
I got a good laugh out of that one.
It is an unusual way that we no longer think of beer as food.
I discovered a beer tray of the same period of the Chattanooga Brewing Company.
It appears as if the old station shown in this picture was replaced by a new station in 1912. That one still stands, although it was converted to a Crowne Plaza Hotel.
There are two ladies in this photo and both have nice big hats. I also particularly like the travel coat the lady on the right (facing away) is wearing.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5