Long ago on independence square (Liberty, Jackson: to sell, bookstore, boyfriend)

[MRG Dallas]

[quote=Mad Anthonie;31364581]Thanks for joining in the conversation. Please stick around and share other memories you have of old Independence.

Indeed stick around. We share about the same time warp so your recollections would be of much interest.

[SilverDoc]

[SilverDoc]

[WCHS'59]

Do I detect an Edsel sitting there between the '59 Ford Wagon on the right and the whatyoumacalit on the left? Maybe that is a Comet on the left.

[WCHS'59]

Would probably be in the courthouse if there were room.

Jackson County Technology Center, 303 West Walnut.

[WCHS'59]

Use to be bused here from McCoy school to get shots. I want to say it was polio before the oral vaccine but I was out of grade school in '53, so it may have been for something else. Might have been diphtheria.

Jackson County Health Department at 313 s Liberty. In the fifties it was a buff brick building and I thought it was huge. It seems to have shrunk over the years.

There was also a double door front entrance facing Liberty, probably where that double wide window is on the one story section. And, I believe there were steps leading up from Liberty Street to that front door.

[WCHS'59]

Independence Health Department at 527 S. Liberty in the old Noland grade school.

According to their annual report, the Health Department has a budget of $4 million.

[SilverDoc]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Do I detect an Edsel sitting there between the '59 Ford Wagon on the right and the whatyoumacalit on the left? Maybe that is a Comet on the left.

I'm not sure who the Edsel belonged to, but I'm reasonably sure that the Comet belonged to the principal Roscoe Reed. It seems that the Ford wagon belonged to Mrs. Gallagher that worked in the principal's office. I went to this very grade school with her daughter Vickie.

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by smh69

Yes, I attended 4th grade in the basement of the old church. As I recall it was a very old Baptist church that St. Marys had purchased. We renamed it "Mary Hall". I attended there in 1960/61. The building was only used for 1 or so years while the new grade school annex was waiting for completion. As I recall, only 2 classrooms, top floor was 4th grade taught by Mrs Velghe, and basement was a split class taught by Sr Mary Lois. I cannot remember exactly when it was torn down, possibly late 60's or early 70's. That corner is now the location of gym/fieldhouse which was built in the 80's.

The Rock Church was built in 1910 as the German Evangelical Saint Lucas Church. Due to animosity against Germans during WWI they stopped holding services in German. In 1924 the name was changed to Saint Luke's Evangelical & Reformed Church due to a merger. In the early 1950s they outgrew the Rock Church, and built new at 733 N Main where they are still active today. The old organ from the Rock Church was refurbished and taken to the new location. In 1957 the name was again changed to St. Luke's United Church of Christ.

St. Mary's razed the Rock Church in 1984.

[WCHS'59]

This is the church at Lexington and Pleasant with this side of the church facing Lexington and Pleasant extending into the picture.

When I was going to Independence Junior High School, the morning school buses would stop and drop the students off right in front of this church on the Lexington Street side. We would then walk up Pleasant a block and cross Maple to get to school.

Going home, all the buses parked on Pleasant right in front of the school to let students on. I never learned why the drop off point in the morning was not in front of the school, also.