Austin Street Tour     Locate on map

Go ahead and turn right. To the left under its diagonal drive 
through is the service station that was first Vaughn’s and then 
Penn’s. The building with the large plate glass windows on the 
opposite corner was always vacant in the 50’s. North of it was 
a dry cleaners, whose name changed from time to time. At least 
one of the owners was George Rogers, who once called the business 
Glo-Kath-Ann for his three daughters. 

     
Adjacent to the sometimes Ranger Dry Cleaners remains the façade 
of the old Columbia Movie Theater, which must have shown its last 
picture show sometime in the very early 50’s. It was later remodeled 
into the law offices of Dewey Cox. 


Before the alley came 
Beck’s Cafe (formerly 
Mrs. Higdon’s), another 
popular eatery with 
high school students. 

Across the street from Beck’s 
was the entrance to Anderson-
Pruitt Chevrolet dealership.  
In later years the Andersons 
must have bought out the 
Pruitt’s share as that name 
was dropped.


Crossing the alley from Anderson-
Pruitt stood the Southland Hotel, 
but the location burns in the 
memory of most residents as that 
of the Tower Movie Theater, whose 
entry was actually through the lobby 
of the hotel.  At one time it was
possible to go to a Saturday matinee 
for kids and buy a bag of popcorn 
for a whole dime! Later it would 
cost fourteen cents as the popcorn 
would go from a penny to a nickel!
This theater as well as the later 
constructed drive-in movie on Ranger 
Hill was owned and operated by Herbert Rapp. 
 
Don’t forget to stop at the unique stop signs, a mere raised metal 
plate in the middle of the brick street. Proceed across Main and 
down North Austin (also the Caddo Highway). We’ve been here before 
with the P & Q Realty Building to the left and the Paramount Hotel 
to the right.  Across the alley on the left was the Ranger Steam 
Laundry, later remodeled and renamed Joy Dry Cleaners. After the 
laundry was a vacant area that may date back to the time of the 
Depression, although a snow cone stand some summers made its 
appearance in that spot. On the corner with Walnut Street is the 
office building for Texas Electric, the utility.


On the left side is a white brick 
building that once was the Post
Office Service Station. Next to it 
is the Ranger Mattress Factory owned 
by the Herwecks and a grocery known 
as Hess’s.


After the alley is the Ranger Clinic, where a number of doctors 
had offices. Sometimes as many as three or four were practicing 
there at a time. Among them were Watkins, Harris, White, and 
Mims. Next door was a smaller but similar looking building 
with the offices of the town’s dentist, Dr. Downtain. 


Across from the clinics were three 
businesses: a feed and seed store 
under the Red Chain franchise once 
managed by Keith McDonald; the Ranger
Locker Plant, which killed and 
processed livestock to custom order; 
and a building on the southeast corner 
remembered only as always vacant. What 
in the 50’s was a feed store during 
the Depression housed a WPA agency 
that provided seamstresses jobs making 
clothes for poor families.  The long 
vacant building on the corner early 
in the war years was a point of mobilization for Company I of the National 
Guard. At the next intersection on the northwest corner of Cherry was a 
convenience sort of store.


The second floor of the long white building on the east side of North 
Austin between the alley and Walnut Street served a very special purpose 
during the Depression. It was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) 
agency named Housekeeping Aid, which taught skills to the unemployed, 
such as bookbinding and home care of the sick as well as cooking, meal 
preparation, and nutrition. Parts of it may also have been apartments. 
On the ground floor on the south end was a bakery belonging to the 
Schooleys, whose daughter Sally Ann provided the brand name for their 
baked bread, cakes, and other goodies. Immediately next to the alley 
was a dry cleaners named Sloan’s. The former Schooley Bakery passed 
into the hands of the Carwiles, who operated it both in its south-end 
location and at the extreme north end of the same building on the 
corner with Walnut. 


A major portion of this building in the 
middle of the block housed Adams
Grocery, a multi-generational 
family-owned store, where it was 
possible to buy groceries on credit 
and to have them delivered. Adams 
had previously been owned and 
operated by the Faircloths. Linda
Forney had a beauty shop north of 
the grocery before she began to 
work exclusively out of her home.

Turn right on Walnut. It’s still the same white building. This part of 
it became the bus terminal and associated café after the Paramount ceased 
to provide space for it. The Lockwood family managed the establishment. 


Across the street, facing Austin, is the yellow brick Ranger Post Office.
Most likely it was built sometime during the Depression as its interior 
walls include a WPA-financed mural depicting work-related scenes. This 
location once was the site of the Ranger Livery, owned and operated by 
J. M. Rice.  End Tour