Fred Lynch retired in 2018 after capturing images for the Southeast Missourian since 1975, in that time moving from black-and-white to color, from film to digital and to video. The blog title is a nod to an earlier era of news photography and the 4x5 Speed Graphic: It's more important to be there for the shot than to worry about technical details.

Fountain Street parking 1940s

Posted Monday, May 16, 2016, at 12:00 AM

The automobiles are parked on Fountain street between the Hotel IdanHa, at left, and the old post office or federal building on the right. Behind the post office is the Marquette Hotel. Byron's gift shop is located on the ground floor at the corner of Broadway and Fountain. A closeup of the photo, below, shows the awning of the store. (G.D. Fronabarger photo)

The sign on the hotel lists room rates of $1.25, $1.50 and $2.

Across from the hotel is the Himmelberger-Harrison building. The clock which is visible at the corner of the building was installed in 1939.

Read more about the clock in this previous blog:

Downtown Clock moved to H-H Building

Read about the history of the IdanHa Hotel in this previous blog:

Hotel Idan-Ha

Read about the history of the old post office in this previous blog:

Old Post Office (Federal Building) 1958

Read about the history of the Marquette Hotel in this previous blog:

Hotel Marquette

Dec. 8, 1947 Southeast Missourian

Monogrammed stationery--Many styles and patterns. 89c up. Byron's, Marquette Hotel Bldg.

Dec. 8, 1948 Southeast Missourian

We gift wrap and ship gifts safely, visit our store and browse around. Byron's, Marquette Hotel Bldg.

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Here's a wreck at that intersection somewhere around 1966. Fred Kaempfer, Cape's songwriting policeman was directing traffic around a fender-bender there.

http://www.capecentralhigh.com/cape-photos/fender-bender-at-broadway-and-fountai...

-- Posted by ksteinhoff on Mon, May 16, 2016, at 12:15 AM
It took a lot of skill to parallel park in those days , I don't think there's but a handful of people who could do that today and I sure wouldn't be one of them .

No power steering then , just a whole lot of talent .

-- Posted by Rick Scaggs on Mon, May 16, 2016, at 4:56 AM
What Rick.??? Parallel Parking is not difficult. I learned to do that when I was 16 and now at 79 I can still do it with no great problem....

-- Posted by mo_ky_fellow on Mon, May 16, 2016, at 7:38 PM
I took my driving test in the family's 1959 Buick LaSabre station wagon. It was about nine feet wide and 27 feet long. It had no power steering, no power brakes, no AC, no power seats, and no automatic windows.

It was a hot August day, with temperatures and humidity bumping 100.

I made a perfect score on the written test and didn't cause the inspector to turn pale at any point during the driving portion, so I thought I was OK.

Then, we got to the parking test. I clipped a stanchion during one of my maneuvers, something that usually was an automatic failure.

The inspector looked at me, with sweat poring off my forehead, gauged the size of the station wagon, and said, "Kid, in this car, that's close enough. You pass."

I can still parallel park, but I avoid it whenever possible.

-- Posted by ksteinhoff on Wed, May 18, 2016, at 12:01 PM

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