St. Patrick's Day in Decatur

Next Stop Decatur, a great local blog with an emphasis on the historical aspects of our town, featured this great photo yesterday of a St. Patrick's Day parade from apparently 1946.  The photographer was standing more or less in front of what is now Eurasia and facing toward the west.  The parade is heading east on Ponce away from Clairemont Avenue and toward Church Street.

Photo courtesy of the DeKalb Historical Society

What a fantastic photograph!  The Pythagoras Masonic Temple Building is on the far left.  To the right of that is the Watkins Building, currently home to Wild Oats & Billy Goats, Collage, and Parker's on Ponce.  The remainder of the structures -- those housing F.W. Woolworth, DeKalb Theater, and Western Auto Store -- are gone.  Next to Western Auto would have been the Candler Hotel.

Week-End at the Waldorf, staring Lana Turner and Van Johnson, was showing at the theater.  Dave Kell, at his also great inDecatur blog (and SinDecatur), stated that he believes that the theater stopped operations in the 1950s and was converted into a J.C. Penny store.