History on the Walls

James and Mandy Tinker, owners of Black River Beads and Pottery here in Pocahontas, recently bought an old store building just around the corner from the Lesmeister Guesthouse, and today they mounted four large photos on the east wall of their building. The wall used to be shared with “The Old Opera House”, the 3-story building that occupied the corner of Pyburn and Marr Streets for the hundred years before the city sadly tore the opera house down a few years ago to “put up a parking lot”.

The photos, below, are in permanent ink on vinyl, just like our local quilt trail, and should last many years before needing replacement. See the caption below the photo for information on what the four photos show.

From left, the first photo shows the old opera house that used to stand where you now see a parking lot in the lower portion of the image. The next photo is an aerial view of downtown Pocahontas, taken from a hot air balloon about 1920. The next photo shows the old Pocahontas train depot as it appeared in the 1960’s. The final photo, circa 1910, shows the Joe Schmidt brick factory in Pocahontas. The factory made all the brick used in Pocahontas a hundred years ago. All of these photos were originally in black and white, but Mandy Tinker’s parents, James and Cindy Throgmorton, colorized them in their local Camera Corner studio.

One Reply to “History on the Walls”

Joyce McFall Castleberry

November 12, 2012 at 9:11 pm

Almost every time we would drive down Pyburn Street with my dad he point out where Schmidt’s brick kiln stood, which was on the opposite side of the street from the cemetery. Is that correct? Is it still there?
xoxo J

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One Reply to “History on the Walls”

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