Published: May 13, 2008 01:42 am            

More than just a parking lot

Estate sale photos document Levine’s Department Store in Cleburne

A building that has been razed and leaves behind a vacant lot is much like a pulled tooth. It’s difficult not to notice the gap.

The Johnson County employees parking lot on East Chambers Street has a history, and a few estate sale photographs may help bring it back to life.

In the early days of Cleburne members of the Masonic Lodge of Cleburne at 100-106 East Chambers built a handsome brick structure. A photograph, taken sometime before 1905, by J. A. Davis, one of the leading photographic artists in Central Texas, shows an elongated front canopy existed that was later removed.

By the 1930s Burr’s Department Store did a lively business on the ground level while the Masons met upstairs. Some assumed the Burr’s had built the building.

But many other businesses were there before Burr’s.

Dr. T. Lindsay Baker researched the courthouse square of early Cleburne and wrote “A Stroll Through Christmas Shopping Past: The Courthouse Square of Cleburne, Texas,” in 1966, on file at the Layland Museum.

Baker wrote of the 100-106 East Chamber Street location: “The building at this location was built by members of the Masonic Lodge of Cleburne, the organization renting the ground-level commercial space to a number of different tenants over the years.

“Upstairs the Masons held their meetings, with access via a side door and back stairway. The lower level was divided into separate commercial areas with partition walls, which set up and came down according to the needs of tenants.

“Among the places of business known to have operated here were for many years: drug stores, a confectionery shop, a millinery shop, a music shop with pianos, barber shops, a restaurant, clothing stores, and even the Cosy Corner motion picture theater.

“During the 1930s and 1940s the entire space was occupied by Burr’s Department Store, one of the largest of all the Cleburne clothing and dry goods stores.”

During World War II, all stores in Cleburne showed their patriotism, Baker wrote.

“Burr’s was particularly prominent in its support of the war effort. On one occasion, for example, the store solicited from Cleburnites photographs of their family members in the military service of their country, filling its store windows with the framed pictures of local sons and daughters in uniform.”

Baker found that Burr’s employees would even process the paperwork for war bonds.



Levine’s Department Store

So many customers came to the Levine’s Department Store that followed, in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, that the doors had to be temporarily locked during sales, leaving others standing on the street, awaiting their turn, recalled the manager’s daughter, Carolyn Browder Brawner.

My curiosity about the place was triggered by an estate sale a few years ago.

I found some Levine’s Department Store photographs taken by Jim West in 1966 and 1967. I had written “Nell Potts,” perhaps it was her estate sale, on the outside of the envelope and filed it away for future reference.

I discovered today I paid $2 for vivid memories that proved to be a springboard to local history.

Someone had recorded the names of the employees on the backs of the photos — apparently for the use of the Cleburne Times-Review. Accompanying them were yellowed news clippings from the business and industrial news of the time.

I learned that George Orville Browder was the store manager at Levine’s during that time. He was named Levine’s Manager of the Year at a managers’ meeting in Dallas at the Statler-Hilton Hotel in 1967. The news article stated he won the award in competition with more than 100 other store managers.

The Cleburne store was also named “The Best Store Operation” in the Levine’s chain. This was the second time the local store had received this award since Browder was named its manager in 1955, the year the store opened.

The late George Browder’s daughter, Carolyn Brawner, said her father had managed Burr’s Department Stores in Oklahoma and Arkansas before the family moved here in 1950.

She said, “I helped out in the store. Sometimes we would have so many people in the store that we would have to lock the doors until shoppers finished their purchases, then we would let some more in. We stayed open until 9 or 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

“We had boxes underneath the counter where we tossed the money. We ratted around to find change. Without having to open the cash register every time, it was faster. We stabbed the paper tickets on a spindle. Everything had to balance out at the end of the day.

“Every purchase was written up by a salesperson on tickets with a carbon copy, and customers would ask for certain people by name to help them. They had books for that purpose.”

Salespersons reportedly worked on commission plus an hourly wage.

Several ex-employees recalled that Levine’s was affiliated with Zale’s. One has a $1,000 life insurance policy for Zale’s employees.

Cleburne was celebrating its centennial celebration in 1967. Things were in high gear then. Before the days of the huge discount stores, Levine’s in Cleburne advertised its greater volume and smaller profits.

Browder told the Times-Review, “There’s no question as to whether this policy attracts shoppers to our store. People still love to get real bargains and they come here because they know they get full value for their money on every purchase.”

The reporter visited the store and found the aisles “filled with shoppers, busily buying back-to-school clothing and home furnishings.”

Browder said Levine’s had 110 stores in its chain and would soon merge with a larger company, making 525 stores. He explained that the Cleburne’s stock of shoes was “backed up by a million dollar stock of shoes at our Dallas headquarters.” (Levine’s has several stores in the Metroplex today.)

Layaway was at an all-time peak, he said.

Lois Howard of Cleburne worked at Levine’s from 1962 until 1966 as bookkeeper and cashier.

She recalled the intricate paper records that were required before the days of the computer.

“We had huge Wednesday sales with a preview the night before. My office was upstairs. There was a mezzanine level and a stairway up beyond that where the layaways were stored.

“It cost 50 cents extra to put something in layaway. The bottom of the sales ticket was kept down at the cash register in a box. The purchase was wrapped up with the ticket on top and stored upstairs. Every time a customer paid, the balance was refigured on the stub downstairs. People were always excited when they made their last payment and the item could be taken home.”

On Friday afternoons, Lois recalled, Browder had extra money on hand to cash payroll checks for employees from local businesses. They usually spent some of it in the store.

Verona Mullen, who worked at Levine’s from 1967 until 1970, remembers the long lines of customers waiting for the doors to open for sales.

“The prices were so good — 25 and 50 cents for towels. I ran the manual cash register. My elbow would hurt at the end of the day after pulling that handle down for every entry.”

She was intrigued by the relics found upstairs in the old Masonic Hall.

“There weren’t many of them, but you could see where the chairs had been, with the directions at the corners.”

Levine’s closed about 1980 and was followed by a discount store for a short period of time, some ex-employees recall. Johnson County had an annex in the building until it burned.

Some recall that the fire occurred near the same time the Hill County Court House burned, in 1993.

The building was razed and the lot paved for county employee parking in 1996.



Classified ads reflect

economy

The yellowed news clippings saved with the Levine’s photographs also reflected the economics of 1966-67 Cleburne.

Carpooling was popular then. Dennis R. Lucus needed a ride to Convair for the 8 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. shift. You could rent a four-room house with hardwood floor at 704 Graham for $35 a month. Isom Finley advertised a three-bedroom home with four lots in the west part of town on a paved street with “built-ins” and a double garage for sale for $6,000.

And for $3.50 you could have a “pushup” permanent at the Puff Box Beauty Shop.

How about a Ford Galaxie 500, two-door hardtop for $2,397 at Cleburne Ford? Or maybe a ’62 Dodge truck pickup, extra clean for $695 from Bill Johnson Motor Company at Main and Third?

You could buy a house with four rooms and a bath and garage on a large, shady lot, from J. Ed Persons for $2,675.

But please don’t ring his residence.

Your freezer could be filled with choice beef for 49 cents a pound at York’s Food Market, 504 North Granbury Street. The seamstress might consider a brand new 1966 Singer Zig-zag that makes buttonholes, sews on buttons and creates blind-stitch hems for $5 monthly payments.

Employees interviewed from Levine’s reported making $1.25 to $1.40 an hour.

Blank counter checks were available for customers. They could simply fill in the name of their bank.



Estate sales are personal

As I folded the news clippings and refiled the photographs, I thought again about estate sales and what they leave behind.

I am reminded of a true story about one in a nearby Johnson County town. An out-of-towner bought an envelope of personal notes found among the belongings of a person she did not know.

Later, she called her friend and asked, “Did that lady teach high school English?”

“Yes,” the local native said. “How did you know?”

“Because inside that envelope were all these thank-you letters written by her ex-students, expressing appreciation for what she had taught them.”

“That was nice,” her friend replied.

“Right,” she answered, and then added her punch line, “She’d circled all their errors in red.”

Estate sales. Reflections of the past and its people.



Larue Barnes can be reached at laruebarnes@yahoo.com.

        

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