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Monday, August 29, 1983
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Greene County Arkansas
Paragould, Arkansas
Centennial Edition Section 3
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Monday, August 29, 1983
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Time stoppers |
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McHaney Studio left a lasting legacy |
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A parade of pictures that capture time and captivate us |
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From the 1920 city directory, courtesy Zula Loften and Mary Colley |
Photo courtesy Neva Hammond |
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| McHaney's Studio, located at the corner of "Pruitt and Depot" streets (now Pruett and Highland) was a small, shotgun-style brick building according to those who saw it in its hayday. It opened for business January 1, 1900, the start of a new century, and closed sometime during the 1930s. The building included the photographer's studio, camera supply store and his living quarters. As the sign notes, the business was originally called Paragould Portrait and View Co. but later went by McHaney's Studio and McHaney Camera Supply Co., all under the same ownership. The tilted skylight which allowed the photographer to take indoor pictures can be seen clearly in the above drawing. In the photograph directly below and, behind a small tree, in the bottom photograph | Tom McHaney must have climbed to the top of a Court Street home to get this 1906 picture of Paragould covered with a fresh blanket of snow. The rider pausing at the intersection of Court and Seventh streets lends a lonesome presence to the otherwise vacant scene. West Side school, which burned a decade later, dominates the foreground while the courthouse clocktower, the steeple of First Methodist Church and smoke rising from the mills puncture the skyline. East of the railroad tracks Court Street becomes a country lane, leading through woods and pastures that have long since made way for homes and businesses. This delightful panorama is just one of the many glimpses of Paragould's past supplied to us by the camera's lens of J. Thomas McHaney's studio |
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top Photo courtesy Dr. C. W. Starnes |
top Photo courtesy Mrs. Homer Bazzell |
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bottom Photo courtesy Arthur Dawson |
bottom Photo courtesy Webb Green |
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| Tom McHaney had a front-row seat for the goings and comings along Pruett Street during a vital time in Paragould's past, and his photographs allow us to share that first-hand view of history. His studio building can be seen in each of the four pictures above. A crew from City Plumbing Co. poses at the side of McHaney's Studio, the delivery wagon loaded with the latest in home fixtures. | In 1909, Arthur and Clarence Dawson, their father W. H. Dawson and Robert Cottner pause for a pose on their way to the Bertig gin with a wagonload of cotton. In 1911, the Bazzell family wagon train, on its way from Kentucky to Texas, stopped long enough for a picture. Bill McDonald, Henry Wood and John Grayson pose in their ox-drawn buggy directly in front of the studio |
Transcribed from the 1983 Centennial Edition by : PR Massey
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