Klamath Heritage: Honoring our Military

 

Klamath County Museum Photo of the Week, May 26, 2019 - Honoring our Military.

Klamath County Museum's Photo of the Week for May 26, 2019, shows a military color guard leading a parade on Main Street in Klamath Falls in this undated photo. The vintage automobiles, the large number of men in uniform, and the two soldiers depicted in the Wonder Bread advertisement on the billboard, suggest the photo was probably taken not long after the U.S. entered World War II.

It appears the photographer was shooting from the window of an upper floor in the Willard Hotel at the corner of Second and Main streets. The J.W. Copeland lumber yard, at 66 Main St., can be seen in the background. The company’s logo featured a black cat on a round sign.

Next door to Copeland was Vic Hanegan’s Signal service station. In the foreground of the photo, a portion of Gus Anderson’s Shell station is visible. Anderson’s station had been built on the site of the Houston Hotel, which had been destroyed in a deadly fire in 1920.

There were numerous gas stations in the downtown area in 1940, including four at the west end of Main Street alone.

Stacks of drying lumber at Ackley Lumber Co. can be seen at upper left, on a parcel that makes up part of Veterans Park today. Several buildings that stood on the south side of Main Street since the early 1900s can been seen in this photo, though many were vacant by 1940, and were soon to be razed to make way for Veterans Park.

A billboard on the south side of Main Street advertises the Brown Derby brand of Pilsner beer. Brown Derby was the Safeway store brand of beer.

Press release provided from the Klamath County Museum.