Memory Lane, Downtown Dalton

December 5, 2008

Ever since Joe and I got engaged, people have been asking us if we have a date set yet! I tell them that no, we’ll probably set a date after our trip to Georgia, when Joe can meet my family and they can meet him and everybody can get to know each other.

I get to visit my hometown just once a year. Twice if I’m lucky. My goal for our recent visit (over Thanksgiving) was to tour Downtown Dalton. Remember when everything happened downtown?

I’ll never forget our back-to-school shopping trips downtown. When my sisters and I were young, Mom would take us downtown to buy clothes and school supplies. Mom didn’t drive, so we’d go in early in the morning with Daddy on his way to work. None of the stores would be open yet, so we’d sip on a coke (or coffee for Mom) at the U.S. Café until 9:00. Then we’d make our journey around the 6 or 8 blocks that made up “downtown.”

There was a time when I knew Downtown Dalton like the back of my hand! The Wink Theater, a one-screen theater and one of only two theaters in town, lit up Crawford Street with its marquee and bright lights. Lee Printing and Office Supply was down by the train track. Cannon’s (upscale) department store stood at the corner of King and Hamilton Streets. Belk’s (family) department store was just a hop across the alley from First National Bank near Gordon Street. And the taxi stand (was it on Cuyler Street?) was just outside Bradford Drugs.

Not anymore. Thirty years have passed, and the Downtown Dalton that I once knew, has died.

I took Joe with me on a stroll down Memory Lane in Downtown Dalton. The old Lee Printing building is now a lunch counter. Cannon’s has become a furniture store. The Wink Theater is a church.

And what happened to the old Belk building? Oh, how I remember Belk’s. I remember the glass display cases out front with the mannequins modeling the latest fashions. I remember that downstairs was the boys’ section, so we always trotted directly upstairs to the girls’ section. Belk had hardwood floors, and a sturdy hardwood staircase. They had a basement with all the china and home accessories. It was a nice building, but now has been remodeled as an annex to Wachovia Bank.

And the taxi stand? The cab drivers that took Mom and us girls home after a day of shopping were old then. I’m sure they’ve long since passed away now.

Joe and I happened across an indoor mall-type place called Peacock Alley. Highway 41 through Tunnel Hill and Dalton was once known as Peacock Alley, so named for the many chenille bedspreads that were sold along the road. In fact, the carpet business has its roots in handmade chenille bedspreads.

Anyway, this place was like a museum of Dalton in its earlier years. Chenille bedspreads sporting brightly-colored peacocks decorated the walls. Inside were various shops including an antique shop and what was supposed to be a tea room. In fact that’s why we stopped by in the first place -- we were all hungry and needed a late lunch, so we were going to try out the tea room.

I never saw a tea room, or any kind of lunch counter, but Joe and I did check the place out. Various vintage pictures and newspaper clippings featuring the old Dalton were posted periodically on the walls. I didn’t at first remember what the building used to be, until I saw a picture of Fraker Hardware in 1940 on the wall. Fraker Hardware! That was it! Not that I exactly have fond memories of shopping at Fraker Hardware as a child, but for some reason just remembering that it was there brought back the days when the privately-owned, “mom & pop” stores, were the pillars of a town’s economy.

Walnut Square Mall opened in 1981, and that’s when Downtown Dalton met its demise. The Mall
became THE place to be. Belk moved to the Mall. New stores and shops that I’d never even heard of, opened up at the Mall, and the downtown stores and shops I’d known all my life, were no more. Even a new movie theater, the Martin Triple, opened up, replacing the one-screen Wink Theater downtown. The place had a McDonald’s, a Bresler’s Ice Cream, and an Orange Julius. No more trips to the U.S. Café for us!

Before the days of the malls, Wal Mart or Target Supercenters, Lowes or Home Depot, Best Buy, or even Starbucks, business HAPPENED downtown. LIFE happened downtown. But those days are over now. They exist only in our past, on a place called Memory Lane.