Friday, September 07, 2018

The entire city block that was once owned by the Bakers is bordered by North Foster, Powell, North St. Andrews and Newton. During the 1920s, the upper part of the block on North Foster was owned by Mrs. E.L. [Maggie Baker] Dowling. It was later the location of Lex Dowling Oldsmobile.  504 N. Foster was owned by Mrs. Miles [Ghastie Baker] Miller. 502 N. Foster was owned by Mrs. Fred [Vera Baker] Lane and 500 N. Foster was owned by Mrs. F.M. [Willie Baker] Waters. These three houses are the models for the "gift houses" mentioned in DEVIL MAKE A THIRD which caused Jeanie Bannon to say jokingly to Buck, "Son, if just one of them acts like she don't like her gift house, we'll cut her throat with a salty meat knife." It would be nice to see pictures of these houses to see if their walkways were indeed constructed in the same manner as Dothan's city sidewalks. ~ from page 262 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD: "He looked critically at the small white house set neatly in the angle of the corner lot on which they had planted the shrub, then his eyes wandered back and forth to the the other two corners where houses exactly like the nearest centered corner lots that were each one-fourth of the block. He could see Jeanie Bannon's home-the first house he'd ever built- still reared two stories above the fourth corner and in his mind's eye he could see the barn and the meat house and the chicken runs and the cow lot all sprawling back to the strict edge of the parcel of land that went with the house behind her. His eyes squinted along the precise white shine of smooth sidewalk that bordered the block. He frowned at the roots of the sycamores growing between the sidewalk and curb, where already big roots had pried up slabs at the foot of each tree. He followed with satisfaction, though, the same type of slabs formed wide walkways leading up to the four green steps of each house. His upper lip curled a little as he thought about those walkways, and he hoped nobody would notice that they were made out the same stuff and laid just exactly like those the city had used for sidewalk. He leaned  over suddenly and spat for luck at the trunk of the small shrub as his mother pushed back, sighing." (clipping from the November 2, 1922 DOTHAN EAGLE)

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