Updates on Last Week's Posts

I posted some photos and an article on White's Cafe last week.  Here is the only photo I have of him.  (I don't have one of his wife Mildred, who was also closely involved with their cafe.)  The annotation indicates it was taken in October 1953.
 

 
I also posted a video of a dummy hand grenade George 'B. I.' Webb donated to the Sugar Land Museum.  During our conversation about the grenade he told me about Sugar Land's air observation shack staffed by volunteers during WW II.  (My mother has told me there was a similar group out at the Humble Camp.)  I always thought it was in roughly the same location as the small city park behind the Shell service station on Bayview, but I was wrong.  It was on the west bank of Oyster Creek along Venice Street, as indicated in the photo below.
 

 
The Matlage family has provided me with a scan of the patch worn by volunteer observers, like Mrs. Matlage, my grandmother (Vic Kelly), B. I. Webb, and many others.
  

  

And finally, the newspaper article that quoted J. B. Fowler about old times in Sugar Land mentioned an acid plant.  It was located on the east side of Main Street roughly opposite the old Power Plant (the beige, two-story building that's still standing).  Here's a photo of the plant, which was torn down sometime in the '20s or early '30s.
 

  
I've learned that the plant was a joint venture that Sugarland Industries launched with Jones Brothers & Company, an Arkansas-based manufacturer.  The venture ended in an acrimonious law suit.   I hope to learn more about it in the future.