My pal Carter Evans recently posted this fine old photograph of the John Deere Tractor Company, when it was located on South Front Street. I especially like the old-timey lettering of the signs, and if you look closely, you can see they have rigged up a special trailer to carry a brand-new tractor to a happy farmer in this region.
The company offered “everything for the farm” including farm and power implements, and even had a separate division for plows. Look really closely, and you can see the truck out front was for the Success Laundry, located downtown on Jefferson.
I could go on and on about the history of the John Deere company and the building you see here, but I don’t feel like it. What I wanted to show you was a then-and-now look at this same location. Can’t you be satisfied with that?
As you can see, the corner of Front and Gayoso is now part of the gleaming new AutoZone headquarters downtown. I guess it’s appropriate that this block of Front has been home to two different businesses relating to transportation over the years (and in the intervening time, it brought shoppers to Goldsmith’s.
Thanks, Carter, for posting the picture. And thanks, Google, for the use of your StreetView.
