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A couple of months ago Friend of Unfair Park PeterK espied on eBay a March 27, 1945, snapshot of sailors and their dates taken at Frank Nick’s The Nite Spot, which once stood at the intersection of Commerce and Browder Streets. This morning I found what might as well be its companion: a picture, taken around the same time, from the old Plantation — which shouldn’t be confused with the Old Plantation that stood on Cedar Springs in the ’70s and ’80s.
My dad, a lifelong Dallasite born here in ’44, says the name vaguely rings a bell, but I’m having little luck in tracking down much info on the joint — and I’ve been unable to reach the downtown library’s Texas/Dallas History & Archives Division for the past two days (lines were out all day Wednesday). Given the logo, I’ll assume there was dancing; from the looks of the table, drinking too.
Update: A very good Friend of Unfair Park just sent our way a newspaper clipping from the late 1930s in which the Plantation gets quite the kudos. It follows, but, says our pal Bob: The Plantation “opened about 1933 on the ‘outskirts of town’ on Greenville.”