City - Phoenix AZ - Pop Culture 1940 Postcard

Colorized photo from 1940 May Original title: High school students crossing the street Photographer: Russell Lee Location 714 E Van Buren St, Phoenix, Arizona You can tell that pop culture is alive and well in this area. Just look at it all, almost makes you thirsty looking at it. Certainly not an area for sensory depredation. The cafe on the right is called the Nifty Nook, a small time eatery that's open all night. They specialize in soda, malts and hamburgers, featuring Vita-Buns, whatever that is. The building on the right is the Monroe Elementary school, but the street we are on, doesn't exist now, I believe they turned it into a driveway for that building. In fact all these buildings but the school are gone today. The school itself was built in 1913 but then closed in 1972. The city turned it into a children's museum, and that's what it is today, even though its marked with the same Monroe School title on the front. This area is the parking lot for that building. There is a university directly behind us, so maybe that's why that cafe was open all night. A fun fact, you may have noticed that the centre line is white. They didn't create yellow lines till 1950, everything was white in the past.