Business Opportunities in old-time Phoenix, Arizona


It's 1915, and I'm looking at the paper for business opportunities. They're on the want ads page, under "Business Chances". I'm not so sure that I like that word, chances, but I guess it's really true. In the 21st Century advertising wouldn't be quite so honest, and maybe use the word "opportunities". But like an uncle of mine always said, "You pays your money, and you takes your chances!"


Let's see, looks like I could invest in a Confectionary. I guess that means a candy store. I don't know anything about candy, except how to eat it, so I'll pass on that one.


OK, now, it looks like $1,500 cash will get you 20 acres on the street car line. Who in the world has $1,500 cash? Even in the 21st Century that would be a lot of money to just have sitting around. Still, 20 acres for that would be a good price. In the future you'd probably be able to double your money, if they built houses there.


There's a boarding house for rent way over in Tempe, at 8th Street and Mill. I wouldn't know the first thing about running a boarding house, and besides Tempe is too far away for me, anyway, so I'll pass.


I suppose I could run a barber shop way at the end of the Indian car line. That would be near the Indian School, and in my opinion that would be way too far away from Phoenix to get much business. Maybe someday people will live that far away. I understand that they're already building houses on Thomas Road, though! Who would want to live so far out in the country?


That restaurant in the mining camp looks like a good opportunity. I'll ask the wife, but I can't imagine that she'd like it.


OK, nothing here. What would I want with seven rooms? Another boarding house, and a corral. Not for me...


Now this is more like it! I've always wanted to be in the moving pictures business. Looks like it's a big money maker, and all I have to do is to handle the money end of the business! That's for me!
If you liked this article, and would like to see more, please consider becoming a patron of History Adventuring on Patreon. If you're already a patron, thank you! You make this happen!

 Click here to become a Patron!
History adventuring posts are shared there daily. The basic tier is a dollar a month, and the PhD tier, which includes "then and now" photos, billboards, aerials, videos, and super high-definition photos, is five dollars a month, and is discounted for seniors, veterans, and students.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the
Read more