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- Details, Details
- What's that building to the left of the tower?
- Coal Barges
- Bromo-Seltzer
- Inner harbor
- The Basin
- What a headache!
- Giant stepladder?
- Baldwin 62303
- Baldwin VO-1000
- Cold
- No expense spared
- Tough Guys
- Lost in Toyland
- And without gloves
- If I were a blindfolded time traveler
- Smoke Consumer Also Cooks
- Oh that stove!
- Possibly still there?
- What?!?
- $100 Reward
- Freeze Frame
- Texas Flyer wanted
- Just a Year Too Soon
- WWII -- Replacing men with women at the railroad crossing.
- Yes, Icing
- You kids drive me nuts!
- NOT An Easy Job
- I wonder
- Just add window boxes
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Cothouse: 1942
November 1942. "Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Cot house." The California Dormitory, offering not just "clean cots," but checkers and dominoes. Acetate negative by John Vachon. View full size.
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Cots were 10 cents, clean cots were 15.
New Orleans Cots
In about 1960 I stayed at a Cot Dormitory for a few cold nights. The price was either 25 or 50 cents a night, I forget. You raised the head of your bed up and put your shoes under the bedpost so they wouldn't be stolen.
I hitchhiked through 37 states in that period, met a lot of good people.
2 in '42?
BTW the Cincinnati Enquirer described "2 in '42" as a "mystery symbol." I guess it was a very good mystery, since no one today seems sure about what it meant. I've scouted around a bit, and it may have meant that people should buy two war bonds during the then-current year, 1942.
[Two days' pay. - Dave]
The California Dormitory
was a style -- huge but cheap to build -- that came into being in the 1930s during New Deal employment programs. In the Adventures of Superman episode "The Ghost Wolf," Clark, Lois and Jimmy spend the night in one of these dorms. The place is so enormous that Lois doesn't think twice about staying in one end while her two colleagues spend the night in the other.
Spelling (sigh)
"Shower Bath Privilegs" - we signpainters have a proud tradition of phonetic spelling. The workmanship is quite impressive - even some flourishing around "Free" // I wonder if this was for wartime workers needing a place, or if 'Cot House' was just a standard system during the Depression?
The 15-cent Cot
My best guess is that they gave you a second mattress to lay over the first. I don't think a cot mattress was more than an inch thick.
BTW the sign in the window refers to E.H. Moore, who was running for Senate. He won, but his health failed him and he did not run for re-election. He died in 1950.
“California” Dormitory
It wasn’t named for the State, but rather after its location - 308 W. California Street in OKC. That part of the street no longer exists.
“California” was also the name of that specific style of dorm construction in vogue when built. I don’t know what that was/is.
Heads Carolina, Tails California
I wonder how the owners/proprietors of the Largest and Most Modern Cot House in the Southwest settled upon the name "California Dormitory" as opposed to some other state dormitory? And I'd like to see the signage on nearby culinary establishments where the denizens of the Cot House got their three hots.
Snoring
It may be a good 80 years ago and 5500 miles away, but I can still hear the snoring .
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I wonder what extras you got for 15 cents versus the base price of a dime. A blanket? Larger size?
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