Abbotts Dairies in South Philadelphia stopped using horses to pull milk trucks in 1961. Rubber horseshoes and pneumatic tires were used due to the early hours of operation ... In the fall of 1964 when I started at St. Thomas More High School in West Philadelphia, there was still a livery stable across 47th Street where grocery hucksters etc. could rent a horse and wagon. They had metal tires on the wheels.

The Meadow Gold Dairy used horses to deliver milk to homes in Topeka, Kansas well into the 1950s. I don't remember the details, but they had to switch to trucks after a fire. The horses knew what they were doing and knew when to stop to allow the driver to take milk, etc., up to customers' doors. As a child I lived about two miles from the Meadow Gold plant. We could hear a steam whistle they blew every day at noon.

Kind of hoping for the best with those cases on the tailgate of the wagon.
Also, is that one nag or two? Look closely. An intriguing photo.

[Dos Equines. - Dave]

This is a "real life" dray horse, not a marketing gimmick.

[Two drays! - Dave]

I like the long shadows in John Vachon's shot, indicating this is an early morning delivery. But is it coincidence that the horse's horses' shadow provides a dark canvas where most of the word Center is reflected off the glass and displayed between the horse's horses' legs?

I was born in 1940 in suburban St. Louis. I remember during the war, horse wagons making deliveries for Pevely Dairy to our house. There was a big facility in Webster Grove where they were kept.

One of the more spirited ongoing debates here on Shorpy centers on the question "when did horse drawn vehicles disappear from the streets?" The 1920's and '30s are popular choices - smart money has learned to opine "not yet" - but here we seem to have proof positive that - in Charlotte, at least - the proper answer is "no earlier than 1943." But is this pic what it appears? Might this be an example of Anheuser-Busch's promotional tactics (see below)

Perhaps; but a number of observations suggest it is not (1) I'm not sure these are the trademark Clydesdales (tho my horse sense, figurative and literal, is limited) (2) whatever breed, the telltale docking of tails is absent (3) there's a phone number on the wagon, which is a bit of localization that seems out of place on a promotional tour. All these doubts! Maybe it's just best to pull up and have a beer.