East Hill Shopping Then & Now

article by BOB MOULTON

Thirteenth and Gadsden Street was an early shopping area. You may know this area because the original East Hill Baptist Church was located opposite the drug store and the Piggly Wiggly Grocery Store in the nineteen twenties and thirties. The drug store had a soda fountain and curb service. Also at this intersection was the Strand Movie Theatre, which was rather large for its time.

In 1947, the old wooden portion of NB Cook was being replaced by a brick building. This is now the location of Publix on East Cervantes. The second grade classroom was moved to the basement of East Hill Baptist. We had our lunch in an open lot across from the side of the church. A hurricane came that September, and while we tried to have lunch our paper plates were blown away.

This area fell into reduced patronage because the bridge over Bayou Texar was moved to Cervantes Street. A new retail area was built by the old Sacred Heart Hospital at 12th and Gonzalez. The Strand Movie Theatre was torn down in the mid-forties, and the drug store and grocery were demolished in the last several years. East Hill Baptist moved to Spanish Trail. The old East Hill Baptist is now City Community Church.

In the thirties, a new shopping area was develop at 12th and Gonzales, opposite the east side of the old Sacred Heart Hospital. There was an apothecary, named P & S (physicians and surgeon), and a sundry shop with a soda fountain called Wagg’s. A post office branch was available as was an Empire Laundry branch, and a barbershop, (Johnson’s) and beauty shop. The big store was Friendly Service Grocery. There were other small shops too.

In the first half of the fifties, Winn Dixie opened their first store in Pensacola called Kwick Check, which faced Gonzalez Street. Across from the front of Sacred Heart Hospital facing 12th Avenue was a collection of stores, including a restaurant, flower shop, dress shop, and Frank Hardy Photo Studios. These all existed until a gas explosion took them out.

By 2000 this area was converted to office space. Activity was moving north to Highland Terrace and Eastgate and now to Nine Mile Road. But what we’ve since then is a resurgence in the East Hill shopping scene. Local owners and families that span the generations now offer everything from groceries to power equipment, and I don’t see them leaving any time soon. As Donna Dickey so perfectly put it, “The Shop Local movement is hardly a trend – it’s a shift in lifestyle that more and more people are embracing.”

I’m thrilled to see businesses moving back into our neighborhood because they see the value to invest in this community. Let’s continue to support local so our children and grandchildren can reminisce just as I’ve had the pleasure to do.