The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1910-12-04
PENSACOLA HAS MBIBED
NEW SPIRIT OF PROGRESS
BY Walter Harper. in Birmingham Agc-Herald-

"Just whom this metamorphosis be-
gan or Was completed I cannot state.
but that. I assume, is not really ma
terial. l will. therefore, write briefly
from q personal knowledge OF the
changes that have occurred during
a residence of almost 10 years In the
Deep Water City.
Fifteen years ago Pensacola was
almost as dilapidated and as run
down-at-the-heels q looking place iS
you can conceive OF.
she had NO sidewalks to speak OF
and most Of those she had were OF
wood. Her only street paving was ?
short stretch Of brick pavement in
what then composed the business sec
ton Of Palafox street. Her city hall
was an upstairs room Of a dingy brick
building that looked tit for the rem.
devious of Bill Sykes or any other
disreputable character. and some such
were frequently seen there. She had
no sewerage system and no publicly.
owned water system.
Her miniature street cars were
pulled by miniature mules, and some
times the passengers had to get out
and help push the car up hill. Her
streets were not only the worst i'm
sober man had hard work to get home
without breaking his neck. or at least
a leg. There was practically no
street lighting. Even the city GOV
eminent had many of the character
istics of a present-day cold storage
egg. There were no once buildings,
no bank buildings, no modern hotels,
no show windows in the stores. There
was not an improved public square
in the city.
THE Plaza was a garbage dump,
escaped convicts hid in the Seville
Square weeds, and Garden street was
wild jungle. A ditch OH each side
of Palafox street rained down into
a larger ditch on Garden street, and
this ran a raging river or water when
ever a heavy rain fell, and bred mos.
| quitOes from stagnant water when the
dry season came on. I do not remem-
Der any such thing as lawn around
any OF the private residences. but il
any existed in those days. they were
hid by high and unsightly picket
fences. Cattle and horses roamed at
! will through the public thoroughfares
and browsed upon anything that APP
pealed to their taste-and browsing,
1t may be said, was good. There
were two small. 4-page daily papers,
but they had no Geographic service
and their other services to the CON-
munity would not have got either one
Of them a Carnegie hero medal.
"All this was Is years ago. Much
| OF 1t might have been truthfully said
| five years ago.
But today the scene has shifted;
the curtain has gone up on a trans.
! figuration, and the high lights and
the low lights, with calcium In the
wings, reveal the most beautiful, pic
turesque and progressive seaport city
In all the southland
I'VE have II miles Of paved streets
with ten miles more to be paved
within six months. We have con.
structed. and in progress of construc-
ton, more miles Of cement sidewalk
than any other city of the same popu
lation In the south. We have g. mod.
ern street car system and lighting
system. a municipalowned water. sys.
tenn. 40 miles of sanitary sewer. IT,
We have a handsome city hall,
our public squares and parkways are
beautiful, with well-kept lawns, trees
and semitrophic foliage, and the fen.
ces around the private residences
have come down, revealing the work
Of the landscape artist which nowhere
shows to better effect than in this
perennial summer land of the mock
Ing bird, the rose bush and the honey.
suckle.
I'VE have beautiful bank and ONCE
buildings. the finest hotel ON the gulf
coast, and chuch edifices and Y. M.
Z. A. that are the pride of all alike
Our stores are modern and in every
respect to the other progressive in.
situations of the city and neither ever
loses an opportunity to say a good
word for a. community that is deserv-
ing OF anything good which can be
said Of it
But better than all of this, we have
today wholesale civic pride and a
progressive public sentiment that
speaks more for the future Of the Deep
Water City than all of her other pos
sessions. Pensacola is awake-no mat.
ter how or when she awoke. She is
now awake as she never was before
and as few cities seldom are, and she
offers to industry and enterprise and