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Historical Ada

An Ada scene familiar to your great-grandparents

Posted by Fred Steiner on Monday, August 3, 2020

If you look closely you might be able to idenfiy the exact location of this photo. It's looking south on Ada's Main Street in a colorized post card from the beginning of an earlier century.

A couple thing to consider:
• Look at all those trees – they are somewhat mature, meaning that there was probably a planned planting 25 years earlier.

• We aren't able to determine if the street is paved or dirt. If paved, it is red bricks and would help identify a year.

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Let's have lunch at City Restaurant

Posted by Fred Steiner on Monday, July 27, 2020

Ada has a long history of Main Street restaurants. Here's one of those, and we invite Icon viewers to offer additional information.

Here is the inside of the City Restaurant on North Main Street, Ada. The photo is from the collection of the Ada Public Library. We lack a year, owner and address of this one-time Ada eating establishment.

Looks like a small scale on the front counter. Could that be for weighing candy that's in the showcases? The electric light fixtures can probably be dated to the 1920s. 

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Your grandparents watched movies here

Posted by Fred Steiner on Monday, July 20, 2020

When was the last time you watched a movie at the Odeon Theatre in Ada? It's probably been a very long time ago. Although was still open in 1950, we aren't certain of its closing date.

This movie theatre, located at 222 N. Main St., Ada, opened in 1914, as the town's first theatre. The first show was "The Girl at the Curtain."

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Liberty Bank in Ada at the turn of an early century

Posted by Fred Steiner on Monday, July 13, 2020

Here's a photo of Liberty Bank of Ada. The photo was taken sometime after 1902. It eventually merged with First National Bank and became Liberty National Bank. Here's a brief account of the two banks.

Liberty National Bank has a long Ada history. A new bank was organized and opened for business in Ada on Oct. 3, 1893. It was first chartered and organized as a state bank under Ohio laws and was known as the Ada Savings Bank.

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Once upon a time on Ada's Main Street

Posted by Fred Steiner on Monday, July 6, 2020

Here's one of those "once upon a time on Ada's Main Street photos." Wouldn't you like to walk into this store and just see the products available.

We welcome viewer comments on this early Ada drug store storefront photo. Two names are written in hard-to-read handwriting near the bottom of the photo. The left side reads "Ben Conner." The right side reads ---eyman Conner.

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Lowry's Grocery, sometime after 1912

Posted by Fred Steiner on Monday, June 29, 2020

You could find everything you want at Lowry's Grocery, 225 N. Main St., Ada, in this post card photo taken sometime after 1912. Count the stars on the U.S. flag at the rear of the store. It has 48 stars with Arizona being the 48th state that year.

Designed for shoppers to hand their grocery list to the clerk behind the counter, we see apples in a basket, cans stacked on the upper shelves and what appear to be boxes of cigars near the front entrance.

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