Meet W.A. Jones. Modesto’s early mover and shaker.
Ever walked past an old building and wondered when it was built and who built it? As an owner of the newly named Murray and Jones, Est. 1913 building at 929 J. Street in Downtown Modesto, I was very curious about its history. What I learned was quite amazing.
Ok to set the meter … 1913
Finding “old things” is like finding an invitation to the past. Recently, I found something in the Murray and Jones Building, Est. 1913 that brought me back to when it was constructed.
Who was in the Murray and Jones building in the ‘20s.
While many today think a “phone book” is really Google, it wasn’t always that way. If you wanted to call someone in 1913, you picked up the phone book, found their name or business and called them. Check out this phone book from the early days of Modesto.
What 10th & J. St. looked like from 1894 to 1919?
The intersection of 10th and J Streets in Modesto has an allure that few other intersections from 1st to 18th possess. In Modesto’s earliest years, two men, Charles Murray and W.A. Jones had a vision to turn the four corners of 10th and J Streets into what they called “The New Center”.
History lives on in Modesto.
We forget the past so quickly … yet the past is what helps shape the future. This photo has a past, and it even has names associated with it. Here’s the note I was given by Janet Lancaster of the McHenry Museum when researching the Murray and Jones Building, Est. 1913. The note read …