Pierce Grocery: 1930s

Above, Pearl Pierce poses in front of the Pierce Grocery at on the corner of Springhill Avenue and Lafayette Street. In the photo to the left, brothers Carl and W.T. Pierce pose inside the store.

After he completed Wilmer High School in 1929, W.T., in his own words, “took various jobs around the area, doing farm work, nursery work, etc. After about six months, I sold my only worldly possession, one Jersey cow, for $35, bought a one-way ticket to Chicago, Illinois to seek my fortune.

"I got a job in the Kauffman and Woff Department Store, and there worked in various departments for about three and one-half years, where I met my wife.

"From there I came back to Mobile and bought out a small grocery store on the corner of Center and Lyons Park Avenue, behind Lyons Park."

W.T. noted that after 10 months, "I went back to Chicago to marry my wife, the former Pearl Ruth Schultz.

" Later I sold the Center Street grocery, and bought out a store on the corner of Springhill Avenue and Lafayette Street, and ran this store for a couple of years, until the spring of 1939."

In 1939, W.T. bought the Pan-Am gas station on the corner of Highway 43 and Shelton Beach Road in Saraland, Alabama. "I operated this business, making several expansions until the Saraland Shopping Center was built, and in October, 1963, sold this business to Besdole Investment Corporation."

On the Beach: Hazel, Julia, Velma, 1940s

Julia Lavinia Moody (1886-1965) Pierce, center, and two of her daughters, Hazel Lee Pierce (1905-1985), left, and Velma Moree Pierce (1913-1993) dip their toes in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Velma's husband, Charles Egbert Barnhart (1913-2004), probably snapped this photo in the 1940s. But it could have been taken in the early 1950s as well.

At the Beach: W.T. and Pearl, early 1930s

Wilson Taft "W.T" Pierce (1910-1983) and his wife Pearl Schultz lounge on the beach at Gulf Shores, Alabama.

The couple had married on January 30, 1933, and this photo may have been taken in the summer of that year, certainly before Pearl gave birth to her first child in 1934.

Note the beachwear fashions. They were certainly more modest for both men and women than can be found on most beaches nowadays.

Photo courtesy of Lucille Pierce Hogancamp.

Raymond and Ella Lee: 1940s

Ella Lee Carley met Raymond Lamont Pierce (1923-1981) when the two of them were working at Gulf Shipbuilding Corp. in Chickasaw, Alabama, during World War II.

Ella Lee, as she was always called, joined the war workers flooding into Mobile from the rural areas of Mississippi and Alabama. The demand for workers at the city's shipyards and Brookley Army Air Force Base was so great that the city's population doubled almost overnight. Ella Lee moved from Electric Mills, Mississippi, and counted herself lucky because she had friends in Mobile who gave her a place to live. Housing was very scarce. So scarce in fact that many places rented beds for 8-hour shifts.

The above photo was taken in front of the Reservoir Inn. As you can tell by the sign, N.B. "Bonie" had switched from selling the Sinclair gasoline brand, which he sold when the business first opened, to the Cities Service brand.

Charles and Velma

While living and working in the Chicago area, Velma Moree Pierce (1913-1993) met and married Charles Egbert Barnhart. They were married on October 16, 1937, in Hammond, Indiana, Charles' hometown.

This photo was taken in the 1940s outside the home of Velma's parents, N.B. "Bonie" and Julia Pierce, 4900 Moffett Road.

Bea at the Filtration Plant: 1944

Beatrice V. Pierce (r.) poses in front of the newly constructed E.M. Stickney Filtration Plant, which was built next to her parents' property in 1944.

The young woman on the left and the baby in front of the doors are not identified.

E.M. Stickney Filtration Plant: 1944

Before World War II, Mobile didn't treat its water, other than minor chlorination. The city didn't have the money to build a treatment plant.

During the early part of the war, the U.S. government, decided that properly treated water would help the war effort. So at a cost of $1.3 million, the federal government built a filtration plant on Moffett Road. This was on land adjacent and just to the east of N.B. "Bonie" Pierce's property. The roofline seen through the pecan trees on the left is that of the Pierce home and business.

The plant went into operation in 1944. After the war, the federal government turned the plant over to the city of Mobile for a small fraction of the original cost.

The above photo appears to have been taken as construction of the plant was nearing completion.