Salisbury History: Tuesday, Nov. 27, 1956
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Salisbury History: Tuesday, Nov. 27, 1956
- The first of three condemnation cases was settled and approved by the City Council to make way for the controversial Carroll Street Traffic Loop, which will extend from the approach to Riverside Drive east to South Division Street. A jury agreed the city should pay $46,263.60 Clifton Brasure of Frankford, Del., for an acre of vacant property northeast of Camden Avenue. At a stormy council session, Councilman L. Thomas Parker Jr. declared the property “dead land” unsuitable for development and said the city was wildly overpaying for the tract.
- Willie Hooks, who rarely left the downtown store where he was born and ran a business, died at age 71. The store in the 100 block of North Division Street, was the city’s first “self-service store,” where customers chose things themselves off store shelves. His policy: “Wait on yourself and pay Willie.” The store operated at random hours that varied depending on Hook’s sleep schedule: rarely was he open for business before noon; rarely did he close before 2 or 3 a.m. Until he was taken to the sanitarium at Spring Hill in December 1955, rarely did Hooks ever leave the store or its upstairs apartment.
- A charge of hunting with a shotgun set to hold more than three shell was dismissed in People’s Court in Salisbury. Game Warden Benjamin E. Robbins charged William Owens of Delmar, who was hunting with his uncle, Floyd Owens of Allen. Judge Fanny B. Murphy dismissed the charge when the younger Owens testified that he didn’t know guns were supposed to carry a “plug” the size of two shells.
- Sam Siedel of Sam Siedel Insurance announced that his Currier and Ives 1957 calendars had arrived, and customers were welcome to pick theirs up at his Advertiser Building office.
- The City Council approved a Fire Department request to purchase a “badly needed” new fire engine. The truck was expected to cost at least $18,500. The Public Works Department is also asking for a new street sweeper, expected to cost $11,000.
- The Eastern Shore Symphony Society was preparing to host the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra that weekend at the State Teacher’s College auditorium.
- A new market for feeder pigs was set for No. 29 in Baltimore. Wicomico County agriculture agent Robert G. Miller encouraged county farmers to take pigs to the new market, saying its Maryland Swine Producers Association would bring high prices.
