143. Winchester Police Shanty Is Gone, Lynn Man Shows 'Em Who's Boss.

Like The Courthouse Tower.

  Gone from the southeast corner of Main and Washington streets is the police and information booth, a well-known landmark since 1934 or '35., who kept a promise made before his election.
  It was moved Tuesday, on order of Mayor Ralph West, who kept a promise made before his election.
  Many think it was an unwise move, some apparently like it, others just don't give a hoot.
  Anyway, it's gone - moved to the school property on Brown street
where it will be used to store football and track equipment. It's a gift of the civil city to the school city. Supt. Merritt Beck said the school was going to have to build such a storage facility anyway, so the gift was a timely one.
  But about this booth which has graced this particular corner for about 30 years!
  It was built in about 1934 or 1935 by WPA (Works Progress Administration) labor in the first term of Mayor John Paul Clark. One of the workers was Harry Jarrett, who told the News and Journal-Herald he worked then for 55 cents an hour. Harry later worked on the grandstand at Goodrich Park and the swimming pool, also under WPA.
  The booth was a familiar sight to travelers who passed the busy intersection of U.S. 27 and state road 32 and created considerable comment in letters sent back to Mayor Clark.
  It even was featured in a national magazine, after which a committee from a town up in Canada came down to inspect it.
  During these two decades the booth was both a police station and an information center.
  Ex-Mayor Clark said that inasmuch as the station was in full sight of the two banks and two loan companies, he had been told that was the reason Winchester had not been hit by bank bandits.
  Only once, that is, when the Peoples Loan & Trust company was robbed by an apparent amateur, who was caught after a chase out the Greenville pike by Dave Clark of Lynn, at that a time a bank employee here.
  Just having the booth there, it was said, acted as a deterrent to holdup men and probably prevented considerable night marauding too.
  For those who don't know, the police station now is located on the second floor of the city building, where the present administration claims it is more efficiently operated.
  So goes another landmark - the other in recent months was the courthouse tower.
  At any rate, the old booth is gone - to Brown street to house football and track equipment for the high school boys.   Winchester News, April 18, 1956.



1956. A Hissy-Fit In Lynn.

  Ralph E. Myers, 40, Lynn casket company owner, Monday in Randolph circuit court was granted until Saturday morning to consider a plea to a charge that he deliberately blocked an intersection in Lynn which caused a 40 minute traffic tie-up Saturday evening.
  William McFarland, Lynn marshal, reported that Myers started to drive his Cadillac into the narrow intersection of East Sherman and Park streets when he met another car, driven by Wallace Geer of  Lynn, also entering.
  Geer, according to McFarland, would have had to back up at least three-quarters of a block to yield the right-of-way to Myers, who would have to back up only about two car lengths to clear the intersection. Myers didn't feel inclined to extend that courtesy to Mr. Geer, according to McFarland.
  Instead, the marshal continued, Myers stopped his Cadillac, shut off the motor, got out with the car keys in his possession and left the car in the intersection, blocking Mr. Geer. Myers then went into his nearby factory and ordered an employee to drive a pickup truck behind the Cadillac to further block the street. He next ordered another employee, the marshal said, to drive a big semi-trailer truck up to the intersection.
  By this time, traffic was piled up for at least a block, clear back to U.S. 27. The marshal was called and had the Cadillac towed away, after which he ordered the two employees to drive the trucks away. After 40 minutes of fretful waiting, incensed Lynn residents were once again able to drive through the intersection.
  A warrant was issued by the Randolph county clerk's office Saturday night for Myer's arrest but it was not served, Prosecutor Zane Stohler stated Monday morning.
  In court Monday, Myers was released on $700 bond until he enters a plea to the charge (officially unlawful parking) in f $17.60.on Saturday morning. Attorney Merrill Nichols is representing Myers in court.   Winchester News, April 30, 1956.

(This was in the 5-26 News: The case of Ralph E. Myers, Lynn manufacturer, was concluded in Randolph circuit court Saturday when Judge John W. Macy sentenced the Lynn man to five days in the county lockup and ordered the defendant to pay court costs of $17.60.
  Myers was found guilty of an improper parking charge before Judge Macy. Myers was charged with tying up traffic for approximately 40 minutes on East Sherman street in Lynn on the afternoon of April 28 of this year.
  Judge Macy ruled that Myers may serve his sentence one or more days at a time over a five-week period.)