Calexico CA border downtown (# 0584)

The only remaining signs of a Kress store just off the border in Calexico. Kress was a 'five and dime' store popular from the late 1800's up until the early 1980's (see link). When I was a child we went shopping there regularly in the summer, partly because they were handy, but also partly because it was air conditioned and had a 'soda fountain'. The soda fountain was removed for remodeling in the 1960's, oddly at the same time as such counters were integrated across the south. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._H._Kress_%26_Co.