TN - Kathy Jones *Media, Maps, Timelines, & Photos **NO DISCUSSION**

[ellroy1958]

2804 Grandview Avenue, then and now.
If my perspective is accurate - In the '69 pic, the building in the center stood where the parking lot is today, approx. where the Krispy Kreme truck is parked in the 2014 pic. The multi-angled roofline of the Furniture Warehouse can be seen on the right in both pics, as well as a jumble of scrub growing there in 1969 (also on right) as it still is today.
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[ellroy1958]

Grandview then and now - an alternate perspective.

Trying to determine by contemporary landmarks where the old newspaper photo was taken. The light patch in the weeds in the photo is the trampled grass where the investigators were standing when they were examining the scene.

The 1969 press pic was definitely taken on the very eastern edge of the vacant grassy lot, the photographer likely may have been standing in the alley, aiming the camera to the southwest. Due to the old photo's poor quality and how the Krispy Kreme property has changed, I am not certain relative to the Furniture Wharehouse roofline if the pic was taken further back on the lot (to the north), or closer to Krispy Kreme and Thompson Lane (to the south).

The right edge of the wharehouse roofline suggests the photographer may have been standing further south, which is where I was standing today when I took this alternate pic, closer to the where the parking lot is today.

In both instances when I took the pics, the fence separating the alley from the grassy lot was immediately to my back. In today's pic, I was even standing on a patch of alleyway asphalt exposed on the grassy-lot side of the fence.

From this more southern angle, the building in the center of the old pic more likely could have then been the old Krispy Kreme as it lines up closer to where the new Krispy kreme is today.


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[ellroy1958]

Hello Bessie, yes, I do have some thoughts. I have visited the site before, but have been back to Grandview a couple of times in the past few days, and all sorts of new impressions have been jumping out at me that I have not had before from maps, photographs, and articles. After I write them down to clarify them to myself, I will post them here. In the mean time, I've also edited a zoomed in version of the photos. Been trying to triangulate the pitch and angle of the Furniture Warehouse roofline to try and pin down where along the alley the old photograph was taken.
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Also including a photo of the back (north east) corner of the lot (for reference, note concrete slab in the grass in both 2014 pics). Been wondering if the old photo was taken along the fence line (the alley just on the other side of the green mesh), somewhere on a point between the concrete slab in the foreground and back a few paces down slope towards the large trees.
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[ellroy1958]

Thompson Lane and Nolensville Pike, northwest corner, looking south / southeast down Nolensville. Thank you to nola (post #757) for posting the 1960s pics, and to Searchin' for ID-ing angle and location (post #760): “….I parked in Eckerd's lot which is about the location where the photographer stood. It's looking south down Nolensville Rd (White Castle is now across Thompson Lane from the Gulf station/Eckerd). The building in the background with the Kroger sign is still there....it's just another business."
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Non-cropped 2014 pic:
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[ellroy1958]

Thompson Lane, aerial view, from the Banner, Dec. 3, 1969. Have some questions about the accuracy of the labels in the pic, but I could get to that later.
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[ellroy1958]

All Weather Roller Drome, from the Banner, Dec. 3, 1969. South side of Thompson, looking east.
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[ellroy1958]

From the December 4th, 1969 Tennessean. The alley at night. The pic is dark, but that's 2802 Grandview on the left (the south wall, east end), and the back of 2801 Nolensville Pike lit up, just on the other side of the alley. The reporter is standing in the alley. The vacant lot (and KK beyond) would be to the right of the photographer.
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The photographer was standing here, just behind the chain link fence on the back side of 2802 Grandview....
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... and aiming the camera here, towards the back of 2801 Nolensville (for point of reference, note blue dumpster).....
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[ellroy1958]

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[ellroy1958]

"I just can't see her walking through that alley after dark..."

I feel a similar way. So much depends on the perception of safety in any one time and place. I can’t imagine her walking there at all after dark even on the main roads (let alone cutting down, say, poorly lit McClain Ave. and passing through the alley) but maybe that was perceived as perfectly safe back then.
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[ellroy1958]

Sorry if this has been posted here before, but there's a video online out there called "The old Thompson Lane Tunnel / Underpass in Nashville Tennessee", a vhs tape "taken on January 1, 1984 of the old 2-lane underpass on Thompson Lane in Nashville Tennessee."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMb4E9S5UNQ

After they go under the tunnel, "you see Famous State Sales in the building where Performance Studios is now, which was once the old Roller Drome Skating Rink (a place I skated as a kid). Then you see the original Siam Cafe, which moved many years ago."

The Famous State Sales (Performance Studios) building can be seen with its two-story yellow sign with black letters. They then make a right turn pulling into the parking lot of the present day Performance Studios, on the side of the Siam Cafe (519 W. Thompson Lane - east side of the PS parking lot).

All the more revealing (and frustrating): right at the 35 second mark in the video, just before they turn, the distinctly shaped Krispy Kreme sign can be seen in the background, center-left. However, a big white moving van is parked right there on Grandview Ave., waiting to turn onto Thompson, blocking the view of most of the KK property. Most of the property, but not all. You can see the back-half of the old KK building....

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Same view, zoomed in, the Krispy Kreme sign and the old Krispy Kreme building boxed in red....

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[ellroy1958]

Intersection of Joyner at Nolensville, the grocery store parking lot where Kathy was reportedly last seen (photos 1951 and (circa) 2014).
Thank you, Bessie, for posting the link the other day to those historical aerial views....
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[ellroy1958]

Hello December, thank you for all your posts here, they are much appreciated. Per your post #60, I've taken another look at the aerial photograph from 1969 (post #51), and made a new zoomed-in copy to try and ID the buildings in that pic relative to a more contemporary satellite images from bing.com and google. I think the roller rink was ID'd right, but now I'm wondering if the photo ID'd a vacant lot on Grandview, but a different vacant lot, one block to the north. The blue rectangle is the Furniture Warehouse building....
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Also, in looking again at the old aerial view photo, I caught I mistake I made in post #64 (the 1969 alleyway photo at night). Even if the old alley photo does show the back of 2801 Nolensville Pike, the building to the immediate left in the photo couldn't have been 2802 Grandview as that building was apparently built around 1994.....
http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/18595047/2802-Grandview-Avenue-Nashville-TN/

 

[ellroy1958]

Note - these crime scene photographs are not "graphic," but they are heartbreaking.
The Banner, December 3, 1969.
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[ellroy1958]

Photographs of the skates being collected from the crime scene.
The Tennessean, December 3, 1969
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[ellroy1958]

Excellent point, Arnie M, thank you for catching that. I didn't see that. I've taken the three pics of the skates and zoomed in and enlarged them to get a better view.
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[December]

At this Facebook page, The Nashville I Wish I Knew, people discussed their memories of the Hippodrome roller skating rink.

https://www.facebook.com/thenashvilleiwishiknew/posts/542221469175466

One of the folks posting at that link recalled that the refreshment stand at the Hippodrome sold Krispy Kreme donuts.

Could the Rollerdrome also have sold Krispy Kreme donuts at their refreshment stand?

Another thought occurred to me. Were the Hippodrome and the Rollerdrome skating rinks in Nashville owned by the same owners?

Did these roller skating rinks have their own bus or did they share the same bus?

They were in different parts of town and owned by different people.

 

[December]

When Kathy was missing, there was a newspaper report of witnesses seeing her walking in the area. This was the day before she was found dead. Please disregard these. Police say that girl could not have been Kathy.