Turner Hall

11 January 1918: Turner Hall was built in 1891 by architect James Wahrenberger for the German Athletic Club (Turnverein). In the 1940's the building was used as USO office. The Bonham Exchange Bar opened there in 1981 and is still in operation at this location. 

26 July 2026: It was 97° with a blazing hot sun as we searched for parking close to the IMAX Theater where we were to meet my son to see The Oddysey on wide-screen. As we headed for the theater, we suddenly saw Turner Hall and I brought out my 1918 postcard revealing that little had changed in the 108 years since it was mailed. As I circled the building to check it out thoroughly before snapping my photograph, I saw a poster advertising The Bonham Exchange, a still trendy gay dance bar now filling the two floors with gyrating celebrants. I remembered advertisements from my coming-out years, and Terry told me that he had come there with his friend John Spear when it was the hottest new trend. I framed the building in my iPad and took a quick shot. As a person acclimated to the cool central highlands of Mexico it was too hot to linger.

Postmark:    11 Jan 1918; San Antonio, Texas
Stamp:    [2] 1¢ Green George Washington #462 [Perf 10; 27 Sept 1916]

To: Mrs., S., Sykes, 
      416 Superior St.,
      Kenosha, Wis,
Message: Dear Mother We are on the train bound for South Carolina. I will send you my address when I get there. We will be there for quite a while. My add. 1st Construction Co. Greenville South Carolina

Clifford Sykes was 26 [26 years 9 months 3 days] when he wrote his widowed mother back home in Kenosha. He had become a member of the 1st Construction Company being organized at Kelly Field, about to be deployed to Camp Sevier, SC for training. He shipped out in March 1918 to the European theater, and served in Europe for a year ending in April 1919, part of a team to construct air fields so critical to the war effort.

Clifford’s father, Samuel Sykes [1865 - 1948] was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England and immigrated to America from Liverpool in 1903. He was just 11 years old, his brother Harvey was 10, and their mother Mary Jane was 38. His father Samuel immigrated to America in 1889,  working as a stone mason and bricklayer in Racine, WS.