Check out this awesome photo of Second Street in 1940!
Standing on Second Street and looking towards the river, this remarkable photograph captures downtown Henderson at a moment when commerce, entertainment, and modern traffic control all converged in a single frame. The image dates to 1940, and the deeper you look, the more the city reveals itself.
On the left side of the street, painted boldly on the side of a downtown building, is one of the most recognizable advertising slogans of the era: “10-2-4.” This was part of a national campaign by Dr Pepper, encouraging people to enjoy a soda at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m., times believed to correspond with natural energy slumps. The presence of this slogan on Second Street places Henderson squarely within the rhythms of American marketing culture in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Just beyond it are signs for Silver Liquors and Silver’s Grill, hanging above the sidewalk where the Silver Dollar Bar would become a long-standing downtown fixture. These signs remind us that this block was not just a place to pass through, but a destination for food, drink, and social life, especially after work or before an evening show.
Suspended over the intersection ahead is one of the most fascinating details in the photograph: the traffic signal at Second and Elm Streets. Unlike modern vertical lights, this signal features the word “GO” displayed at the top, a design characteristic of early traffic control systems as American cities adjusted to increasing automobile traffic. It is a small but powerful symbol of Henderson’s transition into a fully motorized downtown.
Dominating the middle distance is the marquee of the Kentucky Theatre, advertising Gone with the Wind. Newspaper accounts confirm that the film played at the Kentucky Theatre in 1940, drawing large crowds to what was then one of the most talked-about movies in the nation. Seeing the title emblazoned across Second Street ties this image directly to a specific cultural moment, when Henderson residents lined up for a cinematic event that defined a generation.
Farther still, nearly at the vanishing point of the photograph and just beyond Hotel Soaper, a Gulf service-station sign emerges from the haze. The station stood at Second and Water Streets and, in 1940, operated as a Standard Oil Service Station.
Taken as a whole, this photograph is more than a street view. It is a layered snapshot of Henderson in 1940, where national brands met local businesses, where early traffic technology hung overhead, and where a world-famous film lit up a downtown marquee. Second Street was alive, modern, and unmistakably Henderson.
