This is sorta old news – as Tomorrow’s News Today reported it the day we also reported that Johnny’s had closed – but Next Stop…Decatur’s got a picture of the “Rocket 88″ sign hanging over the old Johnny’s location.

Tomorrow’s News Today reported back then that Rocket 88 would be operated by the wife of Johnny’s owner and “it will feature a variety of sandwiches in a casual cafe atmosphere.”

Next Stop…Decatur just posted quite the intriguing picture of the NEW DeKalb County Courthouse circa 1965.  You can view it HERE.

Obviously, the thing that will strike the post-1965 Decatur resident first is the pond out in front of the Courthouse, now a massive flowerbed, as Dennis points out in his post.  Personally I had no idea there was once a pond in that location!  I would love to know when and why it was eventually filled in.

However, that’s not the only cool thing about this photo.  The other is the DeKalb government building across the street, which once stood along Trinity in the current Calloway Building lot.  I’ve been sitting on a pic of this building for quite a while, meaning to scan and post it in the name of general historical interest.  But Next Stop’s pic is actually superior to mine, as it gives better locational context.

However, my pic – from the AJC’s now defunct DeKalb Extra – also came with a little blurb about the short history and fate of the government building, which I will now share with ya.

Progress Took Government Building – Standing on the corner of McDonough and Trinity Streets in downtown Decatur, the old DeKalb County government building was built during the county chairmanship of the late Scott Candler in the mid 1940s.  Nearly 30 years later, it was demolished to make room for the construction of the county government’s Callaway Office Building.  The old government building housed, during its lifetime, the departments of Plice, Fire, Sheriff and the DeKalb County Jail, Family and CHildrens Services and Planning, among others.

Someone mentioned this in a comment a couple weeks back, but Dennis at Next Stop…Decatur has the scoop (pun intended).

The Decatur location was very good to him but he wanted more customers to see his unique collection. [Owner Warren Pickard] hates to leave Decatur, but business is business and with an offer he could not resist, he will be moving to Underground Atlanta soon.

Warren said: “After the CNN story, Relics and Rarities got a lot of interest from all over the country. In fact 97% of Relics and Rarities customers over the last year did not reside in Decatur.

Best of luck Warren!

Want to see a St. Patrick’s Parade marching down Ponce, from Clairemont towards Church Street, circa 1945?  Next Stop…Decatur’s got the goods! (courtesy of the DeKalb History Center)

Make sure to check out the streetscape…DeKalb Theatre, Woolworths, etc…

A 1924 pic of Decatur’s first police car over on Next Stop…Decatur is must see.

Also, Dennis has a 1957 pic of East Courthouse Square on his Flickr page that is quite interesting; mostly because the block is nearly unrecognizable.

Next Stop has some photos sent in by artist, and owner of Rose Squared Gallery and Framing on Clairemont, JD Issacs, who recently completed a commission for Parker’s on Ponce.

As Dennis at Next Stop says, its nice to see Parker’s keeping it “in the family!”