The tiny office that once adjoined Red Mahan’s barber shop and today is next door to Montevallo Realty was the headquarters for the various enterprises of F.P. “Pete” Givhan, who we have already met on a previous “Thursday” posting. Pete Givhan operated his Coca Cola distribution business out of this office as well as an insurance agency. Pete was the product of two prominent Montevallo families. His father, Edgar Givhan, was a well respected local physician and former mayor, and his mother was a daughter of the second president of Alabama Girls Industrial School, Dr. Francis Peterson.
Directly across Main Street from the Givhan Insurance Agency was an even smaller office next door to Klotzmans’ that for many years was the office and retail outlet for Montevallo Lumber Co. Hughes Building Co. occupies the space today. Fred Frost, Sr. and Fred Frost, Jr. owned and operated this business and had a large warehouse (which still stands) for their lumber and building materials on the corner of Shelby and Valley streets directly behind the old Alabama Power building and McCulley's grocery store.
In the 1960’s, the Frosts built a new brick addition to the warehouse and moved from Main Street where they now had room for a paint store and a limited selection of hardware items. Previously, customers would enter the “hole-in-the-wall” office on Main and place their orders with the Frosts. Runners went back and forth taking written order tickets to the warehouse. Customers had to then walk or drive to the warehouse to pick up or load their purchases. The Pittsburgh Paints “Smooth as Glass” sign you see in the photos was moved from the Main Street office and displayed prominently over the entrance to the new building when they relocated.
After Montevallo Lumber moved from Main Street into their new office and store a block away on Oak Street, a Merle Norman cosmetic studio moved into the tight quarters the lumber company had previously occupied and this business, focused on the needs of female customers, did quite well there for a number of years.
Thank you Clay Nordan, Vice President of Montevallo Historical Society, for this information!
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