Nodding I see. Yeah I'm about 90% accurate on average. :D Another side note is that TB Langford was a member of First Methodist Church and helped found the "eternal flame" fund where members would donate some of their inheiritance to the fund for special church emergencies. Years later when he pasted away, he left nothing to the fund or so I hear.....I guess he was a little tight.... LOL, is that bad enough 40 year old gossip? :D

Your attention to detail is impeccable rhertz. It is very rare to catch you in a slip. You are old Shreveport to the bone boy. Leaves fall close to the tree now don't they. I bet with joepole living where he lives he must have some major roots in old Shreveport too. Now just when you think private Pyle is going right he will go left. Any hoo good post and good homework.
Dru Circle :rolleyes: :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Great research rhertz :cool:. Never everwouldaknown. Technically, when I said I lived at the bottom of Thrill Hill - it was more like past the base on the top of the little next hill (picture a diminishing sine wave for all you in the year 2525 trying to understand this at a time with no Thrill Hill- after the land is smoothed from the paradoxical global warming glaciers and inevitable zombie invasion... as if you'd care anyway)... so our front yard caught a share of speeding cars not quite in control. But still, that's only a few houses extra away from where you lived - LOL. Wondering if I ever met you now.

A little google-juice led to more info. On T.B. Lanford.. . So patched together from a variety of links and SEC filings:

Another media thing he was involved with was KPLC, and was part owner of Red River Valley Broadcasting (1936-?.) and also caught the TV bug owned KALB via Lanford Telecasting Company (purchased by Park Broadcasting of Louisiana from his estate)

Found he was into oil. Naturally. DBA LANFORD & BACKUS. And Lanford Drilling.

Some info on DowntownShreveport.Com (which I can only access via the google cached page at the moment, so will paste part of it here below)

The former buildings of the Rubenstein Department Store are two distinct structures, one located at 513-515 Milam, the other, next door, at 517-519 Milam Street, opposite the beautiful Caddo Parish Court House.

The building at 513-515, now known as the Lanford Building, after former owner T. B. Lanford was built in 1907 by Joseph Dambley, a Shreveport photographer. The lower level served as Dambley's studios, the upper floors were leased out….

Also saw some tangential info that implied he owned “Tackle Industries” of Shreveport? some of those lures collected and traded today. Not the best pic to post compared with all of the nice vintage lures -but this has the text...
http://i14.ebayimg.com/07/i/000/88/f8/f99f_1.JPG

Either way - never knew we had a recognized lure industry. No surprise, just interesting.

These guys were into everything.

And ya'll crack me up :D Good forum.

>I bet with joepole living where he lives he must have some major roots in old Shreveport too.

My parents moved here in 1974. I was born here in 1976. My wife is from Mississippi.

I had one set of great-grandparents from here. My paternal grandmother grew up here until she went to college, married my grandfather, and moved to Monroe.

Yahoo has a slightly more recent photo that actually has Toms' house instead of just a vacant lot.

We have some really old aerials in my office (on slides, not on the computer). I'll see if I can dig up one that has the old white house.

Update: A Mr. AC Campbell originally owned that land and built the house and fence before selling it to TB Langford. Campbell was a contractor in the construction business. So he probably got a good deal on that wrought iron fence! ;)

LOL, diminishing sine wave. I lived after the 3rd hump (the last one). 4533 Gilbert to be exact. Now I'm really curious. jnc....The only "C" I remember was the Colvins at the corner of Huron and Gilbert. Other names on Gilbert that come to mind were Brandon, McKelvy, Tucker, Hudson, Knight, Fowler, Perrit, Dutton, Moffit, Burns. Am I getting warm? But on adjacient streets near Gilbert there were hundreds too numerous to mention. Those were the best times for Halloween Trick or Treat..


Yeah this is a great forum. Thanks for the added info jnc! Oil and Gas does not surprise me. But lures? I grew up knowing Bo Smithwick and Michael Bacon whose fathers were both in the lure industry but they didn't own mansions like ole TB. (I wish I saved all my old "antique" lures to sell on ebay)

There reallyis a lot of history up and down Gilbert Drive now that I stop and think about it. And not just architectural. Enough to write a book I bet... I'll private message you and maybe we can divulge our identities to each other. I figure you know who I am already. But I'm totally stumped. :)

I would really like to see it. I grew up on one part of Gilbert until age 8 when we moved to another house a couple of miles south near Gilbert. (age 9-18) It would be cool so see my old stomping ground as it was.

It's going to be days or even weeks before I could even begin to maybe have a copy available.

Understood. No hurry. I'm not fast in my efforts to dig up stuff to post here like Sal and you other guys. I have access to all sorts of photos that I need to scan and post. But it's great when one of us does find the time. This site is pretty good at digging up old memories that are buried deep. Thank you in advance for anything you have to post.

rhertz – the “nc” in j.nc is from where I am now, not initials. So…
I lived across from Dr. Tucker's house. Watched it burn to the ground Christmas Eve (what year? 196_?) because - as it turn out - of faulty wiring in the Christmas Tree.

My folks picked that house cause we are Yankee transplants and that was the "only" house in town at the time with a basement, a basement being a requisite need for us carpet baggers coming down to be a part of the startup team for Western Electric. Well, it wasn’t really a basement, more like split level but close enuff. My mom preferred one over on Thora (never heard the end of that argument).

Now, your info on Campbell as a contractor crosses with a post I saw on fannins blog; the poster there probably mixes up info on Campbell with Lanford (note spelling). So this puts your info as more correct. So “Tackle Industries” may have been owned by Campbell or someone else. The Internets remains silent on who ran “Tackle Industries” but it looks like H&H lures in S. La markets them now.

Oh yeah - nice trick or treat grounds. yes. good memories.

I remember that well. I was about 8 or 9 at the time. The story I heard was that everyone made it ouside safe, but Mrs Tucker ran back inside thinking her children were still inside and she got badly burned as the result…..


Basements are rare in Shreveport, however my grandparents in North Central LA (near Homer) had a basement but that is some of the highest ground in all of Louisiana. My wife is from Ohio and she tells that most everyone had basements up there. So I understand how important a basement can be to some folks. Where else do you store you potatoes and squash? :)

As for the spelling, I hear Lanford and Langford. I yield to anyone who thinks they have it right.

I am trying to remember the tuckers two next door neighbors.. The McKelvey’s were north of them and the Fowlers were south? But you were across the street….I don’t remember anyone past the Perrits on that side. I’m 47 years old. How old are you if I may ask? Do you remember when thrill hill froze over?

>My mom preferred one over on Thora (never heard the end of that argument).

I grew up on the 800 block of Thora.

Joe, I'm 47.. How old are you if you don't mind me asking? I know you've posted it before but I can't find it. Just trying to find our relative positions in time... I spent a lot of time at Pierremont Mall, Pak-a-sak, Norton's Art Gallery, and Uptown (TG&Y, Kings Hardware, Lewis's Drug Store) I know you are younger, but by how much? What teachers at South Highlands do you remember?

I just turned 31. Mrs. Taberlet was the principal during my tenure (K5-5th, 1981-1987) at South Highlands.

I had (in order) Mrs. Nehring, Mrs. Churchwell, Ms. Megison, Mrs. Chandler, Mrs. Davis*, and Mr. Fair.


*in 4th grade we switched classes. I had Mrs. Davis for homeroom/Science, Mrs. Johnson for Social Studies, Ms. Finney for Language Arts, and Mrs. Redding for Math. In 5th grade they changed us back to same teacher all day