There were five of us (siblings) when we moved back to Texas from St. Louis; Joan was about 8, Melissa almost 6, Anne going on 5, Joe 3 and Claire was just a baby. Dad had left his sales position at Corning Glassware, and he was looking for work in Fort Worth. Later when we asked, Dad would just say that we moved back to Texas because Mom was so miserable and homesick in St. Louis.
We stayed with Munnie and Granddad for a short time before moving into the house three blocks northwest. It had been a particularly hard time, but I hadn’t been aware of it, or why until some years later. Dad ended up taking a job at Shannon’s collecting premiums on life insurance policies, specifically from very poor people. I knew then that Dad was unhappy with this kind of work, but he needed to do something to support our growing family, and apparently, there just wasn’t anything else available at that time; and Mom was pregnant again with GIII. So, we moved into a house about two and a half blocks to 1619 Grand Avenue.
The house was built in 1924 in an area called Belmont Terrace Addition. It was just short of 3,000 sq. ft. The picture you see here is the only picture of the house that I have, compliments of Diver Dan, who went there at sunset recently to snap a picture. I must say that, except for the landscape around it and the fence, the house looks just the same as it did when we lived there. There had been a huge old hackberry tree to the left between the house and the driveway...
…………..where there was a tractor tire for our sand box and Dad would replenish it with clean sand about once a year.
The front porch was very large, as was the front door. The front door single pane was cut glass and there was a full length cut glass paned window on each side of the door.
The house just sort of enfolds a person as it takes you through room by room. This was a really fun house. Walking in the front door was the living room, which was not very large itself, but all the ceilings were all 10’ high and made it seem cavernous. On the left and at an angle in the room there was a fireplace. It was functional at one time, but we never had a fire in it. We had a gas space heater in front of it. A little further to the left was a single French door that led to a sunroom, or solarium that faced the street on one side and the driveway along the adjacent the side. There were two windows on the front, and two windows on the side facing the driveway. In the middle of this small room was a fountain. There was never water running in that fountain while we lived there.
That room was used for Dad’s office….sort of. There was a desk, a chair and a telephone; and there were piles and piles and piles of papers that over-flowed to the floor and filled the little fountain.
Back to the living room, standing at the front door again.
On the right side of the living room there were glass paned pocket doors to the dining room. The room was large enough to accommodate the pre-Civil War sideboard and dining room table that was large enough to accommodate a family of 13 later.
The dining room set originally belonged to Daddy’s great Aunt – I think Mary Bryan Lewis.
There was a large bay window that faced the front porch. At the other end was the door that led to the kitchen.
Through that door to the kitchen there was a small breakfast nook. On thee right was a bank of glass cabinets under a high window that went to the ceiling on either side of the window. Through there was a large kitchen….hot water heater and stove on the left with a space for a work table on the right next to the place for the refrigerator. Further on the left was the “L” shaped kitchen counter with sink, and cabinets below, and above to the ceiling. Through the kitchen, one would walk out onto the screened back porch. There was a place for a washer and dryer and another refrigerator and a storage closet. That porch led out to the back yard.
I remember the box of 4 baby opossums that I had found. Their little teeth were like little needles. After a couple of days, they started to really smell bad, and Dad told me that I had to do something about them. So, I gave them a bath, and they died that night. I guess they died of pneumonia from the bath I gave them.
There was another huge hackberry tree with a very thick cotton rope hanging from it. Dad put that there with a big knot at the end so that we could swing on it. I’m sure the old hackberry in the back yard is gone now.
The back yard overlooked the hillside above the highway and beyond that…
From the back yard on the hill you could see Jacksboro Highway, Rockwood Golf Course. There was Northside Drive that became University Drive after it crossed Jacksboro Highway. University Drive crossed White Settlement, Camp Bowie, past Forest Park Zoo to TCU and Paschal High School.
F.Y.I. Historically, on November 22nd, 1963 President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade went from The Texas Hotel in downtown Fort Worth to Carswell Air Force Base for a 13 minute flight to Love Field in Dallas. There’s just way too much to say on this subject, except that I was in school that day. Mom and Dad went down the hill to the highway to watch the motorcade drive by. I was in class that day, when they announced that President Kennedy had been assinated. I think some of my siblings were at home that day, and got to see the motorcade.
Back through to the living room.... Standing back at the front door, directly in front of you would be the stairs. There would be a door at the foot of the stairs, leading into a large bedroom.
That was Joanie’s bedroom until we all got moved upstairs. Then it was Mom’s & Dad’s room.
There were large windows at the far wall looking out at the back yard, and to the left a large bathroom, complete with tub and separate shower. Another door to the left leads into a room that could be a bedroom or a den.
Anne & I shared that bedroom until Mom and Dad moved all of us upstairs. After that, it was the den, where we used to watch TV.
There was another room next to that room faced the driveway. Mom and Dad used that as their bedroom for a while.
In that bedroom, Mom would put us all down to take naps in the summer. She read classics to us, Alice In Wonderland, Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer…just to name a few. The list was very long.
Back in the bedroom/den room, there was a huge closet and a large storage closet above
Dad used to keep his bow and arrows and his Samurai Swords up there. Those items got stolen.
Coming out of the T.V. room you are right back in the front hallway at the foot of the stairs. Go on up!
There was a small room to the right, originally sort of a sewing room, and just down the hall was a very large room that Joanie, Anne & I shared. There was one small closet that Joanie used, and there was a huge closet that Anne and I used. We also used that closet for a game we played.
Anne, Suni (Judy at the time) and I used to call that closet The Time Machine. We imagined that we could transport ourselves into another time, and then we would make up a story to fit that time as we went along. We played Time Machine a lot, and once we were transported into another time, we could be anywhere to play. However, that will have to be another story.
There was a door and two windows that faced the driveway. The door led out on the roof, where we used to just go out to sit or sunbathe.
The boys were in the big bedroom that faced the back yard. That room ran the entire width of the house. There were six windows that faced the back yard, and one on each end of the room. Actually, Mom would move us around occasionally, as we got older. So, we (Joanie, Anne and I) had that room to at one time.
There was only one small bathroom up stairs. Next to that bathroom was a small hallway and there was a huge bank of built in drawers. The drawers had to be 6’ X 4’ and about 2’ deep. I think it was a storage space for winter blankets and clothes.
We used to hide in them when we’d play Hide ‘n’ Seek. There was also a small space on top of those drawers. A person could get up there and hide too.
I believe we moved from there when Mom was pregnant with Tommy. Mom and Dad had taken us into the room that we used as a T.V. room and announced that a.) she was pregnant again, and b.) that Munnie and Granddad were building a house out close to Lake Worth, called Greenfield Acres, and that we would be moving into their house at 1407 Grand Ave.
There are way too many stories to include in this blog, so I'll just have to tell them later.
