Tillman County Chronicles: L.T. Martin

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Martin was early Frederick business man

Frederick's Grand Avenue, 1912

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Martin office was in downtown Frederick

In the summer of 2009 the Tillman County Historical Society received a 1912 album of photographs that was sent at Christmas that year to relatives of the L.T. Martin family of Frederick.
The album was returned to Frederick as a gift to the historical society by the Martins' great-niece Mari Wright of Florida.
Mr. Martin was a successful real estate man and lender in early Frederick. The album contained many photographs of their wonderful home at 405 North 11th Street in Frederick (see Tillman County Chronicles blog post "L.T. Martin home, 1912", April 8, 2011).

The album also contained a photograph of Mr. Martin and a secretary working in his Frederick office, as well as a photograph of Grand Avenue looking toward the northeast (posted above).

L.T. Martin office in Frederick, 1912

Where was Mr. Martin's office located in 1912?

That is an interesting question, with no definite answer. Several clues, however, lead to a speculative answer.

The photo of Grand Avenue was taken from the vantage point of a second level window on the south side of the 200 block of West Grand Avenue. This was almost certainly the upper floor of the building that many Frederick residents would later know at the Tomlinson or TG&Y building. In Frederick's earliest decades the second level of all downtown buildings served as professional offices, rental rooms and apartments, and even hospital rooms.

The second level of the Tomlinson building adjoined offices above the McLellan Furniture and Undertaking building on the west (decades later the Marks Dress Shop) and the First National Bank Building (currently Frederick City Hall) on the east. Today those offices have been empty and unused for decades, but in 1912 they were a hive of activity.

So... The 1912 photo of Grand Avenue was almost certainly taken from offices above the Tomlinson Building.

Could that photo, included in the Martin photo album, have been taken from Mr. Martin's office?

The answer is likely "Yes".

The photo of Mr. Martin in his office with his secretary could well have been in the same building. The office's distinctive round-top windows match the original window shape of the Tomlinson building's.

As a real estate investor, L.T. Martin certainly owned other properties.

The Martins seem to have left Frederick by 1919. The Martins were not included in the 1919 city directory, which showed that their home at 405 North 11th had another owner.

A 1920 publication, though, referred to the building at 108 North Main as the L.T. Martin building. Although the North Main property was apparently aquired by Martin during his years in Frederick, it does not appear to be the site of the 1912 office photograph.

Joe Wynn is a member of the Tillman County Historical Society’s board of directors. He can be contacted by e-mail at tillmanokhistory@gmail.com.

Friday, April 8, 2011

L.T. Martin Home, 1912

Sent to The Frederick Leader and The Frederick Press, July 2009

L.T. Martin Home, North 11th in Frederick, 1912

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Photos show 1912 Frederick home

In the early days of Tillman County, it was common for folks to hire a photographer to take a picture of their home. The photographs were then often sent to family members in other parts of the country to show their prosperity.

That’s exactly what the Lawrence T. Martin family did in 1912.

While most families settled for a single picture of their home, though, the Martins had every room in their home photographed. The photos were assembled into a small album and at Christmas 1912 they were mailed to Mr. Martin’s cousin, Margaret Peck Wright, in Concordia, Kansas.

Mr. and Mrs. L.T. Martin and Lawrence, Jr.

The Martins and family cat on the home's front porch.

A few weeks ago, almost 97 years later, the album was returned to Frederick as gift to the Tillman County Historical Society by Mari Wright, Mrs. Wright’s granddaughter, who lives in Florida.

Its amazing photos provide a look into the life of a prosperous Tillman County family in 1912.

Martin family included Lawrence (L.T.), his wife Ella, and their son Lawrence, Jr.

Their home, located at 405 North 11th Street in Frederick, still stands today and is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Fabian Reyes. In 1912, the house featured a full porch with large brick columns and was covered with ivy.

A photo of North 11th Street in 1912 shows an unpaved roadway with wagon tracks, young trees, and electric poles lining both sides of the street.

Photos of the living room and dining room show the home’s furniture, lace curtains, elaborate wallpaper, and the many personal decorative touches that made the house a home for the Martin family.

In the 1912 kitchen, there were no built-in cabinets, but a long sink, a work table, a pie-safe type hutch, a wooden ice box, and a massive cast-iron stove.

The home had four bedrooms and each is pictured in the album.

Although the home was wired for electricity, in 1912 that meant only that it had electric lights. Electricity had been available to Frederick homes since 1906, but there were few if any electric appliances available at that time and no electrical outlets. In most of the Martins’ bedrooms there was rough electric cord that draped from the center light fixture, wrapped around the head of the bed, and ended in a bare bulb suspended over the bed for a reading light.

Each room, including the upstairs hallway, featured wooden floors with decorative rugs.

Mrs. Martin is pictured on north side of the home.

The photos are not limited to upstairs rooms. They also include the basement laundry room where a woman is pictured using a scrubbing board in a big sink; the basement furnace room which shows an large cast-iron furnace, coal bin, and kindling bin; and Lawrence, Jr.’s playroom where he is pictured in a railroad conductor’s outfit playing with a toy train set.

The album also features a picture of busy Grand Avenue and one of Mr. Martin’s office which was located on the second floor of a downtown building, probably in the 200 block of West Grand. A 1916 item in the Frederick Leader described L.T. Martin as “one of Frederick’s leading real estate men” who “does an extensive farm loan business and is one of the progressive town boosters.”

Martin living room, 1912

The Martin family apparently left Frederick sometime between 1916 and 1919. A 1919 Frederick directory showed 405 North 11th as the home of prominent attorney Prov Mounts.

PHOTOS FOLLOW

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