7 replies to this topic

[JoelBurns]

I posted this on the Fort Worth Remember When FB group and thought Id also put it out here (thanks for the reminder that I dont visit here as often as I should, friend Andy Nold). Ive pretty much decided since posting that the E Lancaster building was never Ranch Oak.

OP:
Ive been collecting pieces of A Brandt Co. Ranch Oak furniture. I found a website listing the multi-story building on East Lancaster at 287, overlooking I-30, which is currently the haunted house as the headquarters and factory. But I think that was Ranch Style Beans, not Ranch Oak. Due South of there, my mom remembers A Brandt being in the 2-story 1950s-ish building on the south side of East Berry between S Riverside and I-35W. Does anyone remember either or both of these being the home of Ranch Oak? If it wasnt the E Lancaster location in the pic, does anyone know where A Brandt got its start I. 1935 prior to moving into E. Berry.

Just before I was born in 1969, while my parents were awaiting the call from Edna Gladney that Id arrived, my mom was working for Mr Reed Stewart in the Tax Assessor-Collectors office downtown and purchased somewhere downtown a matching set of Ranch Oak including a sofa, lounge chair, magazine end table and round coffee table for their simple ranchhands house on the O.C. and Elizabeth Armstrong Ranch (where my grandfather was the ranch foreman; located near the big blue water tower near present-day Alta Mesa and S Hulen). It was the furniture I grew up with and is still in my parents back room in Crowley.

I have a growing collection in my basement and would also welcome recommendations for Fort Worth area people who know how to re-create the original tied-springs-wrapped-in-cotton-batting cushions, reupholster and in a few cases, refinish the oak. I know theres a guy in Burleson whose dad worked for A Brandt and Im sure there are others. Any recommendations are welcomed.

[John T Roberts]

Joel, I was born in 1957 and here is what I remember.  I realize that I am probably not old enough to provide you with the information that you need, but I will give it a shot.  All that I can recall is that A. Brandt was on E. Berry between I-35W and S. Riverside Drive.  That address is 1300 E. Berry.  I thought the building was built in the '50s or '60s, but I searched for Brandt on the UTA Digital Galleries website, and it appears that Brandt's had aerial photographs taken in 1948, and it shows a much smaller Berry Street facility than what is there now.

 

Ranch Style Beans was located on a tract bounded by E. Lancaster, US 287, and Virginia Ave., with an address of 1734 E. El Paso.  Those buildings are still there and Bruce Conti purchased that property a few years ago.  This piece of property is southeast of the Cutting Edge Haunted House.  Waples Platter, their parent firm at the time had a lot of buildings in the area, so that building may have been part of their holdings.  My firm is doing work and leases our office space from Conti Warehouses, and we have done some work at the old Ranch Style Beans factory.  They had mentioned that some of the buildings were about 100 years old.  I also searched on UTA's site and I found that Ranch Style Beans had a water tower on that site in 1933 with their name on it.  I hope this helps.

 

It's good to have you back posting again.

[Doohickie]

Basement?  YOU HAVE A BASEMENT?

[AndyN]

Sanborn maps are an invaluable resource. Check out the top right corner of page 128 of the 1911 set:

 

https://legacy.lib.u...th-1911-128.jpg

 

Looks like the cutting edge haunted house site across the Lancaster (nee Front) from the T. But the yellow color indicates wood frame construction whereas I believe the current buildings are masonry.

[AndyN]

Even the key map has it labelled.

 

https://legacy.lib.u...h-1911-101k.jpg

[John T Roberts]

The Sanborn Maps are also one of my other go-to sources.  It appears that A. Brandt may have been in the Cutting Edge Haunted House building until they built the new facility on E. Berry Street.

[JoelBurns]

Basement?  YOU HAVE A BASEMENT?

2200 sq ft of all the semi-wanted stuff of all my friends, family and neighbors. It's kinda like having a pickup. Everyone who doesn't have one wants to borrow yours. ;-)

[Doohickie]