Blanche Birdsong remembers music always resonating in the halls of her childhood home in downtown Longview.
Her mother spent half a century as the organist at Longview First Baptist Church. She became an international soprano singer, while her big brother reached East Texas radio and television airways with music before becoming an acclaimed research authority on pipe organs.
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Kevin Green/News-Journal Photo | Sonny Birdsong's estate executor Sandra Wiedenfeld goes through some of his music collection. Birdsong hosted a music show on a local television station and was consulted by writes on pipe organs.
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Today, the Victorian home that spawned such musical affection faces Gregg County's North Jail across Whaley Street. White paint chipping from the home and a television antenna some 20 feet high signal a time gone by.
Historic Gregg County, a local preservation group, hopes to sing new life into the Brown-Birdsong House, named for its two previous owners.
The house contains more than memories and history. Sheet music dating to 1906, old phonograph records and documents that have caught interest from archivists as far away as Illinois fill the house.
"The house doesn't need restoration," said Allen McReynolds, a member of Historic Gregg County, which owns the home. Blanche Birdsong donated it to the group after her brother, Sonny Birdsong, died in December.
"It needs a coat of paint outside, so we're working on that, but we're more concerned about raising the funds to purchase the furniture."
The Brown-Birdsong House
The Rev. Bluford Walter Brown and his wife built the Queen Anne-styled home in 1879 as their townhouse, according to McReynolds. Eight years earlier, Brown introduced the state bill that created Gregg County from lands carved from Upshur, Rusk and Harrison counties, and he founded Longview's First United Methodist Church.
After Brown's death, building contractor Lawrence Birdsong bought the home in 1901 for himself and his wife, Mabel Bray Birdsong, said McReynolds. Birdsong built several structures that still are standing in Gregg County, while his wife played the Rogers Lacy Memorial Organ at First Baptist Church for more than 50 years.
Mabel Birdsong also filled the home with furniture already reaching antique status when it arrived — some of it was imported from New York and Europe by way of New Orleans and the Mississippi and Red rivers, or the railroad, McReynolds said.
Their two children — Blanche and older brother Lawrence "Sonny" Jr. — gravitated toward music at an early age.
Blanche Birdsong earned a scholarship to The Julliard School, considered among the world's top academies for the arts, McReynolds said. She used her soprano voice to tour the world and sing on many recordings.
Sonny Birdsong studied at Baylor University and East Texas State University before becoming a Tyler Junior College speech instructor. He hosted a radio show broadcast from the Blackstone Hotel in Tyler, and later hosted a musical show on Longview's first television station, Channel 32. During World War II, he was an Army Air Corps chaplain's assistant.
Sonny Birdsong came to be known beyond East Texas for his research material and knowledge of pipe organs, according to Jeff Weiler, editor of The Journal of American Organbuilding and Theatre Organ. Birdsong devoured information about pipe organs, how they were constructed, the types and the artists who gained national fame as organists.
His friends included Virgil Fox and Jesse Crawford, considered among the top organists and musicians of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Authors leaned on Birdsong's knowledge to write fiction and nonfiction books about pipe organs, such as Jeanette Howett Crumpler's "The Theatre Organ Murders."
"Mr. Birdsong shared primary research materials with authors who were writing books on the subject," Weiler said. Authors wanted facts about pipe organs, whose sounds wafted in church sanctuaries and motion picture halls prior to movies with spoken word, and Birdsong loaned materials to facilitate that research, Weiler said.
What's inside
Blanche Birdsong, who's lived in Germany for decades, didn't want news cameras inside the house, according to estate executor Sandra Wiedenfeld.
Her brother continued to live in the home until his death Dec. 18. He left behind recordings of famed artists, his sister's performances on Longview and Dallas radio stations, sheet music — some which his mother used for practice prior to 1910 — and documents and letters — all of it stacked from floor to ceiling throughout the house, the executor said.
Wiedenfeld contacted Weiler upon Sonny Birdsong's death to make the recordings and documents available to the American Theater Organ Society's archives in Chicago, for which Weiler serves as archival liaison. He plans to meet Blanche Birdsong in Longview this summer to examine what he wants and what could remain with Historic Gregg County.
"We expect to find books, catalogs and correspondence. Those kinds of items have equal if not greater value to us than might the recordings, for example, which could have been widely distributed," Weiler said. "It's these kinds of opportunities that mean a tremendous amount to historians and researchers such as myself, because collections like this allow us to connect some dots that heretofore have remained unconnected."
McReynolds eyes the furnishings, as does 20-year local antique dealer George Preston. Among the pieces are a Rococo etagere from the mid-19th century; a bedroom set the Northcutt family gave to Mabel Birdsong; porcelains from Old Paris, a section of France's capital, also from the mid-19th century; armoires and furniture pieces designed by elite artists and furniture creators of their times, they said.
"There are some wonderful, wonderful American empire antiques," McReynolds said. "(Sonny) Birdsong's personal organ in the entry hall ... we'd love to have it stay in the house."
McReynolds said there's even a cake still wrapped on a shelf that congratulated Sonny's mother on her 50th year as First Baptist Church's organist. The cake is dated 1974.
"Sonny," McReynolds said, "threw nothing away."
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If you go
What: "Birth and Growth of a Railroad Town: Longview, Texas." held by Preservation Longview and the city's Cultural Arts Advisory Commission
When: Today, 5:15 p.m. reception, 6 p.m. opening ceremony
Where: First United Methodist Church, 400 N. Fredonia St.
Cost: Free
Contact: Victoria Wilson, (903) 235-9087
Comments
By Murray Moore
Feb 1, 2009 3:22 PM | Link to this
If people are interested in preserving historical homes they should come together and pay for the restoration. This task should not be laid upon the taxpayers in Longview and Gregg County.
This is an issue that should be done with private money and no taxpayer money. Better facilities for the local train station benefits all Longview and Gregg County residents. If any tax money is used, it should only go to the restoration and improvements of the local Amtrak station.
Improving the train station has been on the local agenda way long before the sudden rush to restore the Campbell house and others. No tax dollars, hotel/motel tax, etc. should go for the restoration of these houses.
By Cherie Camron
Feb 1, 2009 12:17 PM | Link to this
Well, city of Longview doesn't understand history. We should have a ton more of historical homes and sites in this town. Gregg County needs to preserve more as well. I am all for history and keeping alive for our children's children to understand the past and not make the same mistakes. Our county and city needs more history saving done but it is too late for the most part. Good going on saving something. The ole schools have been torn down. That was a waste. If a few old churchs have seen demolition which says growth is better than preserving a rich history.
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