Front Street Facelift

Ever wonder where the Julian Café was located? What about Bernard Phillip's Barber Shop? Nettie Whipple's General Store? Ridgeway's Grocery and Market? Smith's Hardware? White's Grocery and Cafe? About 2007, Phillip Rutherford, who was born and raised in Roxton and came back home after retirement, thought you might have such questions. So the good Dr. Rutherford, author of several books on Roxton and its array of interesting citizens, embarked on a project to keep people informed of all that had transpired on Front Street over the decades. 
Thus, if you have ever wandered along Front Street and noticed all the placards denoting the history of the businesses that once occupied that spot, it is the very project Dr. Rutherford dreamed up in 2007. He and his wife Lou Carolyn, using research and pictures that Bea Roden had collected over the years, created the placards we have enjoyed for all these many years. The placards have required maintenance and replacements over the years, no easy task. Recently Lou Carolyn came up with a quite clever remedy to this replacement headache. Working with Forrest Signs of Paris, Texas, the placards are now metal. It is the hope that the new placards will be there for many years detailing Who was Who on Front Street and where each Who was located. 
To complete the Front Street Facelift required the help of an installation expert. Luckily, Lou Carolyn knew just the right person who might qualify for the job. Steve McIntire answered the need, and on a recent Sunday afternoon, he installed all 21 of the placards. Thank you, Steve, for always lending your expertise to community projects. 
The town was able to purchase the new placards with monies from the Phillip Rutherford Book Account and a donation from an anonymous and generous donor. As always, when a need is discovered, Roxtonites step up. I am constantly reminded that much of Roxton's rich and interesting history is available to us because of our two local historians, Dr. Rutherford and Bea Roden. Their research and the new placards will provide the evidence that Roxton's Front Street has played host to many businesses in the town's rich history. Go see for yourself Who was Where and When.