When you live in an old house, it is easy to become fascinated by the things that remain.

The old floors. The tall windows. The doors and trim. An old newspaper clipping with a familiar address printed in tiny type.

I love finding those things.

But the longer we live here, the more I realize that the history of a house is not really about the things at all.

It is about the people.

Finding 837 Jefferson in the Past

One of my favorite parts of researching our home has been finding our address in old newspapers.

There is something almost surreal about seeing 837 Jefferson printed on a newspaper page from more than a century ago.

People were walking through these rooms, preparing meals, visiting with friends and family, going to church, raising children and carrying on with ordinary life here long before Joey and I ever knew this house existed.

A small clipping may not seem especially important at first. For me, though, it changes the way I look at the house. Suddenly the names in property records become people.

Before the House Came the Neighborhood

Our research has also taken us farther back, to the early development of Colonial Hill.

Finding the old subdivision records has been one of my favorite discoveries.

Looking at an old plat and then looking out the front windows today makes more than a century feel strangely close.

The streets were laid out. Lots were drawn. Houses were built.

Then families arrived and began filling them with life.

Generations of Family Life

That is the part of the research I find myself thinking about most.

Different families called this address home over the decades.

The Shepherds were here in the house’s early years. Later came other families, including the Richardsons and the Kents.

Keith and Louise Kent spent many years in Shreveport raising their five sons. Keith was involved in his church and profession, while a busy family life was unfolding at home.

I sometimes wonder what these rooms looked like during those years.

Were children running down the hallway? Was someone calling everyone to supper? Were guests gathering in the parlor? Were Sunday mornings busy with everyone trying to get ready for church?

Those details usually do not make it into deeds or property records.

But they are the details that make a house a home.

And Now It Is Our Turn

Today, another chapter is being written here.

There are mornings with coffee on the porch.

There are Bible studies, church friends, family visits and people gathered around the table.

There are football games on television, meals cooking in the kitchen, garden projects outside and ordinary evenings when Joey and I are simply home together.

Some days are memorable. Most are wonderfully ordinary.

And I have started to think that those ordinary days are probably what the families before us treasured too.

Someday, someone else may research this house.

Maybe they will find one of our photographs. Maybe they will find this website. Maybe they will wonder what life at 837 Jefferson was like in 2026.

I hope what they discover is that this was a house filled with faith, family, friends, hospitality and plenty of everyday life.

Because preserving the history of an old house is important.

But so is continuing its story.

And right now, we get to be part of it.

What About Your Home?

Do you know anything about the people who lived in your home before you?

I would love to hear what you have discovered. Leave me a comment below and tell me about it.