Researched by Twin Blends
Researched by Twin Blends
— Vincent Van Gogh
— Jimmy Cannon
The Louisiana State Fair of the Past
Researched by Twin Blends
We are twin brothers and best friends who grew up in Southern Hills in Shreveport and played sports together. Neither of us were really interested in history when we were younger, but we always loved looking at old photos. As we got older and retired from sports, we started to get more interested in old pictures of our city’s history. We search through thousands and thousands of old pictures from the past, go to the exact location where they were taken, snap our own picture and then combine those two pictures to form what we call a “Blend.” We then use those photos to tell the history of that location in a fun and exciting way! Since we are “twins” and “blend” the old and new photos together, that’s where the name Twin Blends comes from and you can find us on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and now the web at twinblendshistory.com.
Researched by Twin Blends
Come As You Are
Dine In Your Car
Street Car Trolley
Records Unlimited
The Gang's All Here
How About a Victory Lap?
Bossier City Fire Department History!
Here's a look back in time to March of 1990 when the Bossier City Fire Department was looking to restore the city's first "pumper". Article attached!!! If anyone knows where this pumper is today please let us know!
Photos courtesy Northwest Louisiana Archives at LSUS ... See MoreSee Less
2 CommentsComment on Facebook
Shreveport Fire Department History!
Old No. 2, the fire engine that once served the Cedar Grove community as well as Mooringsport and Shreveport from 1924 to 1954, was restored by local legend Enrico Brocato back in the 1950s! Standing beside Old No. 2 in the first picture is Enrico Brocato and Shreveport Fire Chief Dallas Greene Jr. who recalled trying to outrun the fire engine as a youth!
It was given the name "Gully Jumper" because of it's ability to navigate between ditches and streets! Maybe someone reading this knows what happened to this awesome piece of Shreveport history! Thanks to the Northwest Louisiana Archives at LSUS for preserving this picture! ... See MoreSee Less
5 CommentsComment on Facebook
LSUS Baseball has made another adjustment to Opening Weekend. The Pilots will now open the 2026 season w/ a doubleheader on Thurs., Jan. 22, w/ first pitch set for 3 p.m. and game 2 at 5:30 p.m.
The weekend wraps up with a single game on Fri., Jan. 23 at 12 p.m., at Pilot Field. ... See MoreSee Less
0 CommentsComment on Facebook
Shreveport Fire Department: A Look Back With A.I.
We love Shreveport and we wanted to honor the men and women of the Shreveport Fire Department so we took some old photos that we found at the Northwest Louisiana Archives at LSUS and used our A.I. tool to bring them to life! We aren’t huge fans of A.I., but we love it when it’s used with old photos to have them come alive to show people and places of the past! It’s like someone found film reels in an attic with snippets of the S.P.D. from the early 1890s to 1998 and donated them to Shreveport!
We hope you enjoy the video! Share them with your friends and family! If you have someone that doesn’t do social media then have them go to twinblendshistory.com to see this video and much more!
... ... See MoreSee Less
13 CommentsComment on Facebook
THIS right here absolutely made our day! Thank you Kay Grammer Camp for this AWESOME statement!! ❤️❤️ ... See MoreSee Less
2 CommentsComment on Facebook
Lost Grabill Negatives of Early Broadmoor!
Check out these aerials of the Broadmoor area from the early 1950s! Notice how undeveloped the area is in the photo! Here's the background story of this photo!
Burch Grabill and his son Bill captured a lot of Shreveport’s early history through the lens of their cameras. Many times Burch would shimmy up on top of a building to get the perfect view of a downtown scene or set up his huge wooden camera and tripod in the middle of the street to capture the moment. He passed his love for photography onto his son Bill who would honor the Grabill legacy by following in his dad’s footsteps and saving even more history! Bill Grabill also captured many aerials of this area from an airplane!
Bill Grabill’s Studio (one of several) stood at 1256 Kings Highway. When I-49 came through the city, his studio was scheduled to be demolished to make way for the progress. Through a terrible mix-up, the studio was demolished prematurely and thousands of Grabill negatives and photos were lost forever, upsetting many folks including Grabill and the late historian Eric Brock. Brock was a close friend of Bill Grabill and documented and researched much of his work.
Fast forward to 3 years ago when Jerry Runyon contacted us about a box of negatives he had and wanted to give to us. He stated that many years ago, a friend of his found the box on a curb, looked through some of them and, knowing Jerry loved history, gave them to him. Well, Jerry stored them in his garage and forgot all about them until he came across them 20 years later! That’s when he messaged us and offered them to us! He is a big Twin Blends: Northwest Louisiana History Hunters fan and knew we were the ones to give them to!
As we went through the negatives, we had no idea who had taken the photos and we were stunned at the quality of the photography as well as the historic subject matter! After skimming through about 10 envelopes we saw, to our shock, the words “Grabill Studios” written on bottom of the 11th envelope! Our jaws dropped since we had researched through all of the Grabill collection at the Northwest Louisiana Archives at LSUS and had never seen any of these!! The more envelopes we opened the more it all started making sense! We don’t know how this box made it out of the Grabill Studio before it was demolished (probably forever a mystery) but we are glad it did and wasn’t lost with the rest!! Who knows, maybe more boxes will turn up!!
If you live in the Broadmoor area let us know if you see your house!
To see more photos from this lost collection be sure to search Facebook for "Twin Blends Lost Grabill"!
**These negatives, once we have documented them, will be donated to the Northwest Louisiana Archives at LSUS to be placed in the Grabill collection.
Northwest Louisiana Archives at LSUS
The Shreveport Times
Broadmoor Neighborhood Association ... See MoreSee Less
10 CommentsComment on Facebook
Youree Drive at Kings Highway Intersection!!
If you think the intersection at Youree Drive at Kings Highway is odd now then take a look at what it used to look like before the Youree Extension was added back around 1954! These photos are from the "Lost Grabill Collection" recently rediscovered! It shows just how different that intersection was back in the day. Although we don't have the exact date that Grabill took these photos, we do know it was sometime before 1954 when the extension was done. Thanks to Jerry Runyon for donating these "lost negatives' as well as many more which will soon be added to the Grabill Collection at the Northwest Louisiana Archives at LSUS. Stay tuned for more photos from this stunning collection! (Shreve City when it was barren, Barksdale Airforce Base entrance around 1950 and much more!)
**These negatives, once we have documented them, will be donated to the Northwest Louisiana Archives at LSUS to be placed in the Grabill collection. (The Grabill family graciously donated his collection to the Archives). ... See MoreSee Less
5 CommentsComment on Facebook