Special to the Citizen
Loyd Hines was a character in town. He was often seen in town wearing a big hat and boots. They matched his outgoing personality. He had a tire business on the bottom floor of the Masonic Lodge Building. His name can still be seen on the wall of the building at the southeast corner of North Patrick and East Live Oak. In the early 1940s he had a weekly radio show at his tire dealership that featured local musical talent. Several Dublin High School alumni still remember singing on radio station KFPL.
Hines had land west of Dublin where he had established his own airport. I am told that his airport was located west of the city park, behind Silver Lake in that large flat area. By May 1947 he was making improvements and offered charter service, flying lessons, and owned a 220 horsepower Stearman plane. The Loyd Hines airport included 3 runways and a large hanger that was 140x28 feet. It was large enough to house four planes when completed.
Loyd also thought that he found a new way to deliver tractor parts to farmers. He would buzz a farmer’s house with his airplane and on the second pass he would push the part out of the airplane. Hopefully the farmer had stepped out of his house to see where the tractor part landed. There was no report of killing any cattle as the part would drop four or five hundred feet to the ground. What he later found out was the parts didn’t always look the same after the 500 foot fall, particularly if it impacted a rock. Farmers complained that many of the parts were no longer usable after the trip to the ground. Ultimately, he had to go back to the old method of delivering his tractor parts. ( Wade Cowan interview) By June in 1947, his Star Tire business had moved to the warehouse located at his new Ford Tractor Dealership on the Stephenville Highway. Today, that would be across the highway from the Sonic Drive-in. The August 6, 1948 Dublin Progress stated “This new building will be about 60x70 ft. in size and will be used as a parts and display room. The front is being constructed of white brick with large glass windows for display purposes.”He sold Mercury automobiles with ads running weekly in the Dublin Progress.. At that time car dealerships in Dublin might only have one car on display.
After Loyd Hines left, a new remodeled space was created in the Masonic building for an A & P grocery store that would replace the space Hines vacated. The inside was remodeled and new yellow brick was also added to the front of the building.
I think I remember as a very small child going into the Ford Tractor Dealership with my father and seeing a decorative waterfall in the showroom. I have learned recently that Harrell Gilbreath, Dwight Tatum, Lawrence Reed and Eugene Campbell built it. The organizers for the Junior-Senior Prom for 1955 had made plans on having their event in the tractor showroom. As part of the prom decorations, they wanted a waterfall created of rock with real running water. The guys used a plastic kiddie pool, rock from a fallen chiminey and a swamp cooler pump. After the successful prom, the waterfall was liked so well that it stayed. Dublin probably had the only Ford Tractor Showroom in America with its own waterfall.
Historical
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