In response to a Facebook comment by Charles Senna concerning his memories of Tuscaloosa's demolished Buck House (circa 1854-1950), I wanted to find a newspaper clipping about the Buck family who were the last owners of the Buck House which once stood on the northeast corner of 19th Avenue and University Boulevard. I decided to search newspapers.com for "MRS. BUCK" TUSCALOOSA. I stared at the first 20 or so of the 9,499 clippings resulting from the search and clicked one from the April 9, 1910 TUSCALOOSA NEWS. I stared at my first selection in complete awe and astonishment.

Ya see, me working on a Facebook post about Buck House is considered a complete waste of time when viewed from the perspective of MY BIG AGENDA which is to have a book about the 1948 novel DEVIL MAKE A THIRD ready for publication by 2023, the 75th anniversary of the printing of the first edition of the novel. Well, IN REALITY, my BUCK HOUSE DISTRACTION hit PAYDIRT! 

From the April 9, 1910 Tuscaloosa News

So who is "Annie Laurie Longshore" and what's she got to do with the novel DEVIL MAKE A THIRD?

Two months after this April of 1910 visit for the Senior Dance at BAMA,  18-year-old Annie Laurie married 39-year-old Sam Friedman and a year later she gave birth to girl named Helen. Helen would grow up to become Helen Friedman Blackshear, poet laurette of the State of Alabama and mother of my late friend Len Stevenson. 

Many years later in 1937, the author of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD, Dothan's Dougie Bailey, would marry one of Sam and Annie Laurie Friedman's nieces, Gadsden's Louise Herzberg. While writing his novel, Dougie decided he liked his wife's Aunt Annie Laurie Friedman' maiden name of LONGSHORE and used it as the last name for the character of "Amos Longshore", the banker in Bailey's turn-of-the-19th-century period novel. 

So I guess in the long run, I didn't waste any time looking for a BUCK HOUSE CLIPPING and ended up fitting this time into MY BIG AGENDA!

So here's the DEVIL MAKE A THIRD connection: 

“This interesting example of the Gothic Revival as it appears in home-building was constructed about 1850 by Lucian Van Buren Martin, with bricks made on site by slaves. Walls fourteen inches thick, plastered over, and painted to imitate stone. Then were added steep roof, sharp gables, tall stucco chimneys, and painted windows, characteristic of the Gothic. The whole lavishly trimmed with jigsaw work. Heavy paneled front door of walnut, framed in ruby glass.”

The Old Buck Boarding House, at 1816 Broad St. (now University Boulevard) just west of Queen City Avenue, was built around 1850. Ownership of the house changed many times over the years, but the James Hall Buck family owned it for many years. Records show that it was deeded to a Buck daughter, Nellie Buck Morris, in 1926. The house provided boarding for state dignitaries when Tuscaloosa was the state capitol and was later used for apartments. The house was demolished in 1950.

The obituary of James Hall Buck, sent by Barry Newman, shows that Nellie Buck Morris was one of six girls and two boys born to Mr. and Mrs. James Hall Buck. Born in Virginia in 1835, Buck had lived in Tuscaloosa since 1875. His parents were distinguished; his mother was the niece of President James Madison. At 25, Buck was a captain in the service of the confederacy and served with gallantry throughout the war.

His active career in Tuscaloosa was that of planter on the beautiful “Buck Place” a few miles east of the city, but he had been in poor health long before his death in 1906.

The slave house that stood behind the Buck House still stands, but the owner is petitioning to tear it down. Delaying demolition or restoration will allow Mother Nature to destroy it. Note the collapsing roof in the photo.