Boy Home Planner

(Reprinted with permission of the Express-News)

 

This newspaper clipping, part of the SAGHS vertical files, was printed in the San Antonio Express on Sunday, 21 December 1924. The article tells the story of Phillip L. Shoop, a gifted eighth-grade student, who, at age 14, was employed as a draftsman to design homes for a San Antonio builder. The house in the photograph, under construction at the time of the article, was being built from plans Philip Shoop had drawn. Philip had been trained in drafting by his father, R. B. Shoop, who was a mechanical engineer for San Antonio’s Alamo Iron Works. Phillip’s training had begun one and one-half years prior to this article, and Phillip had studied five to six hours a day; nonetheless, he still found time to play on his junior high class “C” football team.

 

The materials in the vertical files tell stories. Whether these materials are newspaper clippings such as the one above, inventories of the estates of deceased individuals, lineage charts, donated personal correspondence, or an old picture from another era, there is always a story to be told. What story will you uncover when you use the library’s vertical files?