Dallas, Dallas County
Thomas L. Bradford, who built this home by 1907, was a mayor, capitalist and philanthropist. Born in Louisiana in 1869, he moved to Dallas in the 1890s and became an entrepreneur before working in Southwestern Life Insurance Company's finance department, guiding the company's impressive growth and becoming chairman of the board in 1930. In 1929, Bradford donated funds for a newborn baby center, which merged with three other hospitals in 1948 to form Children's Medical Center of Dallas, part of which became Bradford Memorial Hospital. In 1931, the Dallas City Council appointed him Mayor. Bradford died the next year, ending a life of public service and commercial success in Dallas. (2006)