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Thomas
and Mattie Brown House, Wylie,
Texas
Corner of Ballard and Jefferson Streets
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, 2008 |
Historical
Marker Text
Thomas and
Mattie Brown House
William Thomas
Brown (1848-1907), a native of Illinois, married Martha (Mattie) J.
Housewright in 1871. They moved to Wylie
shortly after its establishment on a newly constructed railroad line
from Paris to Dallas
built by the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad company in 1886.
Thomas and his business partner John H. Burns purchased over 31 acres,
which included this site, from Nancy and James Vaughn Russel in 1887.
The Browns secured this home site in 1888 and replaced their original
residence with this ornate Queen Anne style structure in 1905. The
house, with six rooms downstairs and one large room upstairs, exhibits
an unusual variety of material, elaborate roofscape and asymmetrical
plan typical of the Victorian era. The gables of the four dormers
are covered with original fishscale shingles. Prominent features include
a wraparound porch with slender paired doric columns, dentil frieze,
palladian windows and polygonal bays with cutaway corners on their
side elevations.
Although Thomas Brown died just two years after the house was built,
Mrs. Mattie Brown continued to live here until her death in 1922.
The house was then inherited by the Browns' adopted daughter, Tennie
Lee (Rattaree) Creel and remained in her family until 1931.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1992 |
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Thomas
and Mattie Brown House historical marker
Photo courtesy Mike
Price |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and vintage or recent photos, please contact
us. |
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