B. D. Orgain House
Bastrop, Bastrop County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This double-galleried Victorian residence was constructed in 1888 for Benjamin Darby Orgain (1843 - 1917), a prominent area banker, attorney, and civic leader. His wife Drucilla (Johnston) (d. 1931) was an assistant teacher in the local Colorado Institute. The exterior of their home features intricate detailing and fishscale shingling. The interior includes woodwork of pine, cherry, mahogany, and walnut. Orgain family members owned the house until 1947. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1981
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the boom years after the Civil War, cotton wealth and commerce reshaped small Texas towns like Bastrop into places of Victorian ambition. In 1888 banker, attorney, and civic leader Benjamin Darby Orgain built this double-galleried residence, its fishscale shingling and interior woodwork of pine, cherry, mahogany, and walnut announcing the prosperity of a rising professional class. Orgain's wife, Drucilla, taught at the local Colorado Institute, and the family held the home for nearly sixty years.
Why it matters
The house preserves the domestic grandeur of the Gilded Age Texas gentry, when bankers and lawyers turned frontier county seats into settled, prosperous communities.
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Related people
- · Benjamin Darby Orgain
- · Drucilla Johnston Orgain
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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