Beverly-Harris House
McKinney, Collin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Warren Tully Beverly (1857-1903) was a native of Collin County, attending Spring Creek School and Plano Institute. He studied law in the office of Joseph W. Baines, grandfather of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Beverly served as county attorney and later as judge of the 59th district court. In 1886 he built this Victorian house for his family. In 1903 it was sold to Louisa Kirkpatrick Harris. Members of the Harris family lived here until 1960. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1979***
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Warren Tully Beverly, a Collin County native educated at Spring Creek School and the Plano Institute, read law in the office of Joseph W. Baines — grandfather of the future president Lyndon B. Johnson. He rose to county attorney and district judge, and in 1886 built this Victorian house for his family. After his death it passed to the Harris family, who kept it until 1960.
Why it matters
The home links an ordinary North Texas jurist to the family roots of a U.S. president, a reminder of how tightly interwoven the state's professional and political lineages could be.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the late 1800s, North Texas was changing quickly. The frontier days were fading, farms were spreading across the blackland prairie, and county seats like McKinney were becoming centers of law, trade and social life. Courthouse towns drew lawyers, judges and merchants, and many of them built fine homes to show their success.
The Victorian style was everywhere then. Railroads could bring milled lumber, decorative trim and new building ideas to towns that had been settled only a generation earlier. A Victorian house signaled that a family had arrived and that their town had too.
In that era, many young men became lawyers by "reading law" in an established attorney's office rather than going to a law school. That apprenticeship system tied professional circles together, and it connects this house to a family that would later produce a president.
People & events
Warren Tully Beverly was born in 1857 in Collin County. He attended Spring Creek School and the Plano Institute, the kind of local schools that educated a rising generation in North Texas. He then studied law in the office of Joseph W. Baines, the grandfather of Lyndon Baines Johnson.
Beverly built a solid public career. He served as county attorney and later as judge of the 59th District Court, positions that put him at the center of the region's legal life. In 1886 he built this Victorian house for his family.
Beverly died in 1903, and the house was sold that year to Louisa Kirkpatrick Harris. Her family made it their home for decades, and members of the Harris family lived here until 1960. The house was recognized as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1979.
Its place in the American story
The house is a reminder of how closely connected the professional world of nineteenth-century Texas was. A county judge in McKinney learned law from the grandfather of a future president. The state's legal and political circles were small, and ties of mentorship and family ran through them.
Beverly's path also shows a major American tradition: learning law by apprenticeship. For much of the country's history, that's how lawyers were trained, and many judges and politicians, including some of the country's most famous, began their careers this way.
The house also tells a story about domestic life and continuity. One family built it, and another lived in it for nearly sixty years. Houses like this record how ordinary prosperous families lived in small-city America from the Gilded Age into the mid-twentieth century.
If you visit
Look at the house's Victorian character, the details and proportions that marked a family of standing in 1880s McKinney. Unless you know otherwise, assume it may be a private home and enjoy it respectfully from the street.
McKinney is a good place to explore on foot. Its historic downtown and nearby neighborhoods preserve much of the era when this house was built, and you can get a feel for the courthouse town Beverly knew.
The house is an easy addition to a North Texas trip, especially for anyone interested in legal history, architecture or the roots of the Johnson family. It's a small site connected to a much bigger American story.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Warren Tully Beverly
- · Joseph W. Baines
- · Louisa Kirkpatrick Harris
Themes & tags
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