Bumpus House
Gladewater, Gregg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This house is believed to have been built about the turn of the century. Area sawmill owner and road builder William E. Bumpus and his wife Catherine (Harris) purchased the property in 1927. The Bumpus House is a well-preserved example of a large dwelling with Colonial Revival details (dormers, gable ends) and Craftsman influences (tapered box supports on brick piers). A local landmark, the house remained in the Bumpus family until 1987. (1994)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built around the turn of the twentieth century, this Gladewater house blends Colonial Revival dormers and gable ends with Craftsman touches like tapered box supports on brick piers. Sawmill owner and road builder William E. Bumpus and his wife Catherine bought the property in 1927, and it stayed in the family until 1987. It survives as a well-preserved local landmark of early East Texas domestic architecture.
Why it matters
The home reflects the prosperity of the East Texas timber and road-building trades and the eclectic architectural tastes of the early modern era.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · William E. Bumpus
- · Catherine Harris Bumpus
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Franchised Motor Bus Line in Texas
Gladewater, TX
When W. E. Nunnelee began carrying passengers from Tyler to Gladewater and Mt. Pleasant in March 1925, the automobile age was reshaping how ordinary Texans traveled. His fleet of stretched autos and small buses ran 205 miles of newly paved road, and when the Railroad Commission began regulating such lines in 1927, Nunnelee's held franchise No. 1. These rattling, breakdown-prone vehicles — uncomfortable and hard to drive — nonetheless pointed the way toward the modern intercity bus.
First United Methodist Church of Gladewater
Gladewater, TX
Gladewater grew slowly as a railroad town from the 1870s until, in 1922, fourteen people led by the Rev. H.T. Perritte gathered in a family home to organize a Methodist congregation and soon built a one-room sanctuary. Everything changed in the 1930s, when the East Texas oil boom flooded the town with new residents and swelled the church alongside it. Its members went on to form the men's and women's groups that carried the congregation's many programs forward.
Gladewater
Gladewater, TX
Founded in 1827 as St. Clair a few miles east, the settlement moved to Glade Creek and the Texas & Pacific Railway in 1872 and took the name Gladewater. Its population exploded from 500 to 7,000 after oil was discovered in 1931, turning the farming and dairy town into a production and refining hub. The town became known for its East Texas Quarter Horse Show and a nationally known rodeo held in a converted salt-water disposal pit.
Liberty City
Kilgore, TX
This rural Gregg County community was settled before the Civil War and carried a string of colorful names — Sabine, Mount Moriah, McCrary's Chapel, Goforth, and Hog Eye, the last for a settler with a keen eye for hogs. It took the name Liberty City in the opening days of the fabled East Texas oil boom, which transformed the county's economy. The area built its reputation on good schools, farming, ranching, and an admired network of all-weather county roads.