Coffield House
Rockdale, Milam County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Beginning in the late 1920s, the use of petrified wood in construction became popular in Texas and throughout the American Southwest. This was due in part to the design of National Park Service buildings in the West which utilized natural materials and style which came to be known as "NPS Rustic." Residences built or clad with petrified wood were sometimes called "stone tree houses." Rockdale businessman H.H. Coffield had a home and grounds facing State Highway 43 (later U.S. Highway 79) clad with petrified wood in the 1930s for use as a rental property. The main house was designed with a cross-gable floor plan with a petrified wood exterior along walls and modified buttresses, brick trim around the entry and around rectangular and circular window openings, and decorative bargeboard along the projecting gables. Additional historic buildings and structures include a decorative well and a detached two-car garage. The property previously featured a low stone fence facing the road. The architect for the property is unknown. In 1995, the Rockdale Chamber of Commerce acquired the property for use as their offices. Founded in 1952, the Chamber of Commerce was a successor of the Young Men's Business League. The Chamber of Commerce continued a legacy of improving Rockdale's economic development by promoting historical tourism and preservation and working jointly with businesses in Rockdale. Besides this historic homestead, petrified wood buildings and structures can be found in Rockdale's Fair Park and throughout Milam County. They are part of the heritage and distinctive cultural landscape of the area. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2018
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the 1930s Rockdale businessman H. H. Coffield clad this rental home in petrified wood, part of a construction fad that swept Texas and the Southwest after the National Park Service popularized rustic buildings made of natural materials. The "stone tree house" combined a cross-gable plan with petrified-wood walls, brick-trimmed openings, and decorative bargeboard. Since 1995 it has served as the Rockdale Chamber of Commerce.
Why it matters
It preserves a distinctive regional building tradition — petrified-wood architecture — that gives Milam County part of its cultural landscape and ties local craft to a national design movement.
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Related people
- · H. H. Coffield
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
City of Rockdale
Rockdale, TX
Rockdale sprang up in 1874 as a stop on the new International & Great Northern Railroad, and it grew fast—soon boasting churches, schools, cotton gins, grist mills, an opera house, a bank, and a newspaper. The city organized formally in 1875, and in 1895 work began on a city hall to the design of Austin architect A. O. Watson. That building housed city offices, social gatherings, and the volunteer fire department for eighty years, and still stands as a reminder of the town's railroad-era rise.
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Three rail lines fueled Rockdale's early growth, and the greatest of them, the International & Great Northern, opened this passenger depot in 1906. It weathered the railroad's 1956 absorption into the Missouri Pacific, saw its last passenger train depart in 1970, and then served for years as storage before a turn-of-the-21st-century restoration. Its eclectic design blends Italianate, Queen Anne, and Prairie elements.
Railroads in Rockdale
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Rockdale was born of the railroad, laid out along the International & Great Northern line in 1873-74 and quickly becoming a shipping point that gave area farmers access to distant markets. Two more lines followed, including the San Antonio & Aransas Pass and, in 1923, a short line built to haul local lignite coal, layering rail commerce onto the town's growth for nearly a century. Passenger service ended in 1970, but the rails remain woven into the community's identity.
Rainbow Tourist Camp and Courts
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