Colmesneil, W.T., House
Colmesneil, Tyler County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Willaim Taylor Colmesneil, the man for whom the town was named, built this house in 1883. He was one of the first conductors on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, a passenger train that ran from Beaumont to Rockland. According to legend, Colmesneil had the house built facing the railroad tracks so that he could sit on the front porch and warch the trains go by. Colmesneil sold the house to Frank Patterson in 1885 and moved on with the railroad. He married Fannie Taylor in 1886, and one child, Charles, was born to the marriange. Colmesneil worked as a railroad conductor throughout his life and died in Evansville, Indiana in 1907. Cowners of the home after Patterson included J.E. Votaw, Dr. William Martin Van Buren Stewart, Robert L. Mann and Katherine Magouyrk.The original section of the shiplap siding house is a center-passage floor plan with a large room on either side of a hallway and tapered brick chimneys on the ends. Paired double-hung windows are aligned on either side of the chimneys and the entry door. An early addition of rooms and a new porch entry created a modified L-plan layout.Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2008
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
William Taylor Colmesneil, one of the first conductors on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, built this shiplap house in 1883 in the town that bears his name. Legend holds he oriented it to face the tracks so he could watch the trains from his porch. He sold the house to Frank Patterson in 1885 and moved on with the railroad, working as a conductor until his death in 1907, while later owners expanded the original center-passage plan into an L-shaped home.
Why it matters
The house ties a small Texas town's identity to the railroad men whose lines opened the Piney Woods to commerce and settlement.
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Related people
- · William Taylor Colmesneil
- · Frank Patterson
Themes & tags
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