E. W. Clark House, 1908
Snyder, Scurry County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Rancher's town home. Social center. Built to endure, with solid brass hardware, beveled glass doors, embossed leather wainscoting. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1964.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1908 as a rancher's town home in Snyder, the E. W. Clark House was a social center outfitted to last, with solid brass hardware, beveled-glass doors, and embossed leather wainscoting. Such in-town residences let West Texas ranching families enjoy the comforts and society of the county seat while their operations ran out on the range. It was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1964.
Why it matters
The house reflects the prosperity of the West Texas ranching era, when successful stockmen built fine town homes that doubled as centers of community life.
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Related people
- · E. W. Clark
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Stanfield House, 1910
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Mrs. W. B. Stanfield, wife of a Snyder rancher, lived in this home for more than fifty years. She sketched out the plans herself and handed them to a wandering architect passing through from Fort Worth. The result featured fine oak woodwork, pine floors, and leaded glass panels at the entry—comforts of settled prosperity on the West Texas ranching frontier.
First Christian Church
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Eight founding families gathered in 1898 to organize this congregation on the West Texas plains, building their first sanctuary on land donated by A. C. Wilmeth beside Deep Creek—where worshippers sometimes had to wade the swollen water after a rain. The distinctive octagonal building earned the affectionate nickname "Little Round Church." Growth forced a move in 1909, and after oil transformed Snyder's fortunes the congregation doubled by 1950, raising its present church in 1953.
Scurry County Jail of 1912
Snyder, TX
By 1911 Scurry County's two earlier jails, built in 1884 and 1886, had proven too small, so the commissioners court used bond money to purchase this site and raise a sturdy brick building, finished with local labor in 1912. The jailer and his family lived on the first floor, while prisoner cells and even a small hospital occupied the upper two stories. A grim feature set into the design was a trapdoor meant to serve as a hanging gallows. The jail did its duty for more than sixty years.
First Presbyterian Church
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Organized in 1892 as the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church with just seven charter members, this West Texas congregation took root in the young ranching town of Snyder. In 1906 it joined the mainline Presbyterian Church, and by 1929 the small but determined membership had completed the sanctuary whose leaded stained-glass windows honor their sacrifice. A bell forged in 1902, carried from an earlier frame church, still rings today.