HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Evans House

Navasota, Grimes County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Newlyweds John Thomas and Maude Martin Evans built this house in 1894 on land given to them by his mother. A ticket agent for the International and Great Northern Railway Company, Evans also served the city of Navasota as alderman and city treasurer. The typical 19th-century vernacular house features a gable roof, and a three-bay porch with elaborate balustrade, turned wood posts, spindlework frieze, and jig-sawn brackets. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1991

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Newlyweds John Thomas and Maude Martin Evans built this Navasota house in 1894 on land given by his mother. Evans worked as a ticket agent for the International and Great Northern Railway while serving his town as alderman and city treasurer. The home is a fine example of 19th-century vernacular building, with a gabled roof and a three-bay porch dressed in turned posts, spindlework, and jig-sawn brackets.

Why it matters

The Evans House reflects the small-town railroad prosperity of Gilded Age Texas, when a rail agent could also be a civic pillar and afford the decorative flourishes of the era's carpentry.

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Related people

  • · John Thomas Evans
  • · Maude Martin Evans

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

First Baptist Church of Navasota

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Six men founded this church in the spring of 1860, one of the first congregations of any faith in the young railroad town of Navasota. The Houston & Texas Central Railway donated the site, and a native-stone sanctuary — planned by the pastor's wife, Mrs. A. E. Baten — was completed in 1890. That 1890 building survived fire and still stands after restoration in 1971.

Saint Paul's Episcopal Church

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Founded as an Episcopal mission in 1864 during the closing year of the Civil War, this Navasota congregation became a parish in 1866 and took the name St. Paul's in 1870. In a resourceful move common on the frontier, the congregation acquired an existing church building from St. Paul's in nearby Washington and relocated it onto land donated by the Houston and Texas Central Railway, later replacing it with a new sanctuary in 1891. For generations the parish has anchored the town through worship, education, and outreach.

Site of Freeman Inn

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