James Claude Wright House
Weatherford, Parker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On September 20, 1898, Robert P. Lowe and his wife purchased the property at this site. The commonly held belief is that the house was built by Robert Lowe, who retired from Mobile and Ohio Railroad in 1894 and settled his family in Weatherford. He built the home sometime between 1897 and 1899 during construction of the building that would house his hardware business. Due to a fire that destroyed the Parker County Courthouse in 1874 early records of the home are non-existent. The earliest Sanborn map is for 1885 that depicts a home at the current location and the 1894 map depicts the same home which strongly suggests that a pre-existing structure was expanded or remodeled in the 1890s. The Wright House represents the Queen Anne style, but with minimal modifications. In 1905, the back porch was enclosed to create a bathroom, closets were added in the bedrooms and the kitchen was remodeled. The original transoms are still in place as is the stained-glass transom panel over the front door. After the death of Robert Lowe in 1920 and his wife Evalina in 1924, the house was eventually sold to Nannie Hauser in 1927. James Claude and Marie Wright purchased the home from Hauser in 1940. James Wright started a business selling street signs to small towns and established national trade days to help promote small businesses. The descendants of James Wright occupied the home until 1972. In 2009, the City of Weatherford purchased the home to prevent demolition and convert the space to city offices. This historic home's architecture and ties to the Lowe and Wright family enhance Weatherford's historic fabric. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2012
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This Queen Anne home in Weatherford dates to the late 1890s, most likely built by retired railroad man Robert Lowe as he opened a hardware business nearby, though an 1874 courthouse fire erased the earliest records and old Sanborn maps hint an earlier structure was enlarged. Its original transoms and a stained-glass panel over the front door still survive. In 1940 it passed to James Claude Wright, who built a business selling street signs to small towns and promoting national trade days, and the city bought the house in 2009 to save it from demolition.
Why it matters
Saved from the wrecking ball and turned to public use, the house shows how a town preserves the domestic architecture and small-business enterprise that gave it character.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Robert P. Lowe
- · James Claude Wright
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Franco-Texan Land Company Building
Weatherford, TX
Built around 1870, this two-story brick storefront was the beating heart of Weatherford's money and politics as the frontier gave way to the railroad age. It housed the first bank west of Dallas, opened by cattle-fortune banker James Couts, and later the law offices of Samuel Willis Tucker Lanham, who would become governor of Texas. In the 1890s it served the troubled Franco-Texan Land Company, which speculated on the vast stretch of country the Texas and Pacific Railway opened between Weatherford and El Paso.
Merchants and Farmers State Bank
Weatherford, TX
Chartered in early 1889 as a national bank with $100,000 in capital, this Weatherford institution converted to a state charter in 1909 and took the name Merchants and Farmers State Bank. From its corner on the town square it became the primary source of credit for the county's farms, businesses, and homebuyers, guided by a succession of long-serving presidents. Renamed over the decades, it helped underwrite Parker County's growth for more than a century.
James Robertson Couts
Weatherford, TX
A Tennessee native and Civil War veteran, James Robertson Couts brought his family to Parker County in the mid-1860s and, with the proceeds of a cattle drive to California, opened a bank in Weatherford that endures today. An influential civic figure, he left an endowment to Weatherford College in his will and now rests beside his first wife, Martha. His life bridged the cattle-trailing frontier and the settled world of banking and philanthropy.
Fred Rider Cotten
Weatherford, TX
Fred Rider Cotten (1894–1974) was a Weatherford native who returned home after earning a University of Texas law degree to run a remarkable range of family enterprises, from a furniture store to a swine farm and a funeral home. During the Depression he oversaw Works Progress Administration projects that gave the town a new city hall and rebuilt streets. A tireless organizer, he led state trade and historical associations and became the first president of the Parker County Historical Commission.