James-Fujita House
Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Completed in 1915 for Thomas (d. 1935) and Annie James, this home was purchased four years later by Kanetaro Fujita. Fujita served as president of a Japanese cotton exporting firm, the Gosho Company, incorporated in 1917 and dissolved just after the U.S. entry into World War II. In 1936, after Fujita returned to Japan, he sold the home to the company. Prominent features of the James-Fujita house include its gambrel roof and front porch columns and balusters. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1986.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Completed in 1915 for Thomas and Annie James, this gambrel-roofed Fort Worth home was bought four years later by Kanetaro Fujita, president of the Gosho Company, a Japanese cotton-exporting firm. The business, incorporated in 1917, thrived on the trans-Pacific cotton trade until it was dissolved just after the United States entered World War II. Fujita returned to Japan in the 1930s, selling the house to his company.
Why it matters
The home stands as a rare marker of Japanese immigrant enterprise in early-20th-century Texas and a quiet reminder of how World War II abruptly severed the lives and businesses of Japanese residents in America.
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Related people
- · Kanetaro Fujita
- · Thomas James
- · Annie James
Themes & tags
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