Midland's First House
Midland, Midland County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Of concrete blocks, 1908. Western Ranch style. Home of Raymond and Edith Lawrence. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1965.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built of concrete blocks in 1908 in the Western Ranch style, this was the first house in the young town of Midland, then a rough cattle settlement on the West Texas plains. It was home to Raymond and Edith Lawrence and stands as a tangible link to the community's earliest days.
Why it matters
First houses like this one mark the moment a railroad stop or ranching outpost began to become a permanent American town.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By the first years of the 1900s, the town of Midland had grown up as a stop on the plains of West Texas, in a landscape shaped by ranching and the railroad. Building a home out here was no small thing. Timber was scarce, distances were vast, and settlers made do with whatever durable materials they could source or manufacture close to hand.
The wider country was in the middle of the Progressive era, a time of new methods and materials working their way even into remote settlements. Among these was the concrete block, a relatively novel choice for a house in 1908, prized because it was sturdy, fire-resistant, and well suited to a place where good building wood did not grow.
Against that backdrop, a solid concrete-block home in the Western Ranch style was a statement of permanence, a sign that a family meant to stay and that the settlement around them was becoming a real town.
People & events
This house was built in 1908 for Raymond and Edith Lawrence, and its very construction tells you something about them. Choosing concrete block in that era, in that place, was a choice for durability and for the future, the mark of a household putting down deep roots on the West Texas plains.
The Western Ranch style it was built in was the practical vernacular of the region, low and grounded, shaped by the demands of open country and hard weather rather than by fashion. A home like this was made to live in, work from, and endure.
In 1965 the house was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, the state's way of marking a building that carries genuine historical significance. That recognition preserves not just the walls, but the memory of the early residents who helped turn a frontier settlement into a community.
Its place in the American story
Early houses like this one mark a turning point that played out in thousands of American places: the moment a rough outpost, a railroad stop, or a ranching settlement begins to harden into a permanent town. When families start building to last rather than to get by, a community has crossed a threshold.
The choice of concrete block also connects this modest home to a broader national story. In the early twentieth century, new building materials and construction ideas spread outward from cities to the frontier, and even a remote Texas town could reach for something modern and enduring.
Most of all, the house honors the everyday people who do the quiet work of settlement. National history remembers generals and presidents, but towns are actually made by families like the Lawrences, who built solid homes and stayed.
If you visit
Come to this spot in Midland and picture the plains as they were in 1908, wide, treeless, and open to the weather, with a young town just beginning to take shape. A sturdy concrete-block house in that setting would have stood out as something built to endure.
Look at the low, practical lines of the Western Ranch style and notice how the design answers the land: grounded, unfussy, made for a place of big skies and hard sun. The building itself is the artifact here, a tangible link to the community's earliest days.
If you are exploring Midland's history, this makes a fitting first stop, a chance to stand at the roots of the town before its later chapters and to appreciate the plain courage of the families who chose to stay and build.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Raymond Lawrence
- · Edith Lawrence
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Staked Plains
Midland, TX
The Staked Plains was the first newspaper published in Midland County, printed in 1885 from a frame building on this site. Each copy was hand-set and hand-printed on an old-style press at a rate of about five per hour, and the paper carried county court proceedings at three-quarters of a cent per square inch. J.C. Rathbun served as its editor and publisher.
Dorsey Home
Midland, TX
This Midland residence, built by Z. Taylor Brown, survives as an example of the ornamented craftsmanship of an earlier era, with its decorative trim, art-glass window, two fireplaces, and oak mantels. Recognized as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1965, the home reflects the settled prosperity that took hold as Midland grew from a raw railroad stop into an established West Texas town.
Brown-Dorsey House
Midland, TX
Rancher and merchant Z. Taylor Brown brought his family to Midland in 1884 and had this home built in 1899, complete with carved woodwork, an art-glass window, and three fireplaces sharing a single chimney. Believed to be the oldest dwelling in Midland, it stayed in the Brown family for seventy years, passing to daughter Sara Brown Dorsey. It survives as a rare piece of the town's frontier beginnings.
W. B. Anglin
Midland, TX
W.B. Anglin, a Virginia-born member of Company B of the Texas Rangers' Frontier Battalion, joined the force around 1875 at about age 25. On July 1, 1879, he was killed near this spot while trailing a Comanche raiding party and was buried where he fell. Remembered for his bravery and good humor, Anglin is recorded as the last man slain by Indians in central West Texas.