Moores-Burke-Ragland Home
Texarkana, Bowie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This residence was erected in 1895 for Rachel Perry Godbold Moores (1830-1904). Her husband David (1827-1892) was a member of the pioneer Moores family. Henry Koerner designed the Neo-Classical house with decorative fish scale shingling. The interior has elegant parquet flooring. Robert Emmett Burke bought the house in 1904. It was occupied from 1920 to 1965 by the S. M. Ragland family. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1978
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1895 for Rachel Perry Godbold Moores, widow of a member of Texarkana's pioneer Moores family, this Neo-Classical residence was designed by architect Henry Koerner with fish-scale shingling and elegant parquet floors. It passed to Robert Emmett Burke in 1904 and later housed the Ragland family for nearly half a century. The house stands as a showpiece of a booming late-19th-century railroad town on the Texas-Arkansas line.
Why it matters
Grand family homes like this trace the rise of a Gilded Age Texas town and the families whose fortunes shaped it.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When this house went up in 1895, Texarkana was still a young town, but it was growing quickly. It grew up in the 1870s where railroads met at the line between Texas and Arkansas. The town straddled that border, which is still marked in its name. Rail lines brought lumber, cotton, merchants and new residents, and within a generation the town held churches, businesses and fine homes.
Nationally, the 1890s fell at the end of the Gilded Age. Railroads were tying the country into a single market, and the families who prospered by them liked to show it in their houses. In a railroad town like this one, a well-built home on a good street showed that a family had arrived and meant to stay.
The decade also brought a new architectural taste. The ornate, rambling Victorian styles were giving way to a cleaner Neo-Classical look inspired by Greece and Rome. Many houses of the period, this one included, sit between the two. Classical order sits alongside playful Victorian details such as patterned shingles.
People & events
The story begins with a widow. Rachel Perry Godbold Moores had married into the Moores family, one of the area's pioneer families. Her husband David died in 1892, and three years later this house was built for her. She was in her mid-sixties when she moved in, and she lived here for close to a decade, until her death in 1904.
The design was the work of Henry Koerner. He gave the house a Neo-Classical form and covered parts of it in fish-scale shingles, overlapping rounded shingles that catch the light like the scales they are named for. Inside, he chose parquet floors, with small pieces of wood fitted into geometric patterns. That kind of floor took skill to lay and showed care in every room.
The year Rachel died, Robert Emmett Burke bought the house. Later the S. M. Ragland family lived here for forty-five years, from 1920 to 1965. That span covered the Roaring Twenties, the Depression, the Second World War and the postwar boom. The names in the house's title record three chapters of one address. In 1978 the state recognized it as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
Its place in the American story
Across America, railroad towns grew up almost overnight in the decades after the Civil War. Texarkana was one of them. Homes like this one show how quickly those towns grew from rough settlements into established places, with local architects designing and skilled craftsmen building for families who expected to stay for generations.
The house also shows the country's changing taste in architecture. The move from high Victorian ornament toward classical restraint was happening nationwide in the 1890s, pushed along by fashions spreading from the big cities. Seeing that change in a Texas border town shows how far the railroads carried ideas as well as freight.
Finally, the house has lasted through several owners. Many grand homes of the period were torn down as downtowns changed and families moved to the suburbs. One that passed through several owners and survived keeps a record of American life across the twentieth century.
If you visit
Look up first. The fish-scale shingling is the house's signature detail. It is easiest to appreciate when the sun rakes across it and the rounded edges throw small shadows. Then step back and take in the whole house, noticing how the classical lines hold the decorative touches in balance.
This is a historic landmark, so check whether it is privately occupied before you approach. If it is, enjoy it from the sidewalk and respect the owners' privacy. The parquet floors described on the marker are inside, so you may only be able to imagine them.
Texarkana makes a good stop on a road trip, especially for the novelty of a city split between two states. Pair this house with a walk or drive through the older parts of town. Then look for the state line itself, a reminder of the railroad crossroads that made all this building possible.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Rachel Perry Godbold Moores
- · David Moores
- · Henry Koerner
- · Robert Emmett Burke
Themes & tags
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