Omar L. Fletcher Home
Temple, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Omar L. Fletcher (1887-1975), a native of Bell County, was an industrialist and civic leader. He and his father James Fletcher were the successors to a family business, started in 1881, which became Fletcher Enterprises, a prominent banking and industrial firm. Ernest Scrivener of San Antonio designed and constructed this house for Fletcher in 1924. The Mediterranean influences include the use of white brick, a tiled roof, and an arched entrance. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1979
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Omar L. Fletcher, a Bell County native born in 1887, joined his father in carrying on a family business begun in 1881 that grew into Fletcher Enterprises, a leading banking and industrial firm. In 1924 San Antonio builder Ernest Scrivener designed this Mediterranean-influenced house for him, with white brick, a tiled roof, and an arched entrance. It stood as the home of a prominent local industrialist and civic leader.
Why it matters
The residence of a self-made industrialist reflects the wealth and confident architectural tastes of Central Texas's early-twentieth-century business elite.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Bell County in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was part of a Central Texas being reshaped by railroads. Temple itself was founded in 1881 as a railroad town. It grew up around the tracks, shops and commerce the railroad brought. Notably, that is the same year the Fletcher family business began, so the business and the town came of age together.
By the 1920s, Central Texas towns like Temple had matured. Banks, merchants and local industries had built real fortunes, and successful families wanted homes that showed it. It was a prosperous decade for many American businessmen, and the houses they built reflected confidence and a taste for fashionable styles.
One of the most popular of those styles was Mediterranean-inspired design, with stucco or light-colored masonry, red tile roofs and graceful arches. It evoked sunshine and old-world elegance, and it suited the warm Texas climate well.
People & events
Omar L. Fletcher was born in Bell County in 1887 and lived until 1975, a life that spanned horse-drawn wagons to the space age. He grew into an industrialist and civic leader, the kind of figure whose name turns up on boards, building projects and community causes in a growing Texas town.
He and his father, James Fletcher, succeeded to a family business that had started in 1881. Under their leadership it became Fletcher Enterprises, a prominent banking and industrial firm. Shifting from a family business into a broader enterprise of banking and industry was a path many Texas fortunes followed as the state's economy diversified.
In 1924 Fletcher commissioned this house. It was designed and built by Ernest Scrivener of San Antonio, who handled both the design and the construction. The result shows Mediterranean influences in its white brick, tiled roof and arched entrance. In 1979 the home was recognized as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
Its place in the American story
The Omar L. Fletcher Home captures a chapter of the American story that unfolded in hundreds of small cities: homegrown business families who built local banks and industries, then shaped the look and civic life of their towns. These were the people whose capital financed farms, storefronts and factories across the country.
The house also shows how national architectural trends spread in the 1920s. Mediterranean and Spanish-influenced styles were especially fashionable in the Sun Belt during that decade, from California to Florida. Here, in Central Texas, a local industrialist hired a San Antonio designer-builder to bring that style home.
Its designation as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark reflects a growing recognition, by the late twentieth century, that the homes of the early 1900s were worth preserving too, not just the frontier cabins and courthouses of earlier eras.
If you visit
Look for the details the marker highlights: the white brick, which sets the house apart from the red brick common in the region; the tiled roof; and the arched entrance that gives the facade its Mediterranean character. Together they show how a 1920s house could carry a hint of the Mediterranean onto a Texas street.
Unless you know otherwise, assume this is a private residence. Enjoy it from the sidewalk, and be respectful of the people who may live there.
Temple makes a good stop on a Central Texas drive. Combine this house with a look at the town's railroad heritage, since Temple was born of the railroad in 1881, the same year the Fletcher family business began. Seeing the two side by side helps you picture how a railroad town grew into a city of banks, industry and fine homes.
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
- · Omar L. Fletcher
- · James Fletcher
- · Ernest Scrivener
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
James A. Fletcher House
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Bell County native James Andrew Fletcher (1858–1944) rose to become a leading Temple businessman, in 1907 acquiring with his son Omar a business his brother-in-law had founded in 1881. It grew into Fletcher Enterprises, a prominent banking and industrial firm. San Antonio architect Ernest Scrivener designed this eclectic 1925 home for Fletcher and his wife Susan Jane, later named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
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