Rosemont
Waxahachie, Ellis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This 20-room home was built in 1894 for $12,000 by Eliza and Burt Ringo Moffett, who owned a flour mill nearby. Amanda B. Cox, the mother of 14 children, purchased the residence in 1930 and her heirs occupied it until 1978. Named "Rosemont" by the original owners, the home reflects the elegant architectural stylings of the 1890s in the use of wide verandas, ten fireplaces with carved oak mantels, an elaborate onion dome, and gingerbread trim.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This lavish 20-room house was built in 1894 for $12,000 by flour-mill owners Eliza and Burt Ringo Moffett, who christened it 'Rosemont.' With wide verandas, ten carved-oak fireplaces, an elaborate onion dome, and gingerbread trim, it is a showpiece of 1890s architectural fashion. Amanda B. Cox, mother of fourteen, bought the home in 1930, and her heirs lived there until 1978.
Why it matters
Rosemont captures the confident prosperity of Gilded Age Texas, when local milling fortunes were displayed in ornate Victorian homes that still define the character of towns like Waxahachie.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Amanda B. Cox
- · Eliza Moffett
- · Burt Ringo Moffett
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hancock Building
Waxahachie, TX
Businessman William F. Lewis and County Judge M.B. Templeton put up this Victorian commercial block in 1890, its facade dressed in decorative brickwork and cast-iron columns typical of a prosperous county-seat business district. In 1907 the well-known defense attorney William Pitt Hancock bought the property for his law office, lending it his name. Grocers, a justice of the peace, and real estate and insurance men have all worked beneath its ornate front.
1889 Masonic Lodge Hall
Waxahachie, TX
Raised in 1889 for Waxahachie Lodge No. 90, this three-story brick building wears a tin cornice stamped with Masonic emblems. Retail stores rented the ground floor and professionals the second, while the Masons met in the third-story hall until 1926. After passing through private hands, it was bought in 1975 by the Ellis County Historical Museum and Art Gallery, giving the old lodge a second life as a keeper of local history.
Homesite of Dr. D.G. Thompson
Waxahachie, TX
A native Texan, Dr. Dixon Gillespie Thompson earned his medical degree in Louisville and trained in eastern hospitals before building this home in 1883–84. Beyond his standing as a physician, he held large landholdings in Ellis County and interests in three banks. Though he sold the house in 1917, he continued to live here until his death in 1935.
Eddy O. Hawkins Home
Waxahachie, TX
Eddy Pennell Hawkins, of a pioneer Ellis County family, built the first two rooms of this Waxahachie home soon after marrying Netta Lewis Carson in 1878. By 1900, prosperous and prominent, he expanded it into a three-story Late Victorian residence blending Queen Anne and Shingle-style influences, with beveled glass and neoclassical porch details. The house mirrors the confidence and wealth of a rising Gilded Age businessman in the North Texas cotton country.