Scott Mansion
Paris, Lamar County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This Paris landmark was built between 1908 and 1910 for the family of prominent businessman Rufus Fenner Scott, Sr. (1848-1932). Designed by German-born architect J. L. Wees, who is responsible for many of the town's civic and commercial buildings, the Scott Mansion exhibits a combination of art nouveau and Dutch renaissance styling. A survivor of the Paris fire of 1916, it stands as a significant reminder of the area's growth in the early twentieth century. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built between 1908 and 1910 for the family of prominent businessman Rufus Fenner Scott Sr., this Paris landmark was designed by German-born architect J. L. Wees, who shaped many of the town's civic and commercial buildings. The mansion blends Art Nouveau and Dutch Renaissance styling and famously survived the devastating Paris fire of 1916.
Why it matters
A grand home that outlasted the fire which leveled much of Paris stands as a tangible reminder of the North Texas boom of the early twentieth century.
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Related people
- · Rufus Fenner Scott Sr.
- · J. L. Wees
Related events
- · Paris fire of 1916
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Paris Fire Department
Paris, TX
Fire protection in Paris began in the early 1870s when businessmen led by Willet Babcock organized the volunteer Phoenix Fire Company No. 1. The city established a paid department in 1908, operating from this site since 1884. The department met its greatest test in the catastrophic fire of March 1916, which killed three people and destroyed some 1,400 buildings.
The Paris Fire, 1916
Paris, TX
On the windy afternoon of March 21, 1916, a fire broke out near a warehouse at the southwest edge of Paris, Texas, and 50-mph winds drove it in a funnel-shaped path across town. Before it was checked at dawn the next day, the blaze had destroyed nearly half of Paris — the courthouse, city hall, federal building, churches, and most of the business district — with damage estimated at $11 million. Firefighters came from as far as Oklahoma, and the glow was visible forty miles away.
John James Culbertson
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John James Culbertson grew up in the big cities of the Northeast before a salesman's eye spotted profit in Southern cottonseed oil. Moving to Paris in the 1880s, he built the town's first cotton mill and eventually a small cottonseed-oil empire, gaining a national reputation that led to seats on the new Dallas Federal Reserve board in 1914 and a wartime federal cotton bureau under President Wilson. After fire ravaged Paris in 1916, he and his wife Emily helped rebuild, giving the city libraries, monuments, and a marble fountain.
First National Bank of Paris
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William J. McDonald, a Civil War veteran and lawyer, opened this bank at its present location in 1886, one of several banks he built across northeast Texas through shrewd, patient management—careful in lending yet slow to foreclose. The present building went up in 1916 only to be gutted within months by a citywide fire, then rebuilt within the year, and during the Great Depression the bank's loans kept many local merchants and farmers afloat. McDonald left the bulk of his estate to the University of Texas, funding the McDonald Observatory dedicated in West Texas in 1939.