Smith-Carlton Adobe House
Fort Davis, Jeff Davis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1873, Archie Smith, a former Buffalo Soldier in the 24th U.S. Infantry at Fort Davis, built a home on 160 acres near the base of Dolores Mountain using local materials. Native oak beams support the near-rectangular one-story adobe. A large room with a vaulted ceiling was a private chapel for Smith’s wife. It was also open to other denominations and Catholic masses before St. Joseph was built. In 1911, Emmett H. Carlton bought the property and built a new home, using the Smith house as a barn and stabilizing its walls with a lime plaster. Don and Vida Carlton occupied the house after restoring it in the early 1970s. The house is notable as the oldest home still in use as a residence in Fort Davis. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2013
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1873, a former Buffalo Soldier of the 24th U.S. Infantry named Archie Smith claimed 160 acres near Dolores Mountain in the Trans-Pecos country and raised an adobe home with native oak beams. Its vaulted room served as a family chapel open to neighbors of every denomination before the town's first Catholic church was built. Later owners, the Carltons, preserved and eventually restored the structure, which survives as the oldest home still lived in at Fort Davis.
Why it matters
It ties the story of the Buffalo Soldiers — Black cavalry and infantry who garrisoned the western frontier — to the everyday work of homesteading and community-building in far West Texas.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Archie Smith
- · Emmett H. Carlton
- · Don Carlton
- · Vida Carlton
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fort Pena Colorada (Red Rock)
Marathon, TX
Established in 1880 in the rugged Big Bend country, Fort Peña Colorada guarded the water and passes near Marathon against raids across the Mexican border. Apaches struck the post in 1881 during the last years of the Indian Wars in far West Texas. With the frontier considered pacified, the fort was abandoned in 1893.
Alamo Letter Statue
Pecos, TX
This courthouse statue in Pecos honors the famous 'Alamo letter,' William Barret Travis's 1836 appeal from the besieged mission at San Antonio de Béxar, signed 'Victory or Death.' Written during the Texas Revolution as a small garrison faced the Mexican army, the letter became one of the most stirring documents in Texas history. Its placement before a West Texas courthouse reflects how deeply the Alamo's defiance entered the state's civic identity.
Fort Concho
San Angelo, TX
Established in 1867 by the 4th Cavalry at a junction of the Butterfield and Goodnight trails, Fort Concho anchored a line of forts guarding the Texas frontier from northeastern Texas to El Paso. Its sandstone barracks, hospital, and officers' quarters housed a remarkable roster of commanders, including Ranald Mackenzie, who led campaigns against Native resistance, and Benjamin Grierson, commander of the Black "buffalo soldiers" of the 10th Cavalry. The Army abandoned the post in 1889 and it passed into private hands.
The Buffalo Soldiers and Indian Hot Springs
Sierra Blanca, TX
For centuries these natural hot springs drew people seeking their curative waters, including generations of nomadic Indian peoples. After the Civil War the U.S. Army raised regiments of Black soldiers, and troopers of the 10th Cavalry, called buffalo soldiers by their adversaries, patrolled and mapped this rugged West Texas country. At dawn on October 28, 1880, companies pursuing Mescalero Apaches were attacked on a nearby ridge; at least five soldiers were killed and buried where they fell, their graves later relocated to this vicinity.