Spinks-Mayes Building
Crockett, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built in 1891-92 by Rudd Crawford Spinks, This structure originally housed his jewelry and music store and included upstairs living quarters. The site had been owned earlier by S.A. Miller, a prominent local attorney who later served as a state legislator and Houston County judge. W.E. "Buck" Mayes, a landowner, bought the building in 1895 and it remained in his family for 45 years. Victorian in design, it features pressed tin detailing.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Rudd Crawford Spinks raised this handsome brick building in 1891-92 to house his jewelry and music store, living with his family in quarters above the shop. The lot had earlier belonged to attorney S.A. Miller, a state legislator and county judge, before landowner W.E. "Buck" Mayes bought the structure in 1895 and kept it in his family for 45 years. Its Victorian pressed-tin detailing still marks it as a proud example of Gilded Age commercial architecture in Crockett.
Why it matters
Buildings like this anchored the commercial squares of small Texas towns, where a single storefront could carry a community's memory across generations of owners.
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Related people
- · Rudd Crawford Spinks
- · W.E. "Buck" Mayes
- · S.A. Miller
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Miller-Spinks-Mayes Property
Crockett, TX
This corner of the Crockett town square began as a law office after judge and state legislator S.A. Miller bought it in 1840. In 1891 Rudd Crawford Spinks put up a two-story brick building for his jewelry store, living above the shop, and merchant-banker W.E. "Buck" Mayes acquired it in 1895. Though much altered over the years, the property remained a working part of the town's commercial center.
W.V. McConnell Building
Crockett, TX
Crockett native William Van McConnell built this Victorian commercial building soon after buying the site in 1891 from a former mayor. Known for his wit and his Irish stories, he opened a mercantile store that grew into a business lasting until 1973. For generations the McConnell Building stood as a familiar landmark on the town square.
Houston County Courthouse
Crockett, TX
When Houston County needed a new courthouse in the late 1930s, its leaders turned to federal Public Works Administration funds to build one in 1939. Designed by a county native and raised by a Dallas contractor, the building wore the sleek Moderne lines and Art Deco detail that were the height of Depression-era fashion. It has remained the seat of county government ever since.
Patton-Buchanan Building
Crockett, TX
At the turn of the 20th century, Crockett was a growing East Texas county seat where merchants raised whole blocks of brick storefronts. Around 1903 local businessman William Monroe Patton added this building to a row of six he erected, and it alone still wears its original Mesker Bros. pressed-metal facade—a mail-order architectural flourish popular across small-town America. A generation later mechanic Wade Buchanan bought it and leased its street-level space to a parade of local enterprises for half a century.