Strickland-Sawyer House
Waxahachie, Ellis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Maggie Young Beall, a widow, built a house here in 1888. One year later is was purchased by J.F. Stickland (1861-1921), a cofounder of Texas Power and Light Company and a pioneer of area interurban lines. In 1897 he had C.W. Thrash build the present home over the existing residence. J.W. Sawyer (1868-1927), a druggist, bought the property in 1914 and members of his family lived here until 1945. The Victorian styling features a 3-story turret containing the interior stairwell.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This turreted Victorian in Waxahachie began in 1888 as a widow's cottage and was rebuilt around it in 1897 for J.F. Strickland, a cofounder of Texas Power and Light and a builder of the interurban electric rail lines that once knit North Texas towns together. A druggist, J.W. Sawyer, bought the home in 1914, and his family lived here into the mid-1940s. Its three-story turret hides the interior staircase, a flourish typical of the confident cotton-boom architecture of the era.
Why it matters
The house links a single Texas town to the men who electrified the region and laid its early rail network, showing how national industrial progress took root in local Main Street ambition.
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Related people
- · J.F. Strickland
- · J.W. Sawyer
- · Maggie Young Beall
Themes & tags
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