HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Tatum Home

Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Built before 1900 by William M. Tatum, son of a Corsicana pioneer merchant, this colonial revival style mansion features first-floor palladian windows. Massive Ionic columns support the two-story porch. Tatum's son Clifford A., who later took over the family hardware business, moved his bride into his parents' home. The younger Tatums raised their family here and remained in the home throughout their lives. The family sold the house in 1970. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Built before 1900 by William M. Tatum, son of a pioneer Corsicana merchant, this colonial revival mansion boasts first-floor Palladian windows and massive Ionic columns framing a two-story porch. His son Clifford, who later ran the family hardware business, brought his bride to live in his parents' home, and the younger Tatums raised their family and lived out their lives here. The house stayed in the family until 1970.

Why it matters

The home reflects the prosperity and settled gentility of a merchant family across three generations in a growing Gilded Age Texas town.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • · William M. Tatum
  • · Clifford A. Tatum

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Stephen Augustus Pace

Corsicana, TX

Stephen Augustus Pace came to Texas in 1868 and settled in Corsicana in 1871, where he built a wholesale grocery business and threw himself into civic life. He served as a city alderman and commissioner, helped found the forerunner of the Chamber of Commerce, and sat on the committee that established the town's public library. From 1887 until his death in 1921 he lived in the house this marker commemorates.

Joseph S. Cullinan, Pioneer in Texas Oil

Corsicana, TX

Joseph S. Cullinan learned the oil business the hard way, starting at fourteen as a laborer in the Pennsylvania fields. Drawn to Texas after the 1894 Corsicana discovery, he became a driving force in the young state's petroleum industry, organizing companies—including the enterprise that became Texaco—and integrating exploration, production, refining, and marketing. He also pressed for early conservation and anti-waste legislation as the industry exploded.

Fire Station No. 2

Corsicana, TX

Corsicana organized its volunteer fire department in December 1879, when firefighters still fought blazes with hand-passed buckets before graduating to hand- and horse-drawn equipment. A first station opened at city hall in 1892, where the chief oversaw the drilling of artesian wells to supply water, and this west-side substation followed in 1902. In 1924, after 45 years of volunteer service, the city replaced the volunteers with a paid municipal fire department that used this building into 1926.

The Scales-Fortson House

Corsicana, TX

Built in the 1890s by H. L. Scales, owner of a local cotton gin and cottonseed oil mill, this galleried house passed through a succession of Corsicana's leading citizens, including bank president John Thompson and banker-landowner Joe B. Fortson. Its Victorian and Classical Revival detailing and interior woodwork of walnut, maple, and redwood reflect the prosperity of Navarro County's Gilded Age cotton economy. The Fortson family kept the home until 1976.