HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

The Coopwood House

Lockhart, Caldwell County, Texas

Marker Inscription

A one-story residence stood on this lot when businessman James G. Blanks (1862-1927) purchased the property in 1896. He added another floor and completed the house in the classical revival style popular at the time. In 1908 Blanks sold the structure to Dr. Thomas Benton Coopwood (1860-1932), a noted Lockhart physician who served as Caldwell County health officer for over 30 years. Members of the Coopwood family occupied the home until 1970. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1979

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Businessman James G. Blanks bought this Lockhart lot in 1896, added a second floor, and finished the house in the classical revival style then in fashion. In 1908 he sold it to Dr. Thomas Benton Coopwood, a respected physician who served as Caldwell County health officer for more than three decades. The Coopwood family lived here until 1970.

Why it matters

The home reflects the rise of a professional and civic class in small-town Texas at the turn of the century, when local doctors and merchants anchored their communities.

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Related people

  • ยท James G. Blanks
  • ยท Thomas Benton Coopwood

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Karbach-Flowers Home

Lockhart, TX

Lockhart cotton buyer Julius W. Karbach had this two-story house built in 1911, blending Victorian and classical revival styling under builder Louis Neeb. In 1924 it passed to Martin Owen Flowers, a former city attorney who went on to become Caldwell County judge and, in 1939โ€“41, Texas secretary of state under Governor W. Lee O'Daniel. The home thus reflects both the cotton economy and the political life of early twentieth-century central Texas.

Andrew Lee Brock

Lockhart, TX

A Tennessee-born settler, Andrew Lee Brock came to Caldwell County in 1848 and started married life on a Boggy Creek parcel gifted by his father-in-law, raising a log cabin and working cotton, grain, and a cotton gin. As his family and fortunes grew, he turned to shaping Lockhart itself, raising livestock and financing a dozen commercial buildings in the town's business district โ€” many still standing today.

Wattsville Gin

McMahan, TX

From about 1880 into the early 1920s, a cotton gin on this spot served Wattsville and the neighboring farm towns of Caldwell County. Brothers Zechariah John and Thomas Watts had settled the area around 1855 and built the gin along with a store and blacksmith shop, powering the machinery with rainwater held behind a man-made dirt dam known as the gin tank. After John's death his wife, Ada, secured state and federal licenses to run the gin herself โ€” one of the few women of her day to do so โ€” and the surviving gin tank still marks the site.