The Kean Home
Cisco, Eastland County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Construction on this home began soon after the destructive Cisco tornado of 1893. Originally built for George and Carrie Langston, it was purchased in 1899 by Edward Everett Kean (1857-1942). A dry goods merchant, Kean had come to Cisco in 1889 and was active in community affairs. This house, which features Eastlake influences, particularly in the decorative woodwork, remained in the Kean Family for more than 70 years. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1985
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Construction of this house began just after the destructive Cisco tornado of 1893, and in 1899 it was bought by dry-goods merchant Edward Everett Kean, an active figure in the growing town's affairs. Notable for its Eastlake-style decorative woodwork, the home stayed in the Kean family for more than seventy years.
Why it matters
The Kean Home reflects the merchant prosperity and architectural taste that took hold in booming West Texas railroad towns at the turn of the twentieth century.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Edward Everett Kean
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First United Methodist Church of Cisco
Cisco, TX
When Methodist circuit rider Lamb Trimble organized this congregation at Red Gap in 1880, West Texas was still frontier country served by preachers who rode from settlement to settlement. The church followed the new town of Cisco when it was founded a year later, worshiping in a schoolhouse until a railroad company donated land for its first sanctuary in 1883. A devastating 1893 tornado that killed 23 people leveled the buildings, but members rebuilt—later riding the Eastland County oil boom of the 1920s to a grand new edifice dedicated in 1920.
Old Mobley Hotel
Cisco, TX
Built in 1916, this Cisco hotel became the very first property owned by Conrad Hilton, who bought it in 1919 amid the town's booming oil rush. A former New Mexico legislator and banker, Hilton reportedly left that first purchase dreaming of a chain of hotels stretching across Texas. He sold the Mobley in 1925, but the empire it sparked would eventually circle the globe.
Mangum Baptist Church
Eastland, TX
The community of Mangum sprang up where two rail lines met, once reaching 500 residents and boasting a cotton gin, mineral-water bathhouse, stores, and sawmills. Local Baptists, worshiping since 1901 at the High Point school, formally organized Bethany Baptist Church in 1904; when they moved the sanctuary into town in 1909, spring rains stretched the 1.5-mile journey into a 17-day ordeal. Renamed Mangum Baptist Church, the congregation outlasted the town's decline after the rails were pulled up in the 1920s, replacing its sanctuary in the 1940s and continuing to serve a wide rural area.
Hittson Ranch Headquarters on Battle Creek
Putnam vicinity, TX
Battle Creek earned its name in 1840 when a party hunting raiders was itself attacked near the water. Two decades later cattleman John Hittson built what is believed to be the first ranch headquarters in Callahan County on that same ground — just corrals, branding pens, and a modest shelter used at roundup time. It marks the moment open Texas rangeland began to be organized into working ranches.