The Terrell House
Navasota, Grimes County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1897 Elizabeth Owen had this two-story residence constructed for her daughter Emmeline B. Terrell (b. 1849), the widow of local pharmacist Joel W. Terrell, II, who had died the previous year. In 1899 the home was purchased by John H. Mickleborough, a leading Navasota banker and businessman, and his wife Georgia. An example of Queen Anne styling, the Terrell House features intricate Eastlake ornamentation on the gallery and gable ends. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1981
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Elizabeth Owen had this two-story Navasota residence built in 1897 for her daughter Emmeline B. Terrell, recently widowed by the death of local pharmacist Joel W. Terrell II. In 1899 the home passed to John H. Mickleborough, a leading Navasota banker and businessman, and his wife Georgia. A well-preserved example of Queen Anne styling, it carries intricate Eastlake ornamentation across its gallery and gable ends.
Why it matters
Ornate Queen Anne homes like this one mark the commercial prosperity of Gilded Age Texas towns, where cotton wealth and banking underwrote a taste for elaborate Victorian architecture.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Elizabeth Owen
- · Emmeline B. Terrell
- · John H. Mickleborough
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Leake Building
Navasota, TX
Built as a modest one-story frame store in 1873 and enlarged in 1885 with native sandstone walls and a second floor, this Navasota building became a fixture of the town's commercial life. In 1886 builder and horse breeder John Wesley Leake bought it, and his family held the property for more than eighty years while a parade of important firms did business behind its Victorian storefront.
Joseph Brooks Home
Navasota, TX
Joseph Brooks left England for Texas in 1853 with his wife Mary Ann, and after Civil War service he settled in Navasota—surviving the deadly 1867 yellow fever epidemic that swept the Gulf region. He rose to become a leading local lumberman and, in the 1870s, built this family home in the ornate Victorian fashion of the day. Decades later his daughter Mary Elizabeth reworked it with classical revival detailing, layering one generation's taste over another's.
Steele House
Navasota, TX
In the late 1800s two Steele brothers ran large cotton operations near Navasota and built homes across the corner from one another. A. G. Steele and his wife Etta had this late Victorian residence, rich with Eastlake detailing on its porches and entries, built in 1896 by contractor J. E. Watkins. Steele descendants lived here until 1970, and the house was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1974.
Mickelborough Building
Navasota, TX
Eliza Johnson raised this limestone-rubble building in 1874 after a fire swept the block, complying with a new city ordinance that demanded fireproof construction. Local investor August Horst bought it in 1877 and soon passed it to his wife's brothers, the Mickelboroughs, whose families held it until 1929. Over the decades its rooms hosted a saloon, a grocery, a confectionary, an ice cream parlor, and the offices of attorneys and dentists.