The Wood-Hughes House
Brenham, Washington County, Texas
Marker Inscription
W. A. Wood (1851-1909) and his wife Fannie (Wheeler) built this house in 1897. A lumber yard owner, Wood used fine materials--oak, heart pine, Louisiana cypress--and had siding milled to simulate cut stone. This is an excellent example of late Victorian residential architecture. Home was sold 1913 to planter-rancher Henry W. Hughes (1865-1935) and wife Bess (Thornhill), whose family owned it 58 years, selling in 1971 to Kenneth E. and Fonda (Clark) Rich, who call it "Clarich."
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Lumber-yard owner W. A. Wood and his wife Fannie built this fine home in Brenham in 1897, using the best of his stock—oak, heart pine, and Louisiana cypress—and even having the siding milled to imitate cut stone. A showpiece of late Victorian residential architecture, it passed in 1913 to planter-rancher Henry W. Hughes, whose family kept it for 58 years. Later owners affectionately dubbed it 'Clarich.'
Why it matters
The Wood-Hughes House showcases the craftsmanship and prosperity of Gilded Age Texas, where a lumberman's own home became a lasting advertisement for the materials and skill of the era's building trades.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · W. A. Wood
- · Henry W. Hughes
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Wittbecker-Weiss House
Brenham, TX
Home builder and lumber dealer Frank Wood raised this L-plan Victorian in 1895 and sold it the same year to bakery owners H. G. and Annie Wittbecker. Its exuberant detailing—fan-shaped porch brackets, wood-shingled gables, decorative bargeboards, and turned columns—shows off the era's love of ornament. Merchant Robert Weiss bought the house in 1920, and it stayed in his family until 1982.
Schmid Bros. Building
Brenham, TX
Swiss immigrant Josef Schmid opened a Brenham mercantile in 1880 and, joined by his brothers Benjamin and Sigmund, formed Schmid Bros. in 1889. At the turn of the century the brothers raised this handsome Renaissance Revival building — round-arched windows, hood moldings, and multi-bay fronts on both floors — to house their growing enterprise, a fixture of the downtown even after the family sold it in 1934.
Southern Pacific Freight Depot
Brenham, TX
In the early 1860s Brenham residents built a short local rail line to link up with the Houston & Texas Central Railway, which bought it in 1869 and helped turn the town into a regional distribution center. Around 1916 the H&TC, by then owned by the Southern Pacific, erected this brick depot, and the railroad maintained a presence in Brenham until 1975. Its limestone stringcourses and Prairie School-influenced corbelled pendants recall the town's heyday as a rail hub.
Former Bank Building of Giddings & Giddings
Brenham, TX
Brothers J. D. and D. C. Giddings, lawyers by training, opened Brenham's first bank in 1866 as Texas rebuilt after the Civil War. In 1872 they erected this building for the bank, sharing the third floor with a Royal Arch Masons chapter — a common mingling of commerce and fraternal life in a growing town. The bank served the community until it closed in 1945.