The Woodworth House
Port Arthur, Jefferson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
[RTHL medallion and plate on house] (Rose Hill) J.H. Baxter of the Griffing Lumber Company built this residence in 1906 for R.H. Woodworth (d. 1923). Wide verandas extend beyond the impressive columned portico of the Classical Revival structure. Woodworth, a business and civic leader, and his wife Mary (d. 1946) hosted numerous social gatherings here in the early 20th century. Since 1947, the house has been in the care of the Department Club of Port Arthur. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1978 [27" x 42" marker 100 feet SW of the house at the sidewalk] (Rose Hill) In 1896 Arthur E. Stilwell, president of the Kansas City Southern Railroad, organized a townsite company to settle Port Arthur. Soon afterward, R.H. Woodworth (d. 1923) moved here from Chicago with his bride Mary (d. 1946). They erected their first home on Nashville Avenue. An independent real estate dealer, Woodworth later entered the banking business. He served as Port Arthur's third mayor in 1902. He hired J. H. Baxter of the Griffing Lumber Company to construct this Classical Revival mansion in 1906. This property was then located on the edge of town. When it was completed, the residence reflected Woodworth's position as a business and social leader. Here the Woodworths raised their children, George and Phebe, and often entertained friends. Mrs. Woodworth served as a director of the First National Bank and was active in the Department Club of Port Arthur. In accordance with her wishes, her daughter Phebe gave Rose Hill to the city in 1947 to be cared for by the Department Club. The elegant structure is maintained as a meeting place for various community groups and as a center for social and cultural events. (1978)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1906 for banker and civic leader R. H. Woodworth, this Classical Revival mansion—known as Rose Hill—rose on the edge of the brand-new town of Port Arthur, founded a decade earlier by railroad man Arthur Stilwell. Woodworth had come from Chicago with his bride Mary, entered real estate and banking, and served as the city's third mayor in 1902. With its columned portico and wide verandas, the home hosted the couple's social gatherings until Mary's daughter Phebe gave it to the city in 1947 to serve as a community center.
Why it matters
Rose Hill embodies the ambitions of the men who built Port Arthur as a planned railroad and port town, and its gift to the city preserved a piece of Gilded Age elegance for public use.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Port Arthur, Texas, was a town willed into existence. In the closing years of the 19th century, the Gulf Coast of Texas was being reshaped by railroads and the promise of a deepwater port, and Port Arthur was laid out from scratch as a planned townsite in 1896. This was the era of the ambitious city-builder — men who drew streets on a map, sold lots, and expected a metropolis to rise from the coastal plain.
The timing could hardly have been better. Within a few years, the great Spindletop oil gusher would erupt nearby and turn this corner of Texas into the beating heart of the American petroleum age. But even before the oil, Port Arthur was a place of raw ambition, where a newcomer with energy and a little capital could help invent a city and rise with it.
Into that new town, still rough at the edges, came a young couple from Chicago — and the house they eventually built on its outskirts would come to stand for everything the town's founders hoped it might become.
People & events
The story begins with Arthur E. Stilwell, president of the Kansas City Southern Railroad, who organized the townsite company that settled Port Arthur in 1896. Soon after, R. H. Woodworth moved down from Chicago with his bride, Mary, and the pair threw themselves into the life of the new town. They built a first home on Nashville Avenue while Woodworth made his way as an independent real estate dealer and then a banker — and in 1902 he served as Port Arthur's third mayor.
In 1906, at the height of his standing, Woodworth hired J. H. Baxter of the Griffing Lumber Company to build a grand Classical Revival mansion on what was then the very edge of town. Named Rose Hill, its columned portico and wide verandas announced the family's place among the town's leaders. Here the Woodworths raised their children, George and Phebe, and hosted the social gatherings that stitched a young city's leadership together. Mary was no ornament to this life; she served as a director of the First National Bank and was active in the Department Club of Port Arthur.
R. H. Woodworth died in 1923 and Mary in 1946. In keeping with her mother's wishes, daughter Phebe gave Rose Hill to the city in 1947, to be cared for by the Department Club. The mansion was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1978, and it endures as a meeting place and cultural center — a private family's home turned into a gift to the public.
Its place in the American story
Rose Hill is a portrait of how American cities were made in the railroad age. Across the country in the late 1800s, railroad companies and townsite promoters conjured settlements out of open land, betting that steel rails and a good harbor would summon population and wealth. Port Arthur was one of those bets, and the men who moved in early — the real estate dealers, the bankers, the first mayors — were the ones who turned a speculator's map into a functioning community.
The house also speaks to a distinctly American pattern of civic legacy. A family that prospered in a town's first generation chose, in the end, to hand its finest home to the public rather than keep it in private hands. That gesture — a private mansion becoming a community's shared parlor — echoes countless donated houses, libraries, and parks across the nation, the way early wealth was often converted into civic institutions that outlived the families who created it.
And woven through it all is the quiet significance of Mary Woodworth's role. A woman serving as a bank director and clubwoman in the early 20th century, whose wishes ultimately determined the house's future, is a reminder that the civic life of these boomtowns was shaped by women as well as men.
If you visit
Approach Rose Hill and let the architecture do its work. The Classical Revival style speaks in a deliberate vocabulary — the impressive columned portico, the wide verandas reaching out beyond it — all meant to convey permanence and standing in a town that, when the house was built, was barely a decade old. Picture the setting the marker describes: this elegant home once sat on the edge of town, at the frontier between the planned city and the open coastal prairie.
There are two markers to find here, and it's worth reading both: the plate on the house itself and the larger marker set out toward the sidewalk. Together they tell the fuller story — the railroad founder, the couple from Chicago, the mayor, and the daughter's gift.
Because Rose Hill has served as a community meeting place since 1947, its life didn't end when the Woodworths' did; it simply changed hands to the city. As you stand on the veranda, imagine the social gatherings of a century ago and the community events that fill the same rooms today. A stop here fits naturally into a tour of Port Arthur's early history, where the ambitions of the railroad-and-oil era are still written into the streets.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · R. H. Woodworth
- · Mary Woodworth
- · Arthur E. Stilwell
- · J. H. Baxter
Themes & tags
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