HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

Thomas G. & Marjorie Shaw House

Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas

Marker Inscription

This Monterrey style house was built in 1927 by prominent Fort Worth contractor Bert B. Adams. One of the first houses built in the fashionable Park Hill Addition, it was purchased upon completion by Thomas and Marjorie Shaw. A highly successful independent oil producer, Shaw was associated with the Standard Oil Company and founded the T.G. Shaw Oil Corporation in 1924. Hallmark features of the house include its stucco wall finish and tile roof.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Built in 1927 in the graceful Monterrey style, this stucco-and-tile home was among the first to rise in Fort Worth's fashionable new Park Hill Addition. It was completed by prominent local contractor Bert B. Adams and bought by Thomas and Marjorie Shaw. Thomas Shaw had struck out on his own in the oil business, founding the T. G. Shaw Oil Corporation in 1924 during the boom years that reshaped North Texas.

Why it matters

The house captures the confident prosperity of 1920s Texas, when oil wealth built elegant neighborhoods and independent wildcatters could turn a well into a mansion.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • · Thomas G. Shaw
  • · Marjorie Shaw
  • · Bert B. Adams

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Westbrook Estate

Fort Worth, TX

Perched on a bluff overlooking the Fort Worth Zoo, this 2½-story Tudor Revival home was built in 1928 for oilman Roy A. Westbrook and his wife Gladys, in a Park Hill neighborhood laid out by the celebrated Hare and Hare landscape firm. Prominent Fort Worth architect Joseph L. Pelich designed it with pegged half-timbering, slate gables, marble fireplaces, and leaded glass. Westbrook's fortune came from the Hendrick Oilfield in Winkler County, and he helped found the Fort Worth Petroleum Club.

Rogers-O'Daniel House

Fort Worth, TX

William Joseph Rogers built this home on a 137-acre farm in 1901, and in 1925 it was remodeled from a Queen Anne frame house by W. Lee 'Pappy' O'Daniel. O'Daniel had come to Fort Worth to manage Burrus Mills and gained fame sponsoring the Light Crust Doughboys radio band before riding that popularity into the Texas governor's office in 1939 and the U.S. Senate in 1941. He sold the property in 1945 while serving in Washington.

Ponton, Dr. Arvel and Faye, House

Fort Worth, TX

Built around 1920 as Fort Worth's Mistletoe Heights was emerging as a fashionable enclave for merchants and professionals, this Spanish Eclectic home was designed by noted local architect Joseph R. Pelich, with a clay tile roof, arched openings, stucco walls and wrought-iron detailing. Its first residents were Dr. Arvel Ponton, who helped establish the city's Protestant Hospital and later his own Pelich-designed clinic, and his wife Faye.

Fairmount-Southside Historic District

Fort Worth, TX

The Fairmount-Southside Historic District spreads across roughly 375 acres and 100 blocks just south of downtown Fort Worth, with more than 1,200 contributing homes and buildings. Platted largely between 1883 and 1907 during the boom that followed the railroad's 1876 arrival, its additions—led by the 1890 Fairmount Addition—drew middle-income workers, and streetcar lines soon carried doctors, lawyers, and railroad men to and from their homes. Its cottages, bungalows, and foursquares chart the evolution of domestic style from Queen Anne to Craftsman.