Twin Oaks
Hamilton, Hamilton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named for historic trees. Built 1904 by Dr. Chas. C. Baker (1872-1942), city's first resident dentist, descendant of the Beemans, one of Dallas' founding families; graduate, Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, Republican state executive committeeman for 26 years. Dr. Baker built "Twin Oaks" with ball-and billiard rooms unique in Hamilton. At death of widow, Alma Nicholson Baker, 1958, the home was sold to Andrew Campbell. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1968
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Dr. Charles C. Baker, Hamilton's first resident dentist and a descendant of the Beeman family among Dallas's founders, built this home in 1904 and named it for the historic trees on the grounds. A Baltimore-trained dentist and long-serving Republican state committeeman, Baker outfitted the house with ball and billiard rooms unlike any others in town. It stayed in the family until his widow's death in 1958.
Why it matters
The home reflects the confidence and comforts of a prosperous professional class taking root in small-town Texas at the turn of the twentieth century.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Dr. Charles C. Baker
- · Alma Nicholson Baker
- · Andrew Campbell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Twin Oaks
Hamilton, TX
On Christmas Eve of 1866, William Willis was riding a mule to a dance when he was attacked and fatally shot by Indians, taking refuge between these two trees. The spot in Hamilton County was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1967. It recalls the dangers that shadowed everyday life on the exposed central Texas frontier just after the Civil War.
First Baptist Church of Hamilton
Hamilton, TX
The First Baptist Church of Hamilton traces its roots to circuit preaching by Elder D. S. Babb in the years just after the Civil War, and formally organized in 1873 with a small band of charter members. In its early decades the congregation worshipped in a box schoolhouse, the county courthouse, and a borrowed Presbyterian sanctuary before raising a native-stone building in 1896. Its growth mirrors the maturing of a raw Central Texas county into a settled community.
Manning-Gordon-Henderson House
Hamilton, TX
Local contractor Louis V. Manning built this house in the early 1880s on land inherited from his pioneer father, Ezekiel Manning, and lived here for some two decades. The Gordon and Henderson families later made it their home across the 20th century. A cross-gabled Queen Anne cottage, it displays fish-scale gables, cutaway bay windows, and a front porch trimmed with ornamental brackets and a jigsawn frieze.
Hamilton County Courthouse
Hamilton, TX
Before this limestone courthouse, Hamilton County justice was dispensed in stores, a livery stable, a two-story building, and even briefly a saloon, with fire destroying two early improvised courthouses. Outlaws were so common that guards were hired to protect visiting judges. The county's first permanent courthouse of 1878 burned in 1886; this 1887 replacement, built of native limestone quarried two miles east of town, stood unchanged until a 1931 remodeling.