HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

W. C. Vaden House

Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Prominent local builder Charles S. Belford completed this home for Wesley Carrol Vaden and his wife Kate (Lockett) in 1908. Eclectic in design, the residence features Queen Anne styling with classical influences favored by Vaden, a Virginia native and a professor of Latin and Greek at Southwestern University for over 40 years. The home's notable elements include inset balconies, an oval window, elliptical arched openings, and shingled gable detailing. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1992

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Local builder Charles S. Belford finished this home in 1908 for Wesley Carrol Vaden and his wife Kate, a Virginia-born scholar who taught Latin and Greek at Southwestern University for more than forty years. Its eclectic design blends Queen Anne styling with classical touches suited to a professor's taste, from inset balconies and an oval window to elliptical arched openings. The house is a graceful reflection of academic life in an early-twentieth-century college town.

Why it matters

It ties the domestic life of a long-serving professor to the growth of one of Texas's oldest universities.

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

Related people

  • Β· Wesley Carrol Vaden

Themes & tags

EducationHome

Nearby & related markers

Negro Fine Arts School

Georgetown, TX

In 1946 β€” two decades before Georgetown's schools integrated β€” Southwestern University professor Iola Bowden Chambers and three of her students began teaching piano to children in the city's African American community. Backed by the school board, the First Methodist Church, and university students, the Negro Fine Arts School grew to welcome more than 200 children, adding voice and art lessons, annual recitals, and college scholarships. Its graduates went on to earn music degrees and teach the next generation.

The Woman's Club of Georgetown

Georgetown, TX

In 1893, Lula Holland Leavell and her daughters hosted a literary reading that grew into a women's club, formally organized as the Initial History Club in 1897 to pursue literature, history, music, and civic affairs. In 1917 it merged with two other local groups to become the Woman's Club of Georgetown. More than a century on, it continues its work of civic enrichment and support for the arts.

Xi Chapter, Kappa Alpha Order

Georgetown, TX

The Kappa Alpha Order was founded in 1865 at Virginia's Washington College, where Robert E. Lee then presided, by young men shaped by the recent Civil War. Its Xi Chapter came to Southwestern University in Georgetown in 1883, meeting in secret until the school lifted its anti-fraternity rules in 1887. The chapter built its first house in 1895.

Amos-Godbey House

Georgetown, TX

Built in 1909 for Southwestern University's German professor Martin C. Amos, this Georgetown house passed to another faculty member, chemistry professor John Campbell Godbey, who made it his home for decades. Its gambrel roof and stone-piered inset porch mark the comfortable domestic architecture of a university town in early-twentieth-century Central Texas. The dwelling ties together two generations of Southwestern's teaching faculty.