William L. and Emma Hawkins House
Midlothian, Ellis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
William L. Hawkins, the son of area pioneer settlers, and his wife Emma (Barker) purchased land and a house here in 1892. They removed the original structure in 1901 and hired local wood artisan Will Price to build this house. Made of imported cypress timber, it was completed in 1903. It features an asymmetrical Queen Anne design and ornate wood trim hand carved by Price. Prominent businessman Tom Dees and his wife Mattie (Hawkins) purchased the house in 1905, and in 1913 the property was acquired by Edward and Mollie Byrd. It remained in the Byrd family until 1957.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
William L. Hawkins, son of pioneer Ellis County settlers, and his wife Emma bought land here in 1892 and in 1901 hired local wood artisan Will Price to build a new home, completed in 1903 from imported cypress. Its asymmetrical Queen Anne design showcased Price's ornate hand-carved trim. The house passed through the Dees and Byrd families, remaining in the Byrd family until 1957.
Why it matters
The craftsmanship of a local artisan preserved in this Queen Anne home reflects the skilled woodworking traditions that shaped small-town Texas architecture.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When William and Emma Hawkins bought this land in 1892, Ellis County was in the middle of a remarkable transformation. The rolling blackland prairie south of Dallas had become some of the richest cotton country in Texas, and railroads were turning quiet crossroads into market towns where farmers could sell their crops and buy the goods of a wider world.
Midlothian was one of those railroad-era towns. Across the South and the Southwest, the decades after Reconstruction brought new wealth to families who had held on through hard times. Pioneer households that had once lived in log cabins and simple frame houses could now afford something grander.
That is the world this house was born into. By the turn of the twentieth century, a well-built, fashionable home was one of the clearest ways a family could show that it had arrived and meant to stay. The Hawkins decision to tear down the original house in 1901 and build again says a lot about the confidence of that moment.
People & events
William L. Hawkins grew up as the son of pioneer settlers in this area, so he had watched the prairie change from frontier to farming community. In 1892 he and his wife, Emma, who was born a Barker, bought land here that already had a house on it. For almost a decade they lived with what they had bought.
Then in 1901 they made a bold choice. They took the original structure down and hired Will Price, a local woodworker, to build them something new. Price used imported cypress, a durable wood prized for resisting rot and insects, and he carved the ornate trim by hand. The house was finished in 1903, after roughly two years of work.
The Hawkins family did not stay long. In 1905 the house went to Tom Dees, a prominent businessman, and his wife, Mattie. Her maiden name was Hawkins, which suggests a family tie, though the marker does not spell out the relationship. In 1913 Edward and Mollie Byrd bought the property, and it stayed with the Byrds until 1957. That is more than four decades, long enough for a whole generation to grow up under Will Price's carved eaves.
Its place in the American story
The Queen Anne style swept the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Its asymmetrical shapes, varied rooflines, wraparound porches, and decorative trim were a deliberate break from plain, boxy houses. Pattern books and magazines spread the look from coast to coast, and by 1900 you could find Queen Anne homes in big cities and small farm towns alike.
What stands out about this house is who made the ornament. In many places, Queen Anne trim was mass-produced in factories and shipped out by rail. Here a local artisan carved it by hand. That makes the house a record of one craftsman's skill as well as an example of a national fashion.
The house's chain of owners tells a familiar American story too. Homes like this one passed from pioneer families to business families to long-settled households, and the prosperity of the cotton-and-railroad era was built into their walls.
If you visit
Stand back and take in the whole shape of the house before you look at any detail. Queen Anne homes are meant to look irregular: one side doesn't mirror the other, and the roofline and porches step in and out. Notice how that unevenness keeps your eye moving.
Then look closer at the woodwork. The trim Will Price carved by hand is the heart of this place, so look for the craftsman's touch in the brackets, spindles, and decorative edges. It's worth remembering that the house is built of cypress brought in from elsewhere, a real investment for a family in 1901.
If this is a private home, enjoy it from the street and respect the owners' privacy. Midlothian sits within easy reach of the Dallas–Fort Worth area, so the house makes a pleasant stop on a drive through Ellis County's small towns. It's a good chance to see how prairie prosperity once showed itself in wood and craftsmanship.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · William L. Hawkins
- · Emma Barker Hawkins
- · Will Price
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Trotter House
Midlothian, TX
Jake Sewell bought these Midlothian lots in 1912, and after marrying Nettie Witherspoon in 1915 the couple built this house—likely funded by dividends from the Hog Creek Oil Company—sometime after 1918. In the 1930s Nettie rented rooms to the town's single women teachers. For more than half a century the home belonged to Clyde and Cloma Trotter; Cloma, a civic leader who became Midlothian's first female mayor, left it to the Salvation Army. Its Arts and Crafts and Prairie School design features a wide porch, porte-cochere, oak floors, Rookwood tiles, and a curved staircase.
Mansfield Mill
Mansfield, TX
Partners Julian Feild and Ralph Mann, who had met in Harrison County around 1850, came south of Fort Worth and in the winter of 1859–60 raised a three-story steam-powered grist mill on the ruins of an earlier one. The mill drew business from San Antonio to the Oklahoma Territory, and the town that grew up around it — first "Mansfeild," then Mansfield — took its founders' names. During the Civil War the Confederacy claimed a share of its output, and afterward federal contracts kept its flour moving to army forts.
Trippet-Shive House
Waxahachie, TX
Completed in 1896 for banker and civic leader H. W. Trippet, this Waxahachie residence was later home to Walter E. Shive, owner of a thriving seed, grain, and coal business. Blending Queen Anne and Shingle styles, it typifies the substantial houses that went up in the neighborhood at the turn of the century, with cedar fish-scale shingles, a wraparound porch, and an octagonal tower.
Dunlap - Simpson House
Waxahachie, TX
Built in 1890-91, this exuberant Queen Anne Revival house—complete with hexagonal and octagonal rooms—was the home of Judge Oscar E. Dunlap, a Waxahachie banker, industrialist, and civic leader. Dunlap founded the Sims Library and championed the Good Roads movement, and the home later passed through a succession of prominent local families. It stands as a showpiece of late-nineteenth-century architectural ambition.