Wimberley-Hughes House
Wimberley, Hays County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Zachary Taylor “Zach” Wimberley began construction on this house around 1877 for his first wife, Mary Elizabeth Franklin. Built of board and batten on a stone foundation, the end-gabled structure was painted pink with red trim, considered unique for late-19th century architecture. Traces of red trim paint are still visible on the exterior window moldings. Flanking the central hallway, two main rooms, each with a chimney, feature windows with elegant triangular pediment moldings. Mary Elizabeth had 11 children here before she died in 1901. Zach and second wife, Rachael Taylor, added three more children. The mill on Cypress Creek, owned and operated from 1874 by Zach and his father, Pleasant Wimberley, provided lumber for the house. It expanded into the production of flour, cornmeal and sorghum molasses. By 1898, competition with New Braunfels’ Landa Mill (Comal County) encouraged Zach Wimberley and partner, son-in-law Sidney Pyland, to replace the mill with steam-driven facilities to adapt to the upsurge in cotton farming. The mill remained the focal point of the village until it closed in 1925. When Zach died in 1913, his sister, Eliza Mary “Lidie,” moved into the house. Her husband, Nathan Emery Hughes, also a partner in the mill and noted stonemason, added the petrified-wood terracing, patio and steps leading to the gabled front porch. With Lidie’s death in 1954, her granddaughter, Velma Rose (Hughes) Lawhorn, was the last of the family to own the house. Now the property of the Wimberley Institute of Cultures, this house bears witness to the founders of the village of Wimberley and exemplifies extensive preservation efforts of local residential architecture. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK – 2016
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around 1877, Zach Wimberley began building this board-and-batten house—painted a striking pink with red trim—for his wife Mary Elizabeth, using lumber from the family mill on Cypress Creek. That mill, run by Zach and his father Pleasant, ground flour, cornmeal, and sorghum molasses and was the beating heart of the village that still bears the family name. Stonemason Nathan Hughes, who married into the family, later added the distinctive petrified-wood terracing that ornaments the home.
Why it matters
House and mill together mark the founding of Wimberley, showing how a single family's enterprise could seed a Hill Country town and give it its name.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The Wimberley-Hughes House rose in the Texas Hill Country during the Reconstruction and Gilded Age years, when the region was shifting from raw frontier to settled community. Water was everything in this landscape, and a reliable creek meant a mill, and a mill meant a village. Cypress Creek gave the Wimberley family both.
This was an era when a single enterprising family could effectively found a town. Milling was the essential industry—grinding grain into flour and cornmeal, sawing logs into lumber, later adapting to whatever crops the surrounding farms produced. The mill was the economic and social hub, the place everyone in the district passed through.
When Zach Wimberley began building his house around 1877, he was doing more than housing a growing family. He was planting a permanent stake in a place that would eventually carry his name.
People & events
Zachary Taylor "Zach" Wimberley started the house around 1877 for his first wife, Mary Elizabeth Franklin, using lumber from the family mill. It was a striking board-and-batten structure on a stone foundation—painted, remarkably, pink with red trim, a bold choice for the late nineteenth century. Traces of that red paint still cling to the window moldings, and the two main rooms flanking the central hallway show off elegant triangular pediment moldings above their windows.
The house saw a full sweep of family life. Mary Elizabeth bore eleven children here before her death in 1901; Zach and his second wife, Rachael Taylor, added three more. The mill on Cypress Creek, run since 1874 by Zach and his father, Pleasant Wimberley, expanded from lumber into flour, cornmeal, and sorghum molasses. By 1898, competition from New Braunfels' Landa Mill pushed Zach and his son-in-law Sidney Pyland to modernize with steam power and adapt to the rise of cotton farming.
After Zach died in 1913, his sister Eliza Mary "Lidie" moved in. Her husband, Nathan Emery Hughes—a mill partner and noted stonemason—added the distinctive petrified-wood terracing, patio, and steps leading up to the gabled front porch. Lidie lived until 1954, and her granddaughter, Velma Rose (Hughes) Lawhorn, was the last of the family to own the home.
Its place in the American story
House and mill together tell the founding story of an American town, and that pairing is what makes the site matter beyond its walls. Across the country, countless communities grew up around a water-powered mill and the family that ran it; here, that family's name became the town's name, a direct line from private enterprise to civic identity.
The mill's history also captures a larger economic story. Its shift from grinding grain to steam-powered adaptation for the cotton boom mirrors the transformation of American agriculture and industry in the late nineteenth century, when older water-driven operations had to modernize or be swallowed by larger competitors. The Wimberley mill remained the focal point of village life until it finally closed in 1925.
That the house survives—now held by the Wimberley Institute of Cultures and recognized as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark—reflects a movement in communities everywhere to preserve the founding architecture that anchors local memory.
If you visit
Look first at the details the marker preserves. Search the exterior window moldings for the surviving traces of red trim paint—a faint link to the house's original, startling pink-and-red color scheme. Note the triangular pediment moldings crowning the windows of the two main rooms, and the board-and-batten construction set on its stone foundation.
Don't miss Nathan Hughes's stonework: the petrified-wood terracing, patio, and steps leading to the gabled porch are the signature of a skilled mason and give the house a texture you won't find elsewhere. Together with the central-hallway plan, they make the building a small catalog of Hill Country craftsmanship.
The house sits in the town it helped create, so let it frame the whole village for you. As you explore Wimberley, remember that the family who built this pink house on Cypress Creek gave the place its name. It's a rewarding stop on any Hill Country road trip for anyone who likes their scenery served with a founding story.
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
- · Zachary Taylor Wimberley
- · Pleasant Wimberley
- · Nathan Emery Hughes
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Winters-Wimberley House
Wimberley, TX
William Carvin Winters came to Texas from Tennessee in 1834 and fought — and was badly wounded — at the Battle of San Jacinto. Settling on Cypress Creek in the 1850s, he built a mill in 1856 and this thick-walled limestone homestead soon after, from which he could watch his saw- and gristmill turn. As the mill passed to the Cude and then the Wimberley families, the village around it was renamed with each owner, until 'Wimberley' finally stuck.
Wimberley Mills
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In 1848 San Jacinto veteran William C. Winters settled this Hill Country valley and raised grist and saw mills on Cypress Creek, drawing a settlement out of the wilderness. Passing through the hands of his son-in-law and then Pleasant Wimberley, who bought the complex in 1874, the mills ground flour, sawed lumber, cut shingles, and ginned cotton—renaming the growing village when the post office opened in 1880. After converting to steam power as the creek weakened, the enterprise finally closed in 1934, ending more than 85 years of work on the water.
Site of Sidney J. Pyland Blacksmith Shop
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Sidney J. Pyland came to Wimberley from Tennessee as a boy around 1880 and, at age twenty in 1895, opened a blacksmith shop just above Cypress Creek on the village square. For fifteen years he shod horses, built and mended wagons, and forged implements for the ranchers and farmers of the Hill Country, before moving his whole operation to San Marcos in 1910. The square where he worked has stayed a hub of business ever since.
James C. Lane House
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Wimberley builder James Calvin Lane raised this modest craftsman home in 1935, next door to the café his wife Rebecca ran in the Texas Hill Country. From its living room, Rebecca operated Wimberley's first telephone switchboard, tying a small community together in the early days of rural phone service. The house is prized locally for its rare "giraffe rock" exterior, native stone studded with petrified wood and fossils.