A. M. Urquhart House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Picture Jefferson, Texas, a town with roots deep enough to trip over, and right at the heart of one of those roots is a family named Urquhart. Allen Urquhart, you see, was one of the founders of Jefferson itself.

That's the kind of name that carries weight in a place like Marion County. Well, Allen's grandson, Angus Mezappa Urquhart, was born right there in Marion County in 1875, and he grew up in the shadow of that legacy. He married a woman named Mary Jane Wood, and together they were the Urquharts, and the Urquharts needed a home.

So somebody built them one. An early twentieth-century cottage, the marker calls it, and that description does not do it full justice. This house was not just four walls and a roof slapped together on a corner lot at Broadway and Owen streets.

Whoever designed it had a flair. The style is Eastlake, which means you are looking at a house that announces itself. There is a wraparound porch with a balustrade and a spindle frieze, the kind of detail that makes you slow your truck down and take a second look.

And then there are the bargeboards, jig-cut bargeboards, trimmed and shaped so carefully along the roofline that the house practically wears them like a crown. Now, Angus Mezappa Urquhart was born in 1875, and the marker lists 1909 beside his name. That is not a long run for a man whose grandfather helped build the very town around him.

But the house stood. The house, with its porch and its spindle frieze and those jig-cut bargeboards, kept right on standing. Some families leave behind names in history books.

The Urquharts left behind a corner lot, a wraparound porch, and a cottage that still has something to say.

What the marker says

This early twentieth-century cottage was built for Angus Mezappa and Mary Jane (Wood) Urquhart. A native of Marion County, A. M. Urquhart (1875-1909) was the grandson of Allen Urquhart, one of the founders of Jefferson. This family residence, originally located at Broadway and Owen streets, exhibits Eastlake styling. Outstanding features include the wraparound porch with its balustrade and spindle frieze, and the jig-cut bargeboards. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1985