Applewhite House

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'm just passin' it along. Back in 1852, a man named Isaac Applewhite put a house up in Washington County, and he did it with his own two hands. Now, Isaac Applewhite was not your average builder.

He was a minister, a lawyer, and a teacher, all at once, and on top of all that, carpentry was just his hobby. Just something he did for fun. Most folks pick up a fishing rod or whittle a little, but Isaac Applewhite apparently decided his leisure time called for hand-hewn native cedar and a house that would still be standing more than a hundred years later.

The construction is hand-hewn native cedar. Every timber shaped by hand. The style is typical Victorian architecture, the kind of lines and proportions that carry a certain dignity, a certain intention.

This was not a man throwing walls together. And here is the part that really fills out the picture of Isaac Applewhite. While he was ministering and lawyering and teaching and building houses in his spare time, he was also, alongside a man named F.

J. Cooke, operating a steam saw mill and a grist mill. A steam saw mill and a grist mill.

The minister, lawyer, teacher, carpenter, and mill operator. Some people just come into the world with more hours in their day. That house he built in 1852 still stands as the record of all of it.

What the marker says

Built 1852 by minister, lawyer and teacher, Isaac Applewhite, whose hobby was carpentry. Hand-hewn native cedar construction. Typical Victorian architecture. Builder also operated a steam saw mill and grist mill with F. J. Cooke. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1968