Barnes-Largent House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same way. Now, some houses in Texas have got one good story in them. The Barnes-Largent House in Collin County has got a few, all braided together the way a good family tends to do things without making a fuss about it.

The house was built about 1910, and it was built for Joe and Florence Barnes. Florence's maiden name was Largent, and that matters, because the land it sat on had come through her father, a man named W.B. Largent, a prominent merchant right there in McKinney.

So from the very start, this house was rooted in Largent ground, Largent history. Then 1924 came, and Joe Barnes passed away. Florence was left with the house, the land, the memories, and a decision to make.

She sold the home to her brother, Dr. Ben Largent, and his wife, Leota. Ben had been born in 1886, and he'd carry the house forward until his death in 1936.

After that, Leota held on. The family held on. All the way until 1945, that house stayed Largent.

Now the house itself: it's worth a moment. It's a foursquare style, which means it stood up solid and honest, the way a merchant family might want a thing to stand. But it didn't stop there.

You can see in its lines the influence of the prairie school, and the bungalow style too, like the house was having a quiet conversation with more than one tradition. A W.B. Largent built an empire of commerce.

A Florence Barnes made a family decision in grief. A Ben and Leota Largent kept the door. And a house stood through all of it, right there in Collin County, sayin' not a word.

What the marker says

This home was built about 1910 for Joe and Florence (Largent) Barnes on part of the land acquired by her father, prominent McKinney merchant W.B. Largent. Following the death of her husband in 1924, Florence sold the home to her brother, Dr. Ben Largent (1886-1936), and his wife, Leota. The foursquare style house, which exhibits influences of the prairie school and bungalow styles of architecture, remained in the family until 1945. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984***