DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, they call it a Victorian Gingerbread Cottage, and that name alone ought to tell you something about what Meredith A. Benton had in mind when he hired a builder back in 1898.
The builder's own father designed the place — a central hall, six rooms, tiled fireplaces — the kind of house that says somebody meant to stay a while. And Benton being the pioneer businessman he was, staying a while was exactly the plan. The site was four lots, and in 1898, those four lots were, by the marker's own account, out in the country.
Fort Worth wasn't yet pressing in from every direction the way it would come to do. That was the world young Mrs. Benton stepped into — formerly of St.
Louis, mind you — and the marker tells us plainly she feared the Wild West. You can hardly blame her. She'd come from St.
Louis, and here was this gingerbread house sitting out past the edge of things like a fancy postcard dropped in the prairie. But Mrs. Benton was not a woman who let fear have the last word.
She became an active civic worker, and she helped plant rose beds that now are part of the famous Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. Think on that a moment. What started as one woman's effort, maybe a way of making a wild place feel like home, grew into something thousands of people walk through today.
The Benton family lived in that house all the way until 1942 — forty-four years under one roof, through everything those decades carried with them. The Junior League of Fort Worth saw to it the marker was placed in 1971, and that gingerbread cottage got its due. Some houses just hold their ground.
What the marker says
Victorian Gingerbread Cottage. Erected by pioneer businessman Meredith A. Benton in 1898, when the 4-lot site was "out in the country," and young Mrs. Benton (formerly of St. Louis) feared the Wild West. Designed by builder's father, house has central hall, six rooms, tiled fireplaces. Mrs. Benton, an active civic worker, helped plant rose beds that now are part of famous Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. Benton family lived here until 1942. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark- 1971. Marked by Junior League of Fort Worth.