Bland-Fisher Home

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Bland-Fisher Home in San Augustine County. Now settle in, because this one's got a little bit of everything. A man who built a whole world around one lake, and a house sitting right at the heart of it.

James Jefferson Bland had this one-story galleried home built about 1912. One story, sure, but don't let that fool you. He put a widow's walk up on the roof, which tells you something about a man's ambitions, doesn't it?

Perched up there above the pines, looking out over everything he'd made. And he'd made quite a bit. The lumber for the house itself came right off his own sawmill.

That's the kind of man Bland was. He didn't go looking for what he needed. He built the means to get it.

Around that house, around that lake, Bland assembled an entire community. A general store. A sawmill.

A cotton gin. A grist mill. A school.

A post office. The Santa Fe Railroad running through. And if all that industry wore you out, well, there were popular lakeside swimming facilities to cool yourself down.

The whole thing was called the Bland Lake community, and James Jefferson Bland was the center of gravity holding it together. He and his wife Mattie, born a Baggett, made that galleried home the center of the community itself. The place where everything connected back to.

Bland lived to see 1939, and somewhere along the way, he and Mattie sold the house to their daughter Lula and her husband Guy B. Fisher. The name on the deed changed, but the house stayed in the family.

The widow's walk still watching over the pines. Some things you build, they outlast the builder. And in San Augustine County, this one did.

What the marker says

James Jefferson Bland (d. 1939) had this one-story galleried home built about 1912. It was the center of the Bland Lake community, which included Bland's general store, sawmill, cotton gin, grist mill, a school, Santa Fe Railroad, post office, and popular lakeside swimming facilities. Built of pine lumber from the mill, it features a widow's walk on the roof. Bland and his wife Mattie (Baggett) later sold the house to their daughter Lula and her husband Guy B. Fisher. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1980