Booth House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Booth House, out in Williamson County. Now, picture this. Somewhere around 1880, a man named Crawford Henry Booth decided he needed a house worthy of his standing.

Booth was a prominent local rancher and a banker, born in 1843, and the man would live all the way to 1937. So when he built, he built with intention. What went up on that land was no plain farmhouse.

What went up was something Williamson County had genuinely never seen before. The house follows what's called an L-plan vernacular form, and that alone made it unusual around these parts. But Booth didn't stop at the floor plan.

Not even close. The house is dressed up in Queen Anne details, the kind that make a passerby slow down and squint. There's an octagonal turret, and perched right on top of it, an onion dome roof.

Let that settle for a second. An onion dome, in central Texas, on a cattle-and-banking man's home. Then you've got polygonal bays, arched windows, keyhole windows, decorative shingle work, and a curvilinear porch trimmed with spindlework balustrade.

Every surface seems to have something going on. Now, the Booth family didn't let the place go easily. That house stayed in family hands all the way until 1958, which is a long stretch of one family living inside the same dream Crawford Henry Booth built around 1880.

Some houses just hold on. And some houses make sure you remember they're there.

What the marker says

This house was built about 1880 for Crawford Henry Booth (1843-1937), a prominent local rancher and banker. An unusual local example of the L-plan vernacular form, the house features many Queen Anne details, including an octagonal turret with onion dome roof, polygonal bays, arched windows, curvilinear porch with spindlework balustrade, keyhole windows, and decorative shingle work. The house remained in the Booth family until 1958. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1992