Bumpus House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm passing it along to you. Somewhere in Gregg County, there's a house that's been keeping its secrets since around the turn of the century. Nobody knows the exact year it went up.

The marker says it's believed to have been built about that time, and sometimes a little mystery is the best foundation a house can have. What we do know is this: in 1927, William E. Bumpus and his wife Catherine, born a Harris, purchased the property and made it their own.

Now William wasn't just anybody. He was an area sawmill owner and a road builder, which means the man knew something about putting things together and making them last. And last this house did.

The Bumpus House is what architects call a well-preserved example of a large dwelling with Colonial Revival details, dormers, gable ends reaching up proud, and Craftsman influences showing up in those tapered box supports sitting on brick piers. Two different schools of thought, one house, and somehow it all holds together. That's a certain kind of confidence in the building.

The house stayed in the Bumpus family all the way until 1987, a local landmark through all of it, generations coming and going under those dormers. So next time you pass a house that looks like it knows exactly what it is, consider that some structures have a way of outlasting nearly everything around them, and the Bumpus House in Gregg County is making a pretty strong case for that idea.

What the marker says

This house is believed to have been built about the turn of the century. Area sawmill owner and road builder William E. Bumpus and his wife Catherine (Harris) purchased the property in 1927. The Bumpus House is a well-preserved example of a large dwelling with Colonial Revival details (dormers, gable ends) and Craftsman influences (tapered box supports on brick piers). A local landmark, the house remained in the Bumpus family until 1987. (1994)