C.B. and Lilburn Atkinson House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the C.B. and Lilburn Atkinson House, out in Williamson County. Now settle in, because this one's got craftsmanship, heartbreak, and a woman who outlasted just about everything. In 1915, Belford Lumber Co. built this house for a real estate businessman named Charles Byron Atkinson and his wife, Lilburn.

She came from a prominent local family, the Dimmits, and by all accounts this was meant to be a home worthy of that standing. And it delivered. Craftsman bungalow architecture, they call it, and the details on this place are something to behold.

Transoms. An inset porch with a gabled roof. Cobblestone piers and a cobblestone chimney.

A three-sided window bay. Bracketed eaves, a low overhanging roofline, and a shingled foundation skirt. The kind of house where every corner has a decision behind it, and every decision was the right one.

Now, you might expect a story that goes: fine couple, fine house, long life together. But only five years after that house was completed, C.B. Atkinson died.

He was thirty-five years old. Lilburn, though. Lilburn was not finished.

She remarried, and she held on to that house. Kept it. Tended to it.

And she remained its owner all the way until 1976. The house that Belford Lumber Co. built in 1915 was still hers, still standing, still every bit the thing it was made to be. Some houses outlast their builders.

Some women outlast just about everything else.

What the marker says

Belford Lumber Co. built this house in 1915 for real estate businessman Charles Byron Atkinson and his wife, Lilburn (Dimmit), daughter of a prominent local family. C.B. died at the age of 35, five years after its completion. Lilburn later remarried, continuing as owner of the home until 1976. An outstanding example of Craftsman bungalow architecture, the house features transoms, an inset porch with gabled roof, and cobblestone piers and chimney. Other noteworthy details include a three-sided window bay, bracketed eaves, a low overhanging roofline and a shingled foundation skirt. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2006