Cecil and Frances Brown House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Cecil and Frances Brown House in Galveston County. Now settle in, because this one's got a little bit of everything. Pioneer roots, figs, French architecture, and a whole lot of brick.

Pull up a chair. So. Houston architect Henry A.

Stubee put pencil to paper and designed this house, and in 1938 it went up. The man who commissioned it was Cecil Brown, a name that carried real weight in Friendswood. Cecil and his wife Frances both came from pioneer Quaker families, which tells you something about the kind of people they were.

Steady. Rooted. Built to last.

And Cecil was no quiet figure sitting on a porch. He was a civic leader, a church leader, a business leader. The marker credits him with much of Friendswood's development itself.

That's not a small thing to have said about you. Now here's where it gets interesting. Cecil Brown was prominent in the Gulf Coast fig industry from the nineteen twenties all the way through the nineteen fifties.

Figs. Not cattle, not cotton, not oil. Figs.

And somewhere in the middle of all that, this house went up. Stubee designed it in what's called the French eclectic style, and he built it out of brick. Which sounds like a detail until you realize this.

For many years after its construction, this was the first and only brick residence in the entire Friendswood area. Every other house around it, wood. And there sat the Brown place, solid and singular, a French eclectic brick house rising up out of the coastal plain like it had always belonged there and always intended to stay.

Cecil and Frances Brown made sure of that.

What the marker says

Designed by Houston architect Henry A. Stubee and built in 1938, this was the home of local civic, church, and business leader Cecil Brown and his wife Frances. Both were from pioneer Quaker families. Mr. Brown was prominent in the Gulf Coast fig industry (1920s-1950s) and is credited with much of Friendswood's development. For many years after its construction, this French eclectic style house was the first and only brick residence in the Friendswood area. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1997