DUANE
Duane's take
The marker's got the story, and here's how I tell it — the tale of the Collins-Shotwell House in Angelina County. Now, every house has a history, but not every house has a origin story quite like this one. Attorney Chester B.
Collins — born in 1888, died in 1960 — built this place in the early 1920s. And the lumber that went into it? That came from a woman named Lillian Knox.
A woman Chester B. Collins had successfully defended in a murder case. Let that settle in for a moment.
The house you're lookin' at was built with lumber provided by a client Collins had kept out of very serious trouble. Whatever happened in that courtroom, Lillian Knox walked out a free woman, and Chester B. Collins walked away with the materials to build himself a home.
That is a fee arrangement you don't hear about every day. And the house itself is worth a good long look. It's a two-story bungalow, and whoever designed it had opinions.
You've got corbeled brick piers, wide gables with brackets, a corbeled chimney cap, and — the marker makes a point to note this — unusual window patterns. Unusual. That word doing some real work there.
This wasn't a plain box thrown up in a hurry. This was a house somebody thought about. The Collins name gave way to the Shotwell name when the Jean Shotwell family took ownership in 1936 and held it all the way through 1974.
Early in their ownership, in 1937, they rented the house to the family of one Marvin L. Marsh — and Marvin L. Marsh wasn't just anybody.
He was a district commander for the Civilian Conservation Corps, the CCC. So under this one roof, you've had a defense attorney who built with lumber from a murder case, a family that held onto the place for nearly four decades, and a commander of one of the New Deal's most storied programs calling it home, at least for a spell. The Collins-Shotwell House.
Built on a case, furnished with consequence, and still standin' to tell the tale.
What the marker says
Attorney Chester B. Collins (1888-1960) built this house in the early 1920s with lumber provided by Lillian Knox whom he had successfully defended in a murder case. The 2-story bungalow features corbeled brick piers, wide gables with brackets, a corbeled chimney cap, and unusual window patterns. The Jean Shotwell family, property owners from 1936 to 1974 rented the house in 1937 to the family of Marvin L. Marsh, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) district commander. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1992