Cox House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Cox House in Orange County. Now settle in, because this story starts with a river bend and ends with a fallout shelter, and there's plenty worth savin' in between. The town of Orange began as a settlement in the late 1820s, right there on a bend in the Sabine River.

By the turn of the century, Orange had stretched itself north of that river bend, the way a growing town tends to do when it gets comfortable. Into that expanding world came Thomas C.B. Cox, born in 1856, a civil engineer out of Alabama working for the Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company.

In 1890, he married Delha Renfro, born in 1865, and together they planted their roots in Orange. In 1909, Tom Cox purchased two lots from a woman named Agnes Jett, and by 1910 he and Delha had themselves a house. Not just any house, mind you.

They hired Daniel Webster Howell, one of Orange's major builders, and what Howell put up was a shingle Victorian, the kind of house that makes you stop on the sidewalk and look twice. Around the bottom and under the eaves runs a flared fish scale style skirting. Inside, the ceilings climb twelve feet high.

The floors are laid in two-inch planks of white oak. And the windows, all thirty-three of them, let the light pour in from every direction. Tom Cox himself was a man who kept addin' chapters to his own story.

His career began in lumber, then moved into surveying, land work, Deputy Sheriff, and Head of the Tax Department. The house outlasted him, Cox passing in 1929, Delha in 1934, and then other families carried the story forward. Carlton Trimble, President of the Chamber of Commerce and member of the Economic Development Council following World War II, lived here with his family, and in 1944 they added a second floor and turned the back porch into a full room.

Then came the Roberts family in the 1960s, who added a carport and, in the spirit of that particular anxious era, a fallout shelter. That shelter is gone now, removed along with whatever worries built it. What remains is the white oak floor, the twelve-foot ceilings, the thirty-three windows, and the fish scale skirting catchin' the East Texas light.

Some houses just refuse to let the past go quietly, and the Cox House in Orange is one of them.

What the marker says

The town of Orange began as a settlement in the late 1820s on a bend in the Sabine River. By the turn of the century, the town expanded north of the river bend. Thomas C.B. Cox (1856-1929), a civil engineer for the Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company from Alabama, married Delha Renfro (1865-1934) in 1890. Cox purchased two lots in 1909 from Agnes Jett in Orange and, by 1910, they built a comfortable house for their family. Tom and Delha Cox hired Daniel Webster Howell, one of Orange's major builders, to build the house in the shingle Victorian style. Around the bottom and under the eaves of the house is flared fish scale style skirting. The ceilings are 12 feet high. The floors are made of two-inch planks of white oak. There are 33 windows on the house. Tom Cox's career began in lumber but then went on to include surveyor, land man, Deputy Sheriff and Head of the Tax Department. Several more families and tenants lived here over the years, including Carlton Trimble, President of the Chamber of Commerce and member of the Economic Development Council following World War II. In 1944, the Trimble family added a second floor to the house and turned the back porch into a full room. The Roberts family in the 1960s added a carport and a fallout shelter to the house, now removed. This home is a reminder of the early 20th century development of the area and the craftsmanship that preserves our heritage for generations to come.