David L. Nutt Home

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the David L. Nutt Home in Hood County. Now settle in, because this one's got a little everything: an ox cart, a punchline, and a man who helped put a whole town on the map.

David Lee Nutt came to Texas from Missouri in 1857, and whatever he was lookin for out here, he clearly had the patience for the long game. Twenty-two years after arrivin, in 1879, he built himself a two-story house right there in Hood County. And he didn't just slap it together; this was plantation-style construction, built with cypress lumber that had to be hauled by ox cart all the way from east Texas.

You think about that for a second. Ox cart. Cypress lumber.

East Texas to Hood County. That is a man who knew what he wanted and was willin to work for it. Now here's where the story takes a turn.

That fine home, that carefully constructed cypress showpiece, didn't stay a private residence for long. It got converted into Hood County's first hotel. And the family (bless their hearts, they had a sense of humor about the whole thing) named it The Nutt House.

The marker notes it was humorously named, which tells you these folks were in on the joke from the start. The guests weren't exactly grand tourists either. The patrons were drummers, traveling salesmen comin through to visit Nutt's mercantile store.

So picture it: a plantation-style cypress manor turned hotel, full of traveling merchants, all stayin at The Nutt House. Eventually the laughter settled and the building went back to bein a home again in 1900. But maybe the most quietly remarkable thing David Lee Nutt ever did?

He donated forty acres for the original Granbury townsite. Forty acres. The ground that a whole community got built on.

A man donates the land, names his hotel after himself, hauls lumber by ox cart across the state, and somehow the funniest thing he ever did was let his family put a sign above the door.

What the marker says

Two story house built in 1879 by David Lee Nutt, who came to Texas from Missouri in 1857. Constructed, plantation-style, with cypress lumber hauled by ox cart from east Texas. Home soon converted into Hood county's first hotel, humorously named "The Nutt House" by the family. Patrons were drummers visiting Nutt's mercantile store. Became a home again in 1900. Nutt was a donor of 40 acres for original Granbury townsite.