Davis House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker at the Davis House tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, John N. Davis was a traveling buggy salesman, which means he was a man who spent a good portion of his life on the road, moving from town to town, making his living one sale at a time.

But in 1902, he and his wife Maggie (Maggie Hamilton before she took the Davis name) they put down something permanent. They had this house built. Right here in Collin County.

An L-plan structure with an extended bay out front and a wraparound porch that just wraps its arms around the whole thing like it's holding on to something. And something worth holding onto it was. Seven children were born in that house.

Seven. Now, I want you to sit with that number for just a moment, because the marker doesn't let you look away from what comes next; only three of those seven children lived to adulthood. That's the kind of fact that lands differently when you're standing on the porch where it happened.

This wasn't a distant tragedy. It was right here, inside these walls, over and over again. And then in 1908, Maggie herself was gone.

John was a traveling salesman with children to raise and grief he had no map for. So Maggie's mother stepped in. Cornelia Allen Hamilton.

She moved into that house and helped with the children. A grandmother filling a space that couldn't really be filled, doing it anyway. The Davis family held onto this place all the way until 1978.

Seventy-six years. Through everything that house had seen, it stayed in the family. That wraparound porch has been there for all of it.

Still is.

What the marker says

John N. Davis, a traveling buggy salesman, and his wife Maggie (Hamilton) had this house built in 1902. Their seven children were born here, although only three lived to adulthood. After Maggie's death in 1908, her mother, Cornelia Allen Hamilton, moved in to help with the children. The house remained in the Davis family until 1978. The L-plan vernacular structure features an extended bay at the front and a wraparound porch. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1990***