Douglass-Potts House

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just along for the ride. Out here in Tarrant County, there's a house that has quietly held its ground through most of a century, and the stories layered into its walls are worth a slow drive and a good listen. This is the Douglass-Potts House, and it starts, as so many good Texas stories do, with the land itself.

The ground this house sits on once belonged to Seth Ramsey, an Arlington pioneer. His daughter Clara grew up knowing that land, and when the time came to put down roots of her own, well, that patch of Tarrant County earth was right there waiting. In 1907, a local contractor by the name of Joe O.

Crawley built the cottage. Clara and her husband Wilson M. Douglass, known to just about everybody as Bud, moved in.

Now, Bud Douglass was not a man you'd want to cross on a dark street corner. He served as city marshal, and later rose to chief of police. A lawman through and through, living in a tidy cottage on his wife's family land.

There's something fitting about that. The house itself is what architects call vernacular architecture, meaning it's less about showmanship and more about honest building. A steeply pitched roof.

A central hall. Intersecting gables. A side bay.

And the wood trim, restrained, nothing flashy. It was a home built for living, not for impressing. In 1919, the house passed out of the Douglass family when W.

A. and Clara Potts purchased it. The Potts family held on to that place for a good long while, all the way until 1987. Decades of meals and mornings and Texas summers under that steeply pitched roof.

Seth Ramsey's land, Joe Crawley's craftsmanship, a lawman's household, and then a family that simply refused to let go. That house earned its landmark status. Some things are worth keeping.

What the marker says

Built in 1907 by local contractor Joe O. Crawley, this was the home of city marshall (later chief of police) Wilson M. ("Bud") Douglass and his wife Clara (Ramsey). The cottage was constructed on land formerly owned by Clara's father, Arlington pioneer Seth Ramsey, and his family. W. A. and Clara Potts purchased it in 1919 and it remained in their family until 1987. A classic example of vernacular architecture, the house features a steeply pitched roof over a central hall with intersecting gables and side bay. The home is typical of the period, with restrained wood trim. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1999