Dr. Samuel Floyd Vaughan Home

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Dr. Samuel Floyd Vaughan Home in Harrison County. Now settle in, because this house has a story that spans decades, and it kept growing right along with the telling.

It started simple enough. Sometime between 1841 and 1842, somebody put up a two-room central hall plan house. Two rooms.

A central hall. That's it. Modest, practical, the kind of place that just wants to keep the weather out and the family in.

But houses, like the people who love them, have a way of reaching for something more. The second story didn't come along until 1865. You do the math on how much time passed between that first humble structure and the moment somebody finally looked up and said, we need another floor.

Then came 1870, and with it, a man named Dr. Samuel Floyd Vaughan. He was a native of Missouri, a Civil War veteran, and he came to Harrison County to serve as a physician and surgeon.

After Vaughan purchased the home in 1870, things really got interesting. Those Italianate style front rooms went up. The Eastlake style porches followed.

Suddenly this place had flair, had presence, had the kind of architectural confidence that makes a passerby slow down and take a second look. Vaughan himself was born in 1844 and lived until 1916, and the mark he left on that house is still standing. More than a hundred years, the marker tells us, the homestead has remained in the Vaughan family.

A two-room house born in the early 1840s, dressed up in Italianate and Eastlake style, and still in the family. Some things, it turns out, are built to last.

What the marker says

This home evolved from a two-room central hall plan house built in 1841-42. The second story was completed in 1865, and the Italianate style front rooms and Eastlake style porches were added after Dr. Samuel Floyd Vaughan purchased the home in 1870. A native of Missouri and a Civil War veteran, Vaughan (1844-1916) served Harrison County as a physician and surgeon. The homestead has remained in the Vaughan family for more than 100 years. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1985