Eastham-Thomason House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passin' it along to you straight. Somewhere in Walker County, there stands a house that has watched more than a century and a half of Texas go by, and it is still standing, still in the family, and still worth pulling over for. The Eastham-Thomason House.

The story starts with a man named James H. Thomason, who set about constructing this home sometime between 1859 and 1862. Now, building a house across that particular stretch of years was no small thing, and what he raised up turned out to be one of the oldest homes in all of Walker County.

That is not a title you earn lightly. The design follows a Georgian plan, and if you know your architecture, you know that means proportion, symmetry, a certain quiet confidence in the way a building holds its ground. Thomason gave it simple Classical Revival features, a balustrade running along the roofline, a porte cochere for rolling up in style, and a central hall entrance dressed with sidelights on either side.

The kind of entrance that says, yes, someone of intention built this place. Then in 1869, a man named Byrd Eastham acquired the house. Now here is where the story gets the kind of twist a campfire crowd appreciates.

Somewhere down the line, one of Byrd Eastham's descendants married into the Thomason family. The two names that had passed this house between them eventually became one family, and the house never left. Eastham's descendants have retained ownership straight on through.

And in 1912, someone decided the place deserved a little more presence, and so those triple two-story columns were added. Three columns rising two full stories, the kind of addition that makes a house stop traffic on a country road. The Eastham-Thomason House did not just survive.

It kept its name, kept its family, and kept getting grander. Some places just refuse to let go of the people who love them.

What the marker says

Constructed between 1859 and 1862 by James H. Thomason, this is one of the oldest homes in Walker County. Byrd Eastham acquired the house in 1869, and his descendants, one of whom married into the Thomason Family, have retained ownership. The Georgian plan home exhibits simple Classical Revival features in its balustrade, porte cochere, and central hall entrance with sidelights. The triple two-story columns were added in 1912. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1989