Eddy O. Hawkins Home

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just here to pass it along. Out here in Ellis County, there's a house that grew along with the man who built it. Eddy Pennell Hawkins came from a pioneer Ellis County family; roots already sunk deep in this land before most folks had even thought about showing up.

And in 1878, when he wed Netta Lewis Carson, he did what a man does when he's starting something: he built two rooms. Just two. Enough to begin.

Now, you might look at that modest little two-room place and think, well, that's the whole story. But here's where the telling gets interesting. Eddy Hawkins was not a man who stayed small.

By 1900, he came back to that house with a vision and a purpose, and he enlarged it; all the way up to three full stories. Three. That's not just adding on; that's making a statement.

And the style of it said something too. Late Victorian, they call it, with Queen Anne and Shingle style influences running all through it. Beveled window glass catching the light.

Neo-classical details out on the porch. A shingled second story rising up proud. The whole thing was, as the marker puts it, a reflection of his position: successful businessman, civic leader, a man whose standing in Ellis County had grown just as surely as his home had.

Two rooms in 1878. Three stories by 1900. That's not just a house.

That's a life, told in wood and glass and shingles.

What the marker says

Eddy Pennell Hawkins, a member of a pioneer Ellis County family, built the first two rooms of this home soon after he wed Netta Lewis Carson in 1878. In 1900 he enlarged it to its present three-story style, a reflection of his position as a successful businessman and civic leader. The Late Victorian style home exhibits Queen Anne and Shingle style influences. It features beveled window glass, neo-classical porch details, and a shingled second story.