Fielder House

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna let it speak for itself. Out in Arlington, Tarrant County, there's a house that earned a name, and names like that don't come easy. People around here took to calling it The Home on the Hill, and once you hear what went into building it, you start to understand why.

James Park Fielder (local landowner, community leader, a man who carried some real weight in this part of Texas) and his wife Mattie, born a Barnes, set out in 1914 to build something that wasn't just a house. It was a statement. Now, 1914 wasn't exactly a time when folks around Arlington were reaching for steel lathing and innovative building techniques.

But James and Mattie Fielder weren't exactly ordinary folks. They put up a brick Prairie style structure: solid, low-slung, deliberate; the kind of architecture that says we're staying. And underneath it all, a large basement, built to hold the fruits and vegetables coming off the surrounding acreage.

This wasn't just a fine home. It was a working home, rooted in the land it sat on. Word got around.

It tends to do that when a place has character. The Fielder residence became a popular gathering place, a landmark for the citizens of Arlington, a spot people oriented themselves by, the kind of house that showed up in directions and in memory alike. James Park Fielder passed in 1948.

Mattie followed in 1950. But The Home on the Hill they raised together back in 1914, built with steel and brick and no small amount of vision, that one stayed put.

What the marker says

Local landowner and community leader James Park Fielder (d. 1948) and his wife Mattie (Barnes) (d. 1950) erected this house in 1914, using steel lathing and other innovative techniques. The brick Prairie style structure had a large basement to provide storage space for the fruits and vegetables grown on surrounding acreage. Known as "The Home on the Hill," the Fielder residence was a popular gathering place and a landmark for citizens of Arlington. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1979