Hancock Building

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how Duane tells it back to you. In Ellis County, in the year 1890, two men decided to build something that would last. Businessman William F.

Lewis and Ellis County Judge M.B. Templeton put up a Victorian commercial structure, and they did not skimp on the details. Decorative brickwork climbing the facade, cast iron columns holding court out front.

This was not a building that whispered. It announced itself. Now, a structure like that tends to attract a certain kind of tenant, and over the years this one drew grocery stores, a justice of the peace, real estate offices, insurance offices.

The whole commercial life of a Texas county town flowing in and out through those doors. But the building was waiting for the name it would keep. That came in 1907, when a well-known defense attorney by the name of William Pitt Hancock purchased the property to house his law office.

Born in 1872, gone in 1955, Hancock was the kind of man who understood that where you set up shop says something about who you are. And he chose this place. A Victorian building with iron columns and dressed-up brickwork, standing in Ellis County, ready to shelter a defense attorney who had arguments to make and cases to win.

The Hancock Building. It earned that name the old-fashioned way. Somebody bought it.

What the marker says

Businessman William F. Lewis and Ellis County Judge M.B. Templeton built this Victorian commercial structure in 1890. Decorative brickwork and cast iron columns highlight the facade. William Pitt Hancock (1872-1955), a well-known defense attorney, purchased the property in 1907 to house his law office. A grocery store, justice of the peace, and real estate and insurance offices have also occupied the Hancock building.