Howell House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, there's a house sitting in Collin County that has watched four generations of the same family come and go through its doors, and that story starts long before the first nail was ever driven. Back in 1845, a man named Edward Bradley was granted this very land.

Bradley was born in 1787, and by the time Texas was sorting out who owned what, he was part of something called the Peters Colony. He lived to 1855, never quite seeing what would rise on his property. But his daughter Mary Ann (born in 1820) she inherited the land.

And Mary Ann had a husband, a merchant by the name of Daniel Howell, born in 1821. Now Daniel Howell looked at that land and decided it needed a house worthy of it. So between 1861 and 1862 (and you might want to think about what else was happening in this country right about then) that man was busy hauling cypress lumber by wagon all the way from Jefferson to make it happen.

Jefferson. That is not a short haul in any era, let alone that one. But the lumber came, the walls went up, and the first portion of the Howell House stood.

The years kept rolling through, and so did the family; additions here, remodeling there, the house growing the way families do. Mary Ann herself lived until 1878, the same year Daniel passed. They came into this world just a year apart, and they left it the same year.

Four generations called this place home, and the house is still standing to tell the tale. Some houses are just buildings. This one's a record.

What the marker says

Occupied by four generations of the same family, this structure stands on property granted in 1845 to Edward Bradley (1787-1855), a member of the Peters Colony. His daughter Mary Ann (1820-1878) inherited the land. Her husband, merchant Daniel Howell (1821-1878), built the first portion of this residence in 1861-62. Much of the cypress lumber was hauled by wagon from Jefferson. Over the years, additions and remodeling have enlarged the historic house. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1978