J. A. McDougle Home

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the J. A. McDougle Home in Williamson County.

C. S. Belford Lumber Co. put up a good many fine structures in their day, and this house, built in 1895, was one of them.

They built it for a grocer by the name of J. A. McDougle, and whoever drew up the plans was not thinking small.

The Victorian styling included ornate stained glass windows. You put stained glass in a grocer's house, you are making a statement. McDougle would go on to live a long life, passing in 1939, but the house itself had already changed hands more than once by then.

In 1901, John R. Allen bought it. Nine years after that, in 1910, a man named W.

J. Flanagan came into ownership, and Flanagan was no ordinary buyer. He served as county treasurer for several terms, so this house became the kind of place where the county's business followed a man home.

His family held onto it, living there year after year, until 1945, when Mr. and Mrs. Halsell P. Armstrong became the owners.

Then in 1969, Neil and Joyce Adams acquired the property and did something a lot of folks talk about but not everybody follows through on. They restored it. Stained glass, Victorian bones, and all.

Five owners, one house, built in 1895 by a lumber company that clearly knew what they were doing. Some buildings just have a way of outlasting everyone who ever called them home.

What the marker says

One of the many fine structures erected by C. S. Belford Lumber Co., this house was built in 1895 for grocer J. A. McDougle (d. 1939). the Victorian styling included ornate stained glass windows. The home was bought in 1901 by John R. Allen and in 1910 by W. J. Flanagan, who was county treasurer for several terms. His family lived here until Mr. and Mrs. Halsell P. Armstrong became owners (1945). The property was acquired and restored in 1969 by Neil and Joyce Adams. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1975