Knightwood

Duane's take

Now I'm tellin' this one straight from the official marker, so you know every word of it is the real article. Out here in Marion County, there's a place called Knightwood, and if these old Texas roads could talk, they'd tell you to slow down when you pass it. Colonel Henry A.

Mimms built it in 1852, and he didn't build it for himself. He built it as a wedding gift. For his daughter.

Let that sit with you a moment. Not a brooch, not a parcel of land, not a handsome clock for the mantel. The man built a whole house and handed it to his child on her wedding day.

That right there tells you something about Colonel Mimms, and something about the era, and maybe something about the kind of place Knightwood was going to become. Because this house had a character from the start. The marker makes a point of saying it was noted for hospitality, and you believe it, because the Men's Harmony Club and the Ladies' Cooking Class both found their way to Knightwood's doors, holding weekly dancing parties under that roof.

A harmony club and a cooking class, meeting together, dancing every week. Picture that parlor on a Friday evening. You can almost hear it.

And what's beneath their feet while they're dancing? Original honey pine floors. Still there.

Still holding. The cherry wood mantels are there too, just as they were in 1852, when a father decided his daughter deserved something that would last. Knightwood has been standing long enough to prove him right.

What the marker says

Built 1852 by Col. Henry A. Mimms as a daughter's wedding gift. Noted for hospitality. Meeting place for Men's Harmony Club and Ladies' Cooking Class that held weekly dancing parties. Has original honey pine floors, cherry wood mantels. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965