DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and it's worth every word. Way out in Randall County, there stands a home built in 1904, and before you picture something modest and frontier-plain, let me tell you what this man hauled in for the occasion. L.
T. Lester — buffalo hunter, cattleman, and apparently a man with very particular taste — ordered mantelpieces for four fireplaces and two marble lavatories, all brought in from Kansas City, Missouri. Four fireplaces.
Marble. Out here on the Texas Panhandle. That tells you something about the man before you even know his story.
And his story starts earlier. Lester settled in this part of the world in 1889, back when this land was the kind of place a buffalo hunter would feel right at home — because he had been, in fact, exactly that. He made the turn to cattleman, put down roots, and then in 1900 he opened the first bank in the area.
The first one. So if you needed to deposit anything in Randall County at the turn of the century, L. T.
Lester was your man. He didn't slow down after that. Active in civic affairs, the marker says, and it backs that up — he helped bring West Texas State University here in 1910.
A buffalo hunter who helped build a university. The home he built in 1904, with its four hearths and its marble and its Kansas City finery, became the site of political gatherings, social gatherings, church gatherings — the kind of place where a county figures out what it's going to be. Turns out, L.
T. Lester had a pretty strong opinion about that.
What the marker says
Built 1904; mantel pieces for 4 fireplaces, 2 marble lavatories bought in Kansas City, Mo. Site of political, social, church gatherings. Lester - buffalo hunter and cattleman - settled here, 1889; opened first bank, 1900. Active in civic affairs, he helped bring West Texas State University here, 1910. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1967