DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it — and it's one worth telling right. Henry William Lightfoot was an Alabama native, a Confederate veteran who'd ridden with Forrest's Cavalry, and in 1872 he came to Paris, Texas, as a law partner of a man named Sam Bell Maxey. Now that's a fine way to start a new chapter — riding into a place on the strength of a good legal partnership.
But two years later, something else happened that tied Lightfoot to Paris a good deal more permanently. He married Dora Rowel Maxey — Sam Bell Maxey's adopted daughter. And before long, this young couple had a house built, right across the street from the Maxey home.
Close enough to be neighborly. Close enough to keep family close. The lumber for that house was hauled all the way from Jefferson, and when you see what they did with it, you understand why they made the trip.
The house's outstanding architectural feature is a double gallery — two levels of porch — decorated with Eastlake-style millwork. That millwork is the kind of detail that makes a house stop people in the street. Lightfoot himself went on to serve as a state senator and as chief justice of the 5th Court of Civil Appeals.
He was a man building something in Texas — a career, a home, a legacy. Then in 1901, while traveling in Alaska, Henry William Lightfoot died. Far from Paris.
Far from that double gallery with its fine millwork. His heirs eventually sold the house to the Rodgers Coleman family — early preservationists who, in the 1950s, oversaw restorations of the house. They understood what they had.
Some houses outlast the people who built them because someone, somewhere down the line, decides they ought to.
What the marker says
Alabama native Henry William Lightfoot a Confederate veteran of Forrest's Cavalry, came to Paris in 1872 as a law partner of Sam Bell Maxey. Two years later, he married Maxey's adopted daughter, Dora Rowel Maxey, and soon the young couple had this house built across the street from the Maxey home. Built of lumber hauled from Jefferson, its outstanding architectural feature is a double gallery decorated with Eastlake-style millwork. Lightfoot served as a state senator and as chief justice of the 5th Court of Civil Appeals. He died while traveling in Alaska in 1901, and his heirs later sold the house to the Rodgers Coleman family, early preservationist who oversaw restorations of the house in the 1950s. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965