Lipscomb-Doggett House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Lipscomb-Doggett House in Denton County. Now, not every historic house on the block has to be the biggest one to earn a story worth telling. Sometimes it's the quiet ones that last.

The Lipscomb-Doggett House went up on West Oak Street in 1895, contracted by Dr. Priestly Lipscomb and his wife, Molly Binyon, through a builder by the name of J.C. Thornton.

Dr. Lipscomb was born in 1869, Molly in 1871, and together they put down roots in what the marker calls a Victorian Folk cottage. One story, frame construction, quaint by the standards of the day.

Because out there on bustling West Oak Street, the neighborhood was running toward the grander Queen Anne style, those larger, more ornate homes that were all the fashion. The Lipscomb place was modest by comparison. But modest has a way of enduring.

The house changed hands in 1920, when W.T. Doggett, superintendent of Denton City Schools, purchased it. Doggett, born in 1883, brought the place into a new era.

He updated the exterior with modern Craftsman-style features, giving the old cottage a fresh face for a new century. Now here is the part that tends to stop people cold. Underneath all of that, underneath the updates and the decades and the changing of hands, the footprint of that house and its original bois d'arc pier and beam foundation have not been altered since 1926.

Bois d'arc, that hard, stubborn Texas wood, still holding the thing up, still doing the job it was set to do. Dr. Lipscomb lived until 1942.

Molly Binyon Lipscomb, also 1942. W.T. Doggett lived until 1957.

The house outlasted them all, sitting right there on West Oak Street, quiet as ever, foundation intact. Some things, if you build them right and leave them alone, just refuse to go anywhere.

What the marker says

The Lipscomb-Doggett House was built by Dr. Priestly Lipscomb (1869-1942) and wife, Molly Binyon (1871-1942). The couple contracted the one-story frame house from J.C. Thornton in 1895. Built on bustling West Oak Street, the Victorian Folk cottage was quaint compared to most larger Queen Anne-style neighborhood homes. W.T. Doggett (1883-1957), superintendent of Denton City Schools, purchased the home in 1920 and updated it with modern Craftsman-style exterior features. The footprint and original bois d'arc pier and beam foundation, however, have not been altered since 1926. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK - 2016