Matthews-Atwood House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The Matthews-Atwood House in Ellis County, now there's a place that's seen a few chapters written inside its walls. It starts around the turn of the century, 1900, when a man named Pearl C.

Matthews, and that name alone ought to tell you he carried himself with some distinction, purchased this very property. Pearl and his brother Will were in the department store business up in McKinney, and apparently one store wasn't enough, because they opened a second establishment right here in Ennis. Pearl and his wife Virgie, she was a Thompson before she married him, they moved onto this site and lived in a cottage.

A cottage, mind you. Modest. Sensible.

For eight years they made do. Then 1908 rolls around, and Pearl and Virgie decided it was time to build something that matched their ambitions, and they constructed the present house. The place that stands there to this day.

Then in 1917, a man named Harry Atwood came into the picture. Born in Arkansas in 1873, Harry purchased the home, and it passed into a new family's keeping. His wife Bessie, she was a Craig before she took the Atwood name, held onto that house through the years, and then in 1955 she deeded it over to their son Felix.

Felix Atwood, born in 1908, gone in 1974; and what a life packed in between those years. He made the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during World War II, and after that he lived right here in this house while keeping a law office over in Dallas. Two cities, one home.

That house sat on this Ellis County lot through department store dreams and wartime service and a lawyer's long career. Some houses just have a way of collecting stories.

What the marker says

Pearl C. Matthews purchased this property in 1900 when he and his brother Will, owners of a McKinney department store, opened a second establishment in Ennis. He and his wife Virgie (Thompson) lived in a cottage at this site until 1908 when they constructed the present house. Harry Atwood (1873-1948), a native of Arkansas, purchased the home in 1917. His wife Bessie (Craig) deeded the residence to their son Felix Atwood (1908-1974) in 1955. A Lieutenant Colonel during World War II, Atwood lived here and maintained a law office in Dallas.