Miller-Spinks-Mayes Property

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. This corner of the town square in Crockett, right there in Houston County, has seen a few chapters worth knowin' about. It started in 1840, when a man named S.A.

Miller picked up this piece of ground. Miller wasn't just passing through, either. He was a state legislator and a Houston County judge, born in 1805, and he developed this corner as a law office.

The law, politics, commerce, all of it wrapped up in one corner of the square. That's a foundation worth payin' attention to. Miller lived until 1893, long enough to see what this town became.

Then, in 1891, a man named Rudd Crawford Spinks came along and bought the site. Spinks, born in 1856, had a different vision for that corner. He put up a two-story brick building, solid and deliberate, with his jewelry store down below and living quarters on the second floor.

Work below, sleep above, the whole life contained in one address. Spinks would hold on until 1938, but the building moved on before he did. In 1895, W.E.

Mayes, known around Crockett as Buck, bought the property. Buck Mayes was a merchant, a banker, and a landowner, a man with roots deep in that community. By the time it passed to him, the building had already been substantially altered from its original appearance.

And yet, through every change of hand and every renovation, this corner has held its place in Crockett's commercial history. Some corners of a town square just carry weight, and this one has been earnin' it since 1840.

What the marker says

This corner of the town square was developed as a law office after state legislator and Houston County judge S.A. Miller (1805-1893) purchased it in 1840. In 1891, Rudd Crawford Spinks (1856-1938) bought the site and built a two-story brick building for his jewelry store with living quarters on the second floor. W.E. "Buck" Mayes, a Crockett merchant, banker and landowner, bought the building, now substantially altered from its original appearance, in 1895. The property remains an important site in Crockett's commercial history. (1992)