DUANE
Duane's take
The marker's the authority here, and I'm just the one brave enough to tell it out loud — so let's ride. Now, every good house has a story, and the Mounts-Wright House in Denton County has got one that stretches all the way back to Virginia, comes alive on the Texas frontier, survives fire and grief, and still stands today to tell the tale. It starts, as so many Texas stories do, with people movin' west.
The Mounts family first arrived in Denton County in the 1850s, all the way from Virginia. W.H. Mounts — born in 1833 — and his wife, Martha Elizabeth Mounts, known to everyone who loved her as Mattie, born in 1838, they planted themselves right in the thick of things.
They settled in the new county seat of Denton itself, which had only just been moved from New Alton back in 1857. Fresh town, fresh start, and the Mounts family was there for all of it. Through businesses, through farming, through landowning, they wove themselves into the fabric of early Denton.
And on April 6, 1867, W.H. Mounts made it official — he bought fifteen acres of land from his own mother, Emily Mounts. Fifteen acres that would come to bear the family name: Mounts Farm.
Behind the house, cotton grew. Fruit trees, too. The land was working land, and the family worked it.
But here's where the story gets its shadows. W.H. Mounts died in 1889.
And then, four years later — as if grief wasn't enough — the original family home burned to the ground in 1893. Gone. Just like that.
All those years, all those memories, reduced to ash. Now, lesser people fold. Mattie Mounts was not lesser people.
In 1898, she hired a contractor by the name of J.B. Wilson, and she commissioned something the whole county would have to reckon with — a brand new two-story house, eight rooms, built in the Queen Anne style. And that was no accident.
Victorian-era architecture was having its moment in Denton, and Mattie knew exactly what she was doing. This house was a statement. The outside of that house is something to behold even in the telling of it.
A veranda wrap-around porch. Clapboard siding. Fish scale shingles.
And inside? Heart pine floors stretching out beneath your feet, a front door and stair balusters showcasing Eastlake lathe, gouge and chisel work — the kind of craftsmanship that makes you slow down and look. And at the downstairs landing, a diamond window that became the focal point of the entire façade.
That window doesn't just let in light. It announces the house. Now, W.H. and Mattie had eight children between them.
Eight. And one of those children — a daughter named Sena Mounts — married a man named William Wesley Wright in 1896. Two years before that grand new house even went up.
And when the house was built, it became the place where Sena and William Wesley Wright raised their five children. Three generations tangled up in one set of walls. In 1914, when Mattie Mounts died, the house was officially deeded to Sena.
Her mother's final gift. Sena Wright lived there, loved there, and died there in 1952. Her husband William Wesley Wright stayed on in that house until his own death in 1959.
Between them, they carried the story to its quiet close. The Mounts-Wright House was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 2016 — which means the state of Texas looked at all that Virginia grit, all that frontier ambition, all that fire and rebuilding and family and love, and said: this one matters. And friend, out here on the road, I'd say that's about right.
What the marker says
The Mounts family first arrived in Denton County in the 1850s from Virginia. W.H. Mounts (1833-1889) and his wife, Martha Elizabeth (Mattie) Mounts (1838-1914), were early residents of the new county seat of Denton, which had been moved from New Alton in 1857. Through their businesses, farming and landowning, the family contributed significantly to the early developments of Denton. W.H. Mounts bought 15 acres of land from his mother, Emily Mounts, on April 6, 1867. The land became known as Mounts Farm. Cotton and fruit were grown behind the house. The original Mounts family home burned down in 1893, four years after the death of W.H. Mounts. In 1898, Mattie Mounts hired J.B. Wilson as the contractor for a new two-story house with eight rooms. The house was built in the Queen Anne style which was consistent with the popularity of the Victorian-era architecture in Denton at this time. The exterior of the house features a veranda wrap-around porch, clapboard siding and fish scale shingles. The interior floors are of heart pine and the front door and stair balusters are examples of Eastlake lathe, gouge and chisel work. The diamond window at the downstairs landing is a focal point for the house's façade. One of the Mounts' eight children, Sena Mounts married William Wesley Wright in 1896 and the couple's five children were raised in the Mounts-Wright House. The house was officially deeded to Sena in 1914 at the time of her mother's death. Sena Wright died in 1952 and her husband lived in the house until his death in 1959. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK - 2016