Nash-Wright House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. You're rolling through Brazoria County now, and the ground you're passing over has been holding stories for a long, long time. This one starts with a town, a house, and the kind of staying power that most things just don't have.

Bell's Landing, later known as East Columbia, was founded in 1823 by a man named Josiah H. Bell, right there in Stephen F. Austin's colony.

That's early Texas, friend. The kind of early where the whole enterprise was still finding its footing. Now, the house we're talking about didn't come along right at the founding, but it came along.

Around 1847, a man named George Lewis Nash built the earliest part of what would become the Nash-Wright House, and he built it on cedar pole framing. Not brick, not stone. Cedar poles.

And on that humble foundation, Nash and his family lived for about 45 years. Think about that. Forty-five years in one place, watching a young Texas colony town grow up around him.

Then, in 1892, the house changed hands. Martha Caroline Wright, wife of a merchant named James P. Wright, bought the property.

The Wrights didn't just move in and call it done. They added extensive area to the place, stretching it out, making it more. And here's the part that really lands, the part that separates a good story from a great one.

The descendants of the Wrights own and preserve that property to this day. One of the oldest houses surviving in the old Austin colony, standing on its cedar pole bones, still in the family. Bell's Landing may have changed its name, but that house hasn't gone anywhere.

What the marker says

One of oldest houses surviving in Stephen F. Austin colony town of Bell's Landing (East Columbia). Founded 1823 by Josiah H. Bell. Earliest part of this house was built about 1847 on cedar pole framing by George Lewis Nash, who lived here with his family for about 45 years. House was bought 1892 by Martha Caroline Wright, wife of merchant James P. Wright. The Wrights added extensive area. Their descendants own and preserve the property. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1973