Old Bass Home

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Picture Sherman, Texas, back when the whole county was still figuring itself out. Dr.

R. L. Bullock put up a house on what would become 215 West Houston, sometime in the eighteen fifties.

Now, that alone is worth noting, because this was not just any house. This was the oldest house still standing in the entire city. But Bullock didn't stop at just building the oldest house in town.

He made sure it had something no other structure in the county could claim: the first window glass. Think about that. Every other building in Grayson County, you're looking out through open air or shuttered wood.

Then here comes Dr. Bullock's place, with actual glass in the windows. The house itself was built around what folks called a dog run, that's a central entry hall running through the middle of the structure, a design as practical as it was common in its day.

The years moved along, and by 1867, the home had passed into the life of Confederate Colonel T. C. Bass and his family.

That's when the story takes a turn that's hard to shake. The Colonel's daughter Nettie was born in that house in 1868. And she didn't just grow up there and move on.

Nettie lived in that home for ninety-seven years. The same walls her father claimed in 1867. The same windows that were the first of their kind in the whole county.

One house, one family, one woman's nearly entire life contained within it. Some stories don't need embellishing. They just need telling.

What the marker says

(Originally at 215 W. Houston, Sherman) Oldest extant house in city. Erected in 1850s by Dr. R. L. Bullock. Built around typical "dog run," or entry hall. Had first window glass in county. Family home of Confederate Col. T. C. Bass since 1867. His daughter Nettie, born here 1868, lived in home 97 years. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1968