Omar L. Fletcher Home

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some houses just sit there on a lot, minding their business. And then there are houses that carry a whole family's story in their walls.

The Omar L. Fletcher Home, out in Bell County, is that second kind. Omar L.

Fletcher was born in 1887, right here in Bell County, and when he died in 1975 he left behind a legacy that stretched from banking to industry and just about everything in between. The marker calls him an industrialist and a civic leader, and that combination, well, it tends to leave a mark on a place. The Fletcher family had been building something for a long time before Omar came into his own.

His father James Fletcher was part of it too. The two of them, father and son, were the successors to a family business that had been started back in 1881. Over the years that enterprise grew into something with a proper name and a serious reputation: Fletcher Enterprises, a prominent banking and industrial firm.

Now, when a man like that decides to build himself a house, he doesn't leave it to chance. Omar Fletcher turned to Ernest Scrivener of San Antonio, who both designed and constructed the home in 1924. And Scrivener brought a vision to Bell County that folks around here might not have been expecting.

Mediterranean influences, the marker says. White brick. A tiled roof.

And an arched entrance that tells you, before you ever step inside, that something a little different is going on here. It's the kind of house that makes you stop on the road and just look for a moment. A Bell County boy, a family business going back to 1881, and a San Antonio architect with a Mediterranean eye.

All of it came together in 1924, and it's still standing there to prove it.

What the marker says

Omar L. Fletcher (1887-1975), a native of Bell County, was an industrialist and civic leader. He and his father James Fletcher were the successors to a family business, started in 1881, which became Fletcher Enterprises, a prominent banking and industrial firm. Ernest Scrivener of San Antonio designed and constructed this house for Fletcher in 1924. The Mediterranean influences include the use of white brick, a tiled roof, and an arched entrance. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1979