Orth-Fitch House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, the way only Duane can. Picture Coke Street in Yoakum, Texas, sometime in the early twentieth century. It's 1910, and a man named Will Orth decides he's going to build himself a house.

Now Will Orth wasn't just anybody on that street. He was a railroad conductor, and he owned a local flour mill, and when a man like that puts up a home, people take notice. He brought in a local architect by the name of W.

A. Fink to do the designing, and Fink gave the place something special. Queen Anne style on one hand, colonial revival on the other.

You don't see that combination every day, and folks in Yoakum certainly didn't. Soon, other prominent Yoakum families started erecting their own homes right there on Coke Street. One after another, fine houses going up side by side.

And that street, well, it picked up a reputation. People started calling it Silk Stocking Row. The name says everything you need to know about the company Will Orth's house was keeping.

Then in 1917, a farmer and merchant named T. J. Fitch bought the home.

The Fitch family took to that house, and the house took to them. It stayed in their family all the way until 1973. More than half a century of mornings on Coke Street.

The Orth-Fitch House, as it came to be known, carries two names and a whole lot of Yoakum history inside those Queen Anne walls.

What the marker says

Will Orth, a railroad conductor and the owner of a local flour mill, built this home in 1910. Soon other prominent Yoakum families began erecting homes on Coke Street, which became known as "Silk Stocking Row." Designed by local architect W. A. Fink, Orth's home features characteristics of the Queen Anne and colonial revival styles. Farmer and merchant T. J. Fitch bought the home in 1917, and it remained in his family until 1973. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983