Pleasant Lafayette Crawford House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some men come to a place and leave barely a footprint. Pleasant Lafayette Crawford was not that kind of man.

Born in 1837, he'd already lived through the Civil War by the time he pointed himself toward Texas. He came from Arkansas, made his way out here to what would become Silverton country in the late 1880s, and he didn't arrive with his hat in his hand. He bought ranch land.

He opened a mercantile business. And then, if that weren't enough, he went ahead and helped found the town of Silverton itself. One of its founders, the marker says, plain as day.

And in 1894, he opened the town's first hotel. First one. The man was building something.

Now, all this time, his family wasn't with him yet. They came later, by covered wagon, to join the life he'd been laying out for them piece by piece. And when it came time to put up a proper home, Crawford built something worth coming to.

In 1904, he raised a Queen Anne style house, the kind with a wraparound porch that just wraps its arms around you, built for a man who'd earned the right to sit and look at what he'd made. Crawford passed in 1912, but the family held onto that house, kept it in their hands all the way until 1917. Some legacies are written in deeds and hotel registers.

This one's got a wraparound porch to go with it.

What the marker says

This Queen Anne style home, which features a wraparound porch, was built in 1904 by Civil War veteran Pleasant Lafayette Crawford (1837-1912). After Crawford moved here from Arkansas in the late 1880s, he bought ranch land and opened a mercantile business. Later his family came by covered wagon to join him. One of Silverton's founders, Crawford opened the town's first hotel in 1894. After his death, the family kept the home until 1917. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983