President's House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just passin' it along. Now, on the campus of Tarleton State University, there stands a house built of native stone. Not imported stone, not shipped-in material, but stone pulled from the local land itself.

And the story of how that house came to be is worth a slow drive and a good listen. The year was 1923. The purpose was plain: build a residence on campus fit for the college's chief executive officer.

They'd call it the Dean's Home at first, which has a certain no-nonsense ring to it. But the man who first walked through its doors was J. Thomas Davis, and here's the part worth savoring.

Davis isn't just the first occupant. He's credited with designing the house himself. The man drew up the plans, and then moved his family right into what he'd imagined.

Now, look at the thing and you'll notice it doesn't quite look like what you'd expect out of Erath County. Mediterranean style influences, the record says. Something in the lines and the character of it reaching toward warmer, older shores.

And yet it was built by local workers and student workers, with their own hands, using stone from the ground nearby. The whole project came in at a cost of eight thousand dollars. Eight thousand dollars.

Native stone. Student labor. A designer who became the first man to sleep under the roof he conceived.

They eventually stopped calling it the Dean's Home. Today it's known as the President's House, which tells you something about how institutions grow into themselves over time. But the stone is still the same stone.

And the house is still the one J. Thomas Davis had in mind back in 1923.

What the marker says

This home was built on the Tarleton State University campus in 1923 to serve as the residence of the college's chief executive officer. Originally called the Dean's Home, it was first occupied by the family of J. Thomas Davis, who is credited with designing the house. Exhibiting Mediterranean style influences, the home was built of native stone by local and student workers at a cost of $8,000. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1988