DUANE
Get the App
Duane's take
Here's how the marker tells it, in my own words. Now, Brownwood has had its share of fine buildings over the years, but every now and then you pass a house that stops you cold, and the R. B.
Rogers House is that kind of place. This Colonial Revival residence went up in 1904 and 1905, built by a man named R. B.
Rogers, who by all accounts was somebody in this town. A prominent local merchant, an active church leader, a civic leader. The kind of man who, when he decided to build a house, built one worth remembering.
And remember it people did. The styling of the home is elaborate, no other word for it. Out front you've got a two-story balconied portico held up by massive Ionic columns.
Massive. The kind of columns that don't whisper, they announce. But here's the detail that'll stay with you.
Go up to the third floor, and what do you find? A ballroom. That's right.
The man built himself a ballroom on the third floor of his house in Brownwood, Texas, in 1904. Whatever was happening in this part of the state at the turn of that century, R. B.
Rogers was not sitting it out. The house stayed in the Rogers family all the way until 1957, more than half a century after those Ionic columns first went up. R.
B. Rogers himself passed in 1935, but the family held on to it. And today that house stands as what the marker calls a reminder of Brownwood's prosperity at the turn of the century.
A ballroom on the third floor. Some reminders are quieter than others. This one had a dance floor.
What the marker says
This Colonial Revival residence was constructed in 1904-05 by R. B. Rogers (d. 1935), a prominent local merchant and an active church and civic leader. The elaborate styling of the home features a distinctive two-story balconied portico with massive Ionic columns. The third floor area originally served as a ballroom. Owned by members of the Rogers family until 1957, the house serves as a reminder of Brownwood's prosperity at the turn of the century. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1982