Stubblefield Building

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how Duane tells it back to you. Way out in Liberty Hill, there stands a building that has been watching this corner of Williamson County for a long, long time. We're talking about the Stubblefield Building, raised in 1871 out of hand-cut native limestone, and if the marker's right, it may well be the oldest structure still standing in Liberty Hill.

That word, perhaps, is doing some honest work there. The marker doesn't overclaim, and neither will I. But standing in 1871 limestone is no small thing.

The man who built it was S.P. Stubblefield, born in Alabama in 1824. Before he ever laid a stone in Texas, Stubblefield had already seen the elephant.

He served as a veteran of the Mexican War, that conflict that ran from 1846 to 1848, and whatever that experience did to a man, Stubblefield came out the other side and got to building. He put up this two-story limestone block and his family held onto it all the way until 1907. That's three-plus generations of Stubblefields keeping the lights on, or at least keeping the doors open.

And those doors opened onto quite a variety of life. The lower floor housed all manner of stores and businesses over the years. The upper floor, now, that served a different purpose.

It was often used as living quarters. So you had commerce down below and life being lived up above, which is about as Texas-practical an arrangement as you can imagine. The building sat and it endured.

Limestone has a way of waiting out whatever comes next. And what came next, eventually, was 1973, when a sculptor named Mel Fowler bought the place and restored it. A sculptor.

There's something fitting about an artist choosing a building carved out of the earth itself, shaped by hand a full century before he arrived. The Stubblefield Building. Built in 1871.

Still standing. The limestone doesn't brag about it. It just stands there, same as it always has.

What the marker says

Erected in 1871, this structure of hand-cut native limestone is perhaps the oldest still standing in Liberty Hill. it was built by S.P. Stubblefield (1824-1902), a native of Alabama and veteran of the Mexican War (1846-48), and owned by his family until 1907. The lower floor has housed various stores and businesses, while the upper floor was often used as living quarters. In 1973 the building was bought and restored by sculptor Mel Fowler. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1976