DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Bowers Mansion in Anderson County. Now settle in, because this one's a story about a man who simply could not stop building. It started modestly enough — a merchant named Henry Ash put up a house in 1878.
Plain, respectable, the kind of place a man builds when he wants a roof over his head and not much more. But in 1884, Andrew L. Bowers and his wife Nellie O'Connell Bowers came along and bought it, and from that moment on, that house never really got to rest.
By 1886, they'd brought in an architect-builder by the name of W. W. Wainright, and Wainright set to work adding a cupola, a gazebo, circular galleries — the kind of touches that say, quietly but firmly, that the man of the house had arrived.
Now, you might think that'd be enough. You would be wrong. Come 1897, an architect named Charles Dunbar was called in for what the marker calls ornate renovations.
Ornate. That's the word they used. And still Andrew Bowers wasn't finished.
He kept enlarging and enriching that structure all the way until 1921. Forty-three years of additions, and the man lived until 1926 — so he had a few years at the end just to sit and admire what he'd done. And there was plenty to admire, because Andrew L.
Bowers was not a small figure in any sense of the word. He was an official of the International and Great Northern Railroad. He was president of the Palestine Salt and Coal Company.
He was a banker. He was mayor — not for a term, not for two terms, but for twenty years. He was active in Anderson County's oil discoveries.
Six children grew up inside those walls — four sons and two daughters — and the family held onto that place for seventy-two years. Henry Ash built a house. Andrew Bowers built a legacy, and he built it one gallery, one cupola, one ornate renovation at a time.
What the marker says
Originally house of merchant Henry Ash; built 1878; bought 1884 by Andrew L. and Nellie O'Connell Bowers, who had architect-builder W. W. Wainright add cupola, gazebo, circular galleries after 1886. Charles Dunbar was architect in 1897 for ornate renovations, and Bowers continued to enlarge and enrich the structure until 1921. Andrew L. Bowers (1852-1926), an International & Great Northern Railroad official, president of Palestine Salt & Coal Co., banker, mayor for 20 years, was active in Anderson County oil discoveries. Four sons, two daughters grew up here; family owned place 72 years. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1973