The Coopwood House

Duane's take

Here's how the marker on the Coopwood House tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every good house has a story, and this one in Lockhart starts the way a lot of good Texas stories do: with a man who looked at something ordinary and decided it wasn't quite enough. That man was James G.

Blanks, a businessman who purchased this property in 1896. When he bought it, there was already a one-story residence sitting right here on this lot. One story.

Blanks looked at it, and you get the feeling he said, well, that'll do for a start. He added another floor, finished the whole thing out in the classical revival style that was popular at the time, and just like that, a modest little house became something worth talking about. He completed it, handed it over to the ages, and then in 1908 he sold it.

The buyer was a man whose name would stick to this place for generations to come. Dr. Thomas Benton Coopwood.

Now Dr. Coopwood was a noted Lockhart physician, the kind of man a community leans on, and he served as Caldwell County health officer for over thirty years. Over thirty years.

That is not a career, friends, that is a calling. The Coopwood family moved in, and they stayed. They stayed through the years the way a good house asks you to, through whatever decades brought to Lockhart and to Caldwell County, right on through until 1970.

That is a long time for one family and one roof to keep each other company. James G. Blanks built the second floor.

Dr. Thomas Benton Coopwood gave it his name. And the house did the rest.

What the marker says

A one-story residence stood on this lot when businessman James G. Blanks (1862-1927) purchased the property in 1896. He added another floor and completed the house in the classical revival style popular at the time. In 1908 Blanks sold the structure to Dr. Thomas Benton Coopwood (1860-1932), a noted Lockhart physician who served as Caldwell County health officer for over 30 years. Members of the Coopwood family occupied the home until 1970. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1979