The Sawyer House

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the Sawyer House in Polk County. Back in 1900, a man named Albert Leroy Sawyer, known to just about everybody as Roy, built this home for his bride. Now Roy Sawyer was not a man who sat still when there was money to be made.

He was an investor, and not just in one thing. Land, cotton gins, local utilities. If it was woven into the fabric of the community, Roy Sawyer likely had a stake in it.

But the house he built in 1900, that was something personal. That was for her. His bride was Estella Marshall Sawyer, and she had come to Texas with her family all the way from Mississippi.

The neighbors would come to know her simply as Miss Stella. There's something about a name like that, isn't there. Miss Stella.

It tells you everything about the kind of presence a person has. The house Roy built for her was a large one-story frame residence, and it was not shy about announcing itself. An extended front side bay.

A front boxed bay window. A side bay window. And wrapping the whole thing together, a wraparound porch with paired pillars standing on brick pedestals.

This was a house built to welcome people, and to last. Roy Sawyer passed in 1958. Miss Stella, born in 1882, lived on until 1964.

The house they made together is still standing in Polk County, and it still has that porch.

What the marker says

This home was built in 1900 by Albert Leroy "Roy" Sawyer (d. 1958) for his bride, Estella Marshall Sawyer (1882-1964). Sawyer was an investor in land, cotton gins, and local utilities. Mrs. Sawyer, known to her neighbors as "Miss Stella," came to Texas with her family from Mississippi. the large one-story frame residence features an extended front side bay, front boxed bay window, side bay window, and a wraparound porch with paired pillars on brick pedestals. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1987