DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little relish on the side. Way out in Era, Cooke County, there stands a frame house that's been watching the world change around it since 1894. That's when it went up, built to serve as both the home and the office of Dr.
Benjamin Richard Thomason, one of the very first physicians this part of Era ever had. Now, picture that. A doctor's house and a doctor's office rolled into one, out on the edge of a young Texas community.
That alone tells you something about how much this man was needed. Dr. Thomason passed in 1909, but the house kept standing, as houses with good bones tend to do.
And here's the detail that sticks with you. Before the last nail was driven, somebody had to go get the lumber. That somebody was Dr.
Thomason's own son, Robert Ewing, born in 1879. Young Robert made the haul from Gainesville to bring in the materials that would raise this very structure. Not a bad origin story for a man who would go on to have, as the marker puts it, a long public career.
Robert Ewing Thomason served as a U.S. Congressman and a Federal District Judge before his death in 1973. The lumber hauler became a federal judge.
Texas has a way of doing that to a person. Now the house itself is worth a good long look. Victorian porch detailing on the outside, elegant interior woodwork on the inside.
Somebody cared about this place, and it shows. In 1948, a new chapter began when the L. A.
Scott Family acquired the residence, and their name now shares the title with the Thomasons who built it. One house, two families, one very long memory.
What the marker says
Erected in 1894, this structure was the home and office of Dr. Benjamin Richard Thomason (d. 1909), one of Era's first physicians. Dr. Thomason's son Robert Ewing (1879-1973) hauled lumber from Gainesville for the construction. Later he had a long public career, serving as a U.S. Congressman and Federal District Judge. The frame house has Victorian porch detailing and elegant interior woodwork. In 1948 the residence was acquired by the L. A. Scott Family. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1978.