DUANE
Get the App
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Lafayette Street in Jefferson, Texas, once held a house that refused to stay put. William P.
Torrans, born in 1818, built this Greek revival structure there back in the 1860s. Greek revival. In Jefferson.
On Lafayette Street. The man had taste, you have to give him that. The house stood there, columns and all, doing what fine houses do.
Then, in 1877, it was purchased by two parties worth knowing. One was E. W.
Taylor, born in 1838, a druggist and a former mayor of Jefferson. The other was Anna Matilda Clopton, also born in 1838, wife of Dr. Albert G.
Clopton, who was likewise born in 1838. Now, three people sharing a birth year in one transaction, that's the kind of detail that makes a house feel like it was meant for something. Dr.
Clopton had his office right there on the premises. So you had a druggist, a doctor, and a fine Greek revival home all working in the same general direction. William P.
Torrans himself passed in 1881, and after 1882, the story takes its turn. A man named Soloman A. Spellings, born in 1841, a Confederate veteran who ran a livery business over on Polk and Henderson streets, he moved the entire residence to this very site.
Not built a new one. Moved the existing house. Picked it up and carried it here.
Spellings lived until 1903, and I imagine he looked at that house every day with a certain satisfaction. Then time kept moving, the way it does, and during the ownership of Hosea D. Watson, a grocer born in 1879, additions were made.
First in 1932, then again in 1947. Watson carried the place all the way to 1957. What started on Lafayette Street in the 1860s is still standing today, layer upon layer of Jefferson history, and every addition, every move, every owner adds another ring to the wood.
What the marker says
William P. Torrans (1818-1881) built this Greek revival structure on Lafayette Street in the 1860s. It was purchased in 1877 by druggist E. W. Taylor (b. 1838), a former mayor of Jefferson, and Anna Matilda Clopton (1838-1916), wife of Dr. Albert G. Clopton (1838-1916), who had his office here. After 1882 the residence was moved to this site by Soloman A. Spellings (1841-1903), a Confederate veteran who operated a livery business on Polk and Henderson streets. Additions were made in 1932 and 1947 during the ownership of grocer Hosea D. Watson (1879-1957).