Traweek House

Duane's take

This one comes straight from the official marker; here's how I tell it. Now, when Dr. Albert Carroll Traweek and his wife Allie, born a Rainey, pulled into Matador from Fort Worth, it was 1897, fresh off their wedding, and they were starting from scratch.

A small frame house, a new medical practice, and a whole lot of West Texas ahead of them. Six children would follow. But let's talk about the doctor first, because this man built something.

He didn't just hang a shingle; he traveled on horseback, or by horse and buggy, out across Motley County to reach his patients. Roads or no roads, weather or no weather. And he got good enough at treating one particular illness that folks started callin' him something.

The Pneumonia Doctor. That was his name in this county, earned by success at beatin' back an illness that took plenty of others in that era. He established a hospital.

He became the county's first public health officer. The man was a fixture, a pillar; prominent and respected, the marker says, and you get the sense those words were chosen carefully. Now, the house we're talkin' about today, the one standin' on this site, that story begins with loss.

A previous dwelling right here on this very spot was destroyed by fire. So in 1915, construction began on something new, something built to last. The design came from Dr.

Traweek's uncle, a man named Charles Stephens Oates, noted West Texas builder, and when it was finished in 1916, that two-story stuccoed masonry structure had cost fourteen thousand dollars. Fourteen thousand dollars in 1916. It wasn't modest.

The house carries Italian renaissance detailing, prairie influences, classical revival touches; a combination of architectural styles that reflects a man who had built a life well beyond that first small frame house he and Allie moved into as newlyweds. And the home attracted visitors worth noting. Baldwin Parker, son of Quanah Parker, last chief of the Comanche Indians, walked through that door.

State officials came. National officials came. The Traweek home was a place where things happened, where people gathered.

And through all of it, the home remained in the Traweek family. Allie lived until 1963. The doctor himself passed in 1959, having come to Matador as a young married man and shaped the health of an entire county across more than six decades.

Some houses are just houses. This one earned its historical medallion in 1964, and it tells you something about what a life (and a family) can build when they plant themselves deep enough in the ground.

What the marker says

Dr. Albert Carroll Traweek, Sr. (1875-1959) and his wife Allie (Rainey)(1881-1963) came to Matador from Fort Worth soon after their marriage in 1897. Dr. Traweek began his medical practice, and the couple bought a small frame house. They eventually were the parents of six children. A prominent and respected physician, Dr. Traweek first traveled on horseback or by horse and buggy to visit his patients. He was known as the "Pneumonia Doctor" because of his success in treating people with that illness. He established a hospital and was the county's first public health officer. In 1915, after a previous dwelling on this site was destroyed by fire, construction began on this house. Designed by Dr. Traweek's uncle, noted West Texas builder Charles Stephens Oates, the house was completed in 1916 at a cost of $14,000. The two-story stuccoed masonry structure reflects a combination of architectural styles, exhibiting Italian renaissance, prairie and classical revival detailing. Among those who visited the Traweek home were Baldwin Parker (son of Quanah Parker, last chief of the Comanche Indians) and many state and national officials. The home, which has remained in the Traweek family, received an official historical medallion in 1964 and is a Recorded Texas Historical Landmark. (1990)