Trippet-Shive House

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and Ellis County, this one's worth your time. Now, not every house gets a name that carries two families with it, but some houses earn that kind of weight. The Trippet-Shive House up in Waxahachie is one of them.

The marker takes us back to 1896, when this residence was completed; built for a man named H.W. Trippet, born in 1853, a banker and civic leader by all accounts. You get the picture: a man of standing in a town that was growin' fast and knew it.

And when a man like that builds a house, he doesn't build small. He builds a statement. This residence came out of the Queen Anne tradition and the Shingle style both, which tells you something about the ambition involved; those weren't modest influences to be callin' on.

Now at some point the house passed out of Trippet's hands and was sold to Walter E. Shive, born in 1873, a man who ran a successful seed, grain, and coal store right there in Waxahachie. Different trade, same community.

The house carried right on being the kind of place that turned heads. And here's where the details really earn their keep: cedar fish-scale shingles. Say that out loud.

Cedar. Fish-scale. Shingles.

Somebody looked at the side of that house and decided it ought to look like something alive. Then you've got a wraparound porch, the kind that says come on and sit a while, and to top it all off, an octagonal tower. Eight sides reaching up over the neighborhood.

The marker tells us this house is indicative of what was being built in this neighborhood at the turn of the century; which means Waxahachie, at that particular moment in time, had some serious architectural ambition goin' on. Two men, two eras, one extraordinary house; still standing, still showing off those fish-scale shingles to anyone with eyes to see.

What the marker says

Completed in 1896 for banker and civic leader H.W. Trippet (b.1853), this residence was later sold to Walter E. Shive (b.1873), who owned a successful Waxahachie seed, grain, and coal store. Exhibiting influences of the Queen Anne and Shingle styles of architecture, the Trippet-Shive house is indicative of the houses built in this neighborhood at the turn of the century. Interesting features include the cedar fish-scale shingles, wraparound porch, and octagonal tower.