Umphress-Taylor Home

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the Umphress-Taylor Home in Grayson County. Now, some houses just stand there. This one has been watching over the neighborhood since 1903, and it has opinions.

You can tell by the way it's built. James C. Umphress put it up that year for his wife Julia Caroline, and when a man who spent years fighting in the Civil War as a Confederate veteran decides to build his wife a Victorian house, he is not going to cut corners.

James was a pioneer landowner, a banker, an agriculturalist, a community leader. The kind of man Grayson County was made of. Born in 1841, he lived until 1917, and in that time he left a mark on this part of Texas that you can still walk up to and touch.

Julia Caroline, born a Veazey, lived in that house until she passed in 1932. Then the home passed to their daughter, Maude. Maude Umphress had become Maude Taylor by marriage, wife of Spencer Taylor, a local banker and grain dealer who died in 1943.

Maude was a civic leader in her own right, the kind of person a community leans on. She lived in that house until 1974, and she passed in 1977, having spent the better part of her life inside those walls her father built. Now the house itself, it's something to see.

Queen Anne influence, classical revival styling, all of it wrapped up in one Victorian structure standing in Grayson County like it has something to prove. Three generations carried their lives through those doors. That is not just a house.

That is a family's whole story told in wood and stone.

What the marker says

Pioneer area landowner, banker, agriculturalist, and community leader James C. Umphress (1841-1917), a Confederate veteran of the Civil War, built this Victorian house for his wife Julia Caroline (Veazey) (d.1932) in 1903. In 1932 it was inherited by a daughter, Maude (Umphress) Taylor (d.1977), who lived here until 1974. A civic leader, she was the wife of local banker and grain dealer Spencer Taylor (d.1943). The family home features influences of Queen Anne and classical revival styling. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1981