Waggoner-Hicks House

Duane's take

The official marker tells this one, and I'm just the voice carrying it down the road. Now settle in, because this house has had more lives than most towns twice its size. In Vernon, Wilbarger County, there stands a house that started its days in 1890 as a Queen Anne, built by a man named Spottswood Lomax.

And Spottswood Lomax was no ordinary builder. He was a founder of two of the most noted ranches in Texas history, the Matador and the Espuela, which some folks called the Spur. So right from the start, this house had serious Texas pedigree baked into every board and beam.

But the story doesn't stop there. Not even close. Around the turn of the century, the property passed to a prominent cattleman by the name of W.

T. Waggoner, known to most as Tom. Tom Waggoner looked at that Queen Anne and decided it needed a new look, so he had it remodeled in the Colonial Revival style.

Then in 1904, Tom deeded the house to his son, Guy Leslie Waggoner, a local banker right there in Vernon. Three years later, in 1907, a Vernon farmer and oil investor named E. P.

Hicks purchased the property. And that family held on. They held on through the oil booms and the quiet years alike, keeping the place in the Hicks family all the way until 1967.

One house, three families, and the better part of a century of Texas history tucked under one roof.

What the marker says

Spottswood Lomax, a founder of the noted Matador and Espuela (Spur) ranches of Texas, built a Queen Anne house here in 1890. It was remodeled in the Colonial Revival style around the turn of the century by the prominent cattleman W. T. "Tom" Waggoner, who deeded it to his son, local banker Guy Leslie Waggoner, in 1904. Three years later, Vernon farmer and oil investor E. P. Hicks purchased the property and it remained in his family until 1967. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1988