DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — the story of the White-Pool House in Ector County. Now, most houses just sit there. But every now and then, a house has got enough history packed into its walls that the walls themselves seem to lean in and listen when you start talkin' about it.
Charles White was born in 1824, and by 1887 he had made a decision. He was going to move his family out of Indiana — chasing new business opportunities, and chasing a drier climate that his wife's health needed. And when Charles White decided to build a home out here, he did not think small.
He put up a two-story brick residence, and he did it with the help of his sons, Wilfred Walton White and Herbert Haughton White. Two stories. Brick.
Out here. Four years before Ector County even existed as an organized county. Now that is worth sitting with for a second.
There was no Ector County yet. And this family was already building a two-story brick house on a 640-acre tract of land. They modeled it after the house they'd left behind in Indiana — but they had to adapt the style to whatever building materials this part of the world could actually offer them.
So the old home and the new home share a shape, a spirit, a blueprint — filtered through the reality of a different land entirely. Charles farmed all 640 of those acres and ran a mercantile store on the courthouse square on top of it. The man kept himself busy.
He lived until 1905, and when he passed, that original tract was sold and then divided up through later real estate transactions — the way land tends to scatter once the hand that held it together is gone. And so the house passed through time. Then, in 1923, a man named Oso William Pool came into the picture.
Born in 1891, Pool had already lived some life before he ever set eyes on this place. He'd homesteaded land in New Mexico. He'd served in World War I.
And in 1923, he purchased the house and fifty acres. Now here's where it gets interesting. 1927 — the oil boom hits the area, and with it comes a housing shortage the likes of which the region had not seen. Oso Pool looked at that old two-story brick house, and he made a move.
He converted his residence and sold portions of the surrounding land as individual lots. A family home, reimagined as a solution to a boom-time problem. Later that same year — 1927 — Oso Pool married Helen Augutha Voss, and together they moved into the front part of the house.
They stayed until 1929, then moved on. But the Pool family held onto that home. For decades.
All the way until 1977, when Oso Pool himself donated the house to the county. A house built in 1887, before the county around it existed — and in 1977, given back to that very county as a gift. Charles White built something that outlasted him by more than seventy years before it ever changed hands for the last time.
That's not just a house. That's a statement.
What the marker says
Charles White (1824-1905) moved his family here from Indiana seeking new business opportunities and a drier climate for his wife's health. With the aid of his sons Wilfred Walton White and Herbert Haughton White, he constructed this two-story brick residence in 1887, four years before the organization of Ector County. They modeled the home after their house in Indiana, adapting the style to the available building materials of the area. White farmed his 640-acre tract and also owned a mercantile store on the courthouse square. White's original tract, sold following his death, was divided by later real state transactions. In 1923 the house and fifty acres were purchased by Oso William Pool (B.1891) who had homesteaded land in New Mexico prior to his service in world war I. During the housing shortage created by the area oil boom of 1927, pool converted his residence into sale as individual lots. Later that year he married Helen Augutha Voss and they occupied the front part of the house. They moved in 1929, but member of the Pool family retained possession of the home until Oso Pool donated it to the county in 1977. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1980.