William B. Largent House

Duane's take

The way I tell it, this comes straight from the official marker for the William B. Largent House in Collin County. Now settle in, because this one's got deep roots, a long haul, and a fire that changed everything.

William B. Largent was born in North Carolina in 1840, and by 1854, when he was just a boy, his family packed up and came to Collin County. Texas had a way of pulling people in like that.

Young William grew up, found his footing, and before long he was prospering as a livestock trader and lumber merchant. A man who knew how to move things: animals, timber, money; and make something of it. Now, 1876 is where this story gets its muscle.

Largent didn't just decide to build a fine Victorian residence and order up the lumber from the next town over. No. He hauled building materials overland from Jefferson.

Overland. From Jefferson. If you've looked at a Texas map lately, you understand what kind of undertaking that was: wagons loaded heavy, roads that were more suggestion than fact, and a destination waiting on the far end of determination.

What he built when he finally got there was something to behold: a Victorian residence with an ornate veranda and a second floor flanked by twin towers. Not just a house; a statement. He and his wife Rosa, born a Wood before she was a Largent, raised their family of nine children inside those walls.

Nine. That veranda must've seen some living. William B.

Largent died in 1896, but the house stood on. Stood on through decades of Collin County summers and winters, carrying its towers and its veranda into the twentieth century. And then came 1935.

Fire. The original second floor (those twin towers and all) was destroyed. Just like that, the top of the thing was gone.

What the long haul from Jefferson built, a single fire undid in a night. The house survived, but it would never look quite the same as the day William Largent first set down those overland-hauled materials and said: right here, this is where we build. That's the William B.

Largent House; and now you know what it cost to put it up, and what it cost to lose part of it.

What the marker says

North Carolina-born William B. Largent (1840-1896) came to Collin county with his parents in 1854. He later prospered as a livestock trader and lumber merchant. In 1876 he hauled building materials overland from Jefferson to erect this Victorian residence with its ornate veranda. Here Largent and his wife Rosa (Wood) raised their family of 9 children. The original second floor of the house, flanked by twin towers, was destroyed in a 1935 fire. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1977