Youens-Hopkins House

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm following the official marker on the Youens-Hopkins House in Colorado County, so let's see what it has to say. Now, some houses just sit there. And then there are houses that seem to collect stories the way an old porch collects weather.

The Youens-Hopkins House is that second kind. It started life in the 1860s, a frontier cottage built from cypress and pine, with foundations of locally made bricks. Somebody in Colorado County mixed and fired those bricks themselves.

That detail alone tells you something about the era, about the kind of self-reliance that just went without saying on the Texas frontier. The first recorded owner was a man named James Hodges. Then, in 1875, a fellow by the name of James H.

Simpson came along and bought it. Now, Simpson wasn't just any buyer. He was the county's first banker.

The county's first. So this modest cottage of cypress and pine had itself a fairly consequential occupant. Time kept moving, the way it does, and in 1896 the house passed to Charles J.

G. Leesemann, who would go on to serve as Colorado County clerk from 1904 to 1908. The house was accumulating a certain kind of history, quiet and civic and steady.

Then came 1915, and the purchasers who would truly leave their mark. Dr. Willis G.

Youens and his wife, Mrs. Fay Burford Youens, moved in. And here is where the story takes a turn that even a frontier cottage could be proud of.

The Youens family raised two sons. Both became physicians in this county. Then came a grandson.

Also a physician, right here in Colorado County. Three generations of healers, and the house just kept standing through all of it. At the time the marker was recorded, the house was owned by James G. and Mary Youens Hopkins, still in Dr.

Youens' family. Cypress and pine, locally made bricks, and a line of doctors stretching across the generations. That little frontier cottage has held up just fine.

What the marker says

An 1860s frontier cottage of cypress and pine, with locally made bricks in foundations. At first owned by James Hodges; bought 1875 by James H. Simpson, county's first banker; then sold in 1896 to Charles J. G. Leesemann, 1904-08 Colorado County clerk. The 1915 purchasers, Dr. Willis G. and Mrs. Fay Burford Youens, had two sons, one grandson physicians in this county; house, owned by James G. and Mary Youens Hopkins, remains in Dr. Youens' family. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1973