Thursday, March 28, 2024

Bartonville awarded historic marker

Bartonville Store
Bartonville Store

The Town of Bartonville is getting its first historical marker.

The Denton County Historical Commission (DCHC) has been notified by the Texas Historical Commission (THC) that six marker applications were approved on Jan. 29 at the Commission’s first quarterly meeting for 2016.

In addition to Bartonville and the 1848 Denton County Seat, Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (RTHL) designations were awarded to four Denton historic houses: the Lipscomb-Doggett House; Robert Mounts House; Simmons-Maxwell House; and, the Mounts-Wright House.  All houses are in the Oak-Hickory Historic District.

The six marker applications were submitted through the DCHC marker chairman to THC.

A subject qualifies for a marker if two basic criteria are met; historical significance and age.  This designation honors the subject (not an existing structure, necessarily) as an important and educational part of local history.

The RTHL designation is the highest honor the state bestows to a historic structure for architectural integrity and historical associations.  Houses, buildings, or structures must be at least 50-years old.  The RTHL is a legal designation for historic structures and comes with a measure of protection.

The Bartonville subject-marker was sponsored by the Town of Bartonville. Two entrepreneurial brothers from Missouri, James M. Barton and B. B. Barton, “built a store and a settlement that would carry their name to the present day,” according to the historical narrative submitted to the THC.  Read more about the Bartonville Store here.

The subject marker for Bartonville will be placed at Bartonville Town Hall.

Bartonville Store circa 1910.
Bartonville Store circa 1910.

Bartonville is a self-described small rural community; the 2010 population census listed 1,469 residents throughout its 5,152 acres. It was originally incorporated in 1963 when it was threatened by the City of Irving who wanted to annex many of the southern Denton County communities, including Flower Mound.  The town later elected to un-incorporate; in 1973, Bartonville was incorporated a second time.

The 1848 Denton County Seat subject-marker was sponsored by Charles Fletcher, owner of the Spirit Horse Therapeutic Riding Center at 1960 Post Oak Drive in Corinth.

Denton County has had four County Seats:  Pinckneyville (1846-1848); two locations named Alton (1848-1851) and (1851-1857); and, the current county seat at Denton (1857-present).

The placement of this historical marker will provide clarification and educational information to the public on the history and location of the second Denton County Seat, which was the first county seat in Alton. In 1846, the First Legislature of the State of Texas created and organized thirty-one new counties; Denton County was one of the new counties.  Early settlement Anglo immigration to the Denton County area began in the early 1840s.

The Lipscomb-Doggett House marker application was sponsored by John and Donna Morris, owners of the home at 918 West Oak Street.   The house was built in 1895 and is one of the earliest houses built on Oak Street that is still standing.

Priestly Lipscomb, a successful physician and drugstore proprietor, was the original owner. He built the house for his bride, Mollie Binyon Lipscomb. It was originally built as a modest Victorian Folk Cottage. W.T. Doggett, superintendent of Denton City Schools, and his wife, Annie Kerley Doggett, owned the house from 1920 to 1935.

The Robert Mounts house at 305 Mounts Ave. was built by pioneer-rancher Robert Noble Mounts and his wife, Nannie Lee Christal Mounts, in 1898.

Brian and Vicki Morrison, owners of the house since 1988, sponsored the 2016 marker application. The house is Queen Ann-style and features four gables, clapboard lap-siding and jig-saw ornamentation in the porch arches. The house served as a Presbyterian manse from 1919 to 1943.

W. Simmons and Susan Gregg Simmons constructed the Simmons-Maxwell House in 1915 in the Arts-and-Crafts Mission-style. Susan Gregg Simmons is the granddaughter of Darius Gregg, who was a hero in the Texas Revolution; acquiring more than 20,000 acres in Denton County.

The house has a stucco exterior and has 41-decorative corbels and Mission-shaped parapet.  Col. Fredrick W. Maxwell and his wife, Alice “Louise” Matthews Maxwell, purchased the house in 1948.    The house is located at 607 Pearl St. and is owned by Kathleen Barnett, who sponsored the THC marker application.

The Mounts-Wright House at 403 Mounts Ave. was built by Mattie Mounts, mother of Robert Mounts, in 1898. The house is described by marker-sponsor and owner William Benton as “Queen Anne style as well as Folk Victorian Farmhouse and mixed Victorian Styles.”

Prior to later alterations, the house was a mirror twin of the adjoining Robert Mounts house. After Mattie Mounts’ death in 1914, the house was deeded to her daughter, Sena Mounts Wright, and William W. Wright.   It remained in the Wright family until 1983.

The next step in the process by THC will be writing each marker inscription and casting the marker.  Dates of dedication ceremonies, co-sponsored by DCHC and the marker sponsor, are set after the sponsor receives the marker from the foundry.

Marker dedications will be scheduled for either late 2016 or 2017. The Bartonville subject marker will be on display at the Town Hall.

For information on the THC marker program contact Beth Stribling, DCHC Marker Committee Chair at 940-241-2523, or [email protected]; or Roslyn Shelton, Office of History and Culture Manager of Research and Public Programs at 940 349-2860 [email protected].

 

CTG Staff
CTG Staff
The Cross Timbers Gazette News Department

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