Begun in 1895 and completed in 1898 for rancher and financier James Dunn Houston and Dora Chenault Houston, this red brick Queen Anne Victorian reflects the scale and polish of a family whose wealth came from large cattle operations in the Texas Panhandle, on the Pecos, and in Gonzales County. Houston was born November 18, 1851, in DeWitt County to James Andrew Dunn and Julia A. Harris Houston. The family moved to Gonzales County in 1864. As a young man he entered the cattle trade, driving herds north to Kansas. He married Dora Chenault on December 2, 1873. By his early twenties, Houston and his brother R. A. Houston had acquired a Panhandle ranch that they sold in 1882 for $525,000, then reinvested in a 6,000-acre Pecos River ranch and additional lands in Gonzales County for a total reported holding of more than 22,000 acres. In 1884 the Gonzales Inquirer reported large shipments of cattle from their operation.
Houston completed this residence in 1898. In 1900 he moved to San Antonio and became president of Lockwood National Bank. The Gonzales house then passed to George Norwood Dilworth and family. Margaret Dilworth Lewis, their widowed daughter, lived here until 1950. James Dunn Houston died January 1, 1920, and is buried at Mission Memorial Park Cemetery in San Antonio. Dora died July 5, 1931 and is buried beside him.