Built in 1875 as a wedding gift from attorney Thomas Harrison Spooner to Mollie Elizabeth Allen, this is a large, wood-framed Victorian residence clad in lapped cypress siding. The National Register nomination describes the house as a 2½-story, modified L-plan dwelling with a complex intersecting roof, and documents multiple nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century building campaigns that together give the house its present form.
People and civic role
Born August 18, 1849, in Macon, Mississippi, Spooner came to Texas in 1865, read law in Gonzales under James F. Miller and W. B. Sayers, and was admitted to the bar in 1871. He practiced privately until voters elected him District Attorney in 1884, then District Judge of the 25th Judicial District in 1892. After a four-year term, Governor J. D. Sayers appointed him inspector on the State Penitentiary Board for another four-year term; Spooner retired from law in 1902 and subsequently led local utilities, including the Water Works, Citizens Electric Light and Power Company, Water Power Company, and Ice and Refrigeration Company. He died in 1921.
Architecture and finishes
The nomination highlights the house’s intact cypress fabric, asymmetrical massing, and period millwork typical of high-style domestic construction in Gonzales. Interior character-defining features include the hand-carved walnut staircase and ornamental fretwork that screens the entry hall. Local documentation also notes a revolving stained-glass panel that pivots to share light between the hall and dining room, along with multiple original fireplace mantels. Together these elements convey the home’s architectural significance.
Later history and stewardship
The property’s official listing confirms its location at 207 St. Francis Street and its National Register of Historic Places status, listed July 5, 2003 for architectural significance. Long family stewardship into the twentieth century helped preserve the interior; later restoration work returned finishes and fittings to period appearance.