National Register Listing

Rembert, Frank Taylor and Kate Womack, House

a.k.a. Rembert-Harrison House; John W. Harrison House

316 S. Fredonia St., Longview, TX

The Frank Taylor and Kate Womack Rembert House in Longview, Texas, was constructed circa 1877 for a locally prominent businessman and his wife. It retains its original Queen Anne-style massing, yet exhibits Neoclassical design elements, including ionic columns added circa 1895. The Rembert House is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C in the area of Architecture as an unusual local example of multiple architectural styles popular at the turn of the twentieth century. The period of significance begins circa 1895, the year that Rembert transformed the house from an ornate, Queen Anne-styled confection to a more refined residence inspired by the Beaux Arts classicism of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago. The period is extended to include the contributing garage, built circa 1912.

Longview, Gregg County, Texas
The establishment of Longview, Texas, began in the 1870s when the Southern Pacific Railroad Company expanded its railroad lines westward from Harrison County to the east. The Southern Pacific received a deed of 100 acres from Ossamus Hitch Methvin, Sr.-making Methvin, formerly of Lowndes County, Alabama, the de facto founder of Longview. The town's name is said to have originated from railroad surveyors who looked down from Methvin's land at Rock Hill and, taken with the expanse of the view, named the area "Longview."

The Southern Pacific Railroad Company-not affiliated with the Southern Pacific System that originated in California-received its charter on February 16, 1852, under the name of the Texas Western Railroad Company; the company name was changed to the Southern Pacific on August 16, 1856, and a year later it began building tracks between Marshall and Caddo Lake. During the Civil War, railroad lines were moved to connect Waskom, Texas, to Shreveport, Louisiana. On March 21, 1872, the Southern Pacific Railroad was incorporated into the Texas and Pacific Railroad. Chartered in 1871, Longview became part of Upshur County and developed into a railroad town dominated by saloons in the Reconstruction era. In 1873, Longview was chosen to be the county seat for the proposed Gregg County, and over time, it developed into a thriving commercial center.

During the latter half of the 1870s, Longview focused on railroad construction and expansion, and by 1877 the city boasted three railroad connections. In 1887 the town was devastated by a fire that destroyed most of its buildings and a subsequent smallpox epidemic. Longview remained vital, however, as the cotton farmers of the surrounding areas relied upon the goods provided by local businesses, and so the town was rebuilt. Growth and prosperity continued until the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The area known as Longview Junction formed when the International Railroad-later the International and Great Northern Railroad (I & GN)-intersected lines with the Texas and Pacific Railroad (T & P). Two depots were erected at the junction, including one for the newly arrived International Railroad. The additional depot was a second Texas and Pacific Railroad depot, the first T & P depot being one mile west of the junction. In 1877, the Longview and Sabine Valley built a rail connection from Longview Junction to Sabine Lake in Jefferson County, Texas. Businessmen of Longview joined together to form the Longview and Junction Railway Company in order to establish transportation between the depots, first developing a mule-drawn car, and later a street trolley. The surrounding area of Longview Junction grew into a commercial center and served the businesses and residences that developed with the railroad industry; it encompassed the present-day streets of Methvin and Fredonia and was annexed by the city of Longview in 1904.

Frank Taylor Rembert (1853-1926)
Frank Taylor Rembert was born on November 9, 1853, in Copiah County, Mississippi, to Francis Marion Rembert and Elizabeth Virginia Patrick. In 1872 Rembert immigrated to Texas, where he had relatives and a job opportunity with the I & GN.

He later moved to Longview and became a prominent merchant, investor, and a board member for the T & P. Rembert purchased the property at 316 South Fredonia Street in 1879 and remodeled the existing Queen Anne-styled home, removing elaborate spindle work and adding Ionic columns c.1895.

When the 19-year-old Rembert first arrived in Texas in 1872, he found work as a railroad agent for the Houston and Great Northern (H & GN) Railroad in Crockett. By this time the H & GN, originating in Houston, had connected lines from New Waverly to Crockett. Rembert worked in Crockett until his relocation to Scottsville, just east of Marshall, to work as a railroad telegraph operator. While working in Scottsville, Rembert met Kate Womack of Marshall, and the two were married in 1878. Shortly thereafter, the newlyweds relocated to Longview, where they bought a small cottage, no longer present, near the later-built, grand Victorian-style home of the Northcutt family on South Fredonia Street. In 1879 the Remberts moved into the house across the street from the lot where the Northcutt home would be built at 316 South Fredonia Street.? In Longview, Rembert renewed his associations with the railroad industry when he became a shareholder and board member for the Texas and Gulf Railway, formerly Texas, Sabine Valley, and Northwestern Railway (TSV&N).

Rembert became actively involved with the railroads of Longview in 1897 when he and other businessmen bought the foreclosing TSV&N. On June 7, 1897, the shareholders sold the railway back to the TSV&N Company. In December of 1904, the TSV&N was sold to the newly chartered Texas and Gulf Railway Company (T & G), and Rembert became a member of the T & G's first board of directors."

Rembert also ventured into the mercantile business with his brothers-in-law W. S. Mayfield and C. J. Luckett, creating the firm of Mayfield, Rembert, and Company. The business later was called the F.T. Rembert Mercantile Company, and he employed his nephews Frank Rhea and James M. Rhea, who came from Mississippi to work as managers and store clerks, respectively. Rembert found great financial success through other investments, including real estate, bank stock, railroad stock, and a cotton oil mill. Rembert owned several buildings, including the entire west side of the 100 block of South Fredonia Street, which became known as "Rembert's Block." As one of its business leaders, Rembert became essential in providing the city of Longview with a financial basis upon which it could rebuild after the devastating fire of 1877.

In 1907 the Remberts toured Europe and, after visiting Loch Lomond in Scotland, returned home to recreate the natural landmark. Rembert, along with R. F. Echols and his son Hugh, began developing Lake Lomond in 1908, selecting a site one mile west of Longview. Construction of the lake, popularly misspelled as Lamond, was finished in 1910 and served as a swimming, boating, hunting, and fishing center with a bathhouse and pavilion.11 The lake is located on a strip of wooded land between West Cotton Street and the contemporary Highway 80, with urban development encroaching. Rembert Park and Race Track, owned by Rembert and located south of the old county fairgrounds, attracted a wide audience and held horse races from 1906 to 1908.

Also on Cotton Street-which was named for the bales of cotton lining the street, brought by local farmers to Rembert's and other mercantile stores for purchase-was the Rembert Theater.12 Financed and constructed by Rembert, the theater featured vaudeville and minstrel shows and, later, motion pictures; in 1927 Rembert sold half of his interest in the theater to East Texas Theaters, Inc., a subsidiary of the Jefferson Amusement Company of Beaumont, Texas. Rembert's Palace Hotel opened in 1908 on the second floor of a building at the corner of Fredonia and Cotton streets, close to the Rembert Theater.

In 1918 Rembert bought the Guaranty State Bank, which he renamed the Rembert National Bank. Originally located next to the T & P tracks, the bank later moved to the 200 block of North Fredonia Street and was renamed the Longview National Bank.

Rembert served as secretary and treasurer of the T & G Railway; chairman of the board and vice president of the Rembert National Bank; director of a Dallas bank; president of the Longview Cotton Oil Company; and president of his own F.T. Rembert Company. He served as mayor of Longview from 1896 to 1898. Frank Taylor Rembert died on June 9, 1926, and was survived by his wife, Kate Womack Rembert.

Architectural Significance of the Rembert House
Deed records indicate that in 1877, Mrs. Mary D. Bateman purchased this parcel of land, located in the M.D. Greer Headright, from J.A.W. Cheek; the parcel was described as beginning at the southeast corner of S. Dickhoff's homestead lot and fronting south on Fredonia Street. Property dimensions were listed as 18.3 yards on the south and north sides and 66 yards along the east and west sides, totaling about one-fourth of an acre; no improvements to the property were listed or described.

Mary D. Bateman and J.W. Bateman sold the property-including a structure or improvement upon it-to F.T. Rembert for the sum of five hundred dollars on August 15, 1879. From this record, it is assumed that the house on the nominated property was constructed by the Bateman, a builder, between 1877 and 1879, and not by Frank Taylor Rembert.

The Rembert House originally was constructed in the Queen Anne style and featured an irregular roofline typical of the style, characterized by lower cross gables and roof eaves at varying levels. The Queen Anne style enjoyed a high period during the latter part of the 19th century in England and became popular in the United States during the 1880s, although its popularity waned in the early 20th century. Early Victorian structures were relatively simple, while those built after the Civil War became more complicated, as builders combined elements of diverse styles as they saw fit. The popular residential building styles of post-Civil War America were often elaborate and flamboyant, very much fueled by the new industrial society. Now collectively called "Victorian" the architecture was made up of several main styles. These include Italianate, Second Empire, Stick-Eastlake, and Queen Anne. Generally, Italianate-style structures have flat rooflines, corniced eaves, angled bay windows, and Corinthian-columned porches. Stick-Eastlake structures often include square bays, flat rooflines and free-style decorations. Queen Anne-style houses have a gabled roof, shingled insets, and angled bay windows under the gable, and on occasion a tower. The Frank T. Rembert House exhibits elements of the Stick-Eastlake style, although Eastlake is usually identified with furniture styles. Nevertheless, Queen Anne characteristics remained common in American architecture during the 1910s and 1920s.

Typical of Queen Anne architecture, the dominant characteristics of the Rembert House include the irregular roofline, wrap-around front porch, and decorative spindle work featured in the gable ends and on the porch. Spindle work detailing also was featured on the double doors of the main entrance, underneath the eave along the front porch, and in the intricately turned wood columns of the porch. Originally, the house included ornate trim and racehorse motifs in the cupolas at each end of the wide porch and in the niches underneath the eaves. These "gingerbread" decorative elements were removed circa 1895 and replaced with Ionic columns, reflecting the more refined and controlled aesthetic sensibilities of the Classical Revival style.

Rembert's desire to remodel his Longview home likely was inspired by his visit to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This world's fair, which celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, featured a plan by Daniel Burnham. The ideal "White City" that Burnham and his colleagues created for the fair favored classically-inspired architectural styles and emphasized symmetry and balance. These planning ideals of the City Beautiful Movement were inspired by the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where many of the great American architects of the time had received training. The City Beautiful was a reform movement that sought to promote a harmonious, balanced social order in cities through comprehensive planning, improving the quality of urban life through the beautification of the built environment. At the Columbian Exposition, uniform cornice heights on shimmering, bright white buildings gave Burnham's Court of Honor an impressive appearance that implied a certain dignity, order, and balance-all of which could be obtained by other communities that followed the stylistic guidelines of the City Beautiful.

In Longview, this movement was reflected in the resurgence of classical styles among the homes of the local elites. Between 1895 and 1900, Frank Taylor Rembert remodeled his house by removing the fussy, overwrought Queen Anne details and replacing them with the more understated, refined, classical details popular at the time. The large front porch was stripped of its spindle work ornamentation and fitted with new ionic columns and a classical balustrade. The cupolas at each end of the porch were removed, as were the decorative pediments at the gable ends of the roof, in order to reflect the refined tastes of the homeowner. Prior ornamental details, including the carved animal motifs, also were removed, and a bright, clean white paint was used over the original dark colors. Although the irregular Queen Anne massing of the plan and roofline betrayed the building's Victorian-era origins, the Rembert House became a modern, stylish home with classical details that remain in place today.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2011.