Goforth-Harris House
401 Comanche St., San Marcos, TXResidents of the Goforth-Harris House have been deeply involved in Texas education. The house is also architecturally significant. With its asymmetrical plan and gracefully detailed porch, it is typical of late Victorian residences.
J.T. Goforth, who with his wife Lucinda built the home in about 1905, founded and gave his name to a now empty town about 12 miles northeast of San Marcos. He and two others also founded the Goforth School and contributed most of the operating funds. In 1913, the Goforths sold the present house to Thomas Green and Lon Harris. After earning his B.A. and M.A. in Tennessee and teaching school in Georgia, Harris came to Texas in 1879. Eventually, he served as superintendent of schools in Weatherford, Mansfield, Plano, Dallas, Houston, and Austin. In 1903 he moved to San Marcos and was named the first president of Southwest Texas Normal School. In 1911 he transferred to the San Marcos Baptist Academy to become its second president. Even after his retirement in 1915, Harris taught math at Sul Ross State College for six years and superintended San Benito schools for three years. He died in 1934. The house remained a residence until converted into three apartments in recent years.
Bibliography:
Bibliography
San Marcos Record, September 25, 1936. The Citizen-Advertiser, February 3, 1966.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.