Gibbs-Flournoy House

The house was built in two phases. On completion of the second phase in 1928, the house bore a notable American Foursquare/Classical Revival appearance. The home is unusually imposing balconies w/ dormers w/ simple wood railings, balcony on SW has boxed, battered wood porch supports; sunroom on SW at 1st floor; 1 exterior brick chimney on the east, 1 interior brick chimney on the west; ridge cresting on dormers; ventilator cupola on the crest of the main hip roof; farm outbuilding at the rear in poor condition 12. for a rural residence in the area. Home of the superintendent of the mill at Manning, Mr. W. M. Gibbs; is a good example of architectural style. WM Gibbs was succeeded as manager by his son Ernest Gibbs. After the mill burned he moved to Shawnee Prairie, n. of Manning, to operate a farm and cotton gin. The next owners were Morgan & Ruby Flournoy, who came to Manning in 1929 as teachers at the school. They raised 5 children. The house was also occupied by MP Flournoy, educated at Texas A&M, and an engineer at Lufkin Industries. The house is currently unoccupied. It is 1 of only 2 structures extant that represents the town of Manning. Manning was named for Dr. WW Manning, the founder of Homer. He established a sawmill at Manning in 1867; he later abandoned the site and estab. a newer, mechanical mill near Homer. Ca. 1903, WT Carter of Houston, and GA Kelley, of Lufkin Carter-Kelley Lumber Co. & built a large sawmill. In 1907 the Houston-Shreveport & Gulf Railroad was built at Huntington, 10 miles n. of Manning, to connect w/ the Cotton Belt and T&NO Railroad; a spur was built to Manning for the export of products. By 1910 the town had a population of 1300, 2/3 white, 1/3 black. During the 1920s Manning was the 2nd largest town in Angelina Cty, with approximately 1500 residents. Lufkin had 5000, Diboll had, 100, Huntington had 1000, Zavalla had 600. The town was divided according to race & seniority at the sawmill. The white quarters were closer to the center of the town: the black quarters were across the pond n. of the white section; the Italian quarters were e. of the white quarters. The black quarters had a school, churches, pool hall, barber shop, hotel, & cemetery. The business section of the town held the mill offices, commissary, post office, depot, drug store, and barber shop. Masonic Lodge, & movie theatre. The white section had grammar and high school with seven teachers. Water was pumped from the mill pond, purified by condensing unit near the sawmill, & pumped to a water tower for gravity distribution. Only nicer homes had running water inside; others had a hydrant or faucet in the yard. Some homes were provided wi electricity from a generator: however, most used coal oil lamps. Ice was delivered to the commissary by rail for purchase by residents. Workers were paid in checks, and brass coins, redeemable only at Manning or nearby. The mill was 1 of the largest in East Texas. It was equipped with a double band saw and planer mill: logs were brought from woods on flat cars and rolled off into the mill pond; a conveyor transported the logs to band saws. The layout of the mill can clearly be seen in the early 1937 aerial photographs. Before it closed the mill had a capacity of 34 million board feet of lumber a year and employed 300 men. The mill burned in January 1936 and was soon abandoned. The effects of the fire, the Great Depression, and the heavy timber cutting caused the owners to concentrate their activities at Camden 30 miles west of Manning. The current owner of the property intends to subdivide an area around one of the mill ponds for housing development. The archeological features of the site immediately surrounding the house could be jeopardized. The area of significance is architecture at the local level.