Douglas, John B. and Ketura (Kettie), House

The John B. and Ketura (Kettie) Douglas House is named for its two builders and original occupants. During their long ownership, John and Kettie Douglas shaped the form of the house, much as they contributed to post-Reconstruction Tyler. Built in 1873, the beginning of the period of significance, the house was enlarged several times during Douglas's tenure until it achieved its present configuration about 1907. The house remains virtually as it was at the end of the Douglas occupation in 1912, the end of the period of significance. The only extant building in Tyler known to combine Italianate and Second Empire detailing, the house is a good local example of High Victorian styling. Contextually, the house relates to mid and late-19th-century high-style European and American architecture and to the development of related architectural forms in Texas. It also relates to the statewide context The Arts in Texas: High Victorian Design (a section of the statewide context yet to be developed), and to the statewide context Suburban Development in Texas 1880-1941 (in a section yet to be developed on the 19th century suburbanization of homestead and agricultural land just beyond the original plats in smaller cities and towns). The house meets Criterion C and is significant at the local level of significance as an outstanding local example of the design values and aesthetics of the era. The house retains a very high degree of exterior and interior integrity and conveys a strong sense of time and place.

COMMUNITY HISTORY

While a few Anglo-Americans lived in other parts of east Texas in the 1820s and 1830s, Euro-American settlement of the area that became Smith County did not occur until the Congress of the Republic of Texas opened the lands of East Texas in February 1840. In 1843, the area known as Pleasant Hill, between Whitehouse and Tyler, was settled, but the first activity to directly affect the land that became Tyler occurred in 1844 when James C. Hill surveyed 640 acres of land for Issac Lollar which later became the city or Tyler.

In 1846 Smith County was organized under authorization from the first congress after Texas became a state and the subsequent settlement of Tyler progressed quickly. By 1847, community improvements were underway with a log courthouse, county elections, and the organization of a Methodist congregation, the progenitor of the Marvin Methodist Church with which the Douglases became affiliated. Tyler, incorporated in January 1850, became the county seat, attracting business and professional enterprises such as merchants, physicians, attorneys, dentists, teachers and clergy, as well as schools, churches, and social organizations. Farming, mercantile activities, transportation, and logging and lumber production supported the community's growth in the antebellum period.

The quest to bring rail service to Tyler began in 1860 and lasted until the community linked up in 1873, the year the Douglas House was built. While the railroad quest was interrupted by the Civil War, the benefits of rail service were likely made more clear during the war when two Confederate munitions plants operated in Tyler. After the war, trade nearly stopped and cotton crops produced low yields. Large stores in Smith County closed, replaced over time with small mercantile establishments such as Brown and Douglas.

In 1871, the Tyler Tap Railroad was chartered with the mission of connecting to either the Texas and Pacific Railroad (T&PRR) or the International and Great Northern Railroad (I&GNRR). By 1872, the railroad was getting closer, with a line of the I&G/NRR built southwest of Tyler through the community of Troup. Finally, in 1873, the Tyler Tap Railroad connected the town with the I&GNRR, and the community began to change to a railroad hub (Smallwood: 1995, Chapter 15a,30). The railroad also increased the accessibility of mass-produced consumer goods and building materials that must have made the design and construction of the Douglas House easier and more affordable.

In 1877 direct rail service came closer when 21 miles of the Tyler Tap Railroad between Tyler and Big Sandy opened. In 1879, the Tyler Tap Railroad, under the direction of James P. Douglas (John's brother), was purchased by the Texas and St. Louis Railway, known locally as the Cotton Belt (Smallwood:1995, Chapter 15, n.p.), and provided direct rail service to Tyler. Mercantile establishments including Brown and Douglas, in which John B. Douglas was a partner, served the trading needs of Tyler and Smith County residents. The county's "... business volume more than doubled after the coming of the iron horse".

Tyler in the 1880s was a prosperous community. The population in 1880 was 2,423, more than a 100 percent increase since 1860 (Whisenhunt: 1983,32). Sixty-four mercantile establishments were in Tyler by the mid-1880s, including Brown and Douglas, along with 137 mechanics, three hotels, 90 professionals, two banks, an insurance company and five newspapers. As prosperity increased in Tyler, so did interest in civic works and public improvements. In 1882, John B. Douglas organized the first volunteer fire department in Tyler; he served as its first chief in 1883. By 1890, Tyler's population was 6,098 people, an increase of more than 150 percent in 10 years. However, the boom of the '80s slowed as a national economic crisis reached Tyler in 1891. In that year the Bonner and Bonner Bank failed, causing difficulties for many in town, including the Marvin Methodist Church.
During its first 60 years, Tyler grew steadily, its economic advancement slowed, but was not stopped, by the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the financial panics of the early 1890s. The life spans of John B. Douglas (1843-1893) and Ketura (Kettie) Walker Douglas (1845-1912) roughly parallel these first 60 years. As the children of pioneer Tyler families, people whose vision, and quest for land and new opportunities took them to Smith County in the first years of its existence, they had a large stake in the success of their community. Although not born in Tyler, John and Kettie lived virtually all their lives there. As their parents helped shape its early development, they participated in the struggles and challenges of the community's second generation -- the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the rebuilding of the local economy, social, and civic life -- between 1870 and 1912. Their personal history is closely tied to the larger history of Tyler. The dwelling they built at 318 South Fannin Avenue is a strong physical link to their lives nearly 100 years after their passing.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

John B. Douglas (1843-1893) was born in Talladega, Alabama, the second of eight children of Alexander Douglas II and Margaret T. Cowsar, both of South Carolina (U.S. Census: 1850). The Alexander Douglas II family moved to the Tyler vicinity of Smith County in early 1848, among the earliest Anglo-American settlers in the Tyler area. Soon after their arrival in Tyler, the Douglas family joined the Marvin Methodist Church. Members of the church included other early immigrant families, such as the Walkers whom John would marry in 1872 when he formed a union with Ketura (Kettie) Walker.

Confederate veteran John B. Douglas served as a private in the artillery regiment known as the Douglas Battery, named for his brother James P., co-organizer and commanding officer of the battery. John and the Battery, part of John B. Hood's Army of the Tennessee, saw distinguished service throughout the Civil War. After the war, John B. Douglas returned to Tyler, and in 1867 married Mittie Wiggins (1850-1868). This union ended with her death at the age of 18, just a little more than a year after their marriage (Smith County Marriages, 1946-1899, Vol. C,8). The couple had no children.

John Douglas was a prominent and active member of Tyler's St. John's Lodge No. 53 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, founded in the 1850s. A beam under the house with unidentified symbols may be associated with Masonic iconography. A traditional story tells of Douglas teaching incoming Masons about Masonic rites in the space under the house. Douglas was also a charter member of the William Tell Lodge of the International Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF). For a period of two months in the spring of 1868, he was in nearby Starkville where he organized the G.M. Johnson Lodge of the IOOF. By June he had returned to Tyler and was called to serve as vice grand and noble grandmasters.

According to tradition, John entered the mercantile business when he returned to Tyler at the end of the war. Research has not established the earliest date of such business efforts, but in the early 1870s, Douglas was living in Palestine, Texas, with his second wife, Ketura (Kettie) Walker (1845-1912). She and John married on March 12, 1872, in Tyler (Smith County Marriages: Vol. G,37). While in Palestine John worked for merchant B.K. Smith (Douglas-Broughton correspondence: March 25, 1872). John and Kettie apparently returned to Tyler in 1872 after selling in July, and then re-purchasing in December, portions of Lot 2, land on which the house is built.

The land containing the Douglas House (Lot 2) was originally part of the estate of John's mother Margaret T. Cowsar Douglas. Divided among Margaret's heirs, this land first appears in the Douglas holdings as a portion of 25.55 acres sold in 1852 by James A. Hendrick to Margaret's husband (John's father), Alexander Douglas II. Lots 2 and 4, part of the Issac Lollar Survey of 1844, were sold after Margaret's death in 1863 by John B. Douglas, her estate's administrator. Douglas sold the property to L.A. Denson in 1868 for $595.30 (Smith County Deed Records: Vol. S,454-55). Then, in 1870, John bought this land back from Denson for $700 (Ibid:456). In July 1872 John transferred a large parcel north of the house site from his holdings to his brother James P. Douglas (Smith County Deed Records: Vol. 8,274- 75). No monetary, or other, consideration is shown on the deed for this transaction. In December of 1872, James P. Douglas sold a portion of the land he had obtained from John in July to John and Kettie Douglas for $1,700. North of and adjacent to land already owned by John and Kettie, the parcel acquired from James Douglas was described as measuring 268 deep by 270 wide and situated in portions of Lot 1 and Lot 2.

From this complex history, it appears that John sold or gave his brother part of Lot 2 after he purchased it from L.A. Denson in 1870 and then bought it back again to add to the remainder of Lot 2 and all of Lot 4 already in his possession. The lot measuring 268 feet by 270 feet appears to be the house site.

In early 1873, construction apparently began on the house at 318 South Fannin Avenue. The 1-story, 1-room dwelling on the property may pre-date the main house. A traditional story about the site relates that this building was used by John Douglas prior to building the main house. Later, it was used as servants quarters (Pollard-Williams correspondence: April 29, 1996). A review of tax assessment records from 1872 and 1873 reveals a jump in valuation from $400 to $2,500, indicating the improvement of the property. The source of income for the construction of the house is not directly known, but tax records from the 1860s and 1870s show the Douglases owned additional lots in other areas of town. The real estate activity in which they engaged combined with income from John's mercantile ventures undoubtedly made possible the construction of the house.

Subdivision of this land and holdings of nearby neighbors including the Wiggins and James P. Douglas families continued sporadically throughout the remainder of the 19th century as the southeast edge of town became increasingly desirable for residential construction. Adjacent parcels (Lot 4) and other nearby holdings of the Douglases were subdivided first in 1883 when the area immediately south of the house was sold to Mrs. E.J. Seeton (Smith County Deed Records: Vol. 30,156-57). The last subdivision of property immediately adjacent to the house occurred in 1973 when Josie Belle Holland disposed of the area east of the servants quarters, creating the current lot, which measures 106 on the west boundary, 153 feet on the north lot line, 106.06 feet on the east boundary and 155.80 feet on the south boundary.

During the late 1870s and throughout the 1880s and early 1890s, the Douglases fortunes ascended. In 1878, a son, Alexander (Allie) was born to John and Kettie. In 1882, Douglas served as a City Commissioner for Precinct No. 1 in addition to his fire department duties. He continued as a volunteer firefighter until his death, serving as the first chief in 1883. A member of the Marvin United Methodist Church, a congregation his family was long affiliated with, John Douglas served on the Board of Stewards from 1888-89. During this period, plans for reconstruction of the church, originally built in 1852, were made after a portion of the floor collapsed. The plans resulted in a new church, still extant, built in 1890. By 1887, and possibly much earlier, Douglas was in partnership with J.H. Brown in the enterprise, Brown & Douglas, Dry Goods & Clothing. This enterprise was one of more than sixty mercantile establishments in the county at that time. Not confined to retail endeavors, John Douglas also appears to have made substantial income from real estate transactions. He (and Kettie) owned between 600 and 800 acres of land comprised of town lots and rural parcels in 1890 and were active in all aspects of life in Tyler.

However successful John Douglas was in business and how prominent he and Kettie became in Tyler's a civic, social, church and fraternal circles, the family was touched by an enduring personal tragedy. Allie Douglas, described early on as a bright child, sustained a head injury in a fall from a building while the family was visiting New York City, probably in the early 1880s. This injury apparently resulted in a developmentally disabling condition that prevented him from attaining independence in adulthood. A second misfortune befell the Douglases when in June 1893 John died after a three-day struggle with pneumonia. His death was the indirect result of continuing community service. He succumbed to pneumonia that developed after he plunged himself, having become overheated fighting a fire, into a public water trough.
During the 28 years from the end of the Civil War until his premature death at the age of 49, John rose to community prominence, as indicated by the three-column, half-page obituary published in a Tyler newspaper the morning after his death. John contributed significantly to the growth and development of the business, religious, civic, social and fraternal life of Tyler in the post-Civil War era, providing leadership for a variety of endeavors and organizations during the time he occupied the house at 318 South Fannin Avenue.

All of John's property was passed to his wife Kettie upon his death as specified in a will they signed a few years earlier. The terms of the will indicate that both John and Kettie regarded the marriage to be a partnership, and each party was entitled and qualified to assume ownership and management of property and other financial holdings (Smith County Probate Minutes: Vol. 8, 549). Kettie continued to look after their son, and only child, Allie, and to administer the Douglas property, expanding and modifying the house at various times up until her death in 1912.

In 1895 Kettie Douglas married the Reverend Philmer Sample, but by the late 1890s, they were divorced. Intimately involved in the management of the Marvin Methodist Church in the 1890s, Kettie Douglas purchased the note to help the church avoid foreclosure action. When the church defaulted in its agreement with Douglas, she obtained title to the church, renting the building to the congregation. When they fell into arrears again, she foreclosed on the church and rented it back to the congregation on a month-by-month basis. By 1900, the congregation had raised the money to pay the note and Douglas (having taken back the Douglas name after her brief second marriage) transferred the property back to the church (Bell-Pollard conversation: May 15, 1996). Although no documentation of her activities has been uncovered, the ongoing prosperity and social development of the community undoubtedly interested and engaged business-and-church-involved Kettie Douglas.
Kettie Douglas died in January 1912, leaving all her property to her son, Allie. Shortly after her death, Dr. J.H. Holland, a physician, and his wife Kate began leasing or renting the house. A limited amount of responsibility for Allie was apparently assumed by Dr. Holland, but eventually, Allie seems to have been institutionalized as none of his uncles, aunts, or cousins would take on his daily care. In 1927 Allie, through his guardian, sold the house to the Hollands. Allie died in 1930, having never married. The length of time between Holland's occupancy of the house in 1912 and their purchase of it in 1927 is likely the result of Allie's handicap and the problems associated with purchasing the house from him amid probable title challenges from other family members. Upon Dr. Holland's death in the 1930s, the house passed to his heirs, who occupied the house until 1975 when Jack Pollard, the current owner, purchased the house from Josie Belle Holland, Dr. Holland's daughter.

GENERAL TRENDS IN BUILDING PRACTICE AND STYLISTIC DEVELOPMENT:
THE ARCHITECTURAL BACKGROUND AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DOUGLAS HOUSE

Late Victorian architecture in America is based on historical styles, is highly derivative of European design and includes forms classified as Italianate, Second Empire, Eastlake and Queen Anne, among others, each characterized by markedly different features. Architect-designed Late Victorian buildings in major and large United States cities, no matter how divergent they are when viewed by stylistic groups, have in common a body of elements utilizing many nuances of material, decorative embellishment, proportion and massing to create a softened effect, one in which the parts contribute in varying degrees to the total effect of the style (Kidney:1974, 3). Early examples of Late Victorian design, those produced into the 1870s, often retained some of the hard stone surfaces and sharply defined forms of mid-Victorian design exemplified by the proliferation of high-style Greek Revival, Italian Villa, and Gothic Revival buildings of the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s.

However, as architects and the public became more aware of European trends through such books as Charles L. Eastlake's Hints on Household Taste, published in 1868 in England and 1872 in the United States, their enthusiasm for freer expression afforded by the new wave of aesthetic theory gave rise to the immensely popular, various Late Victorian architectural modes. These modes permitted society to boast of its increasing prosperity as the bourgeoisie grew and gained economic and political strength, and to utilize the products of rapidly occurring advances in industrial technology such as mass-produced building materials transported on ever-increasing numbers of railroad freight lines. As a result, Late Victorian architecture became immensely popular across the nation, created in part by a serendipitous and self-perpetuating set of circumstances that disseminated eclectic forms all across America.

The primary characteristics of Late Victorian design include complex exterior massing, almost always asymmetrical in arrangement, and exterior materials that are articulated in some way, either by the use of contrasting colors and/or textures in single or multiple materials or by the combination of several patterns in a single material, and a complex roof structure. Many stylistic interpretations include a functional, asymmetrical plan with verandas, porches, bays and balconies to bring light into the interior, important features of late 19th-century design that later were heralded as important contributions to early 20th-century domestic design.
Late Victorian Italianate forms derive from picturesque mid-Victorian Italian Villa designs, the aesthetic for which was largely formulated by Andrew Jackson Downing and Alexander Jackson Davis. In the villa, the asymmetry of Italian farmhouses was combined with elements of architectural Classicism accented by small porches, loggias, and galleries. Often sparsely ornamented and frequently constructed of stone, the Italian Villa can be described as sedate and substantial (Peck: 1992,68). While the Italian Villa, or Tuscan house, had a single tower, pitched roofs and restrained ornament, the Italianate was more exuberant, more open, and more complexly massed (Ibid:1992,68). The high-style Italianate house was quite asymmetrical, and this massing was emphasized by the frequent use of multiple towers and wings with larger more open balconies and verandas. In plan, it was also asymmetrical, but with rooms often opening from a central hall. Rooms were of unequal size, and sometimes they were round, octagonal, or otherwise varied from strict rectilinear form.

The asymmetrical plan and exterior arrangement of the Italianate and the older, Gothic (Gothic Revival), also developed by Davis and Downing, are features held in common by the two styles. This asymmetry fostered the development of floor plans appropriate for both Italianate and Gothic Revival residences. An examination of pattern books used by carpenters and designers reveals design schemes that could be used virtually interchangeably with either Italianate or Gothic Revival ornamental vocabularies, and which are quite similar to extant resources such as the Douglas House.

Overall, the Italianate utilizes the more open form of American Victorian domestic architecture and is primarily a domestic form. In Texas, the asymmetrical, elaborated Italianate house, so often articulated in stone in colder climates was translated into wood by local architects and carpenters. Porches, bays, and verandas become larger and more important elements, as a result of the warmer climate. Both the Douglas House and the Bonner-Whitaker-McClendon House, Tyler, of about 1880, incorporate the basic elements of the Italianate, although the latter house also utilizes Eastlake elements reflecting its later construction date.

Buildings constructed in the Second Empire style combine an exaggerated steeply pitched Mansard roof, dormer windows, and the articulation of exterior wall surfaces and fenestration. This style is more formal than the Italianate aesthetic. But often, individuals drawn to the style requested domestic designs in more affordable wood, rather than stone, that incorporated the more open plan of the Italianate with a Mansard roof and a tower.

Applied to all types of buildings, the formal Second Empire style appeared during the 1870s in modest and, arguably, more creative forms, in small American cities and towns. Examples in Texas took design cues from the grand houses of New Orleans and Galveston, guided by pattern books and photographs and limited by locally available materials and budgets. In Texas, examples of more modest Second Empire style include the Webster Wagner House, Palatine Bridge, New York of 1877, and the William Cameron House, Waco, Texas (no date available). Both combine features from various architectural traditions, including the High Victorian Gothic and Second Empire. A Mansard roof tower is the focal point of each house, just as it is in the Douglas House.

The Douglas House incorporates many elements of Italianate design, including the asymmetrical massing and plan, and porches, balconies and bays that bring light and air into the house. Decorative elements on the first-floor porch posts and above first-floor windows exhibit stylized foliate forms in what is a modestly exuberant arrangement in keeping with the size and materials of the house and the social station of the Douglases. These elements are blended with the formality of a tower enhanced with decorative themes carried forth in the brackets, cornice plates and dormer window surrounds, all of which are ornamented with carved and pierced stylized foliate designs that heighten surface articulation and create visual interest.

A comparison of the current floor plans of the Douglas House with Plate 7 of Bicknell's Victorian Buildings (1878) and Plate No. 28 of Old House Plans (1875) reveals a similarity of arrangement and how well the Douglas House expresses the design theories of the late 19th century. The overall effect is a formality softened and balanced by the informality of the porches and the asymmetry of the plan.

Plans in pattern books, by their very nature, were intended to be copied and adapted to varying lot sizes, and budgets and to the personal preferences of the client and builder, even to the point of forming the basis for the application of exterior detailing from a style other than shown in the suggested plan. Of the plans discovered, the selections used as points of comparison for the Douglas House in this discussion are those that come closest to the current spatial arrangement. Although the form of the original house is unknown, it is thought that the studio, central hall, dining room area, and kitchen comprised the original first floor, with the parlor, first-floor bedroom, and second-floor office, later 19th and early 20th-century additions. The current house was created over several years, and was not the product of a single coherent design, as far as is known, but it developed under the eye of the Douglases and reflects the theories of Late Victorian Eclecticism, exemplifying the credo of adaptation and creativity.

Clearly, the aesthetic of Late Victorian architecture allowed for a remarkable degree of diversity and individual creativity. While this is often effected through expensive materials and sumptuous appointments in high-style forms, more modest designs were able to adhere to the dictates of the philosophy through abundant, mass-produced materials available from pattern books and mail-order catalogs. Achieving the desired look in high-style examples where money was no object was often the result of careful planning and study by the designing architect. In the small cities and towns of America where skilled architects knowledgeable about the latest in architectural theory and implementation were relatively uncommon, and clients' means were restricted compared with the resources of the wealthy in major cities, the desired pastiche called for by Eclecticism was often partially achieved through massed produced materials such as porch and window moldings and brackets and decorative shingles. On the Douglas House, these elements as well as the interior staircase and newel post are likely mass-produced items obtained from a catalog, or perhaps from a local distributor. The larger form of the building also could be changed to reflect the precepts of Eclecticism as families and fortunes grew, through successive remodelings and additions in slightly different stylistic modes, using the most up-to-date aesthetic ideas. This type of remodeling was possible, and even desirable, from the standpoint of Late Victorian design standards, with each change enhancing the whole, rather than disturbing an initial perfectly executed and inviolate original.

The Douglas House is thought to have been constructed in 1873, with modifications occurring before 1884, and again in the late 1890s, and between 1902 and 1907. Displaying Italianate and Second Empire styling, the architect and builder are unknown. All or some of the house was likely inspired by pattern books and constructed with mass-produced materials. Gene Ruelle, a local Tyler craftsman, restored the finish on the newel post and staircase in the main hall. He indicated that it is made of red walnut, now a very rare wood. Mr. Ruelle thinks the staircase was made in upstate New York, as were many such features used in Tyler homes of the late 19th century. The newel post resembles Plate 9:L in Bicknell's Victorian Buildings: Floor Plans and Elevations for 45 Houses and Other Structures.

In its combination of stylistic influences, the Douglas House is representative of Late Victorian architecture. In addition to its relationship to the larger American architectural context of the post-Civil War era, it also is closely related contextually to the other surviving near contemporary dwellings in Tyler. However, it is differentiated from the others by its Italianate/Second Empire features and reflects the earliest years of the post-Reconstruction period in Tyler. It is the only known dwelling in Tyler to display both Second Empire and Italianate design elements.

Field investigations into the number and type of surviving, 2-story, wood-frame, Late Victorian dwellings in Tyler resulted in the identification of only one other comparable example. Known as the Bonner-Whitaker-McClendon House, this dwelling was constructed about 1880. It is southwest of downtown Tyler in what would have been a rural area in 1880. The Bonner-Whitaker-McClendon House is a larger dwelling than the Douglas House. It is sited on a large parcel of land that, unlike the land surrounding the Douglas House, created a grand setting for this country estate. The Bonner-Whitaker-McClendon House combines Italianate and Eastlake features and thus represents a slightly later period in Tyler's social and cultural development than does the Douglas House.

Further investigations into the surviving late 19th and early 20th-century architectural context of Tyler revealed two additional wood frame houses of note. The Revere House, northwest of downtown Tyler displays both Queen Anne and Classical Revival style elements on a large 2-story frame that encloses an 1854 dog-trot dwelling. Clearly one of the oldest surviving houses in Tyler, it was first modified in 1882 with the addition of a second story. In 1911, Classical Revival style elements were added to the porch.

Perhaps the purest, and certainly the grandest, example of Queen Anne is found in the expansive dwelling at the southwest corner of Bois D'Arc and Vance north of downtown Tyler. Its 2-story form, attached conical roof pavilion, spindle work ornamentation, and belvedere are classic design elements of the Queen Anne. On a large parcel that is part of this "country estate" in what was a rural area before the turn of the century, the house appears to date to have been built between 1885 and 1890. It too, represents a later period in Tyler's history.
One other Late Victorian dwelling survives in Tyler. Of masonry construction with a stucco finish, this house dates from about 1885-1895. It is massive in scale and occupies a parcel equivalent to an entire city block at the corner of South Fannin and East Charnwood, which is about three blocks south of the Douglas House. Representing a later period in Tyler's history, it is associated with the city's wealthiest residents. At least three earlier residences also survive. Two display Greek Revival forms. The third largely reflects a ca. 1920 remodeling.

Other 2-story wood frame houses from the late 19th and early 20th centuries survive in Tyler, including two that are the immediate northerly neighbors of the Douglas House. Both of these dwellings are smaller in scale, utilize Queen Anne styling, and were built after 1898. The remainder of the surviving wood frame dwellings observed in Tyler are more modest than the Douglas House and primarily combine Queen Anne and Classical Revival style elements.
The Douglas House is one of six wood frame dwellings displaying elements of Late Victorian design. One of the six combines Italianate and Queen Anne elements, another Queen Anne and Classical Revival features, and a third is wholly Queen Anne. Two of these houses were constructed seven to 20 years after the Douglas House. One predates the Douglas House but has been modified to a form reflective of the 1890s through the 1910s. The remaining two houses are very late examples of Late Victorian architecture, and are smaller in scale and more modestly appointed than the Douglas House. The Douglas House, then, is the only known example of its type in Tyler, expressing architectural values associated with the 1870s. It is significant as a unique local interpretation of late 19th-century high-style American architecture and as a tangible link to the society that fostered it.

Locally significant for its Late Victorian architecture, which melds Italianate and Second Empire design elements, a combination unique in Tyler, the John B. and Ketura (Kettie) Douglas House interprets late 19th century European and American architectural design theories to reflect forms widely built in the 1870s. The house's design is a direct product of the social and cultural benefits associated with the rapidly industrializing society of post-Civil War America, expressing ideas gained locally through photographs, pattern books and the increasing mobility of the American merchant class.

INTEGRITY OF THE PROPERTY

The Douglas House retains a very high degree of integrity in setting, location, feeling, association, design, materials and workmanship. The boundaries of the nominated property conform to the legal lot associated with the property since 1973. Originally constructed on a much larger parcel, the property surrounding the Douglas House was subdivided over a long period of time to create lots for nearby residential and commercial development. Unlike other large dwellings from the 1880s and 1890s in Tyler developed more as country estates far from the center of town, the Douglas House is just four blocks from the town square and just outside the original town plat. Because of its proximity to the heart of town, a subdivision was clearly the fate of the original house parcel, and the Douglas House was developed as an early suburban residence, with a single associated outbuilding placed very close to the main building.

The house is the oldest property on Fannin Avenue between Front Street and Erwin Street in downtown Tyler, on the only remaining residential portion of the street. The Douglas House pre-dates its closest neighbor and the next oldest dwelling in age by approximately 20 years. It also predates the other surviving Late Victorian dwellings in the community as a whole and is the only known extant Late Victorian house to combine Italianate and Second Empire design features. As such it is a rare and highly visible feature of the community.

All major alterations to the house were made during the occupancy of John Douglas and his widow, Kettie Walker Douglas. These changes document the evolution of changing household size and corresponding needs, and the increasing financial resources of a prominent 19th and early 20th century Tyler family. Executed in a workmanlike manner using compatible materials and design, these modifications further enhance the Late Victorian character of the house through the expansion of diversity of materials, form and massing. The result represents not only the changing tastes and advancing fortunes of the upper-middle-class Douglases but also a cohesive, local interpretation of the high-style sensibilities of the age. Only minor modifications were made to the north and south rear porches by the Hollands who lived in the house from 1912 until 1975.

The house's third owner, Jack Pollard, has made few changes since purchasing the house in 1975. Exterior and interior modifications made since 1975 respect the highly intact form and materials of the house, and both the exterior and interior retain a very high degree of physical and architectural integrity and convey a strong sense of time and place. No major changes to the Contributing site features or outbuildings have occurred.

In 1994, Diane E. Williams, as principal investigator for Hardy-Heck-Moore & Associates, Inc., and working with others under contract to Historic Tyler, Inc., undertook a reconnaissance level historic resources survey of central Tyler to discover potential National Register eligible properties. The Phase I survey report summarized the fieldwork findings with approximately 1,500 historic properties, one potential historic district and nine areas containing buildings of exceptional integrity, and of interest for their development patterns, building type, or stylistic influence. These areas were identified as potential local historic districts, or areas where modified zoning could be used to preserve their integrity. The house at 318 South Fannin was included in one of the nine areas. In 1995, Historic Tyler, and the owner of the Douglas House, Jack Pollard, expressed interest in the preparation of a historic district National Register nomination to include the house at 318 South Fannin and the Charnwood neighborhood, which is outside of the Phase I survey. The Charnwood area, a physically discrete and geographically separate neighborhood, is composed of a variety of dwellings most from the period between 1890 and 1930 interspersed with a few very large dwellings from as early as the 1860s. While this area forms a potential historic district, the size, age and diversity of the resources, along with its physical separation by three blocks of commercial buildings and dwellings from the 1930s, made it infeasible to include the Douglas House within its boundaries. Instead, a determination of National Register eligibility for the Douglas House as an individual property was sought and received from the Texas Historical Commission in early 1996. A survey of the Charnwood neighborhood and vicinity and the preparation of the nomination on the Douglas House formed the Phase II work program undertaken by Diane E. Williams for Historic Tyler, Inc. Jack Pollard has contributed time and funding and has shared his extensive collection of research materials on the house gathered during the past 20 years. Janelle and Jack Pollard are highly enthusiastic about and supportive of this nomination and of preservation efforts as a whole in Tyler.

The John B. and Ketura (Kettie) Douglas House is worthy of preservation as the only known extant example of Late Victorian design in Tyler to exhibit Italianate and Second Empire elements. As such it is a rare local interpretation of national high-style late 19th-century architectural trends, and provides a tangible link to the economic, social and civic milieu of its original owners, members of Tyler's prosperous merchant class, during Texas' early post-Reconstruction era. In conclusion, the house, site feature and outbuilding create a cohesive whole within a neighborhood largely composed of commercial and industrial uses. The nominated property retains a very high degree of integrity and conveys a strong sense of time and place.