National Register Listing

McWhirter, George and Martha, House

a.k.a. #19

400 N. Pearl St., Belton, TX

The McWhirter House is an early Belton example of the Second Empire style and is associated with Martha McWhirter, founder of the Sanctificationists, a Belton communal religious sect of the late 19th century. The property is eligible for listing in the National Register for its significance in the area of Religion, and for its close association with McWhirter and the Sanctificationists. It is also eligible in the area of Architecture, for embodying the characteristics of the Second Empire style as used in domestic architecture.

The McWhirter House was built in the late 1860s or early 1870s for Major General George McWhirter and his wife Martha. The couple moved to Bell County around 1855 and settled near Armstrong Creek where they were instrumental in founding the Live Oak Methodist Church. They moved to Belton around the time of the Civil War. George McWhirter served as a major general in the Confederate Army. In the 1870s Martha McWhirter became the founder of a dissident religious sect known as the Sanctificationists (see Historic Context for further information) and the house served as a worship center and meeting place for members of the movement. Martha McWhirter sold the house in the 1890s and moved to Washington, D.C., with other members of the sect.

The house represents one of the best preserved early examples of the Second Empire style in Texas. The Second Empire style enjoyed a brief heyday in Texas during the 1870s and 1880s but examples from the period just after the Civil War are rare.

Local significance of the building:
Architecture; Religion

Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

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.