Potts, Arthur, House
a.k.a. #33
445 N. Wall, Belton, TXThe Arthur Potts House illustrates the influence of architectural revivals of the 1920s spread across the country with the proliferation of pattern books and architectural publications. The Potts House shows the influence of several styles that became popular after the First World War, notably Tudor and Georgian Revival. The property relates to the Community and Regional Development context, representing the slow middle-class growth of Belton between the World Wars. The house is eligible for listing in the National Register due to its significance in the area of Architecture, as an example of the pattern book historic revival house of the 1920s.
The Potts House was built in 1929 by prominent local builder T. Hamp Birdwell for Arthur Potts. Potts was a well-known local merchant and owner of Potts Hardware Store on Avenue A. This house replaced an earlier house owned by Potts that was destroyed by fire.
The Potts House is a product of the historical revival movement which dominated residential construction during the 1920s. The movement drew on various historical styles with Colonial Revival, Georgian, and Tudor Revival being the most popular. Unlike most of the period revival houses produced during these years that tended to be relatively pure copies of a particular style, the Potts house is a stylistic hybrid awkwardly composed, suggesting that the builder borrowed freely from his pattern books and combined them to suit his or his client's personal tastes. This unusual combination of stylistic idioms makes the house noteworthy.
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.