Venable, W. J., House
a.k.a. #32
426 N. Wall, Belton, TXThe late 1870s Venable House is an example of a vernacular house type probably brought to Belton by settlers from the upland South. Contextually it relates to Community and Regional Development, specifically to the influx of settlers to Belton from other parts of the South in the decades following the Civil War. The property is eligible for listing in the National Register under Criterion c, significant in the area of Architecture, as one of the few examples of this distinctive vernacular house type in Central Texas.
The Venable residence was built about 1879, probably for W. J. Venable. Venable sold the house to T. W. Cochran in 1892. Cochran was a prominent local merchant and partner in the Cochran, Blair, and Potts Department Store of Central Avenue. About 1900 he built an addition on the rear of the house in the same style.
The Venable House is an excellent example of a vernacular house type suggesting the Gothic Revival style that was apparently brought to Texas from the upland South. This multi-gabled form was popular in Kentucky and Tennessee around the time of the Civil War and it appears in regions of the north and east Texas in the 1870s, suggesting that it was perpetuated by immigrants to these areas from the southeastern states after the Civil War. The Augustus Koch bird's-eye-view map of 1881 shows five similar houses in Belton; this house is the only one that is now standing.
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.