National Register Listing

Neese, William, Sr., Homestead

TX 237, Warrenton, TX

In August 1869, William Neese, Sr., a prominent German immigrant merchant and farmer, bought several town lots in the small rural community of Warrenton, Texas. During the later part of the year 1869 and early 1870, the Neese homestead was erected. While William Neese died before the completion of the residence, it is nonetheless apparent that he was the primary influence in the design and style of this remarkable German-Texas structure.

The homestead, in many ways, is an unusual and anachronistic building. While basically a late Greek Revival structure with a pedimented double gallery over the first and second-floor entrances, the broad, horizontal emphasis in the building's proportions coupled with the articulated design elements such as the water table, belt- course, quoins, and nine-over-six light windows give the building something of an eighteenth-century Georgian. appearance.

The house is also unusual in its plan and interior decoration. While the ground floor is arranged according to the traditional central hall plan with two, nearly square rooms on each side of the hall, the upper floor is divided into three spaces. On the second floor, what would normally be the central hall and two south chambers, have been combined to form a large ballroom measuring thirty-nine feet by thirty feet. Double doors at the north end of the ballroom open onto the east and west pedimented double galleries. The ballroom has an elaborate, polychrome painted ceiling utilizing floral elements for its design motif.

The interior decoration of the residence is of particular importance in that it illustrates a merging of American and Germanic folk arts in the painted and stenciled wall and ceiling decoration, the painted wood graining on interior doors and woodwork, and the marbleizing technique used on the ballroom doors. The Neese house, which possesses a wealth of original decorative art work, will be used as a museum of Texas furniture, and its ballroom will be utilized for cultural affairs sponsored by the Pioneer Arts Foundation.

Local significance of the building:
Architecture

Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

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.