Foster House
a.k.a. Foster - Wier House
E of Navasota on TX 90, Navasota, TXThe Foster House is representative of a vernacular Texas nineteenth-century Greek Revival structure. The mixture of the climatically practical central hallway floor plan with the classically influenced exterior detailing creates a style of architecture that was needed in southeast Texas to cope with the warm, humid weather. Mr. Ira Malcolm Camp, who moved to Texas from Georgia, built the house in 1859. It was Mr. Camp's familiarity with this southern style of architecture which influenced the design of the Foster House. Mr. Birdsall P. Briscoe, while recording for the Historic American Buildings Survey (1936), said of it, "I regard it as one of the best examples of early residential work I have found in Texas that follow so closely similar work in Virginia and the other Atlantic seaboard states."
The house was built by Mr. Camp for his daughter who married Sheriff Jeff Gibbs. Sheriff Gibbs is noted as being the first sheriff elected in Grimes County on the Republican ticket, a major political accomplishment at the time. In 1883, Mr. R. B. S. Foster purchased the house along with 200 acres of land. Mr. Foster was a successful farmer and rancher who invested money in surrounding lands which eventually amounted to several thousand acres. The Fosters, with their three children who were born in the home, resided there until Mr. Foster's death in 1899. In 1900 Foster's ranch overseer moved into the home. in 1915 Robert F. Foster, R. B. S. Foster's son, became the occupant. In 1966, Robert F. Wier, namesake and kinsman of Mr. Foster, moved into the house and is the present resident. Mr. Wier restored the cellar and the north-front chimney in 1971.
The land which originally comprised the Foster House was a large complex that represented farm life in the 1800s. Located in the complex was a cotton gin, a creamery, a carriage house, a dipping vat for cattle, a kitchen with an underground cistern, several slave houses (later used by tenant farmers), and a commissary with an underground cistern also used during slavery times and later converted to tenant farmer use. Presently, the underground cisterns (not clearly visible), the lower portion of the stone cotton gin, a newly constructed water holding tank, and grazing land Occupy the site.
Texas.
The Foster Wier House is located approximately two miles east of Navasota, Texas, ten miles south of Anderson, Texas and eight miles east of Washington, Both Anderson and Navasota have structures noted for local, state and national historical significance. Washington, once known as Washington- On-The-Brazos, served as the capital of Texas from 1842 to 1843. Washington- On-The-Brazos State Park now contains the Star of the Republic Museum and the Anson Jones House, 1844, a HABS, state and local historic landmark.
The Foster House was built just off the Navasota Anderson Road which was heavily trafficked during the early years of the Republic of Texas. The entire area from Anderson, Washington and Navasota has been recognized for its history, but only a few of the structures are as old or denote architectural quality to the extent of the Foster Wier House.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
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.