Cartwright, Matthew, House
505 Griffith Ave., Terrell, TX<p>The Cartwright house, built in 1883, is a distinctive example of residential architecture when the affluent used architecture to express their wealth, pride, and ambition. Located at 505 Griffith Ave, the Matthew Cartwright house is the most prominent house in Terrell. The symmetrical Victorian home, exhibiting Italianate and Second Empire characteristics, was embellished in 1894 with an imposing two-tiered gallery detailed in a Greek Revival manner by architect C. A. Gill.</p><p>Matthew Cartwright was born in San Augustine, Texas, in 1855. Both of his, parents were from pioneer families that moved to Texas from Tennessee. Following his graduation from Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, where he was influenced by the antebellum mansions of Memphis, Matthew Cartwright moved to Terrell, Texas, in 1874. In 1876 he married Mary Davenport and became a successful rancher, cattleman, banker, land owner, and authority on land value. With expanded railroad services, a wider variety of building materials could be obtained in Texas as well as the same furniture, clothing, and architectural styles as those current in Memphis or New York, St. Louis, and New Orleans. The addition of the galleries was particularly appropriate to the climate of east Texas and reflects the reluctance with which the Greek Revival style was given up in Texas. The restraint with which detail is used, combined with the formality of the symmetrical organization, gives the Matthew Cartwright house great distinction.</p><p>The house was built over a long period which accounts for some of the stylistic variations evident. The galleries (1894) and the sleeping porch (1922) were the only additions made during Matthew Cartwright's occupancy. The galleries have been attributed to Charles Alexander Gill, who was also a native of Tennessee. He was born in Fayetteville, Tennessee, in 1837. He came to Texas via Athens and Huntsville, Alabama, where he became an apprentice carpenter. He continued his carpentry work in Rienzi, Miss., but returned to Huntsville, where he worked with the Memphis and Charleston Railway during the Civil War. In 1870 he set up a planning mill in Huntsville. By 1874 he moved to Dallas where he was a contractor and builder for fourteen years. He became engaged in the practice of architecture in 1888 and designed numerous houses and commercial buildings in Dallas and the surrounding area including Terrell until he died in 1916. The third city hall in Dallas, built in 1888 is attributed to C. A. Gill.</p><p>Following the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Cartwright in 1925 and 1937 respectively, the ownership of the house was passed on to one of their daughters, Mrs. Jerome C. Head who was born in the house and lived there until her marriage. Following the death of her husband, Mrs. Head resumed living in the home with her mother. Upon the death of Mrs. Mary Davenport Cartwright in 1937, the heirs sold their interests in the house to Mrs. Head and her sister, Mrs. C. S. Pickrell. Ownership of the house has remained in the Cartwright family with the current owners being Mr. and Mrs. James I. Cartwright, grandson of Matthew Cartwright.</p><p>The house has always been kept in good repair and today it is in excellent condition. Additions occurring mainly at the rear of the house have been done in a sympathetic way to the original house and gallery, with the front elevation being relatively free of intrusive additions.</p><p>The Matthew Cartwright house in Terrell is representative of the large, central hall plan, frame houses built in Texas during the latter half of the 19th century. The Cartwright house in Terrell still retains an aura of plantation and cattle wealth and Victorian ostentation that recalls the period following the Civil War, when the leading families were building their mansions. The house with much of its furnishings intact remains in the Cartwright family.</p>
Bibliography
Marcus Whiffen, American Architecture Since 1780, Cambridge, M.I.T. Press, 1969.
Dallas Morning News, June 11, 1916.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
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.