Nuggett Hill Historic District

The Nuggett Hill Historic District is a compact residential area in northeast Longview, Gregg County. Roughly bounded by East Marshall Avenue, North Sixth Street, and Teague Street, the district encompasses the majority of the original subdivision of 1931 platted as "Turner's Nuggett Hill Addition" as well as a contemporaneous but separately platted section along East Marshall. Harry S. Turner platted the larger development to attract many of the landowners from the rich East Texas oilfield discovered in 1930. The houses range from modest builder-designed period revival cottages to elaborate and imaginative architect/builder-designed residences. 55 properties are determined as Contributing; 22 as Noncontributing. The collection of well-maintained, intact, and architecturally diverse properties, largely built during the 1930s, creates a distinctive neighborhood that easily ranks among the most significant residential enclaves in Longview. Nuggett Hill Historic District is eligible under Criterion C in the area of Architecture at the local level of significance
The City of Longview was incorporated on May 17, 1871, along the Shreveport-Tyler Road in Upshur County. In 1873, the southern part of Upshur County became Gregg County and a year later, the Texas Legislature added the northern portion of Rusk County completing the present boundaries.

In the early 1870s, the executives of the Southern Pacific Railroad (later Texas & Pacific, T&P) chose Longview as the temporary terminus of its westward expansion. By 1874, the International Railroad, later the International & Great Northern Railroad (I&GN) reached Longview from its western hub in Palestine, adding a second rail line to the community. The meeting of these two rail lines, about a three-fourths mile east of the center of Longview, became Longview Junction. These two communities steadily grew during the late 19th century with even the smaller Longview Junction forming a one-street commercial core. By 1882, Longview, however, dominated the two communities with several churches, sawmills, schools, and at least one bank, planing mill, cotton gin, foundry, machine shop, street railway, opera house, and three newspapers. Its population was estimated at 1,525.

Both communities prospered primarily because of these two railroads and two other rail lines that later had their terminals in the community: the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe and the Port Bolivar & Iron Ore Railroads. Small industrial companies, however, began to develop around Longview to take advantage of the rail lines bringing additional employment opportunities and a boost to the economy. The G.A. Kelly Plow Company, the first chartered industry in Texas, relocated from Kellyville in 1880 to manufacture agricultural equipment. In 1903 the Graham Manufacturing Company built a crate and box factory for farm produce adjacent the Kelly plant. At the turn of the century, most residents of Longview were employed on the railroad or other small industries or businesses, but some still earned income from timber sales and processing and farming.

In 1904, Longview's Mayor G.A. Bodenheim expanded the original 100 acres of the town in order to increase the city's tax base. The mayor extended the city limits one-half mile in all directions incorporating the sister community of Longview Junction. These boundaries remained the same for a number of years with several subdivisions platted within the corporate limits. The Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of 1911 show the first addition of a planned and named the residential area as the Turner Addition. Harry Turner may be responsible for this early subdivision since it joins the property he later subdivided as "Nuggett Hill," but there is no documentation to confirm his role. The Turner Addition fell within the boundaries of the International Rail Road Company's Addition between north and south 6th and 8th Streets and on both sides of Olive Street including Magrill and, what later became Padon Streets. The 1911 maps indicate that seven dwellings and a Roman Catholic Church existed in the addition.

As Longview grew land owners platted other residential additions on the edges of the community. These appear on the 1916 Sanborn Fire Insurance maps immediately south of the original plat and the International Rail Road Company's Addition. Mobberly East Addition, in Longview Junction, extended from South Third Street to Bonner Street and from East Cotton Street south to Timpson Street. Many railroad employees lived in this area with their families. Railroad workers continued to locate in this area that later extended west to First Street. Another subdivision, the Lacy and Bass Addition, covered a large area beginning at College Street and south of the I&GN railroad tracks. Green Street bounded the addition on the east and Center Street on the west. Immediately west of Lacy and Bass, Carter's Addition covered three large blocks and four smaller ones. It extended from High Street to Harrison Street on the west and was bounded by College Street on the north to the railroad tracks. The 1916 Sanborn maps indicate that this addition remained to be developed. The Rembert Addition joins Carter's at Harrison Street and extends to the railroad tracks. This addition contains roughly ten blocks.

Longview's growth between 1910 and 1920 slowed in spite of the paving of the Bankhead Highway or US 80, locally known as the Tyler-Shreveport Road or Marshall Avenue, and fluctuating timber and cotton prices. In 1923, the Northcutt Heights Addition appears as one of the few subdivisions platted in the decade and the first one north of the railroad tracks. Northcutt Heights extends several blocks northwest of Marshall Avenue covering one of the highest points in Longview and the farmland once owned by W.G. Northcutt. A few residents built large houses in the addition, but it later became a more modest residential neighborhood. In 1929, Longview's population reached approximately 7,000, but after the T&P Railroad moved its division offices in 1930, the population fell to 5,036.2 On December 3, 1930, the Gregg County Discovery Oil Well, the Arkansas Fuel Oil Company/F.K. Lathrop A-1, brought attention to the expansive East Texas oil field linked to the Daisy Bradford No. 3 and the Lou Della Crim oil wells of Rusk County. The oil discovery reversed Longview's decline and buffered the community against the economic problems of the Depression. The wild economic and population growth began immediately. Every town in Gregg and Rusk Counties became boom town.

New residents and surrounding property owners of Longview soon wanted new houses to reflect their prosperity. Although a number of real estate developers eventually became active, Harry S. Turner was the first to subdivide land for new residential buildings. Turner chose a prominent hill site and platted "Turner's Nuggett Hill Addition" on March 23, 1931. Nuggett Hill incorporated 50-foot wide concrete streets with curbs and gutters in a basic gridiron pattern with adaptation for the hillside setting. He named the principal through street for the Turner family, Charlotte Drive after his mother, and Park Drive (later renamed Stuckey Drive) for the park that already surrounded the natural pond at that location. No explanation is available for the name or spelling of "Nuggett Hill." Original plans also called for a fire station near the East Marshall Avenue entrance to the development. Turner included deed restrictions for the area such as a minimum house cost of $5,000 in masonry or brick, stone or stucco veneered construction. These restrictions do not appear to have been fully enforced for the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps from 1932/35 show non-conforming houses and several frame houses from the 1930s still exist.

In the early 1930s, Harry S. Turner, Jr., was associated with Longview's most prominent citizens. Born on Turner's Hill, now Nuggett Hill, Harry descended from an early resident of the area, Jere Clemens Turner, Sr. J.C. Turner, Sr., purchased this farmland from John S. Barnes and Jacob S. Wetmore on December 10, 1880. He built a 2-story house in 1883-84 where his three children were born: Lillian (1885) and twins Newlyn and Harry (1888). This house burned in 1898 and the Turner family returned to their original home built in 1874 at 503 East Methvin Street in downtown Longview (RTHL, 1964). J.C. Turner raised thoroughbred horses and imported among the first Jersey cattle to East Texas. He kept his livestock on the farm around Turner's Hill and occasionally allowed a traveling circus to use the pasture. With the newfound wealth of Longview area citizens, Turner realized the advantages of the farmland as a residential subdivision. Its proximity to downtown Longview and undulating topography with views, a spring-fed natural pond, and a mature landscape offered unusual amenities for new homeowners.

Harry Turner became one of the first to build on Nugget Hill. His 2-1/2-story Tudor Revival house at 809 North Seventh set a standard for those to follow. Built by local contractor Buford Bracey, the house far exceeded the minimum cost requirement and introduced the role of professional architects and builders in the design and construction of period revival styles popular during the interwar decades. Some of the residential designs, like Spanish Colonial Revival, seemed unusual for an East Texas community where the earth tones and rough textures were set among towering trees and large suburban yards.

About ten local and regional architects and builders assisted with the development of Nuggett Hill. These included the Tom Wilmoth Constructing Company which constructed the L.E. Griffith House, 708 North Seventh, and the Smith Price House, 1110 Turner Drive. The M. Clint Brown Construction Company, a large firm usually associated with major projects, constructed the First Christian Church at 720 North Sixth Street. Buford Bracey of Bracey Brothers probably offered some design assistance for the houses he built in Nuggett Hill. The owners of the Lawrence N. Skipper House, 801 North Seventh Street, actually saw a house in Tyler that they liked and instructed Bracey to copy it."

In addition to the design and construction work of the contractors, several architects produced handsome and important buildings in the neighborhood. N.L. Peters of the local firm Peters, Zimmerman, and Strange designed the Nuggett Hill Fire Station, 1000 East Marshall Avenue, and the M.M. Martin House, 705 North Eighth Street. Peters also designed the First Presbyterian Church in Kilgore and the First Presbyterian Church in Longview. Percy Zimmerman of the same firm prepared drawings for the Griffith-Sharp House, 800 Charlotte Drive, the Presbyterian Manse, 1100 Turner Drive, the Smith Price House, 1110 Turner Drive, and the B.F. Martin House, 800 North Sixth Street. Though little information exists on Zimmerman's professional life, he is the architect with the best name recognition among residents today.

Ewart H. Lightfoot of Houston was another architect involved in Nuggett Hill. He designed the L.E. Griffith House, 708 North Seventh, in a 1-story Colonial Revival style. Lightfoot mostly practiced architecture in Houston designing a number of houses in Montrose including his own Craftsman-style home at 3702 Audubon Place. The Lightfoot family was well-known in East Texas for their art and architecture as well as for being involved with the Lighthouse Tourist Courts in Longview, later Lighthouse Lodge, probably designed by Ewart Lightfoot's son, Tom E. Lightfoot. George T. Reynolds, Jr., also worked in the subdivision and designed the B.W. Crain, Sr., House, 803 North Seventh Street, while the firm of Hunter and Boyd designed the M.E. Lee House, 804 North Seventh Street.

Among the many fine houses of Nuggett Hill, two stand out as noteworthy in Longview. The M.Tracy Flanagan House, 821 Charlotte Drive, was among the earliest built in the neighborhood. When Tracy Flanagan benefited from the East Texas oil discovery, he gave up farming and spent 1932-33 supervising the construction of the house at the principal entrance to Nuggett Hill. The 1-1/2-story Spanish Colonial Revival residence includes a full recreational basement and extensive landscaping. Flanagan later built movie houses and drive-in theaters in East Texas. Although no architect is associated with the house, it is well-designed and an important contribution to the community's architectural legacy.

The James F. Stuckey House, 814 Charlotte Drive, is arguably Longview's most significant mid-20th-century residence. Designed by Dallas builder/architect, Clifford Dorris Hutsell, the Stuckey House reflects an imaginative and eclectic mix of Spanish Colonial Revival elements combined with an elaborate theatrical stage set. Exterior features on the over-sized L-shaped plan include sloping wing walls that merge with a low courtyard wall, a round entry tower with a peaked roof, a large parabolic arched window with a Spanish Galleon formed in stained glass, and an elaborate iron balustrade and stair rail leading to an exterior cantilevered balcony. The courtyard encompasses a corner chimney and hearth and an octagonal fountain surrounded with multi-colored concrete tiles. Interior features include large hand-painted wall murals, gold-leafed wall treatment, and plaster-cast tree logs as cornices. The floor-to-ceiling fireplace and chimney in the living room are set with Batchelder tiles from California best viewed from the second-floor bedroom balcony.

The Stuckey House is almost identical to one built for himself in 1930 at 7035 Lakewood in Dallas for $10,000, and two others constructed in Houston and Birmingham, Alabama. Hutsell's fantasy designs were added to other houses constructed in the Lakewood area of Dallas in the 1930s and followed his visit to cowboy actor Tom Mix's house in Beverly Hills, California in 1929.

The park-like setting around the Stuckey House offers other whimsical elements. A petrified wood bandstand/gazebo and wishing well, concrete faux wood bridges and benches, and concrete art baskets, and an extremely ornate iron fence that connects to an early stone one make for an extensive landscape. The concrete landscape pieces may be the work of Dionicio Rodriquez of San Antonio. Rodriquez traveled in Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee (and maybe as far as Michigan) to create his concrete art. Some of his work is documented in existing historic districts listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Much of the interior and exterior ironwork is attributed to Potter Art Metal Studios of Dallas, known to have collaborated with Hutsell on many similar Dallas houses.

Clifford Hutsell received no formal architectural training but instead relied on his pragmatic carpenter/builder skills. He is credited with building houses in Dallas' South Boulevard/Park Row, Oak Lawn, and Lakewood neighborhoods. His own house in Lakewood was situated at a major intersection and thus attracted additional clients in Lakewood and others like the Stuckeys of Longview.

Although residential properties are predominant, several other building types of note exist. The First Christian Church represents the largest single property which extends over a full block. This Mediterranean-style building anchors the southwest quadrant of the district and sets the tone for the nearby associated residences. The Fire Station at 1000 East Marshall introduces in the northwest quadrant the period revival architecture evident in the neighborhood with its stucco exterior and red tile roof. Though adapted for commercial use in 1979, the building retains many original features and still reflects its intended use. Other buildings along East Marshall are in commercial use with some adapted from residential forms and others following design and marketing trends of roadside commerce. These properties are largely Noncontributing.

The Nuggett Hill Historic District is an intact residential enclave that reflects its mid-20th century development with a range of period revival cottages and larger houses. Though the majority of the properties are over fifty years of age, the house at 1205 Turner Drive dates from 1954. It is, however, an integral part of the district and contributes to the area of significance. For these reasons, the period of significance is carried to 1954, but the district does not have to meet the criteria consideration G. Nuggett Hill is today easily among the city's most distinctive and important neighborhoods with few alterations to the early houses. The post-1954 Noncontributing houses are similar in scale and materials and do not detract from the overall setting.