Fry-Barry House

No less for its architectural charm than for its association for more than a century with one of Marshall's most distinguished families, the Fry-Barry House is one of the city's oldest homes and one of its most eloquent expressions of the Greek Revival. W.R.D. Ward, its architect, was a wealthy planter and merchant who also designed a quite similar dwelling at 303 North Columbus Street in Marshall (now known as Magnolia Hall) which was the first Marshall structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Ward's own home (no longer standing) which he also designed and constructed at 408 North Wellington Street, was similar in design to both the Fry-Barry House and Magnolia Hall.

Fidel Bircher bought this site in 1853 from W.R.D. Ward and presumably commissioned Ward to then construct a house between 1853 and 1860. In 1863 William T. Womack bought the house and then sold it in 1872 to E. J. Fry (1845-1927), a sixth-generation member of a notable Virginia family founded by Joshua Fry.

After the death of his father, E.J. Fry moved to Texas with his mother in 1855, when he was less than 10 years old. When his schooling in northern Louisiana was interrupted in 1863 by the approach of a Union expedition, he enlisted in a Texas regiment and participated in the battles of Wilson's Farm, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Monett's Ferry, Alexandria, Marksville, and Yellow Bayou before the surrender.

After moving to Marshall in 1872, he became a partner and then sole owner of a private bank. In 1887 he purchased stock held in the First National Bank by W.P. Poland and became the bank's original vice president, holding that post until his death in 1927. During his business career, he organized the Marshall Compress Co., one of the largest in the state, and was one of the founders of the Marshall Carwheel and Foundry Co., an industry that continues to the present as a division of Cobb Industries, serving as its first president. He was a founder and director of the Southland Life Insurance Co. of Dallas and one of the founders of Arthur A. Everts Jewelry in Dallas, serving as its vice president. Beyond his business interests, he was instrumental in bringing to Marshall the city's first electric plant, its first opera house, its water system, and many other municipal improvements.

A longtime Mason, he served as Grand Commander of the Texas Knights Templar and was one of the state's first 33-degree Scottish Rite Masons. On his 79th birthday in 1924, it was reported that he had held office in local Masonic bodies for a total of 161 "Masonic years," longer than any other Mason in Texas except one who had the same record. Also a long-time and devoted communicant of Trinity Episcopal Church in Marshall, he served as its senior warden for 30 years.

Upon E.J. Fry's death in 1927, his third child, Pamela, and her husband, Walter L. Barry inherited the family home. W.L. Barry had followed in his father-in-law's footsteps as a banker, joining the staff of the First National Bank only 16 years after its chartering. Mr. and Mrs. Barry were the parents of two children, Edwin Fry Barry and Mary Louise Barry.

Edwin Fry Barry served as a lieutenant in World War I and in World War II was an ordnance colonel in the Corregidor garrison, dying in a prison camp in 1942. After the death of W.L. Barry (1942) and Pamela Barry (1961), Mary Louise Barry inherited the house. The Barry estate presently owns the house and two cousins living in Marshall plan to re-store the property.