Baker-Carmichael House

The Baker-Carmichael House is named for the two families who lived there from the time it was built in 1905 through the 1960s. The Baker-Carmichael House is significant as the home of Texas state representative and woman suffrage advocate Jess A. Baker, and is an excellent example of Queen Anne architecture with Neoclassical influences. The house meets criteria in the area of politics on the local level of significance for its association with Baker, a legislative leader of equal suffrage in Texas. It also meets criteria in the area of architecture at the local level of significance as an exuberant expression of prosperity realized during the turn-of-the-century post-railroad economic boom in a small rural county seat in north central Texas.

Granbury's Post-Railroad Economic Boom, 1887 to 1918

Located 35 miles southwest of Fort Worth on the banks of the Brazos River, Granbury is the county seat of Hood County. The Texas Grand Prairie meets the Western Cross Timbers where Hood County's 436 acres are located in north central Texas. Following the end of the Civil War, yeoman farmers from the Upland South surged into north-central Texas. Hood County, named for Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood, was established in 1866 by the Texas legislature and local settlers selected a 40-acre site along the river for the location of the county seat, named Granbury after Confederate Brig. Gen. Hiram B. Granbury. By the late 1880s, most of Granbury's earliest log and rawhide lumber buildings were being replaced by the native limestone commercial structures still in place on the town square. Greek Revival and Victorian homes were beginning to be built in the neighborhoods surrounding the new courthouse square.

In 1887, the merchants of Granbury joined together and paid the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad a $25,000 bonus to build a rail line to the town from Fort Worth. The rail line was built through town just two blocks north of the courthouse square. After 1889, the line extended further to the southwest through Brownwood and San Angelo, stopping in Menard in 1911.

Granbury's first bank was chartered as The First National Bank of Granbury in 1887. In March of 1887, the Granbury News wrote, "A bank, a bridge, a railroad, and a new college are the all-absorbing enterprises just now. On with the boom and a good rain." Granbury's rail lines were built during the years when the miles of railroad track quadrupled in the United States, and during the decade that saw railroad expansion throughout much of Texas. Between 1880 and 1890, 5,466 miles of railroad tracks were laid in Texas. Most of this mileage was into undeveloped counties to the west, like Hood County, which did not already have railroad
transportation. The 39 counties that received new railroad lines during the 1880s increased their population by 200 percent.

transportation. The 39 counties that received new railroad lines during the 1880s increased their population by 200 percent.

The arrival of the railroad had a tremendous impact on Granbury's economic growth, just as it did in other cities and towns across the country, particularly in the West. Both Dallas and Fort Worth are examples of Western cities that grew rapidly in the late 19th century after the arrival of railroad transportation. In 1887, the Granbury Graphic wrote, "... the town on the boom and real estate on the rise," reporting that property values increased at least 300 percent after work began on the railroad and rents increased rapidly.

By 1903, The Frisco, parent company of the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway Company, consolidated all of its Texas properties under one name: The St. Louis, San Francisco and Texas Railway Company. From that time on, the railroad in Granbury was referred to as the Frisco. Railroad men often became city builders themselves, and in fact, the Frisco worked to populate the area served by the Fort Worth and Rio Grande line in the hopes of increasing their business. They had a "Division Immigration Agent" stationed in nearby Stephenville, who was to "... look into this territory thoroughly with a view of developing and colonizing the same with good, energetic and thorough farmers..."

Cotton was Hood County's first leading agricultural crop. In 1898, the county's yield was 7,413 bales, and by 1912, the cotton yield was 17,875 bales. Granbury, the county seat, developed as the agricultural trading center for home markets, and shipping center for larger markets in other cities. Old photos show the Granbury courthouse square full of wagons piled high with bales of cotton on their way to the railroad depot for shipping. At the turn of the 20th century, Texas was still two generations behind the American mainstream in terms of development and industrialization. Early 19th century agrarian values were firmly entrenched, and industry was just beginning. But by 1905, Granbury had five cotton gins and a cottonseed oil mill. The city also boasted its railroad line to Fort Worth, a new public school, and many new, native limestone structures on the town square, including the Second Empire-style Hood County Courthouse, built in 1891. In June 1905, the year the Baker-Comichael House was built, the Granbury News lauded the local growth and prosperity. In an article entitled "An Optimistic View," the newspaper wrote, "In fact, the residence improvement now in progress and planned is enough to keep our local workmen busy the remainder of the year and will aid greatly to the appearance of the town." By 1910, Hood County had reached a population high of 10,00810, and Granbury had 2,250 residents."

History of the Baker-Carmichael House

It was during this early 20th century post-railroad economic boom period in Granbury that the Baker-Carmichael House was built for Jess A. Baker and his family. The house is a reflection of Baker's success as a businessman in Granbury. The Baker-Carmichael House replaced Baker's first house, located on the same property, which appears on Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps beginning in 1893 (Maps 2-4). This first house was enlarged between 1898 and 1905, and both an iron windmill and limestone water tank are shown on the property adjacent to the house. By 1910, the Baker-Carmichael House appears on Granbury's Sanborn Map, along with a new 4-inch water main along East Pearl Street in front of the house. The iron windmill and water tank are no longer shown on the property in 1910.

There are no records of architects designing or working in Granbury at the turn of the 20th century. There was, however, a contractor named E.J. Holderness, who built several local residences, including a grand Queen Anne-style house in 1905 for saloon owner Andy Aston. His specifications for the Aston House are framed and hung in its parlor today. Cissy Wilson, former owner of the Aston House, said the grandson of E.J. Holderness told her that his grandfather also built the Baker-Carmichael House. 12 The Baker-Carmichael and Aston Houses are both high-style Queen Anne houses with asymmetrical footprints, wraparound porches, hipped roofs with cross gables, classical columns used as porch posts, and turned wood porch balustrades.

Because no architects were practicing in Granbury at the turn of the 20th century, it's likely that Baker, and possibly Holderness, used pattern books available through local lumber companies. Sanborn Insurance Maps of Granbury for 1905 and local newspapers for the year Baker's house was built, show two lumber companies in Granbury, the Hood County Lumber Co., and the R.B. Spencer Lumber Co. The Spencer Lumber Co. was a big business in Granbury, and occupied an entire city block just north of the courthouse square. The company also had lumber businesses in several other Central Texas cities and towns, including Fort Worth, Dublin, and Hamlin. A historian described the R.B. Spencer Lumber Co. in Stamford in 1906,

They now have one of the largest yards in the city, carrying all kinds of lumber, both rough and dressed, together with shingles, door and sash, brick, lime, cement, roofing materials, paints, oils, glass and everything needed by the builder. Their trade extends over the counties of Jones, Haskell, Stonewall, Knox, Kent, Fisher, and Dickens, and their sales amount to 13 about one hundred thousand dollars annually.

The first mention of Baker's new house appeared in the Granbury News in June 1905, "Plans have been completed for the new residences of Jess Baker and Andy Aston, and when completed, these buildings will add greatly to the appearance of the residence part of town." In August of that year, contractor Holderness opened a plaining mill adjacent to his shop. Several local investors, including Baker's brother and business partner, D.O. Baker, served as mill officers. "The mill will do plaining, joining, turning and all kinds of cabinet work.. ." wrote the local paper."

Jess A. Baker

Baker married Alice Ballew of North Carolina in 1880. Together, they had three children. Their first daughter, Nettie, died just before her first birthday. They had one son, Robert, and another daughter, Ida. Baker spent $18,000 having his family's showplace built in 1905. The head carpenter made $1.50 per day and paid his helpers $1 per day. Local tradition said that Mr. Baker personally approved each board that went into the construction of his house. 16 The Baker-Carmichael House was either built with a bathroom, or a first-floor bath was added just after the house the house was constructed." A downstairs room, just west of the kitchen, features a tall narrow double-hung 1/1 wood window filled with early engraved or frosted glass to provide privacy for bathing. On November 23, 1905, the Granbury News reported that "Jess Baker and family have moved into their new residence."18 The Baker's home had telephone service by 1908, with phone number 78.

According to T.T. Ewell, an early Hood County historian, Jess Baker "... steadily, by dint of perseverance and close attention to his business, worked up to be one of the leading financiers and businessmen of the county. Baker became a hardware, wagon, and implement merchant with four businesses on the courthouse square; vice president of The First National Bank of Granbury; and vice president of the Granbury Quarry Company and Hood County Milling Company. Baker Hardware and Implement Company was the 79th owner to register an automobile in Hood County in 1914. In 1906, Jess Baker was elected to the Texas House of Representatives from the 76th district (which was changed to the 97th district after 1913), representing Hood, Somervell, and Erath Counties as a Democrat.

Jess Baker's Legislative Career and the Woman Suffrage Movement in Texas

Jess Baker was a progressive advocate of woman suffrage in Texas and the movement's legislative leader. During his tenure in the Texas House of Representatives, Baker introduced three amendments to the Texas constitution granting women the right to vote, including the first suffrage amendment of the 20th century. Baker also introduced a house bill giving women the right to vote in primary elections. After campaigning tirelessly and effectively to enfranchise Texas women, Baker lived to see them vote before the end of his legislative
career.

Granting women in Texas the right to vote was proposed as early as the state Constitutional Conventions in 1868-69 and 1875. The 1890s saw some women's rights lobbying with the formation of the Texas Equal Rights Association. In 1895, Rep. A.C. Tomkins of Hempstead introduced the first amendment to the Texas Constitution to enfranchise women. His resolution was referred to the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, where no action was taken. By 1896, the Texas Equal Rights Association was no longer active. In 1903"... the Second Phase of the Texas Struggle," for equal rights began when Annette Finnigan and her sisters, Katherine and Elizabeth, organized the Texas Woman Suffrage Association." Jess Baker took a leading political role in this phase of the effort to enfranchise Texas women. Baker served in the Texas House for five terms in the 30th through 32nd sessions from 1907 through 1913, and again in the 34th and 35th sessions from 1915 through 1919.

In 1907, Baker proposed the first woman suffrage resolution in the Texas House in the 20th century by introducing House Joint Resolution No. 17 to amend the state constitution and extend the right to vote to women. Several Texas women, including the noted sculptor Elizabet Ney and Texas Women's Christian Temperance Union President Helen M. Stoddard, "... converged on the Committee on Constitutional Amendments hearing to give their views on suffrage." The committee gave an unfavorable report on Baker's resolution, and Baker filed the favorable minority report, which died on the speaker's table.

Reporting on Baker's resolution and the congressional hearing for woman suffrage, the Houston Chronicle called Baker, "... a big-hearted lawmaker." "Why not cut out the word "male"?" asked the Dallas Morning News in support of Baker's resolution. "Why are not women entitled to vote? Are they lacking in intelligence? Is a woman lacking in patriotism? Is she lacking in virtue? Can any man who has associated with good women say they are lacking in either?"

Undaunted, Baker, in January 1911, introduced House Joint Resolution No. 8, proposing to amend the Texas constitution and give women the right to vote. Baker's resolution was again referred to the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, where it received an unfavorable report. On Feb. 8, it was read for a second time, but a motion prevailed to postpone consideration of the resolution indefinitely.

In 1913, Baker worked with Sen. Pierce Ward to receive state funding for a monument honoring Elizabeth Crockett, David Crockett's widow. Mrs. Crockett was buried in Acton Cemetery in Hood County in 1859. The monument, which also honors all pioneer women in Texas, received $2,000 in funding from the state. Baker served as the master of ceremonies during dedication ceremonies for the Italian marble sculpture of Mrs. Crockett on May 30, 1913. Later that same year, Texas suffragettes gathered for a convention in Dallas, pushing a referendum on equal suffrage as part of the July 1914 primary election, and Baker attended the convention. Baker was a candidate for Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives during its 34th session in 1915, along with John W. Woods of Rotan, Matt F. Allison of San Saba, W.A. Tarver of Corsicana, and Joseph F. Nichols of Greenville. Woods was elected speaker.

In January 1917, early in the 35th legislative session, Jess Baker and 17 other representatives introduced House Joint Resolution No. 9 to amend the constitution to allow women the right to vote, calling for its submission to statewide vote the first Tuesday in Nov. 1918. This year, the Committee on Constitutional Amendments reported favorably on the resolution, but after two readings and some amendments by Baker, 76 legislators voted for it, and 56 voted against it. The resolution failed to garner the necessary two-thirds majority and was not adopted.

During the debate on the House floor in 1917, Baker gave a speech, giving a history of his efforts to pass a suffrage amendment,

Remember that women are one-half of the human race, and, therefore, are entitled by inherent right to all the privileges accorded to men. We are only asking you to submit an amendment of the Constitution to the qualified voters of the entire State, which shall take our women... and lift them to a higher plane, where their intelligence and patriotism may have full play."

The very next month, Baker and Rep. James T. Denton introduced House Bill No. 611 to provide women the vote in primary elections. "Since Texas was a one-party state, primary suffrage was almost tantamount to complete enfranchisement," wrote Elizabeth A. Taylor in her book Citizens at Last. This bill was referred to the Committee on Privileges, Suffrage, and Elections, which on the following day adversely reported it. At about the same time, Sen. O.S. Lattimore of Fort Worth introduced a similar bill in the Senate, which the Senate refused to consider.

The governor of Texas during the 1917 legislative session was James E. Ferguson, an opponent of woman suffrage. During the summer he was impeached and removed from office. His successor, Lt. Gov. William P. Hobby, was friendly to the cause. In early 1918, labor organizations began to support women's suffrage, and in March of that year, the Texas legislature passed a bill giving women the right to vote in primary elections. With Gov. Hobby's support, an amendment giving women the right to vote was part of a special election in May of 1919. Voters were asked to approve an amendment that would give women the right to vote and deny aliens the right to vote. Since it was not a primary election, women could not vote, but aliens still could, so the proposed amendment was defeated by 25,000 votes. Also under consideration in the special election was statewide prohibition, which was approved by voters.

Baker worked to support both amendments to help ensure they would be approved by voters. He was appointed chairman of local pro-prohibition forces, and the Granbury News reported that Baker"... plans to work in harmony with the ladies who will be working for the suffrage amendment, and hopes to see both carried by a good majority in this county... His campaign was successful, for both the women's suffrage amendment and the prohibition amendment were approved by Hood County voters. Just two months later, the Texas legislature convened in a special session and ratified the proposed 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote. Texas was the 9th state in the Union and the first state in the former Confederacy to approve the amendment.

Because of leaders like Baker, women in Texas at last received the right to vote. As Baker said in 1917, "Many women are taxpayers and should have a vote in the election of officials who make and execute laws. Women are eligible to nearly all the offices in Texas, and why shall they not be allowed to vote?"

As a progressive advocate of woman suffrage in Texas, Jess Baker became the movement's legislative leader. At the end of his legislative career, Baker saw his efforts on behalf of women's suffrage achieve success. After campaigning tirelessly and effectively to enfranchise Texas women, Baker lived to see them vote in the July 1918 primary election, and he witnessed Texas ratifying the national suffrage amendment in 1919.

The Baker-Carmichael House Saved and Preserved

Dr. and Mrs. Archibald Carmichael purchased the Baker-Carmichael House from the Baker family in 1925. Dr. Archibald Carmichael was born October 28, 1859, in Texas, and his wife, Glendora "Dora" Carmichael was born Oct. 4, 1869 in Mississippi. Neighbors, including Milton Kennon, recalled Dr. Carmichael calling on patients aboard his horse-and-buggy. "He was a good old country doctor," Kennon said. The Carmichaels had six children and their son, Jesse George, continued to live in the Baker-Carmichael House until he died in 1969. In 1972, Mrs. Carmel Harris, a retired costume designer, purchased the house, saving it from demolition. Mrs. Harris rehabilitated the house, updating the wiring, painting, and cleaning. She also added a powder room downstairs and a bathroom and closet upstairs.

During the 1980s, the house was owned by John and Janna Duty and used as a restaurant known as the Carmichael Inn. Today, Granbury's mayor, David Southern, and his wife, Claudia, own the Baker-Carmichael House and use it as their family residence and bed and breakfast. During 1998 and 1999, the Southern rehabilitated the Baker-Carmichael House, including painting and re-roofing. The Southern also applied for and received a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark designation for the Baker-Carmichael House. Texas First Lady Laura Bush dedicated the Baker-Carmichael House Texas historical marker in 1999.

Context of Style

The Baker-Carmichael House is an example of the "Free Classic" decorative subtype of Queen Anne Victorian homes as described in A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia and Lee McAlester. Popular after 1890, classical column porch supports, cornice-line dentils, and other classical features are featured in "Free Classic" houses like the Baker-Carmichael. According to the McAlesters and Mark Gelernter in A History of American Architecture, these later Queen Anne-style houses with Classical detailing were affected by the developing Colonial Revival influence in domestic building."

Baker's use of an imposing Neoclassical entryway with a pediment and columns on his grand house may also have been influenced by his trip to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, which was known for its formal, Neoclassical buildings that spurred a renaissance of classical architecture.

According to the McAlesters, two advances in technology allowed for larger asymmetrical houses like the Baker-Carmichael: balloon framing and cast-iron stoves, both of which were utilized in this house."3 Every room in the Baker-Carmichael House, but the front upstairs room overlooking the balcony has access available to one of the two interior chimneys. The double parlor downstairs features two fireplaces, but the other rooms used cast-iron stoves and stove pipes vented to the chimneys.

Only the Aston House and the Brown House are fine examples of Victorian high-style domestic architecture in Granbury. The Baker-Carmichael House and the Aston House, built in the same year, are situated within one city block of each other. Together, these two Queen Anne houses reflect the prosperity of Granbury's leading merchants and businessmen at the turn of the 20th century.

Summary of Significance

The Baker-Carmichael House is an excellent remaining example of an early 20th-century North Central Texas Queen Anne house with Neoclassical influence. This high-style showplace expresses the exuberance of the Bakers regarding their personal success, as well as their joy at their community's economic boom. The Baker-Comichael House is also a remaining reminder of the steadfast professional dedication of Baker toward granting women the right to vote in Texas. With very few changes since its construction in 1905, the Baker-Machichael House retains its original fabric and footprint. The wood carpentry on display throughout the house most likely represents the craftsmanship of Granbury's planing mill, which opened for business the year the house was built. The Baker-Carmichael House retains its integrity of location, setting, materials, design, workmanship, feeling, and association. It is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under criterion B in the area of politics and government and under criterion C in the area of architecture.