Earle-Harrison House

Text

Relocated, dismantled, relocated again, and pieced back together, the Earle-Harrison House has endured more than most historic homes in Waco. Originally built in 1858 for Dr. Baylis Earle and his wife Eliza Harrison Earle, the structure is the only restored antebellum building in Waco. Designed in the Greek Revival style, the Earle-Harrison House has a completely white exterior of pine sheathing with nine cypress columns. Interestingly, the columns only flank the front and side of the house, which is very unusual for this architectural style, leading some to speculate that Dr. Earle had planned to later add a second portion to the house but was unable to before his death in 1859. The interior contains a fourteen-foot high first-floor ceiling, capacious rooms, and large, walk-through windows that open onto verandas. Given its construction in the antebellum South, it is no surprise that slaves built this house, a sad reality of many historic structures built before the Civil War.

After Dr. Earle’s death, his wife sold the property to her brother Thomas Harrison. A prominent figure in the Waco community, Harrison was one of six Confederate generals from Waco, and he decided to move the house fifty yards away so that it would be more visible from the street. The house was located on Fourth Street across  from the Earle-Napier-Kinnard House, and it was home to the Earle and Harrison families until 1891, when Thomas Harrison passed away and the property was sold to settle the estate. Over the next several decades, the house would be split into apartments rented by numerous families and working-class individuals, and after the house was abandoned a vagrant woman took up residence in the parlor for a period of time. The house fell into a state of extreme disrepair, and by the late 1950s was slated for demolition to make way for I-35, along with the Earle-Napier-Kinnard House and the Davis House. Roger Conger and Margaret Barclay Megarity fought to preserve the historic homes and their efforts were successful in saving the Earle-Harrison and Earle-Napier-Kinnard Houses.

The Earle-Harrison House was not safe yet, however. In 1967, the building was again slated for demolition, this time to make way for a motel. Eleanor “Nell” Jurney Pape generously offered to purchase any historic home that her dear friend Lavonia Jenkins Barnes wanted, knowing that her friend was deeply interested in historic preservation, and Barnes immediately answered that she wanted the Earle-Harrison House. Hart Nance, Nell Pape’s attorney, worked for the Citizens National Bank, who owned the property, and when she inquired whether they could buy the house, he gave it to her for free. After choosing a lot on Fifth Street with plenty of space for the house and some surrounding gardens, they made plans to have the house moved to the new location. On June 3, 1968, they began to move the house in sections. A large moving crew slowly conveyed the entire structure overnight to its new home.

The whole project was funded by the G. H. Pape Foundation, and Pape and Barnes hired Raiford Stripling as the architect for the restoration. Stripling had an impressive record of restoring historic buildings, including the Presidio La Bahia in Goliad, Fort Concho in San Angelo, and two other historic homes in Waco: Fort House and East Terrace. Stripling oversaw the house being pieced back together and ensured that matching materials were used to replace deteriorating sections. He had a replication of the original kitchen built behind the house, and he also installed a modern kitchen inside. The restoration took a total of three years and the house first opened to public tours in January 1971. Nell Pape had a passion for gardening, and the Pape Gardens planted in her honor which surround the house attempt to imagine “how grand the gardens could have been” with tall live oak trees, a tiered garden, a gazebo, and beds of roses and azaleas.

Today, the Earle-Harrison House and Pape Gardens is a popular venue for special events and weddings, and the public can still tour the historic home. The antebellum house has endured through multiple attempts at demolition and even being dissected, transported, and reconstructed, thanks to its historic legacy and beauty that caught the attention of prominent Wacoans. The efforts of Nell Pape and Lavonia Barnes saved the house from demolition and preserved it for generations to come.