When Cotton Was King Part Two

In my previous post I showed you the Cotton Gin Festival & showed you the stuff the guys really would like about it. Interesting but..... this post interests me even MORE! As I shared in the last post, Texas is the number one cotton producer in the United States & has been for a LONG time. One of the by products of this is that back about 100 years ago that made parts of Texas VERY WEALTHY! When driving to the festival our legs got tired & we stopped in this LITTLE TINY TOWN. It almost looked dried up but, I knew there was an Antique Store & I talked "Honey" into stopping to stretch our legs. While talking to the owner we heard that Calvert, TX was known for having a large number of Cotton Mansions. We looked at each other each thinking "WHERE?" Because this place almost looked like a ghost town. She said "At the light turn & go east of town". We did & WE WERE AMAZED!!!!!! Block after Block of fabulous vintage homes. Beautiful Homes built when Cotton was King & they had a very prosperous Cotton Gin & the Rail Road in Calvert. The weather was grey & cloudy. Often it was raining so I did not get as many photos as I would have liked but, here are a few for you to enjoy.

This is the Parrish House. I LOVED the color & all the gingerbread trim on this beautiful mansion.

Wouldn't you love to sleep in the room under the turret? And walk onto that second floor balcony?

This is the back part of the house. Probably has the kitchen in the rear area.

Look at the beautiful lace curtains & the blue bottles sitting on the windowsill. They garage or carriage house to this property was cute too but, it poured buckets just as I snapped this last shot so... no carriage house shots today. SORRY!

This next house is the Robert Brown House. It is painted a strange shade of brick red & the house sits at an angle on the lot. It is a corner lot & the front door faces neither street but, the corner. You can see the railing there by the tree. I also LOVE the old metal fence. I would be happy as a clam if I could find a lot of these sections for myself.

Another view of the Brown House looking back at the garage that has been added to the property. Right now "Honey" & I are all about garages, storage building, & places for a shop & studio. Wouldn't this make a divine little studio?

This is the John Henry Gibson House. Again sorry for the low light but, the weather was not cooperating at all. You can see by this shot how BIG the lots are for these homes.

The photo below is directly across the street & I could not find the name in my book for this house. But, it is listed as The Calvert Inn. I assume a B&B. Ooooooooooooooh I can see a stay overnight here can't you?

Speaking of a stay overnight.... the lady at the Antique Store said that many of the residents open their homes for a Christmas Tour. I AM SOOOOOOOOOO GOING TO GO TO THIS! You know I LOVE Christmas Home Tours & I MUST see inside these jewels. OK, you local gals get ready looks like a ROAD TRIP!

I didn't get the name of this house but, it's a good one too. Love the white with black trim. And the garage..........

I can see us sitting on the porch rocking in those white rockers having a cup of coffee each morning. A glass of tea midday & a glass of wine in the evening.

This is a view of the beautiful rock wall that they put around the property & there was a beautiful garden on the other side of the wall.

This little cutie is not a MANSION but, I thought it was so sweet.

Love the fish scale work on the outside. And the stained glass window. Of course the gingerbread trim on the porch spoke to my heart.

This is a view from the side. Oh that porch!

This is the only shot of the Barton House. And it was taken from the back because I was so into the other sweet house I showed you & the garage/carriage house of the Barton House. By the time I finished stomping through the wet grass to get these photos & hopped back in the car the sky opened up again & POURED!

Now, is that perfect for a studio or what? The Barton House belongs to a lady in Houston. She has a high dollar condo in Houston, a large ranch somewhere in Texas & bought this house for weekends & parties. Only paid a mere 2.5 MILLION DOLLARS! Chump change I guess. From what the Antique Store owner said, many of the houses are just "weekend homes". Tough Life! Anyway, I for one just got my appetizer & am ready for the full Monty this December. How about you? And Jodie at Everything Vintage, the cemetery is "to DIE for". Sorry that was bad pun.... but, it was beautiful. So old with amazing marble markers. I also want to go spend some time there because I know it will be fascinating. Hope you enjoyed this little tour & a glimpse of life in Calvert, TX when COTTON WAS KING!

Fredericksburg Christmas Home Tour Part One

I am so glad to join Cielo for my first Show Off Your Cottage Monday. And yes, I know I'm late to join but, I wanted to go ahead & share a home that we saw this past weekend on a Christmas Home Tour in Fredericksburg, Texas. THIS IS NOT my cottage but, a girl can wish!!!!!! Buy another LOTTO ticket hubby says. This old windmill stands watch over the house & has a strand of colorful lights strung at it's base. But, the colorful lights were no match for the beautiful Texas sky in the background! Here we are walking up the brick drive to this amazing home! The couple purchased the entire area & surrounding buildings then began remodeling & new construction. Fredericksburg is in central Texas in the hill country. The original area was settled by German immigrants that used the white Texas limestone for their homes. So this style is very typical of most of the homes in the area.

Below you see the old house to the front & to the left is a new addition. This home had soooooooooo many special touches. A media room with the drop down television screen complete with surround sound. The owner loves music & is/has been in a band so there is a recording/mixing room for his music. A huge indoor shuffle board upstairs... you are getting the picture.

The photo below is the wing to the right of the house coming out of the sitting area of the MASTER bedroom. The room was HUGE! The sitting area had a full size sofa & a couple of chairs in it. Standing in the doorway as I looked into the bedroom & said WOW he (the owner) said "Yeah you can sleep really good in there" with the most adorable little smile.

Following that rock path out of the Master will end you up at the pool area that sits next to this HUGE porch that has a full outside kitchen & has doors coming off the living room & kitchen of the main house. Words do not describe the inside kitchen. Too bad we couldn't take photos inside but, they had restrictions for security & privacy. So use your imagination... if this is the outside just imagine the inside!

The beautiful outdoor fireplace.

Standing by the fireplace looking back at the porch off the living room.

And the kitchen in the doors to the left in photo below. See the lights of the Christmas Tree twinkling in the windows below!

Standing on the porch & looking down the hill past the pool is the Guest House. Yes, the old building on the property was made into guest quarters since the house is only a mere 3 bedrooms (HA HA that is a funny word for this house.... MERE....). So the guest quarters has a kitchen, eating area, living room, 3 bedrooms & laundry room. Yes, the guest quarters are in the red building past that amazing pool & hot tub.

Standing on the rock path about to go down to the guest house you can see the fields below with another old rock building.

And this is what the pots sitting around on the porch & lining the paths looked like. There must have been 20 or more pots with poinsettia's, berries, greenery & herbs just dotting the landscape around the house.

A view looking back at the pool & patio from the guest house.

Looking out at the peaceful beautiful sky & field. I hear a noise... what is that I hear?

Yes, one of the owners planes (he has 2) has just landed on his pasture run way. He flies from Fredericksburg to Dallas to attend to business a few times a month.

A few more random shots of a shinning star of Texas Christmas Home Tour wonder.

See the flying G Brand done in metal on the back of the fireplace?

Another shot of the pool & pasture.

The sun is about to set & the sky is bathed in COLOR! Beautiful color from nature. I love the sunsets in our Texas skies.

As we are walking down the drive to go back to our car I again hear the plane & look over my shoulder to see it doing fly by's over the roof of the house( if you click on the photo it will enlarge & you can see it better) almost as if they were waving goodbye to us.

Thank you to Cielo for hosting Show Us Your Cottage & letting me take license to show someone else's cottage (if you haven't seen my Christmas decor please go to posts after this one to view). I hope you enjoyed it. Be sure & click the button on my sidebar to go & & visit the others playing today. And if you are not in Ceilo's group but, one of my friends or followers, thank you for stopping by to visit. I hope you enjoyed the photos & hope all of you will leave a comment to let me know you stopped by & come back for more Home Tour photos later in the week. Have a great week & good luck with all of your Christmas preparations. Hugs!