Description: The Tudor Revival style became popular in Palestine during the late 1920s and 1930s, and this 2-story brick and stucco dwelling is one of the city’s best examples of the style. Distinctive architectural features include the decorative half-timbered woodwork on the exterior, the steeply pitched, cross-gabled roof, the windows with small panes, and the incorporation of stone into the masonry exterior walls. The house retains its integrity to a noteworthy degree. Locally prominent architect Theodore S. Maffitt designed this house in 1928 for Dr. Robert H. McLeod and his wife Flora Bartholomew McLeod. A native of East Texas, Dr. McLeod was a local physician and house surgeon for the I&GN Railroad, and served as mayor of Palestine from 1939-47. The couple lived here through the 1940s.

Description: Photograph of 308 S. Sycamore taken from the road. Photo was taken for the Historic Resources Survey of Palestine, Texas 1989-1991. Distinguishing features of this 2-story frame dwelling are the asymmetrical massing, vertical emphasis and ornate woodwork in the gable ends and porch. The house is in good condition and remains a good local example of a late 19th century residence with Queen Anne architectural elements. A local historian believes that Rusk architect Theodore Miller probably designed this house around 1898 for the widow Salina Stein, a native of Prussia. There was a Serlena Stein who was married to Simon Stein who died in 1931. Her husband died in 1898 and both are buried in the Jewish Cemetery. During the 1920s through the 1940s, the house was occupied by a succession of renters, including: Joseph A. Campbell, a machinist for Missouri Pacific, and his wife Florence, who lived here during the mid-1930s; and Allen C. Barton, an oil operator, and his wife Gladys, who lived here in 1941.

Description: The Gatewood-Shelton Gin is a 2-story metal-clad structure that faces north onto W. Crawford Street, just beyond the northern limits of Palestine’s historic downtown. Lacking any stylistic ornament, the free-standing structure originally housed a cotton ginning operation, but now houses a private club. All of the gin equipment and machinery was removed from the premises, leaving only the shell of the original building. The land on which the Gin is located was the site of perhaps the earliest settlement in what became the City of Palestine. In the early 1840’s this land belonged to James R. Fulton and Johnson Shelton, who operated an Indian trading post and grist mill on the site. When, in 1846, the Texas Legislature created Palestine to serve as seat for the newly established Anderson County, the new town was laid out just to the east of Fulton and Shelton’s trading post. The two men, along with William Bigelow, were hired by the first Anderson County commissioners to survey the surrounding land and lay out a town site, consisting of a central courthouse square and the surrounding 24 blocks. It is thought that the earliest business on the site, other than the trading post, was the ...

Description: During the late 19th and very early 20th centuries, the Queen Anne style enjoyed considerable popularity locally, especially among more affluent citizens. This large, 2-story frame residence is one such example, although the application of asbestos siding over the wood siding detracts from the property’s overall historic character. Other than the new siding, the house appears to have changed little since its construction in 1903. Judge Thomas Benton Greenwood (1832-1900) and his wife Lucy Henry Gee built a one-story house on this site in the 1870s, which later was enlarged into the present 2-story building around the turn of the century. A native of Mississippi and a Confederate veteran, Mr. Greenwood was a prominent Palestine lawyer during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In 1872 he formed a law partnership with John Young Gooch (later a state senator); subsequently, the two men formed a law firm with John H. Reagan, the former Postmaster General of the Confederacy and U.S. congressman. Dr. Bethune F. McDonald, a physician and surgeon with offices at 103 ½ W. Oak, purchased this house in 1935. He and his wife Josephine continued to live here through the early 1940s, when Mr. McDonald died. Mrs. McDonald ...

Description: Photograph of 318 S. Sycamore taken from the road. Photo was taken for the Historic Resources Survey of Palestine, Texas 1989-1991. Fire severely damaged the building at the time it was initially identified in December 1989. This house nonetheless retained some of its Victorian Italianate detailing, including the 1-story bay window. According to a local historian, John Randolph Hearne and his wife Albina Reagan Hearn, a niece of John H. Reagan, began building this house around 1877. Mr. Hearne, for whom the town of Hearne, Texas, is named, was a druggist and prominent civic leader. Later owners/occupants of the house included the family of Nathaniel Wyche Hunter, Anderson County pioneers. Mr. Hunter was at one time the Grand Commander of the Knights Templar of Texas. A descendant, Mary Kate Hunter, occupied the house during the 1920s through at least the 1940s. A historian, musician, and suffragette, she was the first woman in Texas to make a lecture tour for women’s suffrage. She also founded the first local historical society, and left behind invaluable personal archives detailing the early history of Palestine and Anderson County.