The Texas Historian, Volume 44, Number 2, November 1983 Page: 5
30 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The most interesting feature of the house
is the dome containing beautiful frescoes which
depict four ladies holding baskets of fruit and
flowers above their heads. The colors of their
robes-red, blue, green, and amber-corre-
spond to the colors of stained glass in the
cupola. The frescoes could have possibly been
painted by artists living and working in a colony
of mural painters in New Orleans in the 1860s
and 1870s. The dome, situated in the second
floor ceiling, may be viewed from the first floor
because of the well-like opening between the
first and second floors of the house.
The original gas lights are still in the
hallways of the house and when installed, the
gas came from the first artificial gas plant in
Texas, which was located in Jefferson. The
parlor fixture is suspended from the center of
the paper ceiling medallion, which is painted
on strips of canvas and then adhered to the
ceiling. Four Italianate marble fireplaces, all
built within the interior of the house, providedheating as did four simpler units on the second
floor.
The cupola contains windows of four colors
of stained glass depicting the seasons of the
year. Toward the north, the window panes are
blue glass from England; to the East, red glass
from Belgium; green glass from Germany tints
the South; and amber glass from France to the
West. Blue is for winter, red for fall, green
for spring, and ambers for summer.
On May 15, 1871, the last child of Benjamin
and Amanda was born. Louis died July 12,
1873, followed three months later by the death
of his mother on October 30, 1873. Epperson
then married Nancy E. Reed and to this
marriage was born one son, B. H. Epperson
(1878-1932) and one daughter, Jeanie Epperson
(1878-1973). Epperson died leaving his widow
and the five children. His widow remarried on
April 13, 1886 to Horace Blinn.
Epperson spent his last contributive years
as a lawyer in Jefferson. Continuing his causeThis photograph shows the circular wall of the central hall which opens up
into a dome above the second floor and which is lighted by the cupola above.I~~
November 1983
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Texas State Historical Association. The Texas Historian, Volume 44, Number 2, November 1983, periodical, November 1983; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth391554/m1/7/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.