{"nrhp_refnum":"92000231","name":"Reading, Jhules, House","other_names":["1189"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"421 Reading St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Abilene","county":"Taylor County","state":"TX","lat":32.45364643800008,"lon":-99.74235539399996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1992-03-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A modest one-story frame vernacular house with a two-room plan and side gable roof at 421 Reading Street, Abilene, Taylor County, Texas, built about 1900 by an unknown builder.","why_significant":"The house is nominated under Criterion C for architecture as an outstanding example of early 20th century vernacular building in Abilene. It is considered one of the city's best illustrations of a two-room plan house and one of few older vernacular buildings that still looks much as it did originally. It is tied to the historic context of the railroad and Abilene's growth as a wholesale and distribution center.","narrative":"This one-story frame house at 421 Reading Street in Abilene, Texas, was built about 1900 and follows a vernacular two-room plan: two rooms wide, one room deep, under a side gable roof. Wood siding covers the walls, and the west-facing front has a small two-bay shed-roof porch on wood posts. The house originally had two front doors; one has been enclosed, though its outline remains visible in the siding. Windows are wood with two-over-two lights. Behind the house stand a board-and-batten garage that contributes to the property and a small frame shed from about 1950 that does not. It was listed for architecture because most of Abilene's surviving historic houses date from the 1920s, and few older dwellings keep their integrity. Two-room houses were common in early Abilene but are now relatively rare. The street was once called Montagne and was renamed Reading Street around 1915, presumably for Mrs. Jhules Reading, who lived in the house through the 1930s.","period_of_significance":"c. 1900","architect_builder":"unknown","architectural_style":"Other: vernacular: 2-room plan","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Still used as a private residence; described as in good condition and retaining its integrity.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:21.71529-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/74/9700/40970074/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/92000231.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40970074","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110001329"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/taylor-county/reading-jhules-house-92000231/"}