{"nrhp_refnum":"93000109","name":"Speaker, J. H., House","other_names":["Site No. 200"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"414 E. Alabama","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wharton","county":"Wharton County","state":"TX","lat":29.312424725000028,"lon":-96.09504573899994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1993-03-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story frame L-plan dwelling at 414 East Alabama Street in Wharton, Wharton County, Texas, built around 1904 and believed to have been built by J.H. Speaker.","why_significant":"The house is described as one of the best preserved L-plan vernacular residences in Wharton and retains its integrity despite modest rear alterations. It is also one of the few nominated properties tied to Wharton's African-American community, since J.H. Speaker was a local Black educator and the house stood in one of two primary African-American neighborhoods.","narrative":"This one-story frame house at 414 East Alabama Street in Wharton, Texas, dates to about 1904. It rests on concrete piers, has weatherboard siding and an asphalt-shingle roof, and faces south. A shed-roofed porch with turned columns and jig-sawn brackets shelters part of the front, and the windows are two-over-two wooden sashes. Early additions changed the original center-passage plan into an L-plan with paired rear ells, and a shed-roofed porch was added across the rear around 1940. J.H. Speaker, a local Black educator who taught at the segregated school on Milam Street, acquired the western lot in 1904 and is believed to have built the house. A mechanic's lien in 1907 shows it was standing by then. The Speaker family kept it until 1976. It was listed for its architecture as a well-preserved vernacular L-plan dwelling and for its link to Wharton's African-American community, of which few nominated properties remain.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1904","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"OTHER: L-plan House","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Still in use as a single dwelling; described as in fair condition.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.085802-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/30/9707/40970730/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/93000109.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93000109/031ad05ac1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93000109/031ad05ac1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"25or6to4","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:J_H_Speaker_House,_Wharton,_TX.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">25or6to4</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:J_H_Speaker_House,_Wharton,_TX.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40970730","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110002534"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/wharton-county/speaker-j-h-house-93000109/"}