{"nrhp_refnum":"94000984","name":"Howard, Robert E., House","other_names":["Howard,Isaac M. and Hester Ervin,House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Jct. of TX 36 (Fourth St.) and Ave. J","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cross Plains","county":"Callahan County","state":"TX","lat":32.12138547600006,"lon":-99.17207467899999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1994-08-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Literature"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story, roughly T-shaped frame house at Texas Highway 36 and Avenue J in Cross Plains, Callahan County, Texas, built circa 1919 and now used as a museum.","why_significant":"It is the property most closely associated with pulp writer Robert E. Howard, who lived here from 1919 until his death in 1936. Between 1924 and 1936 he wrote most of the stories for which he is known, including the Conan tales, and the form argues his significance is national in the area of literature. The house served as both his home and his office.","narrative":"This one-story frame house in Cross Plains, Texas, was built around 1919 and is now a museum. Its roughly T-shaped plan has intersecting gable roofs with asphalt shingles, weatherboard siding, and brick piers with brick infill. A shed-roofed porch with turned, spindlework posts shelters the front entrance. A shed addition at the rear, built after the Howard family sold the house in 1944, is the only significant exterior change, and most of the interior alterations can be reversed. The house matters because Robert E. Howard lived here with his parents from 1919 until his death in 1936. From 1924 onward he wrote most of the stories that made him internationally known, working for pulp magazines and helping create the sword-and-sorcery subgenre, including the character Conan the Cimmerian. His small rear bedroom served as both sleeping space and office. The house is the property most closely tied to his life and career.","period_of_significance":"1919-1936","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"No Style","criteria":["B"],"status_note":"Now used as a museum. A rear shed addition and interior alterations are noted, most of them reversible. A hallway was reopened in 1992. Tornadoes in May 1994 uprooted two mature pecan trees and damaged part of the picket fence.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.303753-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/37/9714/40971437/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/94000984.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94000984/97e2b4f87f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94000984/97e2b4f87f-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"0ccam","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_E._Howard_House_5.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">0ccam</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_E._Howard_House_5.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971437","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110001209"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/callahan-county/howard-robert-e-house-94000984/"}