Lawrence, Stephen Decatur, Farmstead

Established in 1874 on blackland prairie east of Dallas, this farmstead in Mesquite preserves about 13.7 acres of a once much larger Lawrence family holding. Stephen Decatur Lawrence received roughly 304 acres from his father in 1873, and the family's cotton farming grew after the railroad arrived in 1873. The complex includes a c. 1874 one-and-a-half-story dwelling and a larger frame house begun in 1882 and expanded in 1886 into a cross plan with a one-story belvedere. Local craftsmen, the Florrer family, are credited with building the main house and the large barn. Surrounding them are a horse barn, a smaller barn with smokehouse and root cellar, wells, a cistern, sheds and barbed-wire fencing. A cedar-lined entry alley and surviving garden plants add to the setting. The property is valued for showing how a pioneer farm family worked and lived, and how its buildings suited the North Texas climate. It now operates as a museum.