Smithville Residential Historic District

Smithville's residential district covers about 50 blocks around the town's commercial center on the high south bank of the Colorado River in Bastrop County, Texas. It holds 192 contributing and 173 noncontributing resources, mostly single-family houses built between 1887 and 1945. Pyramidal-roof houses are the most common type, alongside double-pen, center-passage, L-plan, T-plan, bungalow, Four-square, Queen Anne, Classical Revival, and Tudor Revival homes. Notable examples include the 1899 Burleson House, the 1905 Jones House, and the 1915 Chapman-Trousdale House. Four churches, a 1937 limestone post office with a 1939 New Deal mural, a 1908 brick school, and a former Civilian Conservation Corps-era fire station add institutional variety. Mature pecan, live oak, and hackberry trees shade streets laid out in a regular grid. Because the town sits on a spur off the main highway, much of its historic fabric has survived. The district was listed for its association with the broad patterns of local history.