King, Mrs. J. C., House

Built around 1926 at 405 W. Louisiana in McKinney, Texas, this two-story house is a local example of the American four-square type. It has buff-brick facing, a hip roof, jigsawn brackets, a four-bay porch with brick columns, a dormer with columns and a parapet, and segmental and round-arched windows arranged in repeating patterns on the north side. Four-square houses of the early twentieth century were usually frame buildings with low-pitched hip roofs. This one departs from that pattern with brick walls and elaborate detailing, including oversized brackets, a classically detailed entablature and ogee-curved porch column capitals. It was recognized as one of the best local examples of a house with four-square features. A brick garage and a gazebo with brick columns, built of the same brick as the house, also appear on the 1927 Sanborn map and are presumed to date from about 1926. The gazebo is described as a particularly rare survival. The house stands in a residential area of mostly turn-of-the-century homes, about two blocks west of downtown.