House at 708 East Brown

This one-story frame house at 708 East Brown in Ennis, Texas, dates to about 1900 and follows a T-plan layout. It has weatherboard siding, a gable roof with composition shingles, and wood double-hung windows with one-over-one lights. Two single-door entrances open onto porches, and the south elevation has a three-bay porch with a hip roof and turned wood posts. The porch is unusual because it does not follow the contours of the structure and extends only across the lateral portion. Imbricated shingles decorate the gable end. The house was moved to its present site in a residential area east of the central business district. It was listed because it shows how a simple vernacular house could develop into a more complex form: an L-plan appears to have been enlarged into a T-plan by a lateral wing added soon after construction. Only a limited number of T-plan houses were built locally, and this is the most substantial one that survives. It remains in residential use and is in good condition.