Meredith-McDowal House
Why it's listed
This one-story frame house at 701 N. Gaines in Ennis, Texas, dates to 1898 and follows a modified L-plan. It was built for E.C. and Connie Meredith and designed by Hix McCanless. The house has weatherboard siding, a hip roof with gables, jig-sawn brackets, and wood double-hung windows with one-over-one lights. A seven-bay hip-roofed porch with turned wood posts wraps around the south and east sides. Intersecting hipped and gabled roofs create a picturesque composition, and imbricated shingles add decoration. The nomination describes it as one of the most successfully rendered and intact examples of a modified L-plan Victorian dwelling, a common regional type of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. McCanless is better known for bungalows, and this house shows his early work drew on local building traditions. The house has been moved to a residential area northwest of the central business district. It remained in good condition and residential use, and the McDowal family has owned it since 1919. It was included in a multiple-resource listing of Ennis historic properties.
Significance in brief: The inventory form calls it one of the most successfully rendered and intact examples of a modified L-plan Victorian dwelling, the most common regional plan type of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It also shows that Hix McCanless, best known for bungalows, worked with local building traditions in his earliest designs.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 86002500, listed September 25, 1986. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | 701 N. Gaines, Ennis |
|---|---|
| County | Ellis County |
| Listed | September 25, 1986 |
| Reference number | 86002500 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Architect / builder | Hix McCanless |
| Architectural style | Modified L-plan (Victorian) |
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Listed in good condition; present use residential. Owned by the R.T. McDowal family since 1919. |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Coordinates | 32.33029, -96.63521 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
National Register listing is honorary for a privately owned home: it does not by itself restrict what an owner may do with their own money, and it does not require public access. Restrictions come from local landmark or historic-district ordinances, which are separate (how they differ).
Owner-occupied houses are not eligible for the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit, which applies to income-producing buildings, but many states offer credits for homeowners. Listing also opens the door to preservation easements and to buying a plaque. Start with what listing means for homeowners, renovating a listed house and selling one.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 86002500.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikidata Q110000583
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.