Story, Jesse and Mary, House
Why it's listed
Built in 1885, this two-story frame house at 510 W. Brown in Ennis, Texas, follows an L-plan, a common regional house type. It has weatherboard siding, a gable roof with jig-sawn brackets, wood double-hung windows, a single-door entrance with a transom, and a three-bay hip-roofed porch with turned wood posts and balusters. Interior brick chimneys have corbeled caps. Ornament is restrained and limited mainly to the porch trim, gable ends and corner brackets. The house is considered the most intact and one of the earliest two-story L-plan dwellings left in the city. It was the home of J. W. Story, a successful realtor in Ennis in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who served many years as a city councilman while living there. He sold the property in 1911. By 1922 John Lockart, a conductor with the H. & T.C. Railroad, had purchased it. The house has been moved to a residential area west of the central business district and remains in residential use.
Significance in brief: The nomination calls it the most intact and one of the earliest two-story L-plan dwellings remaining in Ennis, best representing a common regional plan type. It was also the home of J. W. Story, a successful realtor and longtime city councilman. The reviewer accepted it under Criterion A.
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 86002373, listed September 25, 1986. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | 510 W. Brown, Ennis |
|---|---|
| County | Ellis County |
| Listed | September 25, 1986 |
| Reference number | 86002373 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Architectural style | L-plan |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Present use residential; condition described as fair; the house has been moved from its original site. |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Coordinates | 32.32516, -96.63089 (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 86002373.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikidata Q110001919
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.