FORT STOCKTON, Texas — Fort Stockton is stock full of historical buildings.
None of them are older... however... than this one.
"So, we are at the oldest house in Fort Stockton," Ross Harper, Director of Historic Fort Stockton said. "And the story goes that this house began as the settler for the original Fort and Fort Stockton, which started as Camp Stockton in 1858. So that would make it the second oldest building in West Texas outside of El Paso."
It might not look like much now...
"In its heyday, this was a big house," Harper said. "From the 1880s till the 1950s, this was actually a really large family home. When it was built in the 1850s, Fort Stockton was really just the springs, Comanche Springs. And then most of the soldiers were living in tents. So, there were very few actual structures that had been built for that first Fort."
Over the last 50 years, however, the house has deteriorated due to different elements, including the weather.
Despite that, within the past year, there’s been plenty of efforts to learn even more about the historic house.
"We have been teaming up for the last eight months with Texas Tech University," Harper said. "Their archaeology program has been coming down here and doing digs here and are planning to spend more time here to find out the whole history of the building."
That history has also attracted other professionals from around the country.
"Last October, we took samples of some of the Vigas [a type of wood] on the roof and sent them to the University of Arizona to a dendrochronologist who was studying the wood and the age of the wood, which could tell us the age of the building."
Something about this wood stumped the archaeologist.
"It was a tree that he didn't have in his library," Harper said "So he was very interested in the source of these trees and where they came from. [...] and he got so excited about it that he asked if he could come here and sample the rest of the wood that's in the building. And once people heard about that, eight other archaeologists from around Texas asked if they could come and meet him and watch him do his work of studying the wood."
And the hope is a ton of new tourists around not just Texas, but the country [who] can come and visit the house.
"The [Fort Stockton] Historic Society is hoping to recreate it or restore it to a certain extent and create a new tourist attraction in Fort Stockton," Harper said.
A new tourist attraction that’ll add to the list of things to do in Fort Stockton.
Harper says if you lived in this home or have any stories about it, reach out to Historic Fort Stockton on their website.
NewsWest 9 will continue to follow the progress of the oldest house in Fort Stockton.