Mark's Fishing Gear

This is a long overdue post about Mark Gresham's fishing gear, and who has what now.  Click on the links for more photos and information about the various items.  I'm hoping the family members who ultimately receive the items will enjoy using and/or displaying them, and that they bring back good memories.

Above and below:  Mark Gresham fishing in the Merced River at Yosemite National Park, probably autumn 2003.  He is standing in front of the Swinging Bridge just below Yosemite Falls (which would be dry this time of year).  In the photo above, there is a green canvas bag on the ground to the left - in the photo below, he is wearing it on his shoulder.  It's a World War II Army ammunition bag he used for fishing tackle - I've kept that. 

Above:  Mark Gresham fishing in Corpus Christi sometime between April and October, 1974.  He's using a spinning reel, and I think the True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod I'll write more about in a bit.

Below:  Mark Gresham fishing at Lake Lawtonka, Oklahoma, probably in 1960.  Can't tell anything about the rod, but it's definitely a spinning reel.

Mark tried to teach me how to fish in 2006, since we were living in an apartment right on Lake Granbury, but I just couldn't get the hang of it.  I'm so uncoordinated.  I never saw Mark fish - ever - not in Corpus Christi, and not in Granbury.  I would have been glad to accompany him.  I'm not sure if he ever went out fishing alone in the 18 years we were in Granbury.  He would have had to climb on a ladder to take the rods down from the place where he stored them, above the door in the garage that leads to the back porch.  I remember my dad always said he would go fishing when he retired, but I think my dad decided he'd rather sleep in than get up early to fish, because he only went fishing when he took his grandchildren to teach them.  Maybe Mark felt the same.

In May 2024, our neighborhood was holding a street-wide garage sale, and I decided to participate.  I did not push Mark to sell any of his things, but he suggested putting his fishing gear in the sale.  In retrospect, that should have been a sign to me that he was not feeling well.

In researching to figure out prices for the reels in particular, I discovered some were quite old and possibly valuable.  The next four photos are from May 2024, when I photographed almost everything before pricing items.

Above: Top row, left to right - extra spool for Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 5000 casting reel (pictured later), spool from a broken Pflueger Supreme 1573 casting reel (I have the top and bottom but not the handle, reel seat, guide, or other parts), South Bend Perfectoreno 775 Nickel Silver Model A reel, Shakespeare Triumph No. 1958 Model GE level wind casting reel.

Bottom row, left to right, all saltwater reels - Kmart 207 level wind reel, Ocean Side 207 level wind reel, Penn Peer 209 level wind reel, Penn Beachmaster No. 155 reel.

Below:  Top row, left to right - Garcia Mitchell 300 spinning reel, Garcia Mitchell 306 spinning reel, Olympic Model 81 spinning reel.

Middle row - Four extra spools for the Garcia Mitchell 300 or the Olympic 81.

Bottom row, left to right - a trolling weight and a Down - East Sportscraft rod holder.

Above:  A Zebco 20/20 spincast reel on a Shakespeare Wonderglas Standard Taper 5'6" rod, what Mark described as a kid's rod and reel.

Below:  Top row, left to right (all fly fishing reels) - first three are two extra spools and a Pflueger Medalist Model 1492 reel, then a Shakespeare Russell 1895 Model GE Single Action reel, lastly a Sears Model 312. 31130 Single Action reel.

Below that are a package of flies, and two Fenwick fly rods in original socks and tubes, an FF75 and an FF112.  These rods date back to 1963-1971 and (along with the fly reels) probably belonged to Mark's father, Francis Edward Gresham (1911-1990), who by that time was living in Bremerton, Washington, where he'd have more opportunities for fly fishing than in Guam, Florida, or coastal Texas.

Of the items picture above, the only ones that sold in the garage sale were the trolling weight and the flies.  Before the sale, Mark pulled the Shakespeare Triumph and Ambassadeur reels to keep for display, and I pulled all the other items pictured before the second (half-price) day of the sale.  We did sell two old rod and reel combos, six miscellaneous rods, and two tackle boxes with a lot of very old tackle in them.  There were a few other items that didn't sell that are pictured further on.

After Mark's death on August 2, 2024, his son Drew and wife Carolyn came to visit on Labor Day weekend.  Drew took the South Bend Perfectoreno 775 Model A reel and the Penn Peer 209 reel as mementos of his dad.  The South Bend Perfectoreno 775 apparently dates back to at least June 1940, so was likely used by Mark as a youth.

In November 2024 I got together with some of my Aggie classmates, and asked some of the guys to look over the rods and reels.  Below, Glenn, Joaquin, and Dale (from left to right) are trying out the Fenwick fly rods.  Click on the photos to make them larger and look for the rod tips.  

Above, Dale about gave me a heart attack when he bent the Fenwick FF75 fly rod to show how flexible it was.

The guys also looked over the other rods I brought and tried to pair them up with some of the reels.

Above:  The Shakespeare Triumph No. 1958 Model GE reel paired with the second Shakespeare Wonderglas Standard Taper 5'6" rod (the one without the Zebco spincast reel).  At left are three other rods I brought along.  From left, a Horrocks & Ibbotson 2-piece rod marked Utica (more on that in a bit), a True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod (more on that later too), and a Berkley 6' rod (no other markings to indicate the model).

Below:  The Berkley rod paired with a Garcia Mitchell spinning reel.

Above:  The Horrocks & Ibbotson rod paired with the Kmart 207 reel.  

Below:  Detail of the label on the Horrocks & Ibbotson rod.

The closest matches I could find online to the label above are pictured below.  As the rod is two piece and fits in a Weber Dot Line telescopic rod case that ranges from 40" to 70" long, and because I *thought* I measured the rod and found it was closer to 9 feet, I think it's more likely to be the 8' 6" Lucky Strike - although that full label is not an exact match either.

Above:  label on a Horrocks-Ibbotson Lucky Strike 8'6" Model #1308-1-2 rod.

Below:  label on a Horrocks-Ibbotson Sportsman 5'9" Model #2346 XL rod.

In December 2024, I contacted Big John's Rod Repair in nearby Weatherford, which also cleans reels.  John Penner was traveling, and long story short, I didn't reach out to him again until March 2026.  I was lucky as he was winding down this side business, but since I'd first contacted him over a year before, he looked over all the rods and reels, and agreed to clean and repair (if possible) the two Shakespeare Wonderglas rods and the True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod, as well as all the reels pictured below (plus the Zebco 20/20).  The Kmart 207 saltwater reel, the Fenwick fly rods and all the fly reels did not need any work, and the Horrocks-Ibbotson and Berkley rods were beyond repair - he suggested displaying them as "well-loved and well-used."

Above:  the Ocean Side 207 saltwater reel, a Johnson Century Model 100B spincast reel (originally mounted on the other Shakespeare Wunderglas rod), and the Shakespeare Triumph No. 1958 Model GE reel, before cleaning and repair.

Below (clockwise from lower left):  the Penn Beachmaster No. 155 reel, the (red) Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 5000 reel, and the three spinning reels, before cleaning and repair.

As it turned out, the large Garcia Mitchell 306, the Shakespeare Triumph No. 1958 Model GE, the Zebco 20/20, and the Johnson Century Model 100B reels could not be repaired and were for display only.

Mark had the photo below hanging on the wall in our home - plus another copy that I put in an album.  It is of daughters Kim and Noël with a fish they caught in Corpus Christi, and was probably taken about 1976.  Mark processed the black and white film and printed it in his darkroom, adding a blue toner, and then hand-coloring (with Marshall's oil pencils) the girls' skin and life jackets (and the fish).

If you look closely at the rod and reel - it appears to be the Shakespeare Wunderglas Standard Taper, and a spincast reel - perhaps the Johnson Century 100B, which was produced from 1962 through 1979.

Therefore, I asked Mr. Penner to mount the two spincast reels (even though they weren't usable) on the two restored Shakespeare Wonderglas rods - which are very usable.  They are pictured below.  I then took all the restored equipment to Kim's house for Easter, April 5, 2026.

Kim chose the rod with the green Johnson Century reel.  She also took the Ambassadeur 5000 reel and extra spool (a reel her dad definitely remembered using in his youth), the Fenwick FF75 fly rod, and the Pflueger Medalist Model 1492 fly reel with its two extra spools.

So on July 7, 2026, I drove to Chapin, South Carolina (via Charlotte, North Carolina, where my son was living at the time) and took all the items pictured below (minus the old fishing tackle box they are in, which I kept), plus the Fenwick FF112 fly rod (in its sock and metal tube), the second Shakespeare Wonderglas rod (without a reel and in a Rod Caddy Travel Tube), and the previously mentioned 2-piece Horrocks-Ibbotson rod in a Weber Dot Line telescopic rod case.

Pictured below are the Down - East Sportscraft rod holder, an Umco Model 10 Double-Sided Tackle Box, Shakespeare Triumph 1958 Model GE reel (for display), the Zebco 20/20 spincast reel (for display), the Penn 155 reel, the Kmart 207 reel (red), the Garcia Mitchell 306 (large) spinning reel (for display), the Garcia Mitchell 300 (small) spinning reel, the Ocean Side 207 reel, a Beltline bait box (to be worn on a belt), the Sears Model 312.31130 fly reel, the Shakespeare Russell 1895 GE fly reel, and two extra Garcia Mitchell 300 spools with cases.

According to a site with more information about Shakespeare reels, the Triumph 1958 Model GE dates back to 1946 - so Mark certainly used this as a youth.  

So what did I keep for myself?  The green canvas bag, the broken Pflueger Supreme 1573 casting reel pictured above (just the top, bottom, and spool, which rotates between the other two pieces), the Olympic 81 spinning reel and two extra spools (this to go on a rod that wasn't Mark's, for my son Eric to use, and also partly because Mark's using a spinning reel in so many of these photos), the Berkley rod that's unusable, and the True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod that's also not usable - but nicely restored, as you can see from the photos below.  The hose clamp just to the right of the cork part of the handle, just above the reel seat, also marks a spot where there is a small crack.  I feel certain Mark used this True Temper rod in Corpus Christi - and that makes it special to me.  I'll be hanging the two unusable rods on the wall in the study.

Above two photos:  labels wrapping around the True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod.

Below: wooden handle of the True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod.

Above:  cork grip just above (to the left of) the reel seat of the True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod.  Note the hose clamp, which is also near a crack in the rod.

Below:  line guide and wraps on the True Temper Montague 8780 7' rod.

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

Memories for Father's Day

This isn't specifically a memory about Father's Day, but it is a memory of my dad, Frederick Henry Pape (1929-2017).  For many years, he volunteered as a referee for youth soccer games in Houston, Texas.  It was a great way to stay in shape, too, as he had to run up and down the field along with the boys.  This photo of Fred Pape as a soccer referee was taken at the St. Francis de Sales Soccer Club 1979 Thanksgiving Tournament in Houston.  Dad would be thrilled about the World Cup games currently taking place in the Dallas and Houston areas, as well as the rest of the country, Canada, and Mexico.

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

Happy 40th Birthday, Eric!

Nineteen years ago today (June 1, 2007), I wrote in my online LiveJournal:

"My son is 21 today. This (unlike my 50th birthday almost 2 months ago) makes me feel old."

Nope.  Today he is 40.  THAT makes me feel old.

I can't believe I've never posted the photo above in this blog.  It's my favorite from Eric's first year.  It was taken on December 1, 1986, when he was six months old.  His father preferred to use only slide film, so every two months during his first year, I shot an entire roll of Kodacolor film just so I'd have some prints to send to my parents, siblings, grandmothers, and aunts and uncles.

And yes, he had no hair for most of his first year.  Neither did his mother in her first year.

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

Mark with a Mustache, 1973

This is the only photograph of Mark Gresham with a mustache that exists (as far as I know).  He said it was for a mustache-growing contest in San Marcos, Texas, in 1973, when he was 32.  I think it was probably for the annual Chilympiad chili-cooking contest that had started in 1970, held in San Marcos in September.  The local chamber of commerce sponsored the event in those early years, and Mark served on its motel room tax committee while he was city manager there.

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

Memories for Mother's Day

This isn't specifically a memory about Mother's Day, but it is a memory of my mom, and her mother, my maternal grandmother.  This photograph of Sara Melzina Wolfe Guokas Archibald (1907-1997) with her daughter Geraldine Margaret Guokas Pape (1929-2019) was taken in Fredericksburg, Texas, in September 1993.  Mom and Dad had moved into their new post-retirement home there (at 1003 Avenue A) just the month before, and over the course of a few days, both of my grandmothers, my maternal aunt, and all of my siblings came to visit them.  I flew down from my then-home in Lynnwood, Washington, for the same few days that overlapped with their visits.  

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

(Also) Kin to a Corpus Christi Mayor!

Twelve years ago, I wrote about how I was kin (by marriage) to a Corpus Christi mayor - Abraham Albert Lichtenstein Jr., (of the Lichtenstein's department store family), who served from 1953 until his resignation in 1954.  Recently I learned that my husband, Mark Gresham, is related (also by marriage) to another Corpus Christi mayor - and he would get a kick out of this, since they served the City at the same time:

This is Jason Milus Luby (1929-2012), who was mayor of Corpus Christi from 1973 until he was forced to resign in 1978 when he made an unsuccessful run for Congress.  Mark started as Corpus Christi's Budget Director in April 1974, and he had a lot of interesting stories about Jason.  

Jason is in the center of the photo below, which comes from the Corpus Christi Public Libraries' Digital Archives, specifically La Retama's General Photograph Collection, with a description that reads, "Choke Canyon Dam Water Development Board.  Mayor Luby and four unidentified men.  The mayor holds a check.  A handwritten insert with the photo reads, 'City accepting check from Texas Water Development Board for second payment of loan for Choke Canyon.'"  I can tell you that the man in the darkest suit is R. Marvin Townsend, City Manager in Corpus Christi at the time.

So how is Mark related to Mayor Luby?  Well, Luby's wife was Elizabeth "Betty" Willene Lowman (1929-2024), pictured below.  The photo comes from the funeral home website ...

... where I also found a photograph that included her mother, Marguerite Maude Mew Lowman (1906-1996), pictured below.

Marguerite was the oldest child of Charles Arthur Mew Sr. (1884-1927), whose photograph below is from page 20 (image 26 here) of the 1919 La Gaviota yearbook of Corpus Christi High School, when he was serving as vice-president of the school board (and interestingly, while A. A. Lichtenstein, father of the Corpus Christi mayor I'm related to, was serving as president of the school board).

Charles was a younger half-brother of Benjamin George Mew Sr. (1879-1949), Mark's "Uncle Benny," who made him a belt and belt buckle when Mark was little.  The photo below, taken in 1919, is from page 137 (image 201 here) of the Journal of  Letters & History of George W. K. Mew by Judith Whipple, and it was probably provided to Whipple by ...

... Ben's wife, Mark's aunt, his mother's older sister, Ivis Moore Mew (1905-2004), who was one of the first (in 1930) graduates of the Spohn School of Nursing.  Ivis was a nurse in Corpus Christi and Duval County (the latter from about 1941 to 1949, nursing her husband Ben, who suffered from pernicious anemia, at their ranch near San Diego).  In 1963, she moved back home to Marlow, Oklahoma, to take care of her aging parents while continuing her career.   

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

Nineteen Years Ago Today - Texas Library Association Conference

Nineteen years ago, Mark went with me to the 2007 Texas Library Association Conference, held April 11-14 that year in San Antonio, Texas.  The only picture I have of the two of us together on this trip is this one, from the University of North Texas School of Library and Information Science (now the College of Information) Alumni dinner at the Tower of the Americas observation deck on April 12:

Above: Amanda Pape and Mark Gresham at the Tower of the Americas, San Antonio, Texas, April 12, 2007.  Photo by Poom Sunhachawi-Taylor, used with permission.

As I wrote in my (online)  LiveJournal, 

I had to work Tuesday night [April 10] and did not get home until 10:30 PM, so Breathless and I did not leave until 10 AM. ... The trip down (mostly on US 281) was lovely – lots of bluebonnets and other flowers. We met Mom and Dad for lunch in Marble Falls at the famous Blue Bonnet Café.

Breathless and I shared the Wednesday special, which was meat loaf. Not as good as my Mom’s, but pretty good. Shoulda gotten the pot roast that Dad had. Mom & Dad shared a piece of coconut pie (with whipped cream topping, as the meringues are HUGE at this restaurant), and Breathless and I shared a piece of peanut butter pie drizzled with chocolate sauce. Yum.

Above:  Geraldine Margaret Guokas Pape, Amanda Pape, Frederick Henry Pape, outside the Blue Bonnet Cafe in Marble Falls, Texas, April 11, 2007.  Photo by Mark Gresham / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

We got into San Antonio about four, so we stopped by the convention center first (parking - $8 – ouch!) to pick up our badges and other registration material. Registration would close at 4 and the badge was needed to ride the shuttle bus to the Welcome Party at 6:30 PM at the San Antonio Museum of Art, built in the old Lone Star Brewery. This was VERY nice. It had a fiesta theme and of course Tex-Mex food – chips and queso sauce, taco shells to make your own with beans, beef, guacamole, and salsa, and real tamales in corn husks. Piñatas and other colorful decorations hung from the live oaks and pecan trees on the grounds, and you could eat there or in the courtyard. A string ensemble played in the latter, and a samba band was inside along with Mexican dulces (desserts). The best part was having the run of the museum – we were only able to spend time in parts of the American and Latin American collections, which were awesome. Definitely a place to revisit.

Between stopping by the convention center and the Welcome Party, we of course checked into our hotel, La Mansion Del Rio, and a room with a River Walk view.

I attended a lot of sessions the next day, April 12.  I'm not quite sure what Mark did all day, but I wrote in my LiveJournal,

From 11:30 to 2, we did some more trolling through the exhibits and had lunch at Casa Rio on the River Walk (more Mexican food ... we ate here because Breathless was STARVING and he gets cranky when he is hungry, and it was the first restaurant we came to while walking from the convention center).

And...

Breathless met me in the Exhibit Hall for the "Rush Hour" from 4-5 pm, when the exhibitors also foot the bill for some snacks. ... this year all I could find was Fritos and peanuts, but some very yummy fudge brownies and blonde brownies [aka blondies] too. We bought a few books ... [and went to the] Alumni Dinner ... at 6:30 PM.

On Friday the 13th, I think Mark mostly hung around the hotel, while I went to lots of conference sessions.  But ...

Breathless and I had lunch at a restaurant just off the River Walk, in Rivercenter Mall, called Steers & Beers. We shared a hamburger and fries that was actually quite good and reasonably priced. We wandered around the mall a bit, buying some new CDs.

We had dinner with Breathless’ son [Drew] and son’s girlfriend [now wife Carolyn] at Joe’s Crab Shack on the River Walk. Yeah, a chain, but said son loves king crab legs, and the mojitos come in little plastic garbage cans. It was starting to sprinkle as we left the restaurant and walked back to the hotel, and son & girlfriend got away just before a big thunderstorm cut loose.

The conference ended Saturday April 14 at noon.  

[We] went to eat at the restaurant in the hotel, Las Canarias. We ate outside under a bright yellow umbrella and shared a bowl of their signature squash blossom roasted corn huitlacoche soup with crème fraiche (very good!), and some so-so quesadillas. Then it was off to Canyon Lake.

We stayed at the Rockin’ MJ Ranch Bed & Breakfast [now called Moe and Jo's Haus], a place we had originally planned to stay during our Spring Break vacation in March before Breathless got sick. It’s on the north side of Canyon Lake, not far from the Marina of the same name where Breathless’ son has moored the 22’ Catalina sailboat Breathless and I used to sail 25+ years ago in Corpus Christi. The plan was to go sailing on Sunday.

However, said son [Drew] had taken the boat out a couple weeks before and busted the outboard motor. He told us Friday night that was in pieces in his apartment, but he should be able to get it fixed in time. Alas, he called us Saturday night and that did not happen. Probably just as well, as it was too windy to sail on Saturday afternoon, and there was no wind AT ALL on Sunday, so we’ll have to try another time.

We ate dinner at Papa-Docks at the marina; the food and the view were marvelous ... The B&B ... location was really pretty ... we walked up to the pens to look at the baby Boer goats the owners raise, and were treated to a golf-cart ride over some of the 200+ acres to the top of 1000-foot Mount Baldy, which had an impressive view of the lake. 

There was also a nice patch of bluebonnets ... :

Above: Amanda Pape by a patch of bluebonnets outside Moe and Jo's Haus at Canyon Lake, Texas, April 15, 2007.  Photo by Mark Gresham / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

Happy Easter - in 1968!

My family at Easter in 1968, which was April 15 that year, probably in the backyard of the home of my maternal grandmother, Sara Melzina Wolfe Guokas Archibald (1907-1997), at 1118 Bay Oaks in Houston, Texas.  Standing in back are my maternal aunt Sister Jean Marie Guokas (1930-2024), my mother Geraldine Margaret Guokas Pape (1928-2019), and my father Frederick Henry Pape (1929-2017).  In the middle are my sister Karen and me, and in front are my three youngest siblings, Mark, Brian, and Mary.  We girls are all wearing dresses Mom made for us.

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

Nineteen Years Ago Today: A St. Patrick's Day Party

We were invited over to a neighbor's home along with another like-minded couple for drinks (cosmos and some wine) and snacks. Sheri was a former law librarian that hadn't been practicing for about ten years. She was about a year older than me. Her husband Ron retired around 2000 so I guessed he was about ten years older than her. Two dogs (very well behaved, Mark is pictured with one of them), no kids. The other couple were Ron and Nancy who were both in their 60s, married 45 years, with a couple grown kids and four grandkids. They operated a website development company out of their home. We all thought the same way, especially when it came to some of our homeowners association issues! (And those same issues still exist nineteen years later).  We were over there drinking, eating, and talking from 5 to 10:30 PM. 

Both couples moved away from the neighborhood.  Sheri died in 2011 at age 65 after a battle with cancer.  I learned just last year from her husband that Nancy has also died. 

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

W. W. Browning House, Chappell Hill, Texas - 1936, c1971, 1977, 1983

Nineteen years ago today was a Saturday, the first full day of Spring Break with my employer, Tarleton State University, and I had a vacation planned for that week.  I wanted to show my husband Mark a couple of my favorite areas in the state, and we were also supposed to meet his son Drew at Canyon Lake to go sailing.  Unfortunately, it was cedar fever season, and Mark's allergies were really acting up, so we had to return home after our first night (in the Texas Hill Country) and cancel the rest of the vacation.

The last stop on our trip was going to be the Browning Plantation just outside Chappell Hill, in Washington, County, Texas, then being operated as a bed and breakfast.  I'm sorry we missed this, as I'd first seen this house in near ruins back in 1977, when it had just been purchased by the Browning Plantation Foundation, Inc., for restoration, and I wanted to see how it looked inside.

Here is some information on the history of the W. W. Browning House and Plantation, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (in January 1972), and is also a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (in 1983).

The historic marker on the house reads as follows:  

A native of South Carolina, William Westcoat* Browning (1808-1871) moved to Texas in the 1850s with his wife, Elizabeth (Gilmer), and their children. This Greek Revival plantation home was built for them in 1856-58. The house is a fine example of the architectural style brought by early Texas planters from their former homes in the southern states. Outstanding features include the false graining on the interior woodwork, the widow's walk, and the two-story porches.

( * In other documents, the middle name is spelled Westcott.)

The original house had eight main rooms, four each on the first and second floors, each about 20 feet by 20 feet, with tall ceilings, four windows, and a fireplace, and they all opened onto a 16 foot by 44 foot central hall on each of the floors.  There was also a small room in the attic (or third floor) where one could access the widow's walk. 

The house was documented about 1936 as part of the nation's Historic American Buildings Survey, when it was owned by W. W. Browning's grandson, having stayed in the family since its construction 80 years before.  Architectural drawings available online include a site plan, floor plans, elevations (south, east, and west), cross sections, and various feature details.  The house was described as being in fair condition about the time it was surveyed, and was photographed by Harry L. Starnes:

Above:  1. Historic American Buildings Survey, Harry L. Starnes, Photographer, May 18, 1936 FRONT ELEVATION. - Colonel William W. Browning House, Farm Roads 1155 & 1371, Chappell Hill, Washington County, TX. Photo from Survey HABS TX-265.  From Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (HABS No. TX-265; https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.tx0229.photos/?sp=1 accessed March 10, 2026).

Below:  2. Historic American Buildings Survey, Harry L. Starnes, Photographer, May 18, 1936 REAR ELEVATION. - Colonel William W. Browning House, Farm Roads 1155 & 1371, Chappell Hill, Washington County, TX. Photo from Survey HABS TX-265.  From Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (HABS No. TX-265; https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.tx0229.photos/?sp=2 accessed March 10, 2026).

In 1971, the house was nominated for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.  Browning's great-grandson owned the house then, but it went out of the family shortly afterward.  Here are some photos from the nomination (where the house was described as being in deteriorated but unaltered condition on its original site), plus two other undated photos from Texas Historical Commission files that appear to be from about the same time (before June 23, 1971, when the nomination was submitted by the State of Texas).

Above:  Texas Historical Commission. [W.W. Browning House, {north elevation (front)}], photograph, date unknown {before 23 June 1971}; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth675223/: accessed March 10, 2026), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Commission.  This photograph also appears in the same source as the photo below, pages 9-10.

Below:  Texas Historical Commission. [W.W. Browning House, {south (rear) elevation}], photograph, date unknown {probably before 23 June 1971}; (https://atlas.thc.texas.gov/NR/pdfs/72001376/72001376.pdf, pages 11-12: accessed March 10, 2026).

Above:  Texas Historical Commission. [W.W. Browning House, {entrance way, north elevation (front)}], photograph, date unknown {before 23 June 1971}; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth672437/: accessed March 10, 2026), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Commission.  This photograph also appears in https://atlas.thc.texas.gov/NR/pdfs/72001376/72001376.pdf, pages 13-14: accessed March 10, 2026.

Below:  Texas Historical Commission. [W.W. Browning House, {entrance way, north elevation (front)}], photograph, date unknown {before 23 June 1971}; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth672223/: accessed March 10, 2026), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Commission.

Below:  Texas Historical Commission. [W.W. Browning House, {west side elevation}], photograph, date unknown {likely before 23 June 1971}; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth675223/: accessed March 10, 2026), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Commission. Note the pole supporting the porch roof on the right - it matches the same pole on the photo earlier in this post of the rear elevation.

In the summer of 1977, I was working as an interpretive park ranger at nearby Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site (then part of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and managed by them until Septe,ber 1, 2019, when operational control was transferred to the Texas Historical Commission).  I spent a lot of my days off exploring other historic places nearby, primarily in Washington County.

One day in June, I drove a bit south to Chappell Hill, and stopped at the historic Farmers State Bank.  Unbeknownst to me at the time, the bank president, Nath Winfield Jr. (1925-2001), was also the town historian.  He and his wife Judy (1924-2009, who I also met that day), wrote All Our Yesterdays:  A Brief History of Chappell Hill (Texian Press: Waco, 1969), and Nath gave me an autographed copy.  He took me to a number of historic buildings in town - Stagecoach Inn, the Methodist Church, the J. R. Routt House, the Tunstall-Sledge House (Nath knew the owner, so I also got to see the inside), and the W. W. Browning House.  Below are two photos I took at the Browning House that day:

Above:  1856 Browning House front, Chappell Hill, Texas, June 1977 / Amanda Pape /       CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Below:  Nath Winfield Jr. by the staircase on the first floor inside the 1856 Browning House, Chappell Hill, Texas, June 1977 / Amanda Pape / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Shortly after this, in December 1977, the house was acquired by the Browning Plantation Foundation Inc. (which I bet Nath was a member of), with the intention of restoring the house.  Originally they were going to use it as a museum, but it was sold to a private owner in 1980, who applied for a Texas historical marker in 1983 and submitted the photographs below.  Somewhere in the time frame, a one story addition was made on the east side of the house (where one of two single doors existed on the first floor), to add a kitchen (as the original kitchen had been a separate building).  Otherwise, though, it appears the restoration mostly followed the plans recorded about 1936 (although bathrooms were also added):

Above:  [W. W. Browning House Photograph #3 {north (front) elevation}], postcard, 1983; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth495146/: accessed March 10, 2026), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Commission.

Below:  [W. W. Browning House Photograph #1 {south (rear) elevation}], postcard, 1983; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth495147/: accessed March 10, 2026), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Commission.

Above:  [W. W. Browning House Photograph #4 {west (side) elevation}], postcard, 1983; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth495024/: accessed March 10, 2026), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Commission.

Below:  [W. W. Browning House Photograph #2 {east (side) elevation}], postcard, 1983; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth495047/: accessed March 10, 2026), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Commission.

The house has changed hands a few more times since then, but was no longer operated as a bed and breakfast after September 2007 - which was why we never had the opportunity to go back.  The $3 million, 5 bedroom, 5.5 bath, 5,288 square foot home is not on the market, but some photos can be viewed on realtors' sites.

Interestingly, the owner of the property from 1980 to 1997 allowed his son-in-law to build the two-mile live steam model Browning Railroad on the property, which operated from January 1988 to January 1998.  Fitting, because W. W. Browning was an organizer and stockholder of the Washington County Railroad.  That was sold to the Houston and Texas Central Railroad in 1869, which eventually became part of the Southern Pacific Railroad, who ultimately abandoned the former Washington County Railroad in 1961-62.

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!