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.
