Gibbons, John Chisum, House - Paris, TX
N 33° 39.357 W 095° 32.999
15S E 263539 N 3726926
The John Chisum Gibbons House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. Standing at 623 6th St SE, Paris, TX, this beautiful Second Empire home is without an occupant and in dire need of rescue.
Waymark Code: WM13RPQ
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/10/2021
Views: 2
Please heed the "No Trespassing" sign on the house, taking only photographs and leaving only footprints. The porch is obviously in poor condition, without its stairs, and the inside is probably unstable and unsafe at best. If anything, there is a lot of slamming to be heard inside when high winds blow, so there are certainly some nice scary tales to be told around a campfire.
The National Register's Nomination Form has a photo from 1984/1985 of the house intact, and it provides a description:
Symmetrical 2 1/2-story residence; five bays on first and second floors, three above; sides with four bays below mansard, two above; five-bay Italianate porch supported by square posts; mansard roof supported by large , paired brackets; 2/2 windows.
...and notes the house's significance:
Built for John Gibbons, mayor of Paris in 1890s, who was instrumental in formulating city fiscal annexation and educational policies; Gibbons also served as sheriff, councilman, and judge; his daughter Katherine Gibbons Bankhead and her descendants occupied the house until recent years; the Gibbons House is a rare and substantially intact example of Second Empire style; some stylistic similarities with stone Edward Steves House in San Antonio's King William Historic District (N.R., 1972); few structures in that style survive in the state, and most tend to be asymmetrical; Gibbons House perhaps demonstrates late Greek Revival influence in its uniform symmetry.
John Chisum Gibbons is buried in Paris's historic Evergreen Cemetery, and his Findagrave entry (see Secondary Website 1, below) is a good read. He is described as "Sheriff, Councilman, Mayor and Judge" -- as a judge, he sent out the posse that killed Bill Dalton, the head of the Dalton Gang -- and at one time, this was the second-oldest house in Paris, begun in 1883 and completed in 1884. It has twelve rooms, with two front parlors, a dining room, and a sitting room downstairs, all with 14' ceilings. As was necessary at the time due to potential fire hazards, the kitchen was originally separate, with an additional room for food preparation. The original back porch was eventually made into a breakfast room, and there was a room off of the kitchen where milk churning was done. In that room is a staircase that leads to an upstairs storage room.
The upstairs bedrooms have 12' ceilings, and each has a closet. Every room has a stone fireplace, and while the original gas lights were replaced by electric, some of the original brass sconces may remain.
In addition to the aforementioned storage room, over the entire second floor is a huge attic. There was a cupola above the third story, and house's tin roof appears to be still in place. There is a description in the narrative of the house's fixtures and interior decoration, but it's obviously difficult to see what remains today.