My family was connected to 409 N. Canton for only a decade in its more than a century on this busy corner of Mexia, Texas. Later on, after the Blaylocks sold it, the address changed to Milam street, where the front door was relocated.
The original house burned down in 1924 and was quickly rebuilt and survived for nearly a century.
1911 the Sanborn fire map of Mexia is the first time I can find the house at 409 N. Canton (the little blue x).
The 1922 version notes there is a "sleeping porch" on the roof and a one car garage added, as
well as a shed. Note the neighbors have servants quarters!
Judge & Mrs. White are the first owners of the home, as far as I can glean from records, with the McLendons their neighbors across the street.
July 1922 with street paving underway, the Whites are listed as responsible for more than $1000 for the work.
On April 5, 1924 the home burned down and was rebuilt
July 5, 1923
In 1925 Senator and Mrs. Reid, sister to Mrs. White, visited.
July 26, 1936 the home was being rented but still owned by the Whites.
Now we jump ahead 28 years: July 7, 1964 the home is for sale for $12,500
August 28, 1964 the price was reduced to 11,000
and the Blaylocks took ownership as mom started 11th grade.
The house looked like this. The sleeping porch has all those windows to try and catch the breeze in the summers when there was no AC. I have vague memories of that room and the chamber pot utilized during the night.
the backyard was quite lush with old growth trees
the ceilings look to have been 10 feet in height
from the kitchen at the back of the house coming towards the front you walked through the dining room and into the living room whose windows faced the street.
the long wall had built in shelves and cabinets and a brick fireplace that held a space heater by the time I showed up.
(we are going to skip around age wise here as I find the few photos of the interior of the house!)
On the opposite side of the house were the two bedrooms. The front bedroom had been converted into Grandaddy's Reflexology office. No photos of either of these rooms seems to have survived.
The front door opened into a hallway that ran straight through to the bathroom at the end of the hall.
And there were stairs, ginormous in my vague recollection but not at all in the last photos taken of the place.
The front porch had a couple of pillars
and the whole thing was hidden by trees during the Blaylock's tenure.
and a great big yard with climbable trees
and the sidewalk out front was where I first tried on roller skates
These are the last photos of the house taken in 2022
The built in shelves and cabinets and the fireplace are some of the few features I could find still in place
And seeing these little stairs is so odd when in my childhood memories they were so much taller
The stairs on the other side of the door lead up to that "sleeping porch"
And here is the porch, used by the exterminator company for storage.
The Google Street View in 2022, the house now 98 years old
The Google Street view 2023
It didn't make it to 99.
