boarding house

 

This structure was the subject of a story by my dad.  It seems that in the 1940s it was a boarding house.  One of its lodgers was my great-uncle Charlie, who lived there while keeping books at my grandfather's gin in New Deal.  What attracted me was the asymmetry of the windows -- different sizes, a little patchwork, a dryer vent and a window air conditioner.  I don't know anything else about  the building, except it's been there a long time.  A history of Abernathy notes that the town was established in 1909 through an investment company owned by Dr. M. C. Overton and Monroe Abernathy.  It seems that nearby Bartonsite already had several buildings (perhaps even the Barton House currently at the Ranching Heritage Museum) and Abernathy had none except the small frame building for the investment firm. The founding fathers contracted with J.J. Barton to move some of the buildings to Abernathy. In the late summer of 1909 the seven mile move began. Buildings were placed on rollers pulled by steam-driven tractors at about three or four miles per hour. Buildings moved included a lumberyard, blacksmith shop, three or four residences and a two-story yellow hotel. I wonder if this building were that hotel -- there's not many two-storied buildings in town. Hmm.....

 

9th and Avenue E

Abernathy, Texas

11.9.2014