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The town of Orange began as a settlement in the late 1820s on a bend in the Sabine River. By the turn of the century, the town expanded north of the river bend. Thomas C.B. Cox (1856-1929), a civil engineer for the Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company from Alabama, married Delha Renfro (1865-1934) in 1890. Cox purchased two lots in 1909 from Agnes Jett in Orange and, by 1910, they built a comfortable house for their family. Tom and Delha Cox hired Daniel Webster Howell, one of Orange’s major builders, to build the house in the shingle Victorian style. Around the bottom and under the eaves of the house is flared fish scale style skirting. The ceilings are 12 feet high. The floors are made of two-inch planks of white oak. There are 33 windows on the house. Tom Cox’s career began in lumber but then went on to include surveyor, land man, Deputy Sheriff and Head of the Tax Department. Several more families and tenants lived here over the years, including Carlton Trimble, President of the Chamber of Commerce and member of the Economic Development Council following World War II. In 1944, the Trimble family added a second floor to the house and turned the back porch into a full room. The Roberts family in the 1960s added a carport and a fallout shelter to the house, now removed. This home is a reminder of the early 20th century development of the area and the craftsmanship that preserves our heritage for generations to come. |
