Stephen Decatur Lawrence Farmstead
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The Stephen Decatur Lawrence Farmstead is a former farm house in Mesquite (Texas). The farm was built from 1874 by the young farmer's son Stephen D. Lawrence. The property is exemplary of residential development from the 1870s to the late 20th century in northern Texas and the Blackland Prairies .
Lawrence (1853–1934), son of a member of the Mercer Colony , received an approximately 260 acre piece of farmland on his 21st birthday. Here he built his first small house in 1874. Eight years later, it was replaced by a new house according to plans by contractor Charley Florrer . Two meters from the first house he built a shingle construction on a T-shaped floor plan. In 1886 a kitchen was added so that the house now had a cruciform floor plan. Characteristic elements for the building in Victorian style are the tower in the center of the structure, the overhanging, steep gable roof and the front porch.
In the following years more buildings were added on the farm site. Florrer built a barn in 1887. To the north of the main house a smokehouse, a brick storage cellar and a laundry room were built.
The farm founder SD Lawrence lived with his first wife Louisa E. Porter (1861-1891) on his property and raised three children. After her death, he married Louisa Hill Walker (1867–1948), who bore him five more children. Members of the esteemed Lawrence family lived on the farm until 1995. Following the request of a daughter of Stephen D. Lawrence, it was then transferred to the city of Mesquite, which established a historic park here. In 1999 the property was added to the National Register of Historic Places .