Every house has a story. This one isn’t the largest or most impressive house in Westmoreland, but it isn’t the smallest or ugliest either. Its first residents weren’t famous by today’s standards, but they do hold a small place in local history. The address 402 Marshall first appeared in the city directory in 1908 (HCAD records indicate it was built in 1904) at the corner of Marshall and Flora, occupied by James Wade Cox, the first Ford dealer in our fair city.
The structure was built in the popular Queen Anne style of the day, complete with two bay windows, a ‘witch’s hat’ turret on the front, and a curved wraparound covered porch. It has two staircases and a grand foyer with exquisite hardwood floors. Its 4,000 square feet contain four bedrooms and two and a half baths.
James Wade Cox was born in 1863 in Lavinia (Carroll) Tennessee. He was unmarried when he came to Houston in the late 1880s and set up a bicycle repair shop at 1014 Texas Avenue. Through the years, this shop also sold pistols and rifles, hardware and supplies.
In 1903, at the age of 40, he married Eva E. Burts, a daughter of railroad
engineer Joseph Burts. By 1907 the store
had moved to 1012-1015 Main and added ‘Auto and Bicycle Sundries” to its list
of services. The couple lived at 505
Tuam until their home at 402 Marshall was ready in 1908.
Unfortunately, Eva only lived in the house for two years. She died in 1910, the same year the Ford dealership “rented the entire ground floor of the Sternenberg Building at Milam and Walker for a salesroom and display area".
In 1908, Harris County was home to “200 automobiles, the largest number of any county in Texas”, according to an issue of Automotive Industries magazine. There were three automobile dealerships in the city, and our J. Wade Cox was the only one who sold Fords.
In 1908, Harris County was home to “200 automobiles, the largest number of any county in Texas”, according to an issue of Automotive Industries magazine. There were three automobile dealerships in the city, and our J. Wade Cox was the only one who sold Fords.
For the next five years, Mr. Cox continued to live on Marshall Street as a widower. In 1915, he remarried, to Miss Pearle Ray, whose father was a Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace. With the coming of World War I in 1916, they sold their house and moved in with Pearle’s parents. J. Wade Cox passed away in 1942.
Photo by Dennis Pow-Sang
Interior of Ford Dealership on Main, c. 1908
Photo from David P. Rigney 1976
delightful narrative and photos - Will
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