Mrs. Sam Houston House

Built in 1830 (Greek Revival architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

From the record

“Sam Houston House is a historic house on Farm to Market Road 390 in Independence, Texas. Sometimes known as the Root house, this Greek Revival house was built probably around 1855.”
Wikipedia article Mrs. Sam Houston House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 71 National Register listings published here for Washington County · listed in 1970 · category: Building · built in 1830, Greek Revival architecture.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Listed as. Houston, Mrs. Sam, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. FM 390, 1 block E of jct. with FM 50, Independence, 77833
When was it listed? October 1970
Category. building
Census division. Gay Hill-Independence
When was it built? 1830
Architectural style. Greek Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 70000775 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

163 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 163 fires within 5 miles of Mrs. Sam Houston House between 2001 and 2020, burning about 805 acres in total. 7 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	102
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	22
Equipment and vehicle use	16
Smoking	8
Natural	7
Power generation/transmission/distribution	5
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Railroad operations and maintenance	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
7 September 2016	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	9/7/2016
6 September 2011	Smoking	under an acre	Texas A & M Forest Service	9/6/2011
4 September 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	3.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	FM 2621
4 September 2019	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Texas A & M Forest Service	9800 FM 2621
30 September 2011	Power generation/transmission/distribution	3.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	PALESTINE RD
3 September 2017	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	KETTLER RD
29 September 2007	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	not named
27 September 2008	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	not named

Every fire recorded in Washington County

Storms near this property

7 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Independence, the town this property stands in, in 7 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 4 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 1996	Hail	Independence	$10,000	no account filed
July 1996	Hail	Independence	$5,000	no account filed
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Independence	$3,000	Trees down on the south end of Lake Somerville.
April 2006	Hail	Independence	$2,000	Penny size hail.
April 1995	Hail	Independence	$1,000	Sheriffs office reported golf ball-size hail just west of Independence.
October 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Independence	-	Law enforcement reported a large tree down at the intersection of FM 50 and CRF 390 in Independence, Texas.
May 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Independence	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts downed trees near the intersection of FM 50 and FM 390.

Every storm recorded in Washington County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Baylor University Male Department	0.2 miles	2024
Baylor University Female Department	0.6 miles	2024
Asa Hoxey House	1.3 miles	1976
Fritz Paul and Emma Schroeder House	3.4 miles	1994
Reue-Eickenhorst House	4.8 miles	1995
Allcorn-Kokemoor Farmstead	7.0 miles	1998

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 70000775 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Washington County	All 71 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.