4448 FM 3379, Marshall
Current Owner 2013: Richard Anderson
National Register File
Edgemont, 'Mont' Hall, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.Texas Historical Marker
Edgemont became a Texas Historical Landmark in 1981.Architectural Survey
• Description: Edgemont Hall is a Greek Revival plantation house built in 1844 from hand-made red bricks made on site by slaves. The home was designed and constructed by William R. D. Ward. The structure features a unique portico with octagonal columns, which is on both levels. The structure has a hipped roof, with double hung windows and the main entrance and the second level gallery has a single door main entrance with a transom and sidelight. Two main chimneys service 8 fireplaces within the home.
• Significance: The descendents of the original owner, Montraville Hall have kept the home in pristine condition, and the contractor W.R.D. Ward built several other homes in Harrison County as well.
Historical Background
Located on Old Longview Road, Edgemont was built in 1845 for twenty-five year old Montraville Hall a year after he arrived in Harrison County and purchased 640 acres of land. A year later Hall married a widow, Mary Anne Robertson who bore him five children, Montraville Jefferson Hall Jr., Octavia Virginia, Mary Blanche, Cornelia Emma, and John Vespasian. (Hall Family File, Harrison County Historical Museum Archives). In 1861, a year after Mary Robertson died Montraville re-married a widow, Julia B. Houghton, who had three children of her own. A year later they had a son Thomas Brandon, but according to the Marshall News Messenger, September 4, 1974, page 8A, he died at the age of three by drowning in a well.
Montraville, a leader in the county, was successful in business, public affairs, politics, and agriculture. According to the 1850 U.S. Census, Hall, practicing law at the time, had $4,000 in real property including two-hundred acres of improved land plus fourteen slaves who had produced fifteen bales of cotton in 1849. By 1859, he had increased the value of his property to $30,000 and owned 1,147 acres of land and thirty-four slaves who had produced a hundred and four bales of cotton (Randolph B. Campbell, The Journal of Southern History, vol.40, no.3, August, 1974, pp. 393-398).
The 1860 U.S. Census reveals that only ten other planters in Harrison County, (the largest slave holding county in the state), owned more slaves than Hall. Unlike many local plantation owners who lost their wealth and holdings during the Civil War, Hall added to his wealth. This was a result of becoming a director of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which later was incorporated into Jay Gould's railroad system, the Texas and Pacific Railroad. On February 23, 1861, Hall was elected as a delegate from Harrison County to the state's secession convention and attained a position of authority in the Treasury Department of the Confederacy. Although Edgemont had always been a center for social gatherings, this turn of events added to the many guests that regularly visited.
After Montraville Hall's death on Mary 11, 1871, his wife Julia remained in the home until her death on March 9, 1875. Later that year, Montraville Jefferson Hall Jr. purchased Edgemont at a public sale. (Warranty Deed: M.J. Hall Estate to M.J. Hall, Jr., dated March 9, 1875, filed July 10, 1875, Book 4, Page 164, Deed Records of Harrison County, consideration $3,304 at public sale). The estate remained in family hands until the Great Depression when it was sold on December 29, 1932, to J.B. Anderson, great-uncle of present-day owner Judge Richard M. Anderson, (Warranty Deed, C.J. Maner, receiver for The State National Bank of Terrell, Texas, to J.B. Anderson dated December 29, 1931, filed December 29, 1932, Vol. 194, Page 201, Deed Records of Harrison County). The estate passed through several more hands before Richard Anderson purchased the home in 1976. (Warranty Deed: Lee O. Spruell to Richard Anderson, May 12, 1976, Vol. 786, Page 150, Deed Records of Harrison County). Richard Anderson is the great-great grandson of Montraville Hall's sister, Josephine Hall Anderson Starkey. (Oral Interview with Richard M. Anderson, at the home site in 2012)
Throughout the years, although the structural walls were undisturbed, the exterior had received many additions. But thanks to the tireless efforts of Judge Anderson, Edgemont has been well preserved and has been returned to its original appearance.
