Historic Homes in Lubbock

When it comes to Lubbock's history, some of it can be seen lining the streets of one of the first developed areas of town.  Most date back to the 1930's some even earlier.

"This is the first adobe that was built in Lubbock, Texas," said Holden House owner Connie Goodwin.

Goodwin is also another first.  She is the first owner not related to the Holden family who originally built the pueblo style house on 20th and Flint.  The 1930's home is known as "Casa Grande." It's one of only a few adobe homes on the South Plains.

The original owner, Curry Holden, was a professor of history and anthropology at Texas Tech and was the first director of the university's museum.  He would later become the namesake for Tech's Holden Hall. Holden's wife Olive dreamed of one day building an adobe home after falling in love with the pueblo style during a college course.

"I have a couple of Curry's books up here, Teresita and The Tall Candle the Personal Chronicle of a Yaqui Indian, that was written by both Curry and Jane together," said Goodwin.

Jane is the Holden's daughter, who sold the house to Goodwin.  The house still has original hand painted cabinets and a mural above the bathtub.

Goodwin tried to keep as many original features of this home as she could, including the original front door, but what makes this house so unique is the 1930's adobe structure.  This whole house is bounded together by water, dirt and straw.

"Everyone has their favorite home on 19th Street and this one is mine so I feel lucky to be able to own it and take care of it so other people can enjoy looking at it too," said house owner Kirk McLaughlin.

McLaughlin has owned the southern colonial style home at 19^th and Boston for four years.  It was built by Fred Snyder in 1928.

"Mr. Snyder was a cattleman, and he wanted a town house so his kids could attend schools in Lubbock and Texas Tech, which was new at the time.  Mr. Martin moved his family here from Oklahoma when he bought into Dunlaps department store chain so he raised his family here. He was a very prominent Lubbockite," said McLaughlin.

The Martins then sold the house to their daughter and her husband, Dr. John Chalk. It then became known as the Snyder/Martin/Chalk home, but when Mclaughlin moved in, he found adding his name to the home would make it a little cumbersome.  So it now it simply goes by the Rivendell, a name taken from J.R.R Tolkien's second book in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Both of these homes are on the National Register.