Developer Curtis Grant got a big surprise in 2015 when he started doing a routine demolition on an old house at 4801 Quail Run Road in Flower Mound.
The house, which sat on four acres at the southeast corner of Flower Mound Road and Quail Run Road, would be razed to make room for a new 12-home development. For any developer, it was nothing out of the ordinary.
But before starting demolition, Grant decided to open up the living room walls, remembering the previous owner mentioned finding a piece of a 1903 newspaper inside the wall. Once the first hole was punched into the living room drywall in this 1970s traditional house, Grant discovered its hidden history.
He found logs. Log-cabin logs.
The existing house was effectively retrofitting a Civil War-era log house that was erected an estimated 150 years earlier. A passing reference in the original MLS listing was a clue, “Original 1970 home added entire 2nd attached home in 2003, perfect for extended families. One story, 4.33 acre property in Flower Mound with exemplary schools. Diving pool, two 2 car garages plus car port for addtl parking. 3 sheds, 2 barns, 1 w-4 stalls, 2 pastures & well for watering. 1970 home has pergo flrs & 1800era FP.”
From 1937-1978, the home changed hands 11 times. “The frequent change in ownership over those four decades stands to reason why knowledge of the log house’s existence inside the walls of the house was lost over time,” according to the Gibson-Grant Log House Historic Structure Report.
With his discovery, Grant’s civic instincts kicked in and he decided the log cabin needed to be preserved rather than torn down. So he donated it to a town that embraced its history.
“It’s just something that needs to be preserved as difficult as that is on a developer,” Grant told NBC5 in 2015.
Fast forward to the present: The house has been restored to an earlier design.
On Dec. 11, the Gibson-Grant Historic Log House will open as a museum. In a master plan report, the house was determined to have been constructed between 1860-1861, according to dendrochronology tests on tree rings in post oak logs found in the cabin. And here’s an interesting note: It’s actually a log house. Log cabins are typically basic shelters built bark intact by settlers soon after they arrive. A log house is typically a second dwelling with hewn timbers, a stone fireplace, and wood plank floors.
According to the report’s executive summary, the house is significant for two reasons: “For its association with William Gibson, a Peters Colonist, and because it exemplifies the evolution of early homesteads on the Texas frontier.”
Grant donated two plots surrounding the cabin to allow room for the historic site conversion. The master plan was also funded by a $1.5 million state grant.
According to the town, visitors will have an opportunity to experience the lives of some of Denton County’s earliest settlers. The project will restore the cabin to the 1890-1925 time period by removing some of the additions, creating a one-story, 950-square-foot, six-room museum.
The house will be restored in a design to preserve a large portion of its original siding and paint layers.
“Visiting the cabin will be such a cool experience,” Flower Mound Mayor Derek France told Community Impact Newspaper. “It’s not every day that we’re given a chance to revitalize a structure so that we can use it to learn about the history of our area and how early settlers here lived.”
