Clark Mansion, located at what is today 2112 West Lake Drive, is one of the oldest and definitely one of the most distinguishable homes in Taylor. The construction of the home began in 1876 and ended in approximately 1878, with no records of the exact date, nor the name of the architect who designed the delightful home that sheltered 2 generations of the Booth family for about 80 years and the Clark family for another 50 years to date.
A Texas Historical Landmark…
The homes' exterior displays many quite interesting qualities such as an onion dome, sexagonal turrets, corbelled chimneys - and the Mint Julep front porch adds an extra charm and grace to the home itself. The onion dome arrived by ship from Washington state and is said to have had to travel around the tip of South America to the Port of Galveston before it was finally brought up by horse-drawn wagon to Taylor.
The interior of the home is as of much interest as the exterior. Long-leaf, curly-grain yellow pine from Louisiana is lavishly used. Hand-carved units over the doors, around the windows, and near the stairway are evident. Black ebony is used in some of the polished floor designs.
The home was purchased in 1958 by Jonathan Elliott Clark, Jr. and Eunice Alexander Clark shortly after the death of Bessie Booth Nelson, the daughter of the original builder and owner Crawford H. Booth, who had been an officer in the Civil War serving the Union Army. Johnny and Eunice loved the home and took great pride in caring for and maintaining the home to preserve it's beauty and historic qualities. The home was sanctioned a Texas Historical Landmark in 1992.
The date of this early Booth home photo is unknown, however, it is believed to have been taken around 1910
The Booth Family…
Crawford H. Booth, Sr. was born on March 11, 1843, in Velles Bottom, Belmont county to pioneer residents of Belmont County, Ohio. Mr. Booth moved to Wheeling, West Virginia, as a small child. His father was president of the Wheeling-Cincinnati Transportation Company and conducted a flourishing river trade. As a boy, Mr. Booth traveled up and down the Ohio River with his father, and he later became a steamboat pilot.
Crawford H. Booth with his grandson, Crawford H. Booth, Jr.
During the Civil War, he enlisted at Wheeling in Company D, First West Virginia Light Artillery. He served the Union forces as a Lieutenant Colonel until 1863, when he was discharged. In 1864 he married Cecelia Mendel. Booth moved to the town of Taylor, Texas from Wheeling, West Virginia in 1876 with his wife, Cecelia, son Mendel and two daughters Grace and Elizabeth. The expansive pastureland delighted Booth and he began a long time interest in the sheep and cattle business. At that time, all of Texas was an open range and Indians were still making raids on local farms and ranches (in fact, the onion dome of the home was constructed with two porthole windows so the family could watch for Indians), cattle ran wild and ranchers were suffering severe losses. It has been stated that he was the first to string barbed wire in this part of Texas.
Booth was an ardent citizen of Taylor. He was among the founders of the Taylor National Bank (serving as vice president for four years and then was elected president of the bank in 1909) and was also a founder of St. James Episcopal Church. He was the donor of some 30 acres near the home on Lake Drive for what became the Taylor Fair Association. The land was designed primarily for sheep shearing procedures, but later became a race track where numerous horse and horse buggy races were held. It was a popular track and entrants came from areas all over the nation. Mrs. Booth was a noted cook, and those who have a copy of her delightful cookbook actually have a treasure.
At Booths death in 1937, the home went to his daughter, Elizabeth Booth Nelson “Bessie”, and her husband, Lycurgus “Racehorse” Nelson. An avid horseman, Nelson made sure that the track was used both in contests and in horse training.
Lycurgus Nelson died in 1943. Upon Bessie's death in 1958, Jonathan Elliott "Johnny" Clark, Jr. and his wife, Eunice Alexander Clark purchased the mansion and acreage, by then reduced to 5.7 acres.
The Clark Family…
Jonathan Elliott Clark, Jr. and Eunice Alexander Clark
Mr. Clark, the son of a Seguin, Texas oilman and cotton producer, was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1924. "Johnny", as he was known to his friends and associates, was an avid golfer and loved to hunt game with his sons. He attended Texas A&M University until the start of World War II, when a few days later, he and a group of college buddies enlisted in the military where Johnny served as a B-52 tail gunner. While back in Texas on Leave, he married his high school sweetheart, Eunice Alexander.
As a young girl in the depression era, Eunice lived with her family for a time in a tent along the banks of the Guadalupe, and loved to tell stories of how she ran and played along the river with her sister Vivian and brother Frank. Her father worked as a stone blaster doing demolition work in south central Texas, and supervised the blasting of the stone from the square in downtown Seguin.
Eunice Alexander Clark
Working for a quarter an hour at the Seguin Duke & Ayers store, she saved enough money to put herself through nursing school in San Antonio. During World War II, she was training as a war nurse but the war ended just as she was about to be deployed. Eunice loved flowers and gardening and was known for the fine flower gardens she created each year for decades at Clark Mansion.
She and Johnny, with their two sons, Johnny and Bobby, moved to Taylor, Texas in 1948 when he landed a job with a Taylor pecan company. Mr. Clark was hired by the company to solve a problem. Pecans sales had dropped dramatically and the unused pecans were rotting. Johnny was hired to find a way to increase sales and reduce inventory losses. His solution was to find a candy company and convince them to place a pecan half on each piece of chocolate. The problem was solved and Johnny entered the world of sales. He landed a job with the local Ford Dealership, and later became a top salesman with Leif Johnson Ford’s Truck City in Austin.
Jonathan Elliott Clark, Jr. receives a National Sales Executives award from Ronald Reagan
Mr. Clark went on to become an expert in the heavy truck industry and one of the top 10 Ford Heavy Truck salesmen in the world for many years. He earned numerous national sales awards - one, the American Salesmanship award was presented to him by President Ronald Reagan. Johnny took great pride in knowing that his sales helped numerous people who had lost their jobs go back to work at the Ford plants, and that his efforts were instrumental in the building of the Alaskan oil pipe line.
Eunice Alexander Clark spent her lifetime in service to others in the nursing field. She trained hundreds of nurses through more than four decades of healthcare and retired from Brackenridge Hospital in Austin after 26 years of dedicated service. (Note: Eunice established and operated the nurses training center for Brackenridge). Her role as a nurse was portrayed by an actor in the made-for-television movie about the Texas University sniper. She was a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild. (See below) Along with rearing their 4 children, Johnny, Bobby, Sherry, and Debbie, Eunice and Johnny shared the ambiance of the home by entertaining frequently. After Mr. Clark’s death in 1990 at the age of 65, his wife, Eunice remained in the home until her passing in June, 2005 at age 82. Upon her death, the estate became a life-long trust for her remaining daughter, Sherry Clark Nichols. In the spring of 2007, Clark Mansion was opened to the public and today is both an Events Center and a Bed & Breakfast so that it may “continue to be enjoyed as it was meant to be”.
Additional Facts of Interest...
A formerU.S. president Ronald Reagan also visited Clark Mansion during his governorship of California.
Taylor city streets bearing the names of Booth family members include: Grace street, Lizzie street (Elizabeth), and Cecelia street.
Crawford H. Booth (1837-1943)
Cecelia Mendel Booth(1841-1905)
George Mendel Booth (1867-1948)
Elizabeth (Bessie) Booth-Nelson (1875-1958)
Lycurgus Nelson (1867-1943)
Jonathan Elliott Clark, Jr. (1924-1990)
Eunice Alexander Clark (1923-2005)
Clark Mansion as a Movie Set...
The exterior of Clark Mansion has been seen in two movies to date. It was the back-drop for screen
performances by actors Robert Duval, Brian Dennehy, Andrew Lowery, and actress Cloris Leachman. Other celebrities to visit Clark Mansion include Clint Eastwood, actress Jane Seymour and her husband, actor/director James Keach during the filming of "The Stars Fell on Henrietta" (released in 1995), a film set in the Texas dust bowl of 1935.
As a footnote, former Clark Mansion owner, the late Eunice Alexander Clark, (a member of the Screen Actor's Guild), was cast as the school teacher of Johnny Dingle (played by Andrew Lowery) in the film "My Boyfriend's Back" (released in 1993).
The expansive pastureland delighted Booth and he began a long time interest in the sheep and cattle business. At that time, all of Texas was an open range and Indians were still making raids on local farms and ranches (in fact, the onion dome of the home was constructed with two porthole windows so the family could watch for Indians), cattle ran wild and ranchers were suffering severe losses. It has been stated that he was the first to string barbed wire in this part of Texas.
