Exterior views of the octagonal house at 1200 West Presidio Street, Fort Worth, Texas now owned by Mrs. Beatrice Bailey. It was built in 1890. Mrs. Bailey has made the most of the unusual architectural features and floor plan in converting it into an attractive home-studio. On the corner lot, the home consists of two large rooms, one upstairs and one directly beneath it, formerly used as a stable and carriage room. Upstairs four alcoves, with built-in beds in the walls of each, open off the main room. From this queer arrangement Mrs. Bailey has made several bedrooms, a parlor, library, sunroom, kitchen, dining room and studio. She is particularly proud of the polished rosewood and walnut woodwork and the exquisitely carved walnut mantel which won first place in its class in the Chicago Exposition in 1893. Although it has attracted as much attention as any house in Fort Worth, there is still some controversy over the name of the builder and his reason for constructing such a home. Some even believe the legend that an eccentric sea captain modeled the house after his lost schooner. But the truth comes from the account of W. J. Bailey, Fort Worth real estate man. Bailey, who is not related to the owner, recalls that in the late eighties W. T. Wells, a young lawyer beginning his practice but well-to-do in his own right, came here from Sherman and built the house. He and his wife and small daughter occupied the home until about 1900 when they left Fort Worth . A representative of the local real estate agency which later too over the property remembers that at that time a French tobacconist, George Lettler, bought the house and lived in it until he moved away. The house remained a part of his estate and was leased through the agency until 1939, when Mrs. Bailey purchased it. The house will be remembered as the Windowmere Tea Room operated in the early 1930s by Miss Alice Jackson and later by Virginia Carroll Smith. Published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram evening edition, October 26, 1944.
This project was funded by Tarrant County Historical Society.