Aycock-Crews House - East Columbia Historic District - East Columbia, TX - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

The Aycock-Crews House is typical of 19th-century vernacular housing in Texas with detailing drawn from the design idiom of the Queen Anne style. Facing southeast onto Main Street, the dwelling is sheathed with wood siding and surmounted by an elaborate roofscape of hipped and gable roof forms. An exterior brick chimney rises above the ridgeline on the southwest elevation. An inset 2-tiered extends across the full width of the primary elevation, consisting of a lower level of five bays capped by a shed roof and an upper level of one bay capped by a gable roof. Porch detailing includes turned-wood columns, stickwork balustrade and spindled frieze, with paired columns at the entry bay of the first level and on the second level. Fenestration includes a single-door entrance on ground floor and double-hung wood sashes with 2/2 lights.

The Aycock-Crews House was built by riverboat Captain Richard T. Aycock for his wife, Sue Elisabeth, shortly after he acquired the property in 1889 (Brazoria County Deed Records 7:192). Aycock operated several steamers on the Brazos River during the prosperous days of the steamboat era, and is best known for his 1881 command of the George W. Thomas, a 168-ton paddle wheeler (Puryear 1976). The steamer made weekly runs from Galveston to East Columbia freighting cotton, sugar, molasses, pecans, hides, lumber and preserved beef During the late 19th century, Aycock captained for the Columbia Transportation Company (Brazoria County Historical Museum files).