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Gillett-Ford House   The
house was built by Tom Gillett in 1890. The original house
had three bedrooms upstairs and one bath. There was a fireplace
in the dining room. There was a downstairs bedroom,
study, entrance hall, living room, and pantry on the first floor.
Original furniture to the house was an old four-poster brass bed
in one of the upstairs bedrooms
Mr. Gillett died in December 1972. The house was later owned by Grady GIllett and later by David Gillett. Mr. and Mrs. Grady Gillett, only son of Tom Gillett, moved from their farm a mile southwest of Whitewright to the Gillett House in 1920. Mrs. Gillett, widowed, completely remodeled the old two-story home built in 1890 with wood hauled from Jefferson to Whitewright by oxen. In the remodel the upstairs was kept as it was originally but the old fireplace in the dining room was taken out. An alcove was added to the kitchen to provide a sunny area for the breakfast room table. Modern cabinets and with an antique finish were put in the old kitchen. The first floor pantry was converted into a long, narrow bath and powder room. Much of the furniture in the home was more than 100 years old and in the entrance hall was a large china closet filled with early American cut glass that had been in the Gillett family for several generations. The living room and entrance hall were papered in a rich, mellow, red-flocked textured wall paper. Mr. and Mrs. Grady Gillet's only son retired to Whitewright and moved into the old home, adding another room to the original 10-room house as well as a swimming pool in the spacious grounds that cover about 2-1/2 acres. (The Whitewright Sun, Thursday, July 28, 1971, pg.6) In the October 21, 1971 edition of The Whitewright Sun, T.H. Gillet offered his two-story home on W. Walnut for sale. Bob Worthy purchased the home in 1977. In 2002 Molly, daughter of Jeff Johnson, lived in the house along with her husband.  Whitewright History Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |