602 W. Nash Street
Owners: Dena & Shawn McRoberts
Some houses simply sit on a corner. Others seem to belong to the corner.
At 602 W. Nash Street, the porch offers a front-row seat to the intersection of Nash and Ann Streets—a perfect place to sit, watch the world go by, and imagine all the people who have passed this way over the last 140 years.
Moore and Nash Streets were among the first streets established in Terrell, and 602 W. Nash appears on the 1890 plat of the city. Based on that, the house was likely built in the early 1880s, making it approximately 140 to 150 years old.
The house is believed to have been built by Dr. Dashiell, who became a prominent member of Terrell society. His wife, Mary, was a music teacher. The home next door, at 606 W. Nash, was once home to the local pharmacist associated with Buford Pharmacy, another familiar name in Terrell's history.
Originally, 602 W. Nash was a large, two-story box-shaped house. The north side was added in the 1920s. Over the years, the house passed through several hands, including members of the prominent Porter family. It has also had several lives beyond being a private residence. At one time, it housed an antique store owned by Fannie McGraw and later served as a flower shop.
Shawn and Dena McRoberts began restoring and renovating the house in 2021. Their goal has been to preserve as much of its history as possible while making the house livable for another generation.
Many original features remain, including the hardwood floors, clawfoot tubs, portions of the kitchen cabinetry, and the narrow staircase and banister. That staircase has proudly remained in essentially the same location for more than 140 years.
Restoring an old house, however, rarely goes exactly according to plan.
The house is pier-and-beam construction and rests on Bois d'arc tree stumps. When the McRoberts had the house leveled as much as possible, the old quarter-inch sheetrock walls cracked, and some of the original trim splintered and crumbled. Rather than replace the character with modern materials, they had blades made to match the surviving trim and recreated the trim, baseboards, and crown molding. Original trim remains upstairs.
The fireplace presented another puzzle. The fireplace that came with the house had apparently been installed in the 1970s or 1980s and was no longer functional. It was removed and replaced with an antique mantel dating to around 1900. The mantel is not original to the house, but it fits naturally into its long history.
The McRoberts have also replaced the sidewalks, added a patio and sprinkler system, and worked extensively on the structure and interior. The exterior remains a work in progress—a reminder that restoring a 140-year-old house is not accomplished all at once.
And then there are the things you find.
During the renovation, the McRoberts uncovered square nails, preserved a sample of old wallpaper, and discovered several old photographs hidden inside a kitchen wall. They also found a 1910 American Geography workbook completed by Virginia Porter. Her grades? All B's.
These artifacts have been given to the Terrell Museum, where research is underway to learn more about the people and stories connected to them.
Perhaps the most unexpected discovery came while the McRoberts were digging out crumbling back steps. They found a headstone being used as one of the steps.
The stone belonged to Mary E. Trotman and was dated 1879.
The McRoberts located Mary Trotman's grave in Dry Creek Cemetery in Poetry. They returned the headstone to her gravesite and placed flowers there—a small but meaningful act of restoration that had nothing to do with the house itself, but everything to do with respecting the history they had uncovered.
That is part of what makes an old house fascinating. The walls hold more than paint and plaster. They hold evidence of the people who built them, lived in them, worked in them, changed them, and sometimes left pieces of their lives behind.
At 602 W. Nash Street, Shawn and Dena McRoberts are not simply renovating an old house. They are uncovering its layers, preserving what they can, and giving this longtime Terrell landmark another chapter.