Dilapidated house has tragic history, Celina Record

Dilapidated Celina house, hidden for years, has long, tragic history Lisa Ferguson, lferguson@starlocalmedia.com Feb 18, 2016 After spending decades obscured from view by overgrown trees and brush, the former Smith Farm in Celina was recently made visible again. The land on which the house and an adjacent barn sit is slated to be developed into a large housing subdivision and a city park. Hidden for decades behind a tangled mass of overgrown trees and grass, the old house on County Road 90 at Sunset Boulevard in Celina went largely unnoticed. Peering through the property’s untamed green foliage during the spring and summer months, only small glimpses of the aged gable roof and darkened glassless windows could be had. As the deadness of winter crept in each year, slightly more of the structure’s decrepit shell was revealed. Time and the elements had seemingly split the house in half. What remained of its grayed exterior walls sagged and listed beneath the weight of a large section of collapsed roof. Spindly trees surrounding the place seemed to help buffer it from stiff winds that might otherwise have caused it to finally keel over once and for all. It didn’t always look this way, of course: Lifelong Celina resident Ben Choate remembers the abode quite differently. Through the early 1950s, the Smith Farm (as it was known around Celina) belonged to Choate’s great-uncle, Charles B. “Charlie” Smith, who for years lived there with his wife, Dota Mae Smith, and the couple’s only child, Jack Vaughan Smith. “I just remember that the (extended) family gathered there several times for dinner,” recalled Choate, 90, who for years worked locally in the real estate business. Choate described Charles Smith as “a brilliant man” who owned and traded farmland, as well as mules that were “big business back then. “He and his brothers would go to Missouri and buy mules and bring them back to McKinney and resell them,” Choate said. “He’d buy a farm and do different things to it and then resell it. He was a money-lender, too. He loaned lots of money on land.” Choate described his second cousin, Celina High School graduate Jack Smith, as “a rebellious type” who later became a doctor and served as head physician at a military shipyard in Orange during World War II. “He had a terrific mind,” Choate recalled of Jack, who he said grappled with drug and alcohol addiction. Tragedy struck the Smith family beginning in May of 1953, when Charles died at age 75. Six months later, 44-year-old Jack was killed in a car crash on a stretch of highway between Little Elm and Prosper. Just four months later, in March 1954, Dota Mae – a 72-year-old former school teacher – died of a heart attack at the house. Choate recalled that the house sat empty for a couple of years following the family members’ deaths. It was later purchased by Clara McAdams, the sister of L.N. Cox, who had been the Smiths’ neighbor. “They never really did do anything with it,” Choate said of the new owners. “After [McAdams] bought it, I don’t suppose anyone ever lived there. It just sat there and deteriorated.” The house and a barn that still stands out back slowly became obscured from view as a thicket of trees and brush grew around them. It appears, however, the old Smith Farm’s days may finally be numbered. Late last year, a bevy of bulldozers and other earth-moving equipment converged on the place and began ripping up some of the land upon which it sits – preliminary work to improve area infrastructure in advance of a massive housing subdivision that will be developed on the site. When it’s complete, the Parks at Wilson Creek development will feature upward of 2,000 homes, as well as a 100-acre city park. As part of the infrastructure work, a large swath of trees that once shrouded the old house was removed, exposing its entire facade for what is likely the first time in about 50 years. In the months since, weather has continued to wreak havoc on the dilapidated house, which appears to have further weakened. Also, numerous wooden boards have been scavenged from its front. Choate said he recently considered returning to the house for a final look around, but decided against it. “I’m sure it won’t be there long,” he said.