Dr. James Lee Dickey House Reconstruction Project
Support the Project
Preservation Texas is accepting donations in support of the reconstruction of the Dr. James Lee Dickey House in Taylor (Williamson County). Included on our 2008 Most Endangered Places list, the house was burned and totally destroyed by an arsonist in the summer of 2022 after many years of restoration progress.
Preservation Texas is the fiscal sponsor for the Dickey Museum & Multipurpose Center, which has been awarded a $500,000 matching grant from the St. David's Foundation toward this important project.
Who Was Dr. James Lee Dickey?
Born near Waco in 1893, James Lee Dickey was the oldest of nine children. He graduated from Tillotson College (now Huston-Tillotson) in Austin in 1916. After serving in WWI and completing medical school in Nashville, Dickey moved to Taylor in 1921 to help his recently widowed mother raise his younger siblings.
Witnessing the substandard medical care afforded to African-Americans in the area, Dr. Dickey decided to remain in Taylor to share his expertise with an underserved community. He was the city’s only Black doctor at the time. In 1926 Dr. Dickey built a home at 502 Elliot Street where he would reside until his death in 1959.
Dr. Dickey was a lifelong advocate for health equity, and worked hard to improve public health standards for African-Americans in Central Texas. Some of his efforts included calling for improvements to the local water supply, leading an effort against a typhoid fever outbreak, admitting African American patients to state tubercular clinics, and establishing specialty clinics for children, new mothers, and those suffering from venereal disease. Dr. Dickey also advocated for education and civil rights.
About The Dickey House
After Dr. Dickey and his wife Magnolia’s deaths, their long-time house in Taylor changed ownership several times and was later left vacant and neglected. Upon threat of demolition in 1998, the Blackshear/O. L. Price Ex-Student Association raised the funds necessary to move the house to an empty lot at 500 Burkett Street, one block east of its original location.
In 2003, the Dickey House Museum & Multipurpose Center (DMMC) organization was created to oversee restoration of the house, but a lack of funding hindered much progress. In 2008, the house was added to Preservation Texas’s Most Endangered Places list.
After years of fundraising, the DMMC officially launched the restoration project in 2018. By the summer of 2022, the project was in its final construction phase ahead of a 2023 opening when the house was burned to the ground by an arsonist on July 10th.
Learn More: Historic home of civil rights advocate burns down in Taylor, KXAN
Dickey House Reconstruction Project
St. David’s Foundation has awarded a grant of $500,000 toward the reconstruction of the Dr. Dickey House.
As the fiscal sponsor for the reconstruction project, Preservation Texas has assisted with the selection of an architect, Fred Robinson, and the development of plans for the project.
The reconstructed house will honor the legacy of Dr. James Lee Dickey by serving as a community wellness center, designed to provide Taylor residents with equitable access to medical care and social services.
Learn More: Grant given to Dickey Museum to rebuild home of civil rights advocate a year after devastating fire, KXAN
Pictured: The Dr. Dickey House site after fire in July 2022