Bassett Town Place Tenant House

May 16

The Bassett Town Place Tenant House is located on the historic Bassett Farm—a 2,400-acre former cattle ranch and cotton farm near Kosse, established in 1871 by Henry Bassett (1817–1888). Situated on a 400-acre parcel known as “Town Place” due to its proximity to the town of Kosse, the house was built in phases beginning in the late 19th century. It began as a modest one-room, 14-by-14-foot dwelling with a brick chimney and was gradually expanded into a six-room house with a front porch. The farmstead also historically included a barn and other agricultural outbuildings.

The Town Place Tenant House served as a residence for cotton farmers working on the Bassett farm until at least 1950. In the early 20th century, it was rented by Claude Johnson, who managed the local cotton gin. His son, David “Kosse” Johnson, went on to become a standout football player for Rice University from 1950 to 1953. The house is a rare surviving example of a vernacular tenant dwelling tied to the economic and social fabric of Central Texas agriculture during the post-Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras.

In recent decades, the house became overgrown and was largely forgotten until its rediscovery. Now owned by Preservation Texas, the house requires detailed documentation and structural stabilization. It will serve an important interpretive role, helping to illustrate the living conditions of early 20th-century tenant farmers in contrast to the more affluent lifestyle of the Bassett family, who lived in a large two-story brick house elsewhere on the property.