Dr. James Lee Dickey House
2008
Before fire 2022
After fire 2022
Dr. James Lee Dickey (1893-1959) established a practice in Taylor in 1921 as the city’s only Black medical doctor at the time. He was a lifelong advocate for health equity, and worked hard to improve public health standards for African-Americans in Central Texas. Some of Dr. Dickey’s 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. He also advocated for education and civil rights.
After Dr. Dickey and his wife Magnolia’s deaths, their long-time house in Taylor changed ownership several times and was later converted for use as a mortuary in 1966. When the mortuary business closed in 1995, the house was left vacant and fell victim to neglect and vandalism. 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.
UPDATE: July 2022 - After years of fundraising, the DMMC officially launched the Dickey House restoration project in 2018. Four years later, 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, 2022.
Learn More: Historic Home of Civil Rights Advocate Burns Down in Taylor, KXAN
UPDATE: July 5, 2023 - St. David’s Foundation has awarded a grant of $500,000 toward the reconstruction of Dr. James Lee Dickey’s former home in Taylor. The grant has been awarded to Preservation Texas as the fiscal sponsor for the reconstruction 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
ADDRESS: 500 Burkett St, Taylor (Williamson County)
DESIGNATION: NRHP
OWNER: Dickey Museum & Multipurpose Center
RESOURCE TYPE: Residence, African-American Heritage
YEAR LISTED: 2008
