Mary E. Hudspeth House

Mary Elizabeth Hudspeth was born in Monticello, Arkansas, and after her mother's death raised six younger siblings, partly on the West Texas frontier and in Sonora, Mexico. She came to the new college in 1910 to teach mathematics, and in 1917 President Robert B. Cousins made her its first dean of women; he sometimes called her "Queen Mary." Later she studied at the University of Madrid and in 1940 was invited to the University of San Marcos in Lima. Former students gave the museum its first art gallery in her name, and she is buried in Ozona.

What the plaque says

Mary E. Hudspeth House Built in 1909 by Thomas P. Turk, this home was originally located at 402 Palo Duro Street. After the establishment of West Texas University in 1910, it was moved here to serve as a residence for faculty and students. Mary E. Hudspeth (1874-1943), a member of the college faculty, rented rooms in the house at its original site. She continued to occupy it following its relocation for a total of 33 years, as renter and owner. A noted educator, Hudspeth served as chairman of the Modern Languages Department at West Texas State University. (1988)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum — 0.3 mi
  The Panhandle's great collection, some two million objects behind a 1933 Art Deco hall carved with cattle brands, closed to the public since March 2025 over fire-safety violations.
• Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 11 mi
  A 1938 Depression-era lake on Tierra Blanca Creek that has gone dry, now 7,664 acres of shortgrass, cottonwood canyon and a prairie dog town on the High Plains south of Umbarger.
• Palo Duro Canyon State Park — 13 mi
  The upper end of the canyon the state bought in 1933, where CCC crews built the road to the floor and the army burned the winter camps of the Comanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne in 1874.
• TEXAS Outdoor Musical — 13 mi
  A summer pageant of Panhandle settler life staged since 1966 in the Pioneer Amphitheater, built into a basin of Palo Duro Canyon below a 600-foot cliff.

More markers nearby

• First Methodist Church of Canyon — steps away
• First Baptist Church — steps away
• Site of Wagon Yard — steps away
• Canyon Fire Department — steps away