Potton House Puts Big Spring's Railroad Era Into Stone

At 200 Gregg Street, the Potton-Hayden House gives Big Spring a different kind of railroad memory than depots and tracks. Joseph Potton was a master mechanic for the Texas & Pacific Railroad. In 1901 he built a Victorian residence out of Pecos sandstone, with iron pillars and zinc gable decorations.

The details make the house feel almost industrial: Pecos sandstone, metalwork up high, and a railroad mechanic's confidence turned into a family home. The Fort Worth firm of S. B. Haggart and Son designed it, and Potton and his wife lived there after he retired in 1912. The couple often entertained there. Their daughter, Mrs. Henry R. Hayden, later made the house her family's home. Potton also served as a school board trustee, so the house ties railroad work to civic life.

The house is public, city-owned, a State Antiquities Landmark, and listed on the National Register. That gives the southwest corner of Gregg and Second more weight than a pretty old-house stop. For Howard County, it makes the rail story feel lived-in instead of abstract.