The Nugget Hill subdivision was platted in 1931 by Longview businessman Harry S. Turner as a prestigious residential enclave to attract residents profiting from the recently discovered East Texas oilfield. Turner selected forty acres of rolling farmland one mile northeast of Longview’s central business district. He regulated the development with uniform building setbacks and deed restrictions that governed the minimum house size and the selection of exterior materials. Turner also dedicated land for a fire station and a private park. Nugget Hill was an immediate success. Within five years it was the residential showplace of northeast Texas, exhibiting houses in a myriad of period styles, several of them designed by architects from Dallas and Houston.
The James P. Stuckey House (1935; 814 Charlotte Drive), the most spectacular of Nugget Hill’s houses, was designed by Dallas architect-builder C. D. Hutsell and modeled after the architect’s own Spanish-styled house in the Lakewood area of Dallas. The L-shaped house has a front courtyard and a round entrance tower at the intersection of the two wings. The front-facing wing has a one-and-a-half-story living room with a parabolic-arched window with stained glass. The red tile roof and the exterior ironwork are trademarks of Hutsell’s residential work. Several minor structures and garden follies are located within a setting of lawns and towering pines. Mexican craftsman Dionicio Rodriguez designed and fabricated the faux bois (false wood) concrete landscape pieces, including bridges, benches, a bird house, and a wishing well. Rodriguez traveled in many states to create his concrete art.
At 802 N. 6th Street, the Will C. Hurst House (1934) is a formal, Mediterranean-styled residence with random-coursed, fossilized limestone walls and smooth limestone trim, designed by Percy Zimmerman of the Longview firm Peters, Zimmerman and Strange. Zimmerman’s partner, N. L. Peters, designed the former Nuggett Hill Fire Station (1936; 1000 E. Marshall Avenue), a stucco-clad, Spanish Colonial Revival structure designed to harmonize with neighborhood buildings, such as the hacienda-like Tracy Flanagan House (1933) nearby. The house’s splayed wings respond to its angular corner site at the intersection of N. 7th Street and Charlotte Drive.