The years haven’t been kind to the century-old two-story at 201 N. Longview Street.
The grounds have been overrun with vines, dotted with rogue saplings, and choked with wisteria. Frozen pumpjacks languish under three rusting derricks. There are gaping holes in the roof and in the floors, and graffiti’s scrawled on the walls and windows within.
The Lou Della Crim Home is part of the bedrock of Kilgore’s oilfield heritage, though, and when Kilgore Historical Preservation Foundation‘s board members take in the sight, it’s with hope for the future.
A portion of the nonprofit’s board gathered in the shadow of the derelict house Monday afternoon, posing for a ‘Before’ picture alongside a Texas Historical Commission marker, the latest since the home was designated in 1981.
“Earlier this year we became the owners of the Lou Della Crim Home,” KHPF Board President Chip Hale said June 23. “It is now our project to have it renovated and remodeled and turned into an open-to-the-public museum.”
Crim family descendant Bobby Florence entrusted the home to KHPF on Jan. 1, 2025, and early efforts by the foundation’s contractors and volunteers focused on clearing years of wild overgrowth on the 0.64-acre spot at the corner of Longview Street and West North.
KHPF’s members stayed mum on the bequest through the Spring, keeping the focus on the final stage of the renovation project at Kilgore’s oldest residence, the Dean Keener Crim Home.
May was National Preservation Month, and KHPF’s volunteers hosted an open house at the DKC on Lantrip Street at Commerce. It was a major milestone in a project that stretched about 25 years, and hundreds of guests turned out to see the fruits of local labors.
“We are riding on the success of the Dean Keener Crim Open House. Now that it’s open to the public we want to take advantage of that momentum,” Hale said.
The foundation’s going to need it – built in 1920, the Lou Della Crim Home is a younger house than the DKC by decades, but it’s a far more expansive renovation after being open to the elements for so long.
“We’re looking at a likely seven-figure project now, and we’re going to need the support of the public,” Hale added. “We’re going to need some aggressive fundraising. It’s going to take a lot more work.”
From Texas Historical Commission:
This bungalow style residence was constructed in 1920 for Lou Della (Thompson) Crim (b. 1868), on the former site of the Hearne Hotel. The farm she owned at Laird Hill (4 miles south) was part of an oil exploration project headed by her son Malcolm, later the first Kilgore Mayor and local financier Ed Bateman. Her property gained national attention on Dec. 28, 1930, when the Bateman-Crim Wildcat Well No. 1, the discovery well for this area of the significant East Texas Oil Field, blew in there. Area rangers, including the celebrate Capt. M.T. (Lone Wolf) Gonzaullas, were housed there.
(1981)
“My biggest thought is we’ve got to get the community involved and do some of the work,” KHPF Board Member Ricky Custer said Monday. “If we can get the community excited about fixing it up, I think it’ll be cool.
“It’s not hard to pull vines off of a fence.”
After checking off the final tasks to get Dean Keener Crim Home open to the public, the foundation’s volunteers have been compiling a fresh list of ToDos for the LDC House.
Volunteers and board members Ginger Cannon, Dinah Sullens and Taylor Bittick were the key drivers who got the DKC over the finish line this Spring. They’re turning their focus now to the Lou Della Crim Home, recruiting local contractor David Conner into the effort alongside other KHPF board members on a newly-formed project committee.
“The Dean Keener Crim Home was a big undertaking,” Cannon said, gazing up at the cream-colored siding of the LDC House, scarred by age. “This is going to be magnified by a bunch to get it where it needs to be.
“We’re going to rely on the citizens of Kilgore to help us save this home so generations after us will be able to enjoy and learn.”
Local helpers have already invested dozens of hours of work into getting the grounds back in order. Regular maintenance is underway now that the property’s secured.
“We cleared the sidewalks and took care of the edges,” Sullens said, and there are plenty of projects pending. For example, “We’ll take down the wooden fence and put in a new one.”
It’s a challenge, Bittick agreed.
“We’re excited about it. The Dean Keener Crim House is ready to go. We are very excited about the opportunities there, and we are equally excited about this house,” she said. “It’s going to take a lot of work and money from the community. We’ve got plans in place. We just need funds, and we’ll be ready to go with Phase I.”
Fundraising has already begun (learn more at KilgoreHistory.org and @KilgoreHistory on Facebook). A handful of locals immediately stepped up with pledges to invest in the new renovation project.
Working plans are to build out another Kilgore heritage collection inside the revitalized structure, and KHPF welcomes input for how to put the historic home to best use.
In-kind contributions are welcome as well, said Chuck Conrad, past president for KHPF. He praised the organization’s board members and volunteers who finished out the Dean Keener Crim Home and paved the way for the new endeavor.
“We finally got that done. It was a lot. We got some really great volunteers on our board that made that happen,” Conrad said. “This is going to be a huge project, no doubt about it.
“We need to do some very aggressive fundraising. For our Kilgore people who do want to save local history, it takes real fundraiser to do it, and we welcome anybody who will pitch in and help. It’s worth it for that history.”
Board member Robbin Hedrick is spearheading efforts to spread the fundraising pitch through KHPF’s collection of Kilgore-themed miscellanea.
“We have merchandise for sale that can go toward it,” she said. “And, we will be creating new merchandise tied to the project.”
KHPF Vice President Don Jeter is also head of the foundation’s Derrick Committee, so the three towering structures on the Lou Della Crim property have his eye.
“You’ve got three derricks sitting right here with pumpjacks underneath them that are going to have to have a lot of work done to them,” he said. “The house is obviously priority right now, but these will have to be done at some point.”
Per the foundation, the local historical landmark is one of the community’s most significant architectural treasures, and it stands as a testament to Kilgore’s history and the legacy of the Crim family.
The long-term effort to preserve the home for decades to come is just beginning.
“It’s going to take a lot of financial backing and work and time to get this building back in the way it used to be,” says longtime board member and KHPF Treasurer Jerry Camp. “Everybody wants to save history. Well, it takes money, and KHPF doesn’t have that big of a checkbook.
“We definitely have to have the help of the citizens to make it happen.”
