EDITOR'S NOTE: Prepared in 1982, the application for the Foulke House's addition to the National Register of Historic Places includes a section describing the home's history and significance. The complete, unedited text of that section follows.
The Foulke House presents an extremely well executed example of the Classical Revival style of architecture that flourished early in the twentieth century. Its monumental scale and sophisticated interpretation of the Classical vocabulary are outstanding among the residential architecture of Texarkana.
The house was built in 1903 by Claude Foulke, the son of lumber and railroad developer George Foulke - a Michigan native who settled in Texarkana. The younger Foulke, who resided in the house from the time of its construction until 1911 when Texarkana business man Frank W. Schiffler bought the house, was also actively involved in the building industry with interests in the Texarkana Brick Company, the Southern Furniture Company and the Standard Novelty Works Lumber Company.
The Foulke family was responsible for the construction of two other outstanding Classical Revival style houses on Pecan Street. Unfortunately, these structures have been demolished and as the only survivor of the Foulkes' unique contribution to Texarkana's built environment, the architectural significance of this house is especially compelling.
The Foulke House's brick profile, its brilliantly conceived front portico and its unusual pedimented principal entrance together with the consistently fine detailing of its exterior Ionic columns and crowning entablature, and its interior woodwork, particularly that of its unusual monumental staircase, successfully capture both the spirit of the Neo-Classicism prevalent during this period and the builder's facility in interpreting that Classicism in residential design.