Rollins family gives back to historic house
The Pecos County Historical Commission received furniture and monetary donations on April 6 from a grandson of a builder of a local historic property.
Seated in Historical Fort Stockton is the Rollins-Sibley House — a one-story residence that was constructed on a portion of the fort hospital foundation in 1905 by the Rollins family and later purchased by the Sibley family, who donated it to the county in 1996.
John Rollins and his wife, Dr. Dee Rollins, made the trip to Fort Stockton last week from their residence in Southlake, Texas, to make several donations to the Pecos County Historical Commission. John Rollins is the grandson of Dan Rollins, the builder of the Rollins-Sibley House, and grandson of Charles C. Rollins Sr., who built the Rollins house on South Rio Street.
A bedroom suite that was originally in the Rollins-Sibley House from 1926 to 1928; a Singer treadle sewing machine made in 1910 and used by John Rollins’ grandmother to make clothes for her family; and a rocking chair were donated to the historical commission.
“The bedroom suite that’s in there now, to my knowledge is not original,” said Paul Weatherby, Pecos County Historical Commission President. “We are going to move it to the old jail to make the old jail downstairs look like a place where the sheriff lived. In fact, we’ve had tourists say, “they lived down here?” We are going to fix that up.”
Weatherby explained that the Hovey School, which neighbors the Rollins-Sibley House, has never been continuously open daily to the public – something that the president of the historical commission hopes will change in the near future.
The commission asked the Pecos County Commissioners Court for some assistance in getting the Hovey School ready to open again.
In addition, the Rollins family felt it would be appropriate to make a monetary donation of $2,000 for the Historical Commission to use for whatever they feel is necessary.
“What Dee and I would like to do to help with that process, so you don’t have to go ask for money to do some little things, is we would like to give Paul and the Commission a donation of $2,000 to start you on your way and hopefully speed things up,” John Rollins explained.
