1885 Italianate Victorian house with 22 sides built to the shape of a club card by a Confederate veteran who won $10,000 in a poker game; museum staff report the ghost of Draughon's youngest son who died in the front yard.
420 Pine St, Texarkana, TX 75501
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Admission charged for museum tours. Check texarkanamuseum.org for current rates.
Access
Limited Access
Two-story Victorian house with stairs; narrow corridors and original uneven flooring.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1885 · National Register of Historic Places · Italianate Victorian Architecture · Early Texarkana Civic History · Confederate Veteran Memorial
James Draughon built the house in 1885 at the corner of Pine Street in Texarkana. Draughon had served as a Confederate officer and established himself in Texarkana's early commercial life as a lumberman and civic leader, serving as one of the city's early mayors. Local tradition holds that the $10,000 he spent on the house was won in a single poker game when the winning card was the ace of clubs — a story that gave both the house its name and its unusual shape. Architect unknown, the design produces a structure with three octagonal wings and one rectangular wing meeting at a central octagonal stair hall, yielding 22 exterior sides.
Draughon sold the property in 1887 to William Lowndes Whitaker Sr., who held it until 1894 when Henry Moore Sr. purchased it. The Moore family retained the house for nearly a century; Olivia Smith Moore, a Tyler native who lived in the house from 1920, bequeathed it to the Texarkana Museum System upon her death in 1985. Refurbishment began in 1987 and the house opened as a museum in 1988.
The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a contributing building in the Texarkana historic district. Each room in the museum is furnished to represent a different decade between 1880 and 1940, making it a period-furnishings survey as well as an architectural exhibit. The building is available for private events.
Sources
The haunting tradition at the Ace of Clubs House focuses on a single identity: James Harris Draughon, the youngest son of the house's builder. According to accounts collected by the Texarkana Museum System and cited in regional tourism materials, the boy fell from a tree in the front yard and died of his injuries. His presence is described as a residual or playful haunting rather than a threatening one — the most-cited activity involves unexplained sounds in the front rooms and the sensation of a child's presence in the central staircase hall.
The museum has documented these accounts in its materials without formally endorsing them as evidence of paranormal activity. The house is included on the Texarkana Museums System Ghost Walk, a tour program that incorporates the house's architectural history alongside the haunting tradition. Atlas Obscura and regional tourism sources note the Draughon son legend as the primary paranormal narrative attached to the building.
The physical character of the house — a narrow Victorian interior with a spiral staircase, a 20-foot corner tower, and rooms that change character with each period's furnishings — contributes to an atmosphere that visitors describe as genuinely unsettling independent of the specific legend.
Notable Entities
Guided tours of the Ace of Clubs House walk through rooms furnished to represent different periods from 1880 to 1940. Each of the 22-sided Victorian rooms represents a distinct era of the building's history. The Texarkana Museums System has operated the house since 1985.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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