Armstrong-Adams House at 6 N Main in the heart of the Historic District in Salado, is available is available for short-term and long-term visitors. It has two bedrooms, two renovated bathrooms, a fully-equipped kitchen and two sitting rooms. It can accommodate up to seven adults.
Built between 1869 and 1872 by Dr. David H. Armstrong and his wife Julia, the home has been owned by a succession of Salado physicians. Of the nine owners since 1869, only one was not a doctor. It is currently owned by Dr. Douglas B. Willingham (now retired) who practiced dentistry there for 42 years beginning in 1981. He and his wife, Carol Meyer Willingham, a licensed psychotherapist who offices in Georgetown and a former principal soprano at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and Doug’s daughter, Sofie Willingham, are the innkeepers. Sara Adams is the business manager.
Medicine and education are intimately associated with the Armstrong-Adams House. The house takes its name from Dr. David H. Armstrong, an early Salado physician who served as one of the first trustees of Salado’s free public school system, and second owner Dr. D. G. Adams, a Bell County Commissioner who was instrumental in the formation of the Thomas Arnold High School which once occupied the old Salado College building. Two of Dr. Adams’ daughters taught music and art here, and numerous students from Salado College were boarders. Another owner was Dr. James Edwin Guthrie, who owned the famous Guthrie Drug Store on South Main Street for many years and whose son, Robert Lee Guthrie, was Salado’s only (thus far) Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. The Armstrong-Adams House was awarded an Official Texas Historical Marker (1985) and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (1983).
Originally a three-room limestone house built in the Greek Revival style, four additional rooms were added, including a kitchen and bath. It was recently renovated extensively by MF Construction of Salado. Its lead carpenter was Thomas Pickruhn.
Initially restored in 1979-80 by then owners the late Dr. and Mrs. William M. Ashe, a second major restoration was performed by Dr. Willingham in 1990. In 2000, Willingham built a residence adjoining and connected to the Armstrong-Adams House.
Doug and his wife, Carol, currently live in the adjacent home. Doug’s daughter, Sofie, grew up in both buildings. The Willinghams have a special attachment to both buildings. Doug’s ancestor, William Archibald Willingham (1786-1857), a veteran of the War of 1812, is credited with being Salado’s first permanent settler. He emigrated from Georgia to Texas in 1839, residing first in Independence, then moving to Salado Springs with his family in 1850. Their original homestead of 320 acres here from 1850 from 1854 included this property on the north boundary of that acreage, south to include what became College Hill, east to include current Pace Park and west to include what became the Robertson homestead. He sold this land to E. S. C. Robertson, from whom he initially purchased it, and moved a few miles west to what became the Willingham Spring community where he began a stock farm operation. A nearby church, the Willingham Spring Church (1914), was built on land donated by the Willinghams and received an Official Texas Historical Marker in 1998. A portion of Archibald Willingham’s ranch land is now the Hidden Springs development. He and other family members are buried there at the Willingham Cemetery, which Doug and his family restored. It received Historic Texas Cemetery designation in 2004.
Descendants of Archibald Willingham have lived in the area continuously since 1850. Doug’s branch of the family moved back to the area in 1980, his great-great grandmother having migrated from Salado to West Texas in the early 1880s. Doug raised his daughter here, and his parents, the late dr. and Mrs. Welborn K. Willingham moved here in retirement. The modern-day Willinghams have had the pleasure of preserving their historic home since 1980 longer than any other owner in its history.
Family history is also reflected throughout the building, and Salado artists have contributed much to the look of the complex. Among those artists who have contributed to the restoration, design and furnishings of the Armstrong-Adams House are Tim Brown, Lonnie Edwards, Joe Pehoski, Jim Sim Benton, Connie Tatum, Ronnie Wells, Bill Ewton, the late Darwin Britt, John Barnhill, Jim Dale, John David, Winona Alexander, the late Marguerite Gandy, Bill Shaw and Hallene Walker.
The Mission and American Arts and Crafts style begins with the bedrooms and reception rooms of the Armstrong-Adams House. The residence next door, built in 2000, suggests a late 19th-Century barn that might have been renovated to become a home in the early 20th Century. Antiques include Ranch Oak furniture built in the 1940s by the A. Brandt Company in Fort Worth and once part of the furnishings at the Willingham ranch house in West Texas. Several Arts and Crafts rugs and textiles can have been added as part of the 2024 renovation.
We look forward to sharing our special piece of history with you!