The house on the bluff above the Trinity River was built in 1899 in the area then known as Quality Hill. This neighborhood contained many of the large Victorian homes of the "Cattle Baron Families", few of which are still standing. Howard Messer designed the house for Sarah Ball, who died within five years of the house's construction. William Eddleman, founder of the Western National Bank, then bought the house. His daughter, Carrie McFarland, lived in the house until her death in 1978. Eddleman's bank was founded in 1906 and failed in 1913.
