Norton Home

406 West Columbia Street

Completed in 1907 by R.J. Norton and wife Ida Potter, this stately home took three years to construct but only after the carriage house at the rear of the property was finished.  Much like the men of today, Mr. Norton had his priorities although wife Ida probably had other ideas.  Being the son of another one of Weatherford’s pioneers Judge David Owen Norton, R.J. followed in his father’s footsteps.  In his early life he was apprentice on Weatherford’s Frontier Newspaper and worked as a printer for the Houston Post.  In 1901 he established the Weatherford Bottling Company and began to manufacture soft drinks, later selling his company to Coca Cola in 1918.  Ida also descended from a notable line of pioneers, one being a senator in the Texas Congress, Robert Potter who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, and was the first Secretary of the Navy.  The youngest of the Norton's five children, Ida Black, owned the home until she passed away at the age of 102-1/2.  In January of 2000, the Norton's Great Granddaughter, Martha Lott and her husband Richard acquired the home which has remained in the same family for 107 years.

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