Fernland Keeps Montgomery's Oldest House in View

Fernland is not a usual play park. The Texas Historical Commission marker there points to the Frontier Colonial Home, also known as the Arnold-Simonton House, at 770 Clepper Drive.

The marker calls it the oldest house in Montgomery. Dr. E. J. Arnold, a settler from Connecticut, built it in 1845. The same marker says an earlier 1835 log cabin on the lot kept being used as a doctor's office.

That makes Fernland useful even if you are not a museum person. Montgomery's history is easy to turn into marker dates. This house turns it back into a porch, a doctor's office, family ownership, and the practical wood-and-weather feel of an early town.