In the early 1890s Joseph Nugent (1829-1903) and his wife, Christina, built this house, which features late 19th-century Victorian and Eastlake details in the porch. Nugent, a native of Canada, came to Texas in 1851. He operated a private school in Mansfield in the 1850s, taught at the Mansfield Male and Female College, and was elected the first mayor in 1891. Local farmer J.H. Hart bought the home in 1920, and it was later inherited by family members. The restoration and preservation of this historic old home was made possible by the donation of the property to the Catholic Church in 2005 by heir and owner Jim L. Hart.