Constructed in 1871 for hardware merchant Franklin L. Whaley and his wife Mary Caroline Rogers, the F. L. Whaley House was one of the earliest homes built in Longview and the fourth built there. Built in a central hall configuration with lumber cut on the site, it features gabled pavilions, three dormers above the front porch, fine milled wood details, and elaborate jigsawn balustrade and piers. The house included a preacher’s room for visiting clergy, five generations of the Whaley family have lived here, the builder’s son Lucilus entered Texas A&M’s first class, and descendants still occupy the house.