Chesley Building

Chesley Building. Circa 1912. , In 1875, C.K. Bell, future Attorney General of the State of Texas, built a wooden frame structure on the south side of the Hamilton square for his law office. Hervey Edgar ("H.E.") Chesley bought that building, moved it to this site in 1894, and began his practice of law. In 1911, that building (the last wooden structure on the square) was demolished and H.E. Chesley began the construction of this two-story limestone building with a brick façade. Mr. Chesley occupied the front half of the second floor as his law office until his untimely death on August 21, 1935. Mr. Chesley served as county attorney, member of the Texas House of Representatives, local judge, and board member for many businesses and financial institutions. Mr. Chesley's law partners included Judge J.W. Parker, John Main, and Dewey Langford. His obituary noted, "In his home, Judge Chesley dropped the manner of reserve and dignity that characterized his personality in public and entered with deepest enjoyment into fireside associations and intimacies of congenial home life.", In addition to Mr. Chesley's office, the second floor housed the James Studio where important studio photographs were taken of many Hamilton area residents. The first floor of the building was always intended to be rented for retail purposes. Over the years, this space included many different businesses including the post office, a bank, a Western Auto Store and, most recently, Thames Jewelry. While the downstairs was consistently occupied, the upstairs was not and remained virtually unchanged since Mr. Chesley's death. , From an early age, Nancy Anglin Yates, a fifth generation Hamiltonian, dreamed of having her law office upstairs in this building. In 2006, Thames sold the building to Randy and Nancy Yates who completely remodeled the downstairs and modernized, while preserving, the upstairs. H.E. Chesley's law library remains intact as do many other reminders of the original law office and photography studio.