A native of Ohio, Joseph Andrew Hamilton served in the Union army during the Civil War. About 1866 he settled in Wharton, where he held a variety of local political offices. Hamilton purchased this property in 1885 and moved his family into the existing one-story frame house. In 1907 the home was enlarged by raising the original structure and building a new addition underneath. The Hamilton house features influences of the neoclassical style of architecture. (Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1984.)