A few years after Odessa was founded in 1881, a squirrel stole a pecan from a neighbor's porch, and buried it in the yard of W. T. Malone, planting this tree. A rarity in the downtown area, it became a well-known landmark. When R. T. ("Cotton") Waddell (1889-1964) and his wife Mary Lee moved from their ranch to this home on July 1, 1926, they found entire neighborhood enjoying the native pecans from their tree. The R. T. Waddells, younger generation of a family influential in this region since the 1870s, gave time and talent to civic works as freely as their tree gave shade.