About Us

Madora Manor is a bed and breakfast facility. We have three rooms for rent and plan to add more in the future. We are located in Blooming Grove, Texas, a historic Texas community which was formerly named "Gradyville". The name of the town was changed to "Blooming Grove" in the 1870s when the town was relocated one mile north, then later incorporated in 1887 when the Cotton Belt railway was constructed. Our owner's family has been in Texas since it was an independent republic.

History of Madora Manor

The land on which Madora Manor is built was once part of a sizable sheep herding operation which was begun in 1859 by Major H.P. Darling. In 1866 Darling set out to the Mexican border to sell a large number of sheep. He was killed, supposedly by indians, near Eagle Pass, Texas. The 240 acre Darling ranch was sold on the Navarro County courthouse steps to Captain Pierson Simpson (20th Texas, CSA), who passed away a little over a month later. Simpson's widow, Henrietta, remarried to William David Grady, one of the founders of Gradyville. When the railroad came to town in 1887 WD and Henrietta divided their land up into town lots and sold them to anyone who came along with cash. The lots on which Madora Manor now sits went through the hands of F.W. Carruthers and J.D. Mclanahan before being sold to Dr. James Alexander Greene in 1895 for $1,150.

Dr. Greene was born in 1856, a native of Tippah County, Mississippi. To his new property in Blooming Grove he brought his daughters by his first marriage, Ida, Gertrude, and Rose, along with his new wife Ada. Soon after arriving in Blooming Grove, the Greenes had children of their own, Lula, Ruth, and James Jr. Dr. Greene filled duel roles in the Blooming Grove community as a physician and also as a Methodist minister. Theodore Brune, a German immigrant, was employed by the Greene family as a caretaker at the property until his death in 1930 at age 84.

Dr. Greene built the current home on the property in 1906. He passed away in 1912 and Ada operated a boarding house there for many years afterwards. Many young couples in the area began their journey in life by boarding at this property and it was given the nickname "Honeymoon Haven".