Longview business owner celebrates completion of restoration of historic property
Published on Sunday, October 19, 2025, 10:45 p.m
Uninhabitable.
Debbie Fontaine remembered the judgment her bank made on the house at 302 W. South St. in Longview five years ago.
Fontaine is the owner of the popular bakery Edible Art Specialty Cakes & Cookies at 504 W. South St. There, she and her team of baking artists are known for creating intricately decorated cakes and cookies.
It was 2020, and on the same March day that the city asked her and other business owners to close their doors because of COVID-19, she realized a dream she didn't even know she had. She saw a property on a hill near her business and saw for the first time that it was for sale. There were two houses on the hill.
It wasn't long before she took over the property and the real hard work began. She had more than 44 tons of trash and scrap — tires, sleepers and other items — removed from the 5-acre property. A house on the property had fallen into disrepair and was torn down.
But Fontaine and her daughter MyKayla, who also works at the bakery, began searching the other house and found a treasure – documents, history, photos, the story of a family.
This month, Fontaine invited people who helped her restore what is now the Utzman Farm House to tour the completed structure.
The house proved to be a hidden gem of Longview and Texas history. Earlier this month, Fontaine celebrated the unveiling of its state and local historic landmarks.
“This 1938 American Minimalist Traditional style home is one of the few surviving homes of its type in Gregg County. It was built by Marvin (1894-1977) and Lois (1899-1985) Utzman. Marvin was the first registered milkman in Texas. He became a dairy inspector in Gregg County in 1949. The home exhibits classic Minimalist characteristics traditional style, such as small porches and asymmetrical design with off-center front door. The Arts and Crafts style exterior doors and all trim are original to the home. The house never had air conditioning or a fireplace. The distinctive Utzman House was saved from demolition and lovingly restored for future generations to admire.”
Fontaine thanked family and friends who helped make the project possible, but also a small army she calls the “Restoration Village” — artists and craftsmen who helped her restore the home. (She gave them her name during the celebration.)
She also thanked the family who ultimately made the decision to sell her the property – Marvin and Lois Utzman's eight grandchildren.
“And I'm so proud of the Utzman family and the Bagley family, the heirs of Bagley, who leased this property. We're all growing up. We're getting married. We're having children… (and) leaving our homesteads.”
“And I’m so grateful that I did it,” she said.
There was a photo of these grandchildren in the house when they were little, sitting at a table in the dining room with their grandparents.
The grandchildren were present at the inauguration.
Jan Utzman Slater was one of them. She remembered happy times with cousins at her grandparents' house, people who called her “Mama Lois and Big Daddy.”
“We often spent the night,” she said. “I have twin cousins, Pat and Pam Bagley, and so we got together like on a Friday night with Mama Lois and she set up her card table and taught us how to play canasta. And we thought we were so grown up because we were playing canasta.”
The cousins lay in beds spread out in different rooms of the house.
“We just slept everywhere,” Slater said.
She said she was “tickled” by what Fontaine did to the house.
“We’re so happy,” Slater said.
Fontaine had originally planned to convert the Utzman House into a tea house and cake bar – The Sunset Chateau – but as she went through the restoration process, retaining hardwood floors, original doors and the original cast-iron tub, she realized that to do so she would need to add more sinks to the house to meet restaurant regulations.
She didn't want to have to destroy the integrity of the house to do this.
Instead, Fontaine has decided it will be an Airbnb that will continue to be called The Sunset Chateau, a place that she says offers some of the best views in Longview from the top of the hill the Utzmans called home.