George first became familiar with the Randle-Turner House when he and his students documented it for the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1961. At that time, the house was dilapidated and one part of it was being used to store hay.

By 1950, local interest in the house was growing. The Dallas Morning News proclaimed, “House Built Without Nails Still Sturdy after 100 Years.” George had long been interested in wood joinery techniques. He observed, that in many of the borderlands structures it was possible to discern the nationality of the builders by the type of joins they created. In his restoration of the Randle-Turner House, George and the carpenters who worked on the project used period-appropriate hand tools and fabricated wooden pegs to hold beams and joists together, in keeping with the house’s original construction methods.

A short report about the restoration project is included in the Walter Eugene George, Jr. collection:

“The Randle-Turner House near Itasca is one of the few surviving examples in north central Texas of a house type with antecedents in the southeastern United States. Dating from the 1850s, the house’s survival is quite remarkable due to the fact that Indian raids occurred in the area throughout the time of its construction and early occupancy. The building is a typical “two-pen dog-run” house with a gallery on the south and “lean-tos” on the north. The frame is hewn oak sheathed in cypress weatherboarding, with double-hung windows and a wood-shingle roof. The program called for accurately restoring the house to its initial period using materials and construction techniques of the time, an approach which required extensive documentary research and historic analysis of the structure and the site. Except for fire-retardant roof shingles and fireplace lintels, all new materials match original materials in specie, size and fabrication. Since this project was a “pure” restoration, the building was not adapted to any modern functional requirements. Although energy efficiency considerations were not part of the program, the house’s large and strategically oriented windows, along with the shaded south gallery and central dog run, provide a maximum of creature comfort in the climate of the region.”