DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some men leave a mark on a place so deep you can still feel it more than a century later — and Alfred Horatio Belo was one of those men. Born in North Carolina in 1839, he came up through the ranks of the Confederate army all the way to colonel.
Then the Civil War ended in 1865, and Belo pointed himself toward Texas. He landed at the Galveston News, went to work, and — within a few years — bought the whole operation outright. That right there tells you something about the man's pace.
He wasn't one for waiting. Then in 1885, he opened a branch of the News in Dallas, and that branch grew into what the world would come to know as the Dallas Morning News. Prestigious, the marker calls it.
I'd say that's putting it modestly. Now a man of that standing needed a home to match, and the Belo family had an eye for such things. They chose Ross Avenue — the most elegant address in Dallas at the time.
In 1888, Belo's wife Nettie — born an Ennis, gone from this world in 1913 — bought a home on that avenue from a man named A.W. Childress. But that house apparently wasn't quite grand enough for long, because sometime in the 1890s it was replaced by a Classical Revival residence designed by architect Herbert M.
Greene. And here's the kind of detail that stops you cold: Greene's design reflects the influences of the Belo family home back in North Carolina. The colonel built himself a Texas mansion, and he built it to remind him of where he came from.
In 1900, A.H. Belo Jr. married his bride Helen Ponder, and the two of them came to live right there with his parents under that same roof. The family held onto the place until 1922.
After that, the house spent nearly fifty years as a funeral home — and additions were made to the rear and side during all that time. Life, legacy, and then the long quiet business of endings. That's the story the walls of the A.H.
Belo House have been keeping.
What the marker says
Prominent newspaper publisher Alfred Horatio Belo (1839-1901) was born in North Carolina. He attained the rank of colonel in the Confederate army and came to Texas at the close of the Civil War (1861-65). He went to work for the "Galveston News" and bought out the operation in a few years. In 1885 he opened a "News" branch here, which grew into the prestigious "Dallas Morning News". Looking for a homesite suited to their position, the family selected Ross Avenue, then the city's most elegant address. Belo's wife Nettie (Ennis) (d. 1913) bought a home here in 1888 from A.W. Childress. It was replaced in the 1890s by this Classical Revival residence. Designed by Herbert M. Greene, it reflects influences of the Belo family home in North Carolina. After their marriage in 1900, A.H. Belo, Jr. and his bride Helen (Ponder) came to live with his parents. Members of the Belo family resided here until 1922. Additions were made to the rear and side of the house during the nearly 50 years it was used as a funeral home. Recorded Texas Historical Landmark - 1979