Avery and Mary Turner House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Avery and Mary Turner House in Potter County. Now settle in, because this one's got roots that run deep and walls that remember everything. Avery and Mary Turner, Mary going by her maiden name Ten Eyck, pulled up to Amarillo in 1902.

Avery was a railroad man, through and through, a Santa Fe Railroad executive who gave that company fifty-eight years of his working life. Fifty-eight years. That's not a career, friend, that's a covenant.

And Mary, she wasn't one to sit still either. She helped organize the local American Red Cross chapter, stayed active with the Salvation Army, and kept her hands in other groups besides. These were people who showed up.

Then 1910 rolls around, and the Turners decided it was time to put something permanent in the ground. They built this house, and here's the detail that makes you stop and think: they modeled it after Mary's parents' home in New Jersey. Way out here on the Texas Panhandle, on the edge of the wide open, they built a piece of somewhere else, somewhere that meant something to her.

What they put up was one of Amarillo's very few Dutch colonial revival homes. Two stories tall, side gable brick, a full-width porch held up by massive Tuscan columns, and a large shed roof dormer looking out over it all. Out back, there was an original brick carriage house that later became a guest cottage.

The house stayed in the Turner family, generation to generation, year to year, all the way until Mary's death in 1951. Nearly half a century under one family's keeping. Some houses are just buildings.

This one was a promise kept.

What the marker says

Avery and Mary (Ten Eyck) Turner moved here in 1902. Avery was an executive for the Santa Fe Railroad, his employer for 58 years. Mary helped organize the local American Red Cross chapter and was active with the Salvation Army and other groups. In 1910, the Turners built this home modeled after Mary's parents" home in New Jersey. The house stayed in the family until Mary's death in 1951. One of Amarillo's very few Dutch colonial revival homes, this two-story side gable brick house has a full-width porch with massive Tuscan columns and a large shed roof dormer. An original brick carriage house later became a guest cottage.