DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells the story, and here's how Duane's passing it along to you. Out here on the Texas coast, some houses just hold more history than their walls have any right to contain — and the Baldwin-Brundrett House in Aransas County is exactly that kind of place. It's been standin since the 1880s, wearing its Queen Anne style like a well-pressed suit adapted just right for the Gulf Coast breeze — front facing gable, hip roof, lace-like corner brackets, and if you look close, the original windows and doors are still right there where they've always been.
The only thing that ever changed was the back porch, enclosed at some point along the way. Everything else? Still standing its ground.
The first name attached to this house is W.H. Baldwin, Aransas County Judge, a man who spent his time in the 1890s living here and pushing hard for Rockport to become a deep water port. Judge Baldwin had vision, and he had standing, and those two things together tend to leave a mark.
Then the house passed into a different chapter. George A. Brundrett, Jr., moved his family in come 1917.
Now George was no ordinary Texan — he was a Confederate veteran and a cattle rancher working fifteen thousand acres out on Matagorda Island. Fifteen thousand acres. That's not a ranch, that's practically a county of its own.
His family would call this house home all the way through 1942. But the story that really sticks — the one worth leaning in for — belongs to George's second wife, Flavilla. She had a habit of turning that front parlor into a makeshift hospital when the need arose, and out on the Gulf Coast, the need arose.
Then came 1919, and with it a hurricane. And when that storm rolled in off the water, two hundred people took shelter inside this one-story house. Two hundred souls riding out the storm inside walls built in the 1880s, in a parlor that had already seen more than its share of trouble and healing both.
That's not just a house. That's a refuge. And it's still standing right there in Aransas County to prove it.
What the marker says
Aransas County Judge W.H. Baldwin, who promoted Rockport as a deep water port, lived in this house in the 1890s. George A. Brundrett, Jr., was a Confederate veteran and cattle rancher on 15,000 acres on Matagorda Island; his family lived here from 1917-42. Brundrett’s second wife, Flavilla, often turned the parlor into a makeshift hospital, and it is said that 200 people took shelter here during the 1919 hurricane. This one-story house retains its basic design from the 1880s and exemplifies the Queen Anne style adapted to the Texas coast. The house has a front facing gable, hip roof, lace-like corner brackets, and its original windows and doors. The only modification has been the enclosure of the back porch. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark – 2011