DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it — my job is just to do it justice. Now, you want to talk about a house that's seen some things, let me tell you about the Best-Lucas House in Galveston County. It starts in February of 1866, when a woman named Catherine Best purchased this very site.
Now Catherine didn't hold onto it long, because come July of that same year, her sister-in-law Anne Best — wife of a man named Louis Best — bought the improved lot right out from under her. Well, not exactly under her — Catherine and her husband William, a carpenter by trade, sold it willingly enough. Two Best women, two transactions, one year.
Galveston moved fast back then. By 1871, more improvements had been made, and the property changed hands again, this time going to Catherine and Thomas Lucas. Thomas was a noted brickmason in Galveston — a man who knew something about making things last.
The house kept passing along. Alfred and Elizabeth Pierson bought it in 1882, and after that it changed hands several times over the next decades, often serving as rental housing. Just folks coming and going, season after season, the old place doing its quiet work.
Then came the 1980s, and somebody decided this house had lived long enough. Slated for demolition — and that right there is where the story could have ended. But it didn't.
Someone purchased it, rehabilitated it, and today that house still stands, showing off its original Greek Revival influences, a three-bay front porch, gabled windows, and many of its interior features intact. A carpenter, a brickmason, two women named Catherine Best — and a house that outlasted everyone who tried to be done with it.
What the marker says
Catherine Best purchased this site in February 1866. In July of that year, sister-in-law Anne Best, wife of Louis Best, bought the improved lot from Catherine and her husband, William, a carpenter by trade. More improvements had been made by 1871, when the property was sold to Catherine and Thomas Lucas, a noted brickmason in Galveston. Alfred and Elizabeth Pierson bought the house in 1882, and it changed hands several times over the next decades, often serving as rental housing. Slated for demolition in the 1980s, it was purchased and rehabilitated. Today it exhibits its original Greek Revival influences, a three-bay front porch, gabled windows and many of its interior features. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2005