Bidault House

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'm just the one passin' it along. Now, if you ever find yourself rolling through Tarrant County and you see a house built from molded concrete blocks, you might want to slow down because that house has a story worth the stop. It was designed and built by a man named Anthlem Bidault, a French native, born in 1862, who lived all the way to 1951.

The man was a farmer and a wine maker, and when he decided to build himself a home, he didn't call a contractor. He drew up the plans himself and got to work. He started in 1905, and six years later, the house was complete.

Six years. That's the kind of patience that tells you something about a man. While he was at it, Bidault's farm grew into something worth talking about: orchards, berry fields, and a vineyard right there in Tarrant County.

This wasn't just a homestead. It was a life's work taking root in Texas soil. Then came World War I, and here's where the story takes a turn that nobody could have predicted when those first concrete blocks were laid.

French soldiers stationed at Camp Bowie, near Fort Worth, were entertained in that very house. Think about that for a moment. Men far from home, in the middle of a world at war, finding a little piece of France in Tarrant County, Texas in a house built by one of their own countrymen, with a vineyard just outside the window.

The Bidault house held all of that. But in 1920, Anthlem Bidault and his family (his unmarried children alongside him) returned to France. They left.

The house stayed. And that molded concrete, block by careful block, is still standing as proof that some things a man builds outlast everything else: the war, the going home, even the man himself.

What the marker says

Constructed of molded concrete blocks, this house was designed and built by French native Anthlem Bidault (1862-1951), a farmer and wine maker. Started in 1905, the house was completed six years later. Bidault's farm became noted for its orchards, berry fields, and vineyard. During World War I French soldiers stationed at Camp Bowie near Fort Worth were entertained in the house. The Bidaults and their unmarried children returned to France in 1920. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1980