Bowden Kennon House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Somewhere in Granbury, Hood County, there stands a house that took six years to finish, and that alone ought to tell you something about the ambition of the man who built it. Ralph W.

Bowden broke ground sometime after 1908 and didn't call it done until 1914, and by the time he was through, he'd put up something worth the wait. Leaded glass windows catching the light just so. Steeply pitched gables reaching up like they had somewhere important to be.

Flaring eaves that give the whole thing a kind of proud, wide-shouldered look. This was not a man building a place to sleep. This was a man building a statement.

Now, Bowden was a Granbury merchant; but he didn't stop there. He served as a city councilman, and on top of that, he went ahead and established an early telephone system for the area. The man was connecting things.

Commerce, community, communication. Then (and here's where the story takes one of those quiet, understated turns that real life specializes in), right in 1914, the very year the house was finished, Bowden sold it. Sold it to Perry H.

Kennon, who would go on to serve as Hood County tax assessor for ten years. Kennon moved in where Bowden had just hung his hat, and the house kept right on standing, the way a well-built thing does. Ralph W.

Bowden lived until 1954. Perry H. Kennon until 1927.

The house outlasted them both. And it stands there still in Granbury (leaded glass, pitched gables, flaring eaves), a reflection, the marker says, of the town's years of growth and prominence. Some houses hold furniture.

This one holds a whole era.

What the marker says

Built between 1908 and 1914 for the family of Ralph W. Bowden (1873-1954), this home features leaded glass windows and steeply pitched gables with flaring eaves. Bowden, a Granbury merchant, served as a city councilman and established an early telephone system for the area. The home was sold in 1914 to Perry H. Kennon (1864-1927), who served as Hood county tax assessor for ten years. The home stands as a reflection of Granbury's years of growth and prominence.