Callender Home

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, this story starts with a doctor, a lake, and some lumber that had no business being in Texas. Dr.

Stephen Cocke built himself a hunting lodge out on Green Lake. And the lumber he used, hand-hewn pine, he didn't source it locally. He bought it in New York.

New York. You let that sink in for a moment. That pine came a long way before it ever saw the Texas sky.

So already you've got a structure with a little extra story baked right into its bones. But here's where it gets good. In 1854, somebody decided that lodge needed to move.

Now, most folks faced with that problem would just start over. Not here. Instead, they tore the whole thing down, and they numbered every single board.

Every last one. Then they hauled those numbered boards to the present site and rebuilt the whole structure, piece by piece, plank by plank, like the world's most ambitious puzzle. That hunting lodge on Green Lake became a home somewhere else entirely, and it didn't lose a single board in the process.

Then, come 1871, pioneer lawyer William L. Callender made it his home. And it didn't stop there.

His descendants carried it forward, generation after generation. A lodge built for a hunt, moved by careful hands, and turned into a family legacy. Those numbered boards held more than a house together.

They held a story.

What the marker says

Built by Dr. Stephen Cocke as hunting lodge on Green Lake; of hand-hewn pine lumber bought in New York. In 1854 lodge was torn down, boards numbered; then rebuilt on present site. Since 1871 home of pioneer lawyer William L. Callender and his descendants. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1966