Cole House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, in Hamilton County, there stands a two-story wooden home with a story worth slowing down for. It starts, as so many good Texas stories do, with land and money.

A man named J. Van Steenwyck, a real estate investor, built this place in 1901 and 1902. You get the feeling he had an eye for things that lasted, because this house has done exactly that.

But Van Steenwyck wasn't the one who'd put his name on it for good. That honor went to a man named John Baldwin Cole. John Baldwin Cole was born in 1860, and in 1907 he and his wife, the former Minnie Victoria Grace, purchased this home.

Now, Cole was a druggist by trade, and here's the detail that makes you smile a little. His business partner at the Cole and Grace Drugstore was his very own father-in-law, Dr. J.

W. Grace. Minnie's maiden name was right there on the sign.

The family, in more ways than one. Cole himself would pass in 1924, but the house kept standing, kept telling the tale. And what a house it is.

Two stories of wood, an offset gable front, a one-story wraparound porch dressed up with a Chippendale screen, and a steep-pitch hipped roof that means business against a Texas sky. Some houses are just shelter. This one's a statement.

The Cole House has been holding its ground in Hamilton County ever since, and it doesn't look like it's going anywhere.

What the marker says

This home was built by real estate investor J. Van Steenwyck in 1901-1902. It was purchased by John Baldwin Cole (1860-1924) and his wife, the former Minnie Victoria Grace, in 1907. A druggist, Cole operated the Cole and Grace Drugstore in partnership with his father-in-law, Dr. J. W. Grace. The two-story wooden home features an offset gable front, one-story wraparound porch with a Chippendale screen, and a steep-pitch hipped roof. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1988