DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Cummings-Smith House in Brazoria County. Now settle in, because this one starts with a storm and ends with a rescue — and in between, a house that refused to quit. The year is 1900, and the Galveston hurricane has just done what Galveston hurricanes do — it destroyed the home of a banker and investor by the name of Oscar Smith Cummings.
Born in 1866, Cummings was not the kind of man to sit in the rubble and mourn. He hired contractors Booth and Bigler — and here's the part worth savoring — he told them to salvage the materials from the wreckage and build something new. Not haul in fresh lumber, not start from scratch.
Take what the storm left behind and make it stand again. And stand it did. By 1900 into 1901, Booth and Bigler had raised a full Victorian residence out of what a hurricane had tried to erase.
Now, Cummings enjoyed his rebuilt home for a few years, but by 1904 he moved on to Houston, and the house passed to a man named Oscar Smith — owner of a local meat market — who bought the dwelling and gave it his name. That's how you end up with a house called the Cummings-Smith House: two Oscars, one remarkable building. The years rolled by, as they do, and eventually this Victorian survivor found itself facing a threat arguably worse than any hurricane — the threat of the wrecking ball.
In 1972, demolition came knocking. But Mr. and Mrs. Hubert G.
Howerton answered that door first. They purchased the house and restored it, pulling it back from the edge one more time. A storm couldn't take it.
Time couldn't take it. And thanks to the Howertons, the Cummings-Smith House is still standing — built from salvage, twice saved, and not done telling its story yet.
What the marker says
After the Galveston hurricane of 1900 destroyed his home, banker-investor Oscar Smith Cummings (1866-1941) hired contractors Booth and Bigler to salvage the materials and build this Victorian residence in 1900-01. Oscar Smith, owner of a local meat market, bought the dwelling when Cummings moved to Houston in 1904. Threatened with demolition in 1972, the house was purchased and restored by Mr. and Mrs. Hubert G. Howerton. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1977