D. L. Harris House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it right along to you. Now, out in Erath County, not far from Dublin, there stands a house that a man named D. L.

Harris built with some intention. This wasn't a quick job thrown together over a weekend. The year was 1901, and Harris, a partner in a Dublin mercantile store, set out to build something worth looking at.

He and his wife Claire, born a Jackson before she took the Harris name, they had a vision for this place. And friend, you can still see it. The home draws from a whole mixture of architectural styles that were popular right there at the turn of the century, and whoever drew up those plans had a few flourishes in mind.

There's a gabled roof dressed up with ornamental trim. There's a wide veranda, the kind that practically invites you to slow down. And then there's the fishscale shingling, those overlapping decorative panels shaped like their name suggests, which have a way of catching the eye and holding it.

But here's the detail that really sticks with me. The stone for the foundation wasn't hauled in from somewhere far off. It was quarried locally, right out of the earth nearby, and then shaped right there at the site itself.

Think about what that means: the ground this house stands on contributed to the very bones of the structure. D. L.

Harris and Claire Harris built something that was, in a real sense, made of the place it belongs to. That's not nothing. That's a house with roots.

What the marker says

This residence was constructed in 1901 by D. L. Harris, a partner in a Dublin mercantile store, and his wife Claire (Jackson) Harris. The home's design reflects a mixture of architectural styles that were popular at the turn of the century. Notable detailing includes the distinctive gabled roof with ornamental trim, wide veranda and fishscale shingling. Stone for the house's foundation was quarried locally and shaped at this site. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1982