DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Now, if you were walkin' the streets of Houston Heights back in 1910, you might've stopped dead in your tracks at the sight of a house that meant business — and I mean that in every sense of the word. This was the home going up for David Barker, a man who wore about three hats at once: prominent businessman, civic leader, and politician.
Born in 1868, David Barker had already made himself somebody worth knowing by the time that house was finished. In fact, when the last nail was driven, he was smack in the middle of his run as mayor of Houston Heights — a tenure that stretched from 1907 all the way to 1913. That house was completed in his third year on the job.
Think about that. The man was running a city and building a home at the same time. Some people just refuse to do things small.
And the house itself? It did not argue with that reputation. American four-square style, they call it — solid, symmetrical, standing its ground.
But don't let the name fool you into thinkin' it was plain. That wraparound porch came dressed with Tuscan columns and a denticulated cornice, which is the architectural way of saying the details were deliberate and they were fine. Up top, a gabled dormer sat centered right over the facade, keeping watch like it owned the place — which, in a way, it did.
And the front entry came fitted with a transom and sidelights, the kind of welcome that says come in, but know where you are. The Barker family held onto that house for decades. David Barker himself lived from 1868 to 1962 — ninety-four years on this earth — and the family didn't let the place go until 1971.
Long after mayors come and go, long after cities grow past their own borders, that house was still a Barker house. Some legacies are written in wood and columns and wraparound porches, and this one has been standing since 1910 to prove it.
What the marker says
Constructed in 1910, this was the home of prominent business, civic, and political leader David Barker (1868-1962). The house was completed during Mr. Barker's third year as mayor (1907-1913) of Houston Heights. Outstanding features of the American four-square style house include its wraparound porch with Tuscan columns and denticulated cornice; gabled dormer centered over the facade; and front entry with transom and sidelights. The home remained in the Barker family until 1971. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1990