Dennard Home

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'll tell it to you. Way out in the Concord community of Rusk County, there's a house that's been standing since 1902, and it didn't get there by accident. It got there because of a man named Augustus Dennard, though everybody who knew him called him Gus.

Gus was born in Missouri, but his family brought him to Texas in 1883, and Texas, it seems, had plans for him. He became a merchant. A farmer.

A blacksmith. A leader in his community. The kind of man who, when a town needs somethin done, gets it done.

In 1901, Gus purchased a piece of land, and right there on part of it he set up a forge, fire and iron and the ring of a hammer. Then, a year later, he finished building this home for his family. Now, I want you to picture this house.

East Texas vernacular style, they call it, which is a fancy way of saying it looks like it belongs right where it stands. Paired gables rising up over the porch, turned posts holding the whole front of it up, decorative brackets doing their quiet, dignified work. It's the kind of house a man builds when he means to stay.

Gus Dennard passed in 1933, but that house he finished in 1902, it's still there in Rusk County, paired gables and all, making a case that some things are built to outlast the builder.

What the marker says

A native of Missouri, Augustus "Gus" Dennard (d. 1933) came to Texas with his parents in 1883. A leader in the Concord community, Dennard was a merchant, farmer, and blacksmith. He operated a forge on part of the land he purchased in 1901. A year later, he completed this home for his family. A good example of East Texas vernacular style architecture, the house features paired gables over the porch, which is supported by turned posts with decorative brackets. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984