DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. There's a building sitting in Harris County that carries a name worth knowin' — the DePelchin Faith Home. And to understand what this place is, you've got to start with one woman: Kezia Payne DePelchin.
The marker calls her remarkable, and that word is doing some real work. A social worker, a teacher, and a nurse, all in one — serving Houston through the latter half of the 1800s. She left enough of a mark on this city that when she was gone, people didn't just mourn her.
They built something in her memory. In 1893, the DePelchin Faith Home was founded — an orphanage, a place of refuge — named to honor what she had given. Now, the home didn't always stand where it stands today.
But in 1913, a new building was completed, and the orphanage moved in. And it stayed. For twenty-five years, right up until 1938, this was the place.
The architects behind it were Mauran and Russell, and they did not phone it in. What they designed is a renaissance revival structure — and that means something specific when you're standing in front of it. There's an open arcade running along the bottom story, the kind of detail that gives a building breath.
And at the entrance, Doric pilasters rise on either side, flanking the doorway and supporting a classical cornice overhead. It's architecture that says: the people who come through this door matter. Kezia Payne DePelchin spent her life in Houston saying exactly that.
The building has been saying it ever since.
What the marker says
Founded in 1893 in memory of Kezia Payne DePelchin, a remarkable social worker, teacher, and nurse in Houston during the latter half of the 1800s. The orphanage moved to this building upon completion in 1913 and remained here until 1938. Designed by architects Mauran and Russell, the renaissance revival structure features an open arcade on the bottom story and an entryway flanked with Doric pilasters that support a classical cornice. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984