Deyerle-Fall House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it straight on to you. Out here in McLennan County stands a house built the hard way, by one man's hands and one man's plan, and the story behind its walls is something else entirely. William W.

Deyerle came to central Texas all the way from Virginia. He was a banker, a rancher, and a miller, and he arrived with his wife Willie, she went by Christie before they married, and together they had something ambitious in mind. They hired a master stonemason by the name of Henry Wissman, and here's where the story gets interesting.

Wissman didn't just lay what somebody else delivered. He cut the limestone himself. Hauled it himself.

And he placed every single stone according to his own plan. His own. Now that tells you something about the man.

When it was finished, in 1892, the house was something to look at. A hipped roof. Arched windows.

A central porch with turned columns. And a bracketed cornice that gave the whole thing a kind of authority. William Deyerle died in 1920.

Willie was still there, and life moved on as it does, and she remarried a man named Camden Sanborn. Then in 1926, both Willie and Camden Sanborn were killed. The house passed to Willie's sister, Mary Fall.

And the Fall family held onto it, quietly, faithfully, all the way until 1975. A stonemason's masterwork, outlasting nearly everyone who ever called it home.

What the marker says

William W. Deyerle (1853-1920), banker, rancher, and miller, came to central Texas from Virginia. With his wife Willie (Christie), he hired master stonemason Henry Wissman to build this house. Wissman cut and hauled the limestone himself, placing each stone according to his own plan. Striking architectural features of the house include a hipped roof, arched windows, a central porch with turned columns, and a bracketed cornice. The home was completed in 1892. William Deyerle died in 1920, and after Willie Deyerle and her new husband Camden Sanborn were killed in 1926, the house was inherited by her sister, Mary Fall. The home remained in the Fall family until 1975. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1998