Donnan-Hill House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Donnan-Hill House. Now settle in, because this one's got a carpenter's love, a Victorian flourish, and nearly a century of family holding on tight. Back in 1876, a man named Gustavus Johnson, a carpenter and contractor by trade, decided his daughter Jennie deserved something special when she married John K.

Donnan. So he built her a house. Not just any house, mind you.

What Johnson did was take an older, smaller structure and enlarge it, stretching it out into something that combined Victorian style with a Greek Revival floor plan. Central hall down the middle, two rooms on each side. It was located near the Capitol in those days, which tells you something about the neighborhood it was sitting in.

Now here's the part that gets you. The Donnan family held onto that house. Held on, and held on, all the way until 1972.

Nearly a hundred years of one family in one house. That is not nothing. That is a kind of stubbornness that Texans quietly admire.

When the Donnan family finally let it go, Attorney General John Hill and Mrs. Hill acquired it, moved it to this very site, and had it restored. A house built out of a father's love for his daughter, saved by people who recognized it was worth saving.

Gustavus Johnson swung a hammer well. That much, the years have confirmed.

What the marker says

Gustavus Johnson, a carpenter and contractor, built this house for his daughter, Jennie, when she married John K. Donnan in 1876. Located then near the Capitol, this enlargement of an older, smaller structure combined Victorian style with a typical Greek Revival floor plan of central hall with two rooms on each side. Occupied by the Donnan family until 1972, the house was acquired then by Attorney General and Mrs. John Hill, moved to this site, and restored. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1975 Incising on base: Not open to the public