DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Somewhere in Houston Heights, there's a house that's been standing since 1905, and it has seen a thing or two. It was erected that year for a man named Penn Thornton, a doctor and businessman, born in 1866.
His wife Annie, born in 1872, moved in alongside him, and by all accounts she was no wallflower. Annie Thornton was active in the Heights social and civic organizations, the kind of woman who kept a community stitched together. Now Penn, he came into the world as Penn B.
Thornton, and the house they built together tells you something about who they were. It isn't a mansion built to shout at you from the street. It's what the marker calls representative of the housing stock in Houston Heights during the early twentieth century.
That's a careful way of saying it belongs here. It fits. But fitting in doesn't mean plain.
The house carries an asymmetrical front porch and classical columns, and together those details make it a solid example of the colonial revival style. Simple form, fine detailing. The kind of craftsmanship that quietly outlasts the people who commission it.
Penn Thornton passed in 1927. Annie, born in 1872, lived on until 1947. And the house?
It didn't sit empty. Penn B. Thornton, Jr. and other family members occupied it, kept it alive, kept it theirs.
The family held on until Penn B. Thornton, Jr. himself died in 1978. More than seven decades after that house first went up, a Thornton was still inside it.
That is the whole story right there, one house, one family, holdin the line all the way to 1978.
What the marker says
Erected in 1905 for Houston Heights doctor and businessman Penn Thornton (1866-1927) and his wife Annie (Amsler) (1872-1947), who was active in Heights social and civic organizations, this house is representative of the housing stock in Houston Heights during the early 20th century. Simple form and fine detailing such as the asymmetrical front porch and classical columns make the house a good example of the colonial revival style. Penn B. Thornton, Jr.and other family members occupied the house until his death in 1978. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1998