Dulaney Cottage

Duane's take

The marker on this one tells the story, and I'm just here to pass it along the way it was meant to be heard. Now, when the Civil War finally drew to a close in 1865, a great many men scattered to the four winds looking for a place to start over. One of them was Dr.

Joseph E. Dulaney, a surgeon who'd spent the war years of 1861 to 1865 tending to Confederate soldiers, doing the hard and grim work that surgeons do in wartime. When the smoke cleared, he pointed himself toward McKinney, Texas.

And McKinney turned out to be a fine choice. Because it was there that Dr. Dulaney met and married Lucy Ann Field, born in 1844, the daughter of Collin County pioneers.

That's roots, right there. The kind of roots that go down deep into the soil of a place. By 1875, Dr.

Dulaney was ready to build something lasting. And what he built was this: a Victorian home with numerous gables reaching up toward the sky and fine porch detailing that told anyone walking by that someone here had both taste and intention. This wasn't a temporary arrangement.

This was a home. Now, Dr. Dulaney himself didn't see many more years after it went up.

He passed in 1877. But Lucy Ann (Lucy Ann was something else entirely). She lived in this cottage until 1910, raising her children Corinne and Joseph Field Dulaney within these gabled walls.

And here's where the story takes a turn that'll make you smile. Joseph Field Dulaney became a pharmacist, a man who spent his life measuring things out carefully, giving people exactly what they needed. And at some point, he looked across the street from the family home and decided the community needed something too.

He donated that land for a public library. Joseph Field Dulaney lived until 1968. His sister Corinne made it to 1960.

And their mother, Lucy Ann Field Dulaney, the daughter of Collin County pioneers, the woman who outlasted a war, outlasted her husband, and raised her children in a Victorian cottage full of gables and good porch detailing? She was born in 1844. She died in 1941.

Ninety-seven years on this earth. Some houses hold their families. And some families hold their houses.

On this street in McKinney, it looks like both things happened at once.

What the marker says

A surgeon in the Confederate Army, Dr. Joseph E. Dulaney (d. 1877) came to McKinney after the Civil War (1861-65) and married Lucy Ann Field (1844-1941), daughter of Collin County pioneers. In 1875 he built this Victorian home with its numerous gables and fine porch detailing. Mrs. Dulaney lived here until 1910 with her children Corinne (d.1960) and Joseph Field Dulaney (d.1968), a pharmacist who donated land across the street for a public library.** Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1977***