Dulaney House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every good house has a story behind it, and the Dulaney House in Collin County, well, this one's got a few layers worth peeling back. It starts in 1916, when a Dallas banker by the name of John Field decided to build a home.

Not for himself, mind you, for his sister, Mrs. Joseph E. Dulaney, whose given name was Lucie.

That right there tells you something about the man. You don't commission a house like this for someone you're indifferent to. And what a house it turned out to be.

Prairie School influences, the marker says; that long, low, horizontal spirit that feels like the land itself had a say in the design. And wrapping around the whole thing, a veranda. A wraparound veranda.

The kind that makes a summer evening feel like it was invented just for you. The Dulaney family took to this home, and the home took to them right back. It stayed in the family for over fifty years.

Now, when Lucie passed, the house passed to her son, Joseph Field Dulaney, born in 1876, died in 1968. He inherited it from his mother and lived there until his death. Decades in those walls.

And Joseph Field Dulaney wasn't just a man who kept a fine house; he was a man who gave back. Right across the street, he donated the land for the McKinney Public Library. Think about that.

Generation after generation coming to read and learn, and all of it anchored to a gift from the man who lived in that house with the wraparound veranda. Some legacies are carved in stone. Some are built in books.

And some, if you're lucky, are both.

What the marker says

Built in 1916 by Dallas banker John Field for his sister, Mrs. Joseph E. (Lucie) Dulaney, this home remained in the Dulaney family for over fifty years. Joseph Field Dulaney (1876-1968) inherited the home from his mother and lived here until his death. A local philanthropist, he donated land across the street for the McKinney Public Library. Exhibiting influences of the Prairie School style of architecture, the house also features a wraparound veranda. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1988***