DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Durst-Taylor House in Nacogdoches County. Now, some houses just sit there. And then some houses have a story — the kind that stretches all the way back before Texas was Texas, passes through the hands of alcaldes and senators and Confederate congressmen, and somehow lands in the same family for over a hundred years.
This is one of those houses. It starts in 1779, when a man named Andres de Acosta settled in Nacogdoches. By 1809, his family owned this very property.
That's thirty years of one family on one piece of ground before anything else happens. Then in 1827, Acosta sold it — house included — to a man named Joseph Durst. Now, Joseph Durst wasn't just any buyer.
He was, at that moment, the Alcalde of Nacogdoches. That's the top civil authority, the man running things. And in 1836, Durst sold the property to David Hoffman — who was, you might not be surprised to learn, the next Alcalde.
Nacogdoches apparently liked keeping this place in official hands. Here's where it gets interesting architecturally — and I know, I know, bear with me, because this part matters. The house that stands here features gable end chimneys, slightly tapered square columns and balustrade, and paneled shutters.
Classic Anglo East Texas design. Now, it's possible this structure dates before 1827, but the marker tells us it's more probable, given those Anglo characteristics, that it was built during Durst's tenure. So the house itself carries a kind of argument in its bones about when it went up.
After Hoffman, the property moved through a who's-who of Texas history. Issac W. Burton, veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto — that battle.
Bennett Blake, delegate to the 1875 Constitutional Convention. Thomas J. Rusk, who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and served as one of Texas' very first two United States Senators.
And William Ochiltree, member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy. Four different men, four different chapters of Texas history, all passing through the same front door. And then in 1870, Lawrence S.
Taylor acquired it. Civil War veteran, Nacogdoches County clerk, born in 1842, died in 1925. Taylor got the property, and the Taylor family held onto it — through Reconstruction, through two world wars, through nearly every shift this country went through — all the way until 1989.
That's the better part of a hundred and twenty years in one family's keeping. From Andres de Acosta in 1779 to the Taylor family releasing it in 1989, this house witnessed more Texas history than most museums. It just happened to do it from the same spot on the same ground in Nacogdoches.
Some houses sit there. This one watched.
What the marker says
The family of Andres de Acosta, who settled in Nacogdoches in 1779, owned this property as early as 1809. Acosta sold the property, which included a house to Joseph Durst (1789-1843) in 1827. Durst, who was Alcalde of Nacogdoches when he bought the property, sold it in 1836 to David Hoffman, then Alcalde. It included a house. The architecture of this dwelling is representative of a traditional house form of Anglo settlers in East Texas. It features gable end chimneys, slightly tapered square columns and balustrade, and paneled shutters. It is possible that this restored structure dates prior to 1827, but it is more probable, because of its Anglo characteristics, to have been constructed during Durst's tenure. Subsequent owners of the house include: Issac W. Burton, veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto; Bennett Blake, delegate to the 1875 Constitutional Convention; Thomas J. Rusk, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and one of Texas' first two United States Senators; and William Ochiltree, member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy. Lawrence S. Taylor (1842-1925), Civil War veteran and Nacogdoches County clerk, acquired the property in 1870. The property remained in the Taylor family until 1989. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1995