Eugene Edge Home

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Now, in Bryan, Texas, there's a house that can't quite make up its mind, and honestly, that's exactly what makes it worth talking about. It went up in 1901 and 1902, built by a locally prominent man named Charles Jenkins, and from the moment it was finished, it was saying two things at once.

On one hand, you've got a Queen Anne style residence, all personality and flourish, with a two-story wraparound porch and a decorative balustrade that practically dares you to sit a spell and stay the whole afternoon. On the other hand, step up to that front porch, and suddenly the house is putting on a different hat entirely. Doric columns, standing there serious as a courthouse.

A triangular pediment right over the entryway, clean and classical and proper. That right there is Colonial Revival talking, and it is not whispering. Charles Jenkins built something that carries on two architectural conversations at the same time, and somehow, somehow, it holds together.

From the time it was finished until 1918, the home served as the residence of Eugene Edge, an early Bryan businessman. The house outlasted his time in it, of course. It kept its columns, kept its balustrade, kept that two-story porch looking out over whatever Bryan had going on down below.

Some buildings just have that kind of stubbornness about them. Eugene Edge moved on. The house did not.

What the marker says

This Queen Anne style residence features a two-story wraparound porch with a decorative balustrade. The front porch, with its Doric columns and triangular pediment over the entryway, exhibits elements of the Colonial Revival style of architecture. The home was constructed in 1901-02 by locally prominent builder Charles Jenkins. It served as the residence of Eugene Edge, an early Bryan businessman, until 1918. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1985