DUANE
Get the App
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Way back in 1871, a hardware merchant by the name of Franklin L. Whaley and his wife Mary Caroline Rogers had themselves a house built in Longview.
And not just any house. One of the earliest homes in the whole town. Think about that for a second.
Longview wasn't exactly crowded with neighbors yet, and the Whaleys were already putting down roots. They cut the lumber right there on the site. Didn't go looking far for what they needed.
Now, the house itself is something to behold. It was built in a central hall configuration, which gave it a kind of elegant backbone, a spine the whole family could grow around. And grow they did.
Five generations of Whaleys have lived inside those walls. Five. That's not a family occupying a house.
That's a house becoming part of a family's bloodline. The craftsmanship is where it really gets interesting. Whoever built this place had an eye for detail.
Gabled pavilions. Three dormers sitting right above the front porch, looking out over whatever Longview looked like back then and whatever it looks like now. Fine milled wood details throughout, and an elaborate jigsawn balustrade and piers that take the whole thing from sturdy to downright stately.
This wasn't just shelter. This was a statement. Franklin L.
Whaley, hardware merchant, wanted a proper home, and in 1871, that is exactly what he got. The marker has been saying so since 1964, and the house has been saying so a whole lot longer than that.
What the marker says
Constructed in 1871 for hardware merchant Franklin L. Whaley and his wife Mary Caroline Rogers, this was one of the earliest homes built in Longview. Five generations of the Whaley family have lived here. Built in a central hall configuration with lumber cut on the site, the structure features gabled pavilions, three dormers above the front porch, fine milled wood details, and elaborate jigsawn balustrade and piers. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1964