DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. So pull up a chair, because even a house can have a story worth the telling. Out in Potter County, in 1912, a lumber merchant by the name of H.W.
Galbraith built himself and his wife Kate a home. Now, you might think there's something quietly fitting about a man in the lumber trade putting up a house, but the marker doesn't say that — I'm just noting it for the pleasure of the thought. What the marker does say is that this two-story residence came out in the Craftsman style, and friend, that style was not shy about showing its work.
Clapboards. Exposed rafters. A shingled roof.
The kind of quality materials that don't apologize for themselves. And then the geometry of it — a low-pitched hipped roof, a second story balcony, a two-bay front porch with paired columns set right up on brick supports. Strong lines.
Honest bones. The sort of house that looks like it means to stay. And stay it did.
H.W. Galbraith passed in 1936. Kate held on until 1969.
And through all of it — all those decades, all that weather, all the years a Texas century can throw at a house and the people inside it — the place remained in Galbraith family hands until 1970. One year after Kate was gone, and then it passed on. Some houses outlast their stories.
This one carried its story all the way to the end.
What the marker says
Constructed in 1912 for lumber merchant H.W. Galbraith (d. 1936) and his wife Kate (d. 1969), this two-story residence reflects the Craftsman style. Exhibiting quality materials in the clapboards, exposed rafters, and shingled roof, the house also features strong geometric lines in its low-pitched hipped roof, second story balcony, and two-bay front porch with paired columns set on brick supports. The house remained in the Galbraith family until 1970. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1991.