Hancock-Heller Home

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Colorado County, there's a house that's been standing since before most of Texas had settled into itself. The Hancock-Heller Home.

And the story of how it got to be what it is today, well, it took a few hands and a few decades to pull off. Back in 1865, a man named John S. Hancock, the county tax collector, put up the original structure.

Now, Hancock wasn't cutting corners. The walls went up in cypress, and the floors came down in hard cedar. You walk across those floors today and you're walking on the same wood Hancock picked out.

And right down the middle of the front section, he ran what folks called a dog-trot hall, that open breezeway that divided the house and let the Texas air move through like it had somewhere to be. That was the house in its first form. Solid, purposeful, built to last.

Then 1884 rolls around, and a new owner had an idea. Why have one house when you could have two? He moved a second house onto the property and placed it at the rear of the original.

And he wasn't done. He added elaborate Victorian detailing to the front porch and the gable. So now you've got this place that starts with 1865 cypress and cedar, gets doubled in the back, and then gets dressed up in front like it's heading somewhere nice.

The whole thing is a kind of Texas timeline standing right there on one lot. By 1906, the Heller family entered the picture. P.

F. Heller, a rancher and merchant, purchased the home, and here's the part that really lands. The house is still occupied by Heller descendants.

Still. Same place, same floors, same dog-trot hall. Some houses outlast their stories.

This one just keeps writing new chapters.

What the marker says

Original structure built 1865 by John S. Hancock, county tax collector. Walls are of cypress with hard cedar floors. A "dog-trot" hall divides front section. In 1884 another owner moved a second house here and placed it at the rear. He also added elaborate Victorian detailing to the front porch and gable. In 1906 family of P. F. Heller, rancher and merchant, purchased home, which is still occupied by Heller descendants. RTHL - 1970