Harigel House, The

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it straight along to you. Now, some houses just sit there. They take up space, do their job, and that's that.

But every now and then you come across a place that's got a little more going on, and the Harigel House in Bellville is exactly that kind of place. Let me set the scene. Emil H.

Harigel, Sr., born in 1859, was the son of a Prussian immigrant. That right there is a detail worth sitting with for a second. His father crossed an ocean, and Emil was going to make something of that.

In 1881, he opened a hardware, tinware, and stove emporium right here in Bellville. An emporium. Not a shop, not a store.

An emporium. The man had range. And soon after he got that business going, he turned his attention to something else entirely.

He built a home. A real home, for his wife Nannie Louise, born a Lovette, and their children. Now, when Emil Harigel decided to build a house, he did not build something plain.

This residence features a Mansard roof, and it carries the influences of Gothic revival and Second Empire architecture. In 1880s Bellville, Texas, that is a statement. That is a man saying, we are here, and we are staying.

And stay they did. Emil passed in 1904, but the house he built kept right on standing. Harigel family descendants have owned it for over a century.

The emporium is long gone from memory, but that Mansard roof is still overhead, still making its point across the decades.

What the marker says

The son of a Prussian immigrant, Emil H. Harigel, Sr. (1859-1904) opened a hardware, tinware, and stove emporium in Bellville in 1881. Soon after, he constructed this residence for his wife, Nannie Louise (Lovette), and children. The home features a Mansard roof and influences of the Gothic revival and Second Empire styles of architecture. Harigel family descendants have owned the house for over a century. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984