Hattie and Henry Sayles, Sr., House

Duane's take

The official marker's the word on this one, and here's how I tell it. Now, every good story worth tellin' around a Texas campfire has at least one family that left fingerprints all over a town, and the Sayles family, well, they pressed both hands flat against Abilene and never let go. Let's start where it all begins, because where you come from has a way of shapin' where you end up.

Henry Sayles was born in 1852 and reared near Brenham, Texas. His father was John Sayles, born in 1825, a man the marker calls a noted legal scholar, and that is not a term anyone hands out lightly. Henry didn't go off to some distant law school.

He studied right there, under his father. You want to talk about pressure and privilege arriving in the same package, that's it. Henry took his training and headed to Galveston to practice law.

It was there that he met and married a woman named Hattie McAlpine. Now the marker gives us her name and the city, and that is enough to know she matters to everything that follows. In 1886, Henry and Hattie packed up and moved to Abilene.

A young city, a big sky, and a lawyer with his father's name and his own ambitions. Henry set up practice here in partnership with that very same father, John Sayles, the noted legal scholar himself, working alongside his son in a frontier West Texas town. Together, John and Henry Sayles wrote and published several books on Texas law.

Father and son, building a body of work in print while building something else entirely on the ground. Henry also oversaw real estate belonging to clients back in Galveston, managing their holdings from his new home base. And then, around 1889, Henry and Hattie built this house.

The marker is careful to note that at that time, few homes existed on what is now Sayles Avenue. They were not movin' into an established neighborhood. They were buildin' in front of one.

The house itself is something to behold. The marker calls it an excellent local example of a late Victorian-era dwelling, and it earns that description with finely-executed Queen Anne details. Porches with turned wood posts and balusters.

Jigsawn brackets and frieze. Shingled and decorative wood gable ends. A decorative brick chimney.

This was a house making a statement, out there on a street that barely existed yet. Sometime between 1895 and 1903, a rear addition went up. Then in 1941, fire damaged portions of the house, and remodeling followed.

Extensive renovations began again in 1974. And here is a detail worth holdin' onto: the house remained in the Sayles family all the way until that same year, 1974. Nearly a century of one family's name on the deed.

Henry Sayles, Sr., served as president of the Abilene Land and Improvement Company, and in that role he was responsible for the development of Abilene's Sayles Avenue neighborhood. The man studied law under his father, practiced it in partnership with his father, published books of Texas law alongside his father, built a grand Victorian house on a nearly empty street, and then helped turn that street into a neighborhood that still bears the family name. The marker doesn't say it was all planned that way.

But standing in front of that house with its turned posts and jigsawn brackets, it's hard to imagine it going any other way.

What the marker says

Henry Sayles (1852-1916), born and reared near Brenham, Texas, studied law under his father, noted legal scholar John Sayles (1825-1897). Henry practiced law in Galveston where he met and married Hattie McAlpine. The couple moved to Abilene in 1886. Sayles practiced law here in partnership with his father and oversaw real estate belonging to Galveston clients. John and Henry Sayles wrote and published several books on Texas law. Harrie and Henry Sayles, Sr., built this house about 1889, at a time when few homes existed on present-day Sayles Avenue. Portions of the house, including a rear addition built sometime between 1895 and 1903, were remodeled after fire damage in 1941. Extensive renovations of the house began in 1974. The house is an excellent local example of a late Victorian-era dwelling. It features finely-executed queen Anne details, including porches with turned wood posts and balusters, jigsawn brackets and frieze, shingled and decorative wood gable ends, and a decorative brick chimney. As the president of Abilene Land and Improvement Company, Henry Sayles, Sr., was responsible for the development of Abilene's Sayles Avenue neighborhood. The house remained in Sayles' family until 1974. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1995