Haynes-Felcman House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Haynes-Felcman House in Austin County. Now settle in, because this old place has had more chapters than most books you'll find on a shelf. It started, as so many good stories do, with somebody building something fine.

In 1901 and 1902, a man named H. Schumacher put up this house, and he didn't cut corners. We're talking Queen Anne style, the kind of architecture that just flat-out shows off.

A projecting front gable dressed up with wood shingles, stained glass, and jigsawn brackets. A front porch loaded with late Victorian details, wood balusters, a frieze, the whole picture. Schumacher built something worth keeping.

And folks did keep it. In 1906, a man by the name of Richard H. Haynes came along and bought the property.

Haynes was born in 1875, and he had an eye for a good thing, whether that was a handsome house or a business opportunity. Three years after he moved in, he and his father founded the Haynes Mattress Company, the one you might know today as the Sealy Mattress Company, right there in 1909. The house kept standing, kept watching.

Then in 1927, a local confectionery store owner named F. J. Felcman bought the property, and he wasn't done with it yet.

In 1929 he added on to the rear, giving the old place a little more room to breathe. And that's where the Felcman family settled in, because they held onto this house all the way until 1995. Nearly a full century after H.

Schumacher first raised the roof. That stained glass is still up there in the gable. Those jigsawn brackets haven't gone anywhere.

Some houses just refuse to be ordinary, and this one, it's been making its case since 1901.

What the marker says

This house was built in 1901-1902 for H. Schumacher. It was purchased in 1906 by Richard H. Haynes (1875-1942) who, with his father, founded the Haynes (Sealy) Mattress Company in 1909. Local confectionery store owner F. J. Felcman bought the property in 1927 and added on to the rear in 1929. It remained in his family until 1995. The structure is a fine example of a Queen Anne residence with a projecting front gable decorated with wood shingles, stained glass, and jigsawn brackets. The front porch also displays late Victorian details including wood balusters and frieze. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1999