Heard-Baker House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll take it from there. Now, some houses just sit on a lot and mind their own business. This one decided to make a statement.

William Green built this house about 1889, out in Hays County, and he didn't skimp on the details. We're talking Queen Anne style, with a distinctive octagonal corner tower rising up from the corner like it had somewhere important to be. And if that wasn't enough, the decorative porch millwork carries what they call Eastlake influences, the kind of fancywork that makes you stop on the road and just stare for a moment.

Green built it, sure, but he didn't keep it long. He sold it to a rancher by the name of Samuel McGehee Heard. And at the time of that sale, the homesite came with enough surrounding land to graze livestock, which is exactly what a rancher needs and exactly what a rancher would notice first, never mind the octagonal tower.

Samuel McGehee Heard passed in 1909, but the Heard family held onto that house. They held on through the years, through the decades, right up until 1944. That's when a man named Robert Lee Baker purchased the property.

Baker carried it forward until his own passing in 1957. Two families, one remarkable house, and that octagonal corner tower still standing there like it always knew it was worth the trouble.

What the marker says

William Green built this house about 1889 and sold it to rancher Samuel McGehee Heard (d. 1909). At the time, the homesite included enough surrounding land to graze livestock. Members of the Heard family lived here until 1944, when Robert Lee Baker (d. 1957) purchased the house. Designed in the Queen Anne style with a distinctive octagonal corner tower, it features Eastlake influences in the decorative porch millwork. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1986