DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same way. Now, Fort Worth has always had a knack for building things that last — businesses, banks, and if a man played his cards right, a home worthy of the effort. Henry W.
Williams was a man who played his cards right. He came out of Georgia, made his way to Fort Worth, and built something that would put his name on the map in more ways than one. He founded the H.W.
Williams Wholesale Drug Company, carved out a place for himself as a prominent Fort Worth banker, and somewhere in the stretch between 1907 and 1909, he commissioned a home to match. A Colonial Revival residence — and not a shy one, either. You'd know it the moment you laid eyes on it.
That elaborate portico with its Corinthian columns rising up, the wide veranda wrapping the whole thing in a kind of unhurried confidence. This was a house that understood what it was. Williams passed in 1925, and here's where the story opens back up instead of closing down.
Since 1925, that home has carried on — passed through the hands of several prominent area families, each one bringing with them the cultural and social values of the community, generation after generation. Some houses outlive their builders by holding still. This one outlived its builder by staying alive.
A Georgia native, a Fort Worth founder, and a house with Corinthian columns that's still standing there on the map — that's a legacy with good bones.
What the marker says
A native of Georgia, Henry W. Williams (d. 1925) was the founder of the H.W. Williams Wholesale Drug Company and a prominent Fort Worth banker. This Colonial Revival residence was built for him between 1907 and 1909. Notable features include the elaborate portico with Corinthian columns and the wide veranda. Since 1925 it has been the home of several prominent area families whose lifestyles reflected cultural and social values of the community. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1982