DUANE
Duane's take
Now, I'm drawing this one straight from the official Texas Historical Commission marker — let me tell you about the Hermes House, right here in Fayette County. It starts the way a lot of good Texas stories start: with somebody coming from somewhere else and deciding this place was worth putting down roots. Dr.
William A. Hermes was a German native, and in 1855 he made his way to La Grange to practice medicine. Now that alone is a story — a doctor setting up shop in a young Texas town — but Dr.
Hermes had bigger ideas than just a medical bag. The very next year, 1856, he opened Hermes Drug Store, partnering up with a Dr. Eck.
Medicine and pharmacy, right there on the same family tree. And speaking of family trees, this one grew in the best possible direction. Dr.
Hermes had two sons — August and William, Jr. — and both of them earned pharmacy degrees and came on into the family business. You have to admire that. The old man builds something, and instead of watching his boys wander off, he watches them walk right back through the door with diplomas in hand.
Now here's where the story gets personal, and a little poetic. In October of 1892, Dr. Hermes gave this very house as a wedding gift to William, Jr. and his new bride, Augusta Pauline Willenberg — herself a native of La Grange.
A house as a wedding gift. Not a clock, not a chest of silver. A house.
And not just any house. This two-story residence was built with second-hand lumber and cypress clapboard siding, and whoever put it together had an eye for something special. It's an asymmetrical Folk Victorian — which is a fancy way of saying it doesn't quite follow the rules, and it's better for it.
There's a double gallery wrapping around it, ornate fretwork, a decorative vergeboard up at the peak of the front gable, bay windows, two-over-two lights, jigsawn porch detailing — the whole place has what you might call vertical massing, reaching up like it's got something to say. For a house built with second-hand lumber, it says quite a lot. William, Jr. and Augusta moved in that same year, 1892, and they didn't wait long before starting to add on.
The family began constructing additions almost immediately after settling in — which tells you something about the Hermes disposition. Always building, always expanding, never quite done. They raised two children inside those walls — Myrta and Gilbert.
And Gilbert, true to form, became a pharmacist at the family store. Three generations, one drugstore, one house, one town. Now, the house itself is only part of what makes this place worth pulling over for.
The whole site is really what the marker calls a city farmstead — and what a farmstead it is. There's a gazebo, an outhouse, a buggy house, a garage, servant quarters, a smokehouse, barns, and a chickenhouse. In effect, an entire world compressed onto a city lot, carrying the memory of rural farm life right into the heart of La Grange.
And the house has memories of another kind, too. During restoration work, family members uncovered evidence that the flood of 1913 pushed water four feet high inside these rooms. Four feet.
You can almost picture it — the waterline marked somewhere on those old walls, a quiet testimony to what the house endured and survived. Since Dr. Hermes first arrived in La Grange in 1855, the family played an active and philanthropic role in church and community organizations, contributing to businesses, schools, and health services across the county.
That's nearly a century and a half of one family woven into the fabric of one town. The Texas Historical Commission recorded this as a Historic Landmark in 2004, and the marker puts it plainly: this complex of buildings represents a transition from rural farm life at the turn of the 20th century to city life more than a hundred years later. A German doctor arrives in 1855 with a medicine bag and a vision.
By 1892, his son has a wedding gift with a vergeboard and a double gallery. By the next generation, there's a pharmacist in the family store and floodwater rising four feet in the parlor. And all of it — every addition, every barn, every jigsawn porch rail — still standing.
Some families leave a mark. The Hermes family left a whole house full of them.
What the marker says
German native Dr. William A. Hermes moved to La Grange in 1855 to practice medicine. He opened Hermes Drug Store the following year with his partner, Dr. Eck. His two sons, August and William, Jr., earned pharmacy degrees and joined the family business. In October 1892, Dr. Hermes gave this house as a wedding gift to William, Jr. and his bride, Augusta Pauline (Willenberg), also a native of La Grange. Here, William, Jr. and Augusta reared two children, Myrta and Gilbert, who also became a pharmacist at the family store. Since the arrival of Dr. Hermes in 1855, the family has played an active and philanthropic role in church and community organizations, and contributed to La Grange businesses, schools and health services. The two-story residence was built with second-hand lumber and cypress clapboard siding. The asymmetrical Folk Victorian home features a double gallery, ornate fretwork, a decorative vergeboard at the peak of the front gable, bay windows, two-over-two lights, jigsawn porch detailing and vertical massing. The family began constructing additions to the home soon after occupying it in 1892. In effect a city farmstead, the site includes several other vernacular structures, such as a gazebo, an outhouse, buggy house, garage, servant quarters, smokehouse, barns and chickenhouse. Evidence uncovered by family members during restoration work indicates that water from a 1913 flood rose to four feet inside the house. Today, the complex of buildings at this site represents a transition from rural farm life at the turn of the 20th century to city life more than 100 years later. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2004