Herring-Crudgington House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Herring-Crudgington House in Potter County. Now settle in, because this one's about a house that clearly had opinions about itself from the very beginning. Built in 1910 for ranchers Will and Eula Jo Day Herring, this place did not show up quietly.

Classical Revival style, they called it, and whoever drew up those plans was not in the business of understatement. You've got a pedimented entry portico out front, with paired colossal order columns. Colossal.

That's the actual architectural term, and frankly it suits the ambition. Wrap around to the porch and you find Ionic columns keeping things company all the way around. And on the south side, a Palladian bay window, catching the light just so.

For ranchers on the Texas plains, Will and Eula Jo Day Herring were not exactly roughing it. Then 1920 rolls around, and Judge Jonathan W. and Alliene Crudgington purchased the house. A judge moves in, and the house, already holding itself with considerable dignity, now had the title to match.

The Crudgington family made it their residence all the way through 1936. And after that? Well, those colossal columns and that Palladian window found a new purpose, because the house became the location of the Musical Arts Conservatory.

Scales and arpeggios where boots once tracked in from the range. That is a house that knew how to keep reinventing itself.

What the marker says

Built in 1910 for ranchers Will and Eula Jo Day Herring, this Classical Revival style house features a pedimented entry portico with paired colossal order columns, a wraparound porch with Ionic columns, and a Palladian bay window on its south side. Purchased by Judge Jonathan W. and Alliene Crudgington in 1920, it served as their family's residence until 1936, and then as the location of the Musical Arts Conservatory. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark- 1991