DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Hicks-Gregg House in Cameron County. Now, every house has its cast of characters, and this one right here went through a pretty good rotation before it found its name. It starts around 1909, when a Brownsville merchant and native son by the name of Frederick Hicks and his second wife, Zuleika Banton Blackshear — she hailed from Dublin, Texas, and worked as a social worker — put up this house together.
That's the kind of partnership that builds something meant to last. And from the look of the place, they weren't skimping. What they raised here is what architects call an American Foursquare, a symmetrical design rooted in the Prairie style.
You'd know it when you saw it: hipped roof up top, a dormer window peeking out, exposed rafter ends along the eaves, and out front, a full-length three-bay porch held up by Tuscan columns. There's even a bay window worked into the frame. Solid.
Considered. Built with some intention. But the Hickses didn't stay long.
Three years after they built it, they sold the place to a couple named Harry and Nellie Moler, who made it their home for eight years. Long enough to settle in, not quite long enough to leave their name on it. Then comes 1920, and that's when the story really finds its footing.
A banker and civic leader named John Gregg and his wife Lily bought the property. The Greggs, it turns out, were the ones who stuck. And they made the place their own — adding a sunroom that was designed to complement what was already there, not fight it.
That kind of restraint says something about a family. The house carries two names now — Hicks for the man who built it, Gregg for the family who gave it its character. Somewhere between a Dublin social worker's ambition and a banker's sunroom addition, this house became exactly what it was always going to be.
What the marker says
Merchant and Brownsville native Frederick Hicks and his second wife, social worker Zuleika Banton Blackshear of Dublin, Texas, built this house circa 1909. Three years later they sold the house to Harry and Nellie Moler, who lived here eight years. In 1920, banker and civic leader John Gregg and his wife Lily bought the property. The Hicks-Gregg House is an example of the American Foursquare design, a symmetrical type of the Prairie style. Prominent features of the frame residence include its hipped roof, dormer window, exposed rafter ends, full-length three-bay porch, Tuscan columns and bay window. The Greggs added a complementary sunroom addition during their ownership. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2007