Honaker-Holsonbake House

Duane's take

The official marker's the word on this one, and here's how I tell it. Now, every good house has a story, and some houses have two or three stacked right on top of each other, which, as it happens, is almost literally what happened here in Farmersville. Back in 1893, a prominent businessman named John Milburn Honaker and his wife Malinda (she was a Bickley before she took that name) they built themselves a Queen Anne home right on this very site.

And if you know anything about Queen Anne architecture, you know it's a style that does not believe in doing things quietly. So right from the start, this place had presence. But John Milburn Honaker was not a man to leave well enough alone, and in 1910 he and Malinda went back at it; remodeling the house in a Neoclassical style, adding a full second floor, a two-story porch, Doric columns, and an oblong balcony.

That is not a renovation. That is a statement. Then the story turns somber.

Malinda died in 1913, and for a few years John was left with his three daughters and a house that must have felt considerably larger than it used to. In 1917 he married again: Carrie, who happened to be Malinda's own sister. But John died just months after that wedding, leaving Carrie to raise those three daughters in the house the family had built and rebuilt together.

Now Carrie eventually sold the place, and here's where the Holsonbakes enter the picture. The buyer was Willie (Willie Honaker, a niece) and her husband Bob Holsonbake. And the Holsonbakes, it turns out, were exactly the kind of family a house like this deserved.

They were known for generously housing area teachers, for hosting special events, for keeping the doors open and the place alive. They held onto it all the way until 1977. Today this landmark stands as a link to early Farmersville society: two families, two styles of architecture, and more than eighty years of a home that kept showing up for the people around it.

Some houses just have that in them.

What the marker says

Prominent businessman John Milburn Honaker and his wife Malinda (Bickley) built a Queen-Anne home at this site in 1893. They extensively remodeled the house in 1910 in a Neoclassical style, adding a full second floor and two-story porch with Doric columns and oblong balcony. After Malinda's death in 1913, John wed her sister Carrie in 1917; he died just months after the wedding, leaving his three daughters with his widow. She sold the house to niece Willie (Honaker) and Bob Holsonbake. Known for generously housing area teachers and for hosting special events, the Holsonbake family owned the home until 1977. Today, the landmark is a link to early Farmersville society. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2005