Hough-Haven

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Edwards County, there's a place called Hough-Haven, and if those walls could talk, friend, they'd have stories that'd keep a campfire going till sunrise. The house went up in 1897, built by Samuel A.

Hough and his wife Annie Bradford Hough, a couple who clearly had plans for this corner of Texas. Now, Samuel wasn't just any man with lumber and ambition. He was one of the first graduates of Texas A&M, which tells you something right there about the kind of household this was going to be.

You don't put that kind of foundation under a home (educational and literal) without meaning to build something that lasts. And last it did. Hough-Haven became home to attorneys, to two county judges, to district clerks.

The law practically had a permanent chair at the dinner table. Whatever was being decided in Edwards County, there's a good chance somebody who decided it had walked through that front door. And it wasn't all business, either.

The Haven earned its name. Numerous social events filled those rooms over the years; the kind of gatherings that give a place its soul. Now here's the part that lands a little differently than most old-house stories.

When that marker went up, the Houghs still owned the Haven. Same family. Same house since 1897.

Some things in Texas get sold off, carved up, or just forgotten by time. Hough-Haven? It held on, and so did the family that built it.

What the marker says

Built 1897 by Samuel A. and Annie Bradford Hough. (Hough was one of first graduates, Texas A & M) Home of attorneys, two county judges, district clerks. Scene of numerous social events. The Houghs still own the "Haven." Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966.