Howard House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, if you ever find yourself rolling through Calvert in Robertson County, keep your eyes open for a house that seems to have been built by someone who believed more was more, and then doubled down. We're talking about the Howard House, an Eastlake style cottage that went up in 1897.

And the woman behind it was Mrs. S. M.

Howard, who had purchased the property just the year before, in 1896, from her sister-in-law, Mrs. E. C.

Morse. One year between buying the land and raising that house. She did not waste time.

Now, the marker wants you to know about the features, and friend, the features deserve their own moment. Fishscale shingling. Say that out loud.

Fishscale shingling, running up the sides of this cottage like something conjured out of a fever dream of Victorian craftsmanship. Then there is the wide veranda, wrapped in what the marker calls intricate gingerbread ornamentation. And inside, woodwork detailing that kept whoever did the finishing work busy for a good long while.

This was Calvert at the turn of the century, and the Howard House stood as representative of exactly that moment in time. The house stayed in the Howard family all the way through to the 1940s. Mrs.

S. M. Howard, who passed in 1932, never saw it leave the family name.

And in its own quiet way, that house on that street has been holdin' its ground in Calvert ever since.

What the marker says

This Eastlake style cottage was constructed by Mrs. S. M. Howard (d. 1932) in 1897, one year after she purchased the property from her sister-in-law Mrs. E. C. Morse. The home's outstanding features include fishscale shingling, a wide veranda with intricate gingerbread ornamentation, and interior woodwork detailing. Representative of Calvert at the turn of the century, the house remained in the Howard family until the 1940s. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1982