DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do my best to do it justice. Now, picture this — it's the late 1920s, Houston is humming, and if you were somebody in that city, you wanted a place to escape to. Somewhere out on Galveston Bay where the fish were biting and the week's troubles could dissolve into salt air.
The little city of Shoreacres became exactly that kind of place. Families started throwing up weekend homes out there — modest little getaways folks called fish camps. Nothing too fancy.
Or so the story usually went. Isaiah P. Walker had other ideas.
Walker was vice-president of the Stowers Furniture Company, a Houston-based furniture retail establishment, which is to say this was a man who knew something about how a place ought to look and feel. In 1928, he and his wife Annie purchased a tract of land from Shoreacres Realty, Inc. — and what they had in mind was not exactly your typical fish camp. They hired their son-in-law, Preston Plumb, Jr., to build the thing.
Now Plumb knew his way around a grand house. He and his father had built Tudor Revival homes over in West University Place, that refined community near Rice University. And that tradition — that sensibility — is exactly what Plumb brought to the shores of Galveston Bay.
The home was completed in 1932. Two stories tall, its exterior facade cut from thick rough stone. And rising above the roofline — a turret.
An actual turret, encasing a spiral staircase, giving the whole structure the unmistakable silhouette of a castle. Neighbors took one look and started calling it Little Castle. Some called it the Tree House.
Both names stuck, and once you know why, you understand they were both exactly right. Because here is where the story gets genuinely remarkable. Framing the porch on the south side of the house stand four concrete pine trees.
Not real trees. Molded cement columns, crafted to look like pine — bark, texture, and all. This technique goes by the name faux bois, which is French for false wood, and the style these columns follow is known as el trabajo rustico — the rustic work — popularized during this very period by the Mexican artist Dionicio Rodriguez.
Someone looked at a bay-side weekend house and said: we need four concrete trees holding up this porch, made in the tradition of a celebrated artist. And they were right. The Walker House is the only known residence in all of Harris County to use these faux bois columns.
And more than that, it is the oldest extant fish camp residence in Shoreacres — the last one standing from that whole era of weekend escapes and summer Saturdays on the bay. Everyone else built a fish camp. Isaiah and Annie Walker built a Little Castle with stone walls, a turret, a spiral staircase, and four concrete pine trees standing guard on the porch.
Recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 2012. Some folks go to the bay to get away from it all. The Walkers went to leave something behind.
What the marker says
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, the city of Shoreacres became a weekend haven for residents of nearby Houston. Families built weekend homes, referred to as fish camps, where they could enjoy fishing and boating activities on Galveston Bay. Isaiah P. Walker, vice-president of a Houston-based furniture retail establishment, the Stowers Furniture Company, purchased a tract of land from Shoreacres Realty, Inc. in 1928 with his wife, Annie, for the construction of their own weekend home. Now nicknamed “Little Castle” and “Tree House,” the home was completed in 1932 and demonstrates popular architectural influences from the period in which it was built, as well as unique design elements that continue to set it apart from neighboring homes. The Walkers hired their son-in-law, Preston Plumb, Jr. to construct the home in a style reminiscent of the Tudor Revival homes Plumb and his father built in the community of West University Place near Rice University. The two-story home’s exterior facade is constructed of thick stone, cut in rough form. A turret rising over the roof, encasing a spiral staircase, gives the home a castle-like appearance. The most prominent and distinct features of the Walker home are four concrete “faux bois” pine trees that frame the porch on the south side of the house. These molded cement columns were made in the style of “el trabajo rustico,” popularized during this period by the Mexican artist Dionicio Rodriguez. The Walker House is the only known residence in Harris County to utilize these unique “faux bois” columns and is the oldest extant fish camp residence in Shoreacres. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark – 2012