DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. Now, some houses just sit there. Four walls, a roof, maybe a porch — they don't ask much of you and you don't ask much of them.
But then there are houses that are trying to say something, and the James and Leanna Walsh House in Tarrytown, Austin, has been making its case for a good long while. Let me tell you what it's sayin'. The style is Mission Revival — think sweeping curved gable parapet, low-pitched tile roofs, a shaded porch with a corbel arch entry, multi-light windows letting the Texas light do its thing.
And those tiles on the roof? Red, Spanish-style clay. The limestone walls?
Quarried from a nearby source. This house did not come from far away. It came from the land right around it.
Now, the man who had this place built was James Martin Walsh, born in 1882, the third son of William J. Walsh — an Irish immigrant who'd made his name in Texas as a local lime manufacturer. Third son.
Not the first, not the second. The third. And yet James Walsh went right ahead and carried on the family business at Austin White Lime Company, and beyond that, he assisted in the development of the Austin area.
His wife, Leanna — born Brunner, she was, in 1881 — shared this house with him. James lived until 1944. Leanna until 1956.
Together they are part of the story this house keeps telling. There's something fitting about it, really. A lime manufacturer's son builds his home out of limestone.
The land provides the material, the family provides the legacy, and a house in Tarrytown quietly holds onto both — long after the people who built it are gone.
What the marker says
Located in Tarrytown, this Mission Revival style house features limestone quarried from a nearby source and red, Spanish-style clay roof tiles. Built for James Martin Walsh (1882-1944), third son of local lime manufacturer and Irish immigrant William J. Walsh, and James' wife Leanna (Brunner) Walsh (1881-1956), the house possesses several defining characteristics, including the curved gable parapet, low pitched tile roofs, shaded porch with corbel arch entry and multi-light windows. James Walsh carried on the family business at Austin White Lime Company and assisted in the development of the Austin area. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2016