James and Missouri Hurry House

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and here's how I'll tell it to you. Somewhere in Grimes County, there's a house with a story worth slowin' down for. The James and Missouri Hurry House.

And the name alone ought to make you curious about the people who built it. James Monroe Hurry was born in Alabama in 1857, and he made his way to Texas, where he found himself a wife. Missouri Valunia Woodcock, a Georgia native, and together they were the kind of couple that gets things done.

Around 1904, James and Missouri needed more room. Their family was growin', and a growin' family needs a proper house. Now here's the part that tells you something about the community they lived in: they didn't build that house alone.

Several of their neighbors pitched in and helped raise it. That right there is a sentence worth sittin' with for a moment. Neighbors.

Helping. That was the texture of life in early twentieth century rural Texas. What they built together was no thrown-together structure either.

The Hurry House is what folks who study such things call vernacular architecture, typical of its era, but it came out with genuine bungalow detailing, a full porch, and an L-plan design that gives it real character. And the integrity of that original construction, it held. It held for decades.

The house stayed in the Hurry family all the way until 1962. James Monroe Hurry himself lived until 1941. He saw that house stand for nearly four decades of his own life.

Missouri Valunia beside him through it all. Sometimes the most lasting thing a person builds isn't a legend. It's just a well-made house, raised with the help of good neighbors, that keeps standin' long after everyone who remembers the buildin' of it is gone.

What the marker says

Alabama native James Monroe Hurry (1857-1941) and his wife Missouri Valunia Woodcock, a native of Georgia, built this house with the assistance of several of their neighbors about 1904 to support their growing family. Typical of early 20th century vernacular architecture, the Hurry House retains a high level of integrity and features bungalow detailing and a full porch in its L-plan design. The house remained in the Hurry family until 1962. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1992