DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the James L. Autry House. Now, every good Texas story starts somewhere else — and this one starts in Mississippi.
James L. Autry was born there in 1859, and by 1876 he had made his way to Corsicana. That's where he studied law, held civic offices, and found himself standing right at the edge of something enormous — the first oil discoveries in Texas.
You couldn't have picked a better corner to be standing in. Autry had an eye for where the future was headed. He became chief counsel for the Texas Co. — the outfit the world would eventually come to know as Texaco — and in doing so, he helped carve out a whole new field of law: petroleum law.
When the ground beneath Texas started giving up its secrets, Autry was the man sorting out who owned what and what it all meant. By 1912, this man who'd arrived in Texas at seventeen was commissioning an architectural firm — Sanguinet and Staats — to build him a home worthy of the life he'd built. And they delivered.
What went up was a Neoclassical design with a double balustraded gallery and large fluted Doric columns out front — the kind of columns that don't just hold up a roof, they make a statement. There's a porte-cochere for arrivals done in style, a fernery serving as a sunroom, and up top, a hipped Ludowici tile roof that caps the whole composition with quiet authority. Around back, the garage includes upstairs servants quarters, because a house of this scale had a full life running behind the scenes.
James L. Autry died in 1920, but this house — the one he commissioned, the one Sanguinet and Staats designed — is still standing in Harris County, those Doric columns holding their ground the same as ever.
What the marker says
MISSISSIPPI NATIVE JAMES L. AUTRY (1859-1920) MOVED TO CORSICANA IN 1876. THERE HE STUDIED LAW AND HELD CIVIC OFFICES AT THE TIME OF THE FIRST OIL DISCOVERIES IN TEXAS. HE WAS CHIEF COUNSEL FOR THE TEXAS CO. (LATER TEXACO) AND A PIONEER IN THE NEW FIELD OF PETROLEUM LAW. AUTRY COMMISSIONED SANGUINET AND STAATS TO DESIGN THIS HOME, WHICH WAS CONSTRUCTED IN 1912. THE NEOCLASSICAL DESIGN FEATURES A DOUBLE BALUSTRADED GALLERY AND LARGE FLUTED DORIC COLUMNS. ALSO PROMINENT ARE A PORTE-COCHERE AND FERNERY (SUNROOM), AND A HIPPED LUDOWICI TILE ROOF. THE REAR GARAGE HAS UPSTAIRS SERVANTS QUARTERS.