John Faires House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the John Faires House in Collin County. Now, 1854 was not a gentle time to be building something meant to last. But John Faires, born in 1801, a man who had made his way down from Tennessee to McKinney just three years prior, he wasn't building for the moment.

He was building for the generations. And the evidence is right there in the front door. Hand chiseled.

Not machine cut, not roughed out and called good enough; hand chiseled. The kind of work that tells you everything you need to know about the man who did it. Because John Faires wasn't only a homebuilder.

Near that same house, he put up a Blacksmith Shop, where he worked skillfully with both metal and wood. A man comfortable with fire and hammer, and equally at home with a chisel and a steady hand. That combination is rarer than you might think.

The house itself was built in the Greek Revival style: columns and clean lines, a nod to something classical standing out there on the Texas frontier. And here's the detail that gets me: that house, originally located one block to the west of where the marker stands today, stayed in the Faires family all the way until 1975. John Faires died in 1878, and his family held onto what he built for nearly a century after.

Some men leave money. Some leave land. John Faires left a hand-chiseled door, and a house that his people couldn't quite bring themselves to let go of.

What the marker says

This home was constructed in 1854 by John Faires (1801-1878), who had come to McKinney from Tennessee three years earlier. Near his home he built a Blacksmith Shop, where he worked skillfully with metal and wood. The hand chiseled front door of Faires' home reflects his Woodworking Craftsmanship. The Greek Revival Style House, originally located one block West, remained in the Faires Family until 1975.** Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984***