DUANE
Duane's take
Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'll do my best to do it justice. A Houston cotton broker named John M. Dorrance — born in 1852, lived all the way to 1935 — decided in 1914 that his family deserved something special.
Not just a house. A statement. So he turned to the noted Fort Worth architectural firm of Sanguinet and Staats, and what they gave him was something that must have made the neighbors slow their horses to a stop.
Mediterranean architecture, right there in Houston, Texas. Now think about that for a second. You're walking down the street, expecting the usual, and then — arched windows.
Arched door openings. A tile roof catchin' the Gulf Coast sun. Stucco finish smooth as anything.
It didn't look like it belonged to this side of the Atlantic, and that was very much the point. Sanguinet and Staats weren't just any firm. The marker calls them noted, and they earned that word.
They took Dorrance's vision and built something outstanding — that's the marker's word too, and I'll stand by it. Cotton had been good to John M. Dorrance.
Good enough to commission this, good enough to keep it in the family for nearly three decades after he was gone. The Dorrance family held onto that house until 1941. Three generations living under that tile roof, under those arches, in a piece of Fort Worth design sitting on Houston ground.
Some houses outlast their stories. This one kept the story alive.
What the marker says
(1852-1935) An early Houston cotton broker and business and civic leader, had this home built for his family in 1914. Designed by the noted Fort Worth architectural firm of Sanguinet and Staats, the house is an outstanding example of Mediterranean architecture. Prominent features of the structure include its arched windows and door openings, tile roof, and stucco finish. It remained in the Dorrance family until 1941. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1991