Kuykendall House

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the Kuykendall House. Now, some houses just sit there. And then some houses have a story worth pulling over for.

This one, out in McLennan County, is the second kind. It starts in 1881, when a man named Dr. P.M.

Kuykendall, born in 1855, bought a piece of land that had once belonged to a fellow named Joseph Naler. Just a land transaction, you might say. Unremarkable on its face.

But Dr. Kuykendall, he was a patient man. A physician, after all.

He knew how to wait for the right moment. Because he didn't build right away. He sat on that land for nearly two decades.

And then, in 1900, he did something that would've turned heads up and down the county road. He ordered architectural plans straight out of St. Louis.

A St. Louis architect. For a house in central Texas.

Now that tells you something about the kind of man Dr. Kuykendall was. A man with ambitions that outpaced the nearest city limits.

What went up on that land was a Victorian residence with Queen Anne style detailing, and if that sounds fancy, well, it was meant to. Fish scale shingling on the exterior, the kind of craftsmanship that makes you stop mid-sentence and just look. Dr.

Kuykendall wasn't just building a showplace, though. He was a prominent physician, the kind of man a community leans on. He helped found the Moody Masonic Lodge.

He served on the Jefferson Academy Board. He was woven into the fabric of the place. And filling that fine house with him were his wife Ella Naylor McLeod and their four children.

A family, in a home built with intention, on land with history, from plans that traveled a long way to find their purpose. Not bad for a piece of ground that once belonged to Joseph Naler.

What the marker says

In 1881 Dr. P.M. Kuykendall (b. 1855) bought this land which once belonged to Joseph Naler. This Victorian residence with Queen Anne style detailing and fish scale shingling was built in 1900 using plans ordered from a St. Louis architect. A prominent physician, Dr. Kuykendall helped found Moody Masonic Lodge and served on the Jefferson Academy Board. He and his wife Ella Naylor (McLeod) and their four children occupied this home.