Married Officers' Quarters 8-9

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker at Married Officers' Quarters Eight and Nine tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, limestone doesn't lie. You cut it rough, you stack it without coursing, and a hundred and fifty years later it's still standing out here in Kinney County, telling you exactly what it is, which is more than most things in life can claim.

This single-story duplex started its days as housing for married officers and their families at Fort Clark. Fort Clark itself went up in 1852, planted right here on the western frontier of Texas to hold the line against whatever the frontier and the border with Mexico might send. And the fort did its job; did it long enough, in fact, that by the eighteen-seventies it was growin' in a serious way.

The Army needed a regimental size garrison out here, and a regimental size garrison needs somewhere to sleep, somewhere to warm up, somewhere to be something other than soldiers for a few hours. So by 1875, they had built this place. Uncoursed, rough-cut limestone: not pretty in the fussy sense, but honest.

The kind of stone that says it means to stay. And the builders gave it a cross-hipped roof, and interior chimneys with double fireplaces, and a shape (a distinctive U-shape) that you don't forget once you've seen it. Two families living side by side under one sturdy roof, sharing the walls and the winters and whatever the frontier had to say about both.

Officers came and went. Families settled in, then moved on the way Army families do. The fort itself kept at it all the way to 1944, when it finally closed.

And then, as tends to happen with old buildings that refuse to fall down, later owners looked at this tough old duplex and saw something worth keeping and transformed it into a single family home. One house, two histories. And every bit of it written in limestone that wasn't going anywhere.

What the marker says

This single-story duplex once served as housing for married officers and their families at Fort Clark. The U.S. Army fort, established in 1852 to defend the western frontier of Texas and the border with Mexico, saw significant growth in the 1870s. To accommodate a regimental size garrison, the Army constructed living quarters such as this particular house. Built by 1875 out of uncoursed, rough-cut limestone, the building features a cross-hipped roof, interior chimneys with double fireplaces and a distinctive U-shape. The fort closed in 1944 and later owners transformed the quarters into a single family home. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2006