Marvin E. and Retta Ann Blackburn House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some houses just sit there on their lot, minding their business. And then there are houses that seem to have been *built* for a life already in motion; and friend, the Blackburn house in Junction, Texas, is very much the second kind.

Marvin E. Blackburn came out of Collin County, rode into Junction in 1902 to take up the post of County Attorney, and (here's the thing) he never really left. Once Junction had him, it kept him.

He stayed on to practice law, climbed to District Judge, and then went and served four terms as a state legislator. That is not a man passing through. That is a man who looked around, liked what he saw, and went to work.

And somewhere in the middle of all that legal wrangling and lawmaking, he and his wife Retta Ann (she was a Daugherty before she was a Blackburn) they built themselves a house. Nineteen fourteen, according to family history, this place went up. Now I want you to picture it, because the house itself is worth your attention.

Architects and historians will tell you it sits right at the crossroads of two styles: Queen Anne on one side, Colonial Revival on the other, like the building itself couldn't quite decide which era it belonged to, and so it just claimed both. You've got a double gallery porch wrapping around it like the house is ready to receive company at any hour. Paired windows.

Tripartite windows up in the gable catching the Hill Country light. And around that central doorway, sidelights and transoms framing the entrance like it expects someone important to walk through, and given the man who lived there, maybe it usually did. Marvin and Retta Ann raised eleven children inside those walls.

Eleven. Between the courtrooms and the capitol and whatever a man does with four legislative terms, they raised eleven kids in this house. There's a whole world in that number, and the house held every bit of it.

Some places earn their markers. This one earned a family legend.

What the marker says

Collin County native Marvin E. Blackburn came to Junction in 1902 to serve as County Attorney, and he remained to practice law and serve as District Judge and four terms as a state legislator. He and his wife, Retta Ann (Daugherty), reared 11 children in this house, built in 1914 according to family history. The building's design represents a transition between Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles. Features include a double gallery porch, paired windows, tripartite windows in the gable, and sidelights and transoms around the central doorway. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2004