DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just as it stands. Now, out in Potter County there's a house with a story that starts not with one home, but two. Twin houses, side by side, built by two sisters who clearly decided that if you're going to do something, you do it together and you do it right.
The sisters were Mary Masterson Fain and Anna Belle Masterson Krister. Their family name carried some weight in this part of Texas — Robert and Ann Masterson, their parents, were pioneer ranchers with oil and gas holdings. Mary was the youngest of that line.
In 1930, the two sisters had their homes built. They didn't just pick a contractor out of a hat either. They brought in Walter Whitley of Dallas to design them.
And Whitley didn't just draw up two separate houses that happened to sit next to each other. No, he designed them to complement one another — blending elements of colonial revival architecture — because the idea, from the very beginning, was that these two houses were meant to be viewed as a whole. That's the thing that sticks with you.
Two sisters, two houses, one vision. The Masterson name runs through both of them, same as it always did. Side by side, just like they built it.
Some things are better in pairs.
What the marker says
This house and its "twin" next door were built by sisters Mary Masterson Fain and Anna Belle Masterson Krister. Designed by Walter Whitley of Dallas, the houses were built in 1930. Mary Fain was the youngest daughter of Robert and Ann Masterson, pioneer ranchers with oil and gas holdings. The house blends elements of colonial revival architecture and was meant to complement the adjoining house, and they were meant to be viewed as a whole. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1996