DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Max Faget House and Workshop out in Galveston County. Now, most garages in Texas have seen some interesting projects come and go — a busted lawnmower here, a half-finished boat trailer there. But in 1969, in a workshop attached to a house along Dickinson Bayou, a man named Maxime Allan Faget was sketching out the design for a reusable spacecraft.
You might know it better as the Space Shuttle. Just a man, a garage, and an idea that would eventually leave the atmosphere. Literally.
Faget was born in 1921, and by 1946 he was already working for NASA's forerunner — the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, NACA — which tells you something about how early he got into this business. He went on to help design the Mercury spacecraft, then Gemini, then Apollo. The whole procession of American space travel has his fingerprints on it.
Now the house itself — this is where the story gets a little charming. Architect Herbert Hudler Jr. designed it in 1962, and here's the detail that stops you cold: he based it on Faget's own conceptual drawings. The man who designed spacecraft also had opinions about his living room.
The house sits in a modified rectangular plan, faced in buff brick, oriented toward the nearby Dickinson Bayou. And in his workshop, Faget didn't just think big — he also thought small. He often built balsa wood models of his designs and tested them right there on his property.
The engineer who helped carry Americans into space was out in his yard with balsa wood, working it out the patient, methodical way. He retired in 1981, and the marker says it plainly: Maxime Allan Faget is remembered as one of the essential engineers who led the United States into space. He passed in 2004.
The house is still there by the bayou — buff brick, quiet, ordinary-looking. Which is exactly the kind of place where extraordinary things tend to happen.
What the marker says
Architect Herbert Hudler Jr. designed this home in 1962 for NASA engineer Maxime Allan Faget (1921-2004) and his wife, Nancy, based on Faget's conceptual drawings. The modified rectangular plan is faced in buff brick, and the house is oriented to the nearby Dickinson Bayou. In 1946, Max Faget began working for NASA's forerunner, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). He helped design Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft, and developed the design for a reusable spacecraft (Space Shuttle) in his garage workshop in 1969. He often built balsa wood models of his designs to test in his workshop and on his property. Faget retired in 1981 and is remembered as one of the essential engineers who led the U.S. into space. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2020