DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the McCampbell House in Corpus Christi, Nueces County. Now, some houses just sit there on their lots, quiet and unremarkable, and some houses have a story that reaches right out and grabs you by the collar. The McCampbell House on Water Street — that's the kind that grabs.
It starts in 1908. Mary Alice Ward McCampbell, a widow with three sons and presumably her whole life still ahead of her, purchased a piece of land at 1421 Water Street. This was the old Irishtown section of Corpus Christi, right there on beachfront property overlooking Corpus Christi Bay.
She hired a local architect and builder by the name of William F. Bowles to design and build a home for herself and those three boys. A fresh start, a new house, a view of the bay.
It must have felt like something. Life moved on. Mary later married a man named G.E.
Wilkinson. The house stood. The years passed.
And then came 1919. Now, if you know anything about South Texas coastal history, that year rings a bell, and not a gentle one. The hurricane of 1919 ravaged Corpus Christi — and the McCampbell House, sitting right there on beachfront property, was in about as precarious a position as a house can be.
You can picture it: floodwaters creeping up, then climbing, until they covered the entire first floor of that structure. And where was Mary? She and her sons were watching from the porch on the second story.
The second story. One floor of buffer between the family and the Gulf of Mexico's full fury. The house survived.
That's the remarkable part — the structure held. But family tradition holds that Mary contracted pneumonia while watching that storm from the porch. And in early 1920, she died of the disease.
She'd outlasted the hurricane. Just not by much. After their mother's death, the McCampbell sons left Corpus Christi to attend military schools.
But here's the thing — they all came back. Every one of them returned to the city, and the house stayed in the family all the way until 1945. It went through a period as rental property after that, and then in 1984 the city acquired it and relocated it to Heritage Park.
A house that watched a hurricane swallow its first floor, and still it stands. Mary Alice Ward McCampbell chose well when she hired William F. Bowles.
The storm took plenty from Corpus Christi in 1919. It didn't take that house. And it didn't take the story — which, as you can hear, is still very much alive.
What the marker says
Mary Alice Ward McCampbell, widow of William Berry McCampbell, purchased land at 1421 Water Street in the old Irishtown section of Corpus Christi in 1908. Soon thereafter she hired local architect and builder William F. Bowles to design and build a home for herself and her three sons. Mrs. McCampbell later married G.E. Wilkinson. Located on beachfront property overlooking Corpus Christi Bay, the McCampbell house was in a precarious position when the hurricane of 1919 ravaged the city. As Mary and her sons watched from the porch on the second story, floodwaters rose to cover the first floor of the structure. Although the house survived the storm, family tradition holds that Mary contracted pneumonia while watching the storm and died of the disease in early 1920. After their mother's death, the McCampbell sons left Corpus Christi to attend military schools. They all returned to the city, however, and the house remained in the family until 1945. After a period of use as rental property, it was acquired by the city and relocated to Heritage Park in 1984.