McKellar House

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'm gonna do my best to do it justice. Out here in Kaufman County, there's a house that carries a family name going back to 1873, and if these walls could talk, they'd probably take their time, because a house this particular has earned the right to be unhurried. This is the McKellar House.

John Alexander McKellar, landowner, merchant, born in 1813, he's the one who put it up. Raised it from the ground in 1873, just two years before he died in 1875. Now, that's a man who built for the future, not for himself.

He barely got to enjoy it. His son, B. Yancy McKellar, born in 1859, he came along later and took what his father left him and made it into something that would stop you in your tracks.

Around 1902, B. Yancy remodeled the place into the colonial revival structure you can see standing there today. And when they say remodeled, friend, they mean it.

Two-story giant order columns on the north and west facades, topped with modified Ionic capitals. Stained glass windows catching whatever light Kaufman County is willing to offer. A wraparound porch that just invites you to slow down and reconsider your whole afternoon.

B. Yancy McKellar, who lived until 1916, left behind something that outlasted him by decades and kept right on outlasting. The home stayed in McKellar hands all the way until 1977, over a hundred years after John Alexander first broke ground.

Three generations of a family name, pressed into columns and glass and good Texas wood. Some legacies you build in stone. Some you build in the way a porch wraps all the way around a house, like it's trying to hold everything together just a little while longer.

What the marker says

Originally built in 1873 by landowner and merchant John Alexander McKellar (1813-1875), this house was remodeled to its current appearance by his son, B. Yancy McKellar (1859-1916) about 1902. Features of the colonial revival structure include two-story giant order columns with modified Ionic capitals on the north and west facades, stained glass windows, and a wraparound porch. The home remained in the McKellar family until 1977. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1989