McMichael-Wilson House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, far as I can reckon. Now, 1904 was a busy year in Bryan, Brazos County. Somebody had a house to build, and somebody had the means to build it.

That somebody was George Washington McMichael, a lumberman and the clerk of Brazos County, born in 1854 and gone by 1904, the same year his Queen Anne style home went up. There's something quietly remarkable about that. A man commissions a house, and the house outlasts him before the year is even done.

McMichael never got to settle in for long, but the house he left behind was something to see. A corner turret reaching up like it had a point to make. A wraparound porch wide enough to hold a conversation or avoid one.

A pedimented entrance dressed up proper, and a corner pavilion capped with a conical roof that gives the whole place a look like it's wearing a hat. In 1912, the house passed to Alfred Flournoy Wilson, a prominent planter, and the Wilson family held onto it for nearly sixty years. Nearly sixty years of that turret catching the light, that porch collecting the breeze, that conical roof keeping watch over Bryan.

Some houses are just buildings. This one's a landmark, and the marker says so plain.

What the marker says

Constructed in 1904 for lumberman and Brazos County clerk George Washington McMichael (1854-1904), this Queen Anne style home was purchased in 1912 by prominent planter Alfred Flournoy Wilson. It remained in the Wilson family for nearly 60 years. Outstanding features of the Bryan landmark are its corner turret, wraparound porch, pedimented entrance, and corner pavilion with conical roof. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1985