DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some houses just stand there. This one's been standin' since about 1872, and it has watched Salado change hands, change generations, and change its mind more than once about what a fine building ought to look like.
The Norton-Orgain House — and that name alone carries a story on each end of the hyphen. Let's start at the beginning. A man named Edward R.A.
Buckles built this place, an I-plan vernacular house, which is a fancy way of saying it followed a time-tested floor plan. But don't let the word vernacular fool you — Buckles dressed it up. That two-story gallery out front is something to behold.
Ground level, you've got Doric columns, sturdy and classical, the kind that say we are serious people in a serious place. Then you climb to the second level, and the whole mood shifts — Victorian turned wood columns and balusters, more ornate, more theatrical. Two styles, two stories, one porch.
Make of that what you will. Now, Buckles didn't linger long. He sold the house in 1873, barely a year after the mortar had dried, to Colonel Nimrod Lindsay Norton and his wife Mary, whose maiden name was Hall.
Colonel Norton was a Confederate veteran, and when he settled in Salado, he did not sit idle. He was active in agricultural activities during his time there, and he became a charter member of the local grange. But here is where this story takes a turn that'll make you look at the Texas State Capitol a little differently the next time you're standing in front of it.
Colonel Norton was a member of the Capitol Building Commission — and he donated granite for the Capitol exterior from a quarry he co-owned, over in Burnet County. Those stones that have been holding up that dome and facing down the Texas sun for well over a century? Some of that rock came through Colonel Norton.
He passed in 1903. In 1882, before that day came, Norton sold the Salado property to John and Kate Orgain. Kate's maiden name was Galvin.
And if Colonel Norton brought the granite that built the Capitol, the Orgains brought something else to Salado — they brought education. John served as County School Superintendent. Kate taught at Salado College and Thomas Arnold High School, and she was a published author to boot.
Prominent educators, the marker calls them, and prominent they were for many years. The Orgains resided in that house — Buckles' house, Norton's house, their house — until 1907. After the Orgains moved on, the house kept living, the way good houses do.
Subsequent owners used it as a residence, as a boardinghouse, as an inn. It has worn several lives without losing its shape. Those Doric columns on the ground floor are still standing at attention.
Those Victorian balusters upstairs are still doing their delicate little dance. And the Norton-Orgain House remains, as the marker says, a prominent local landmark in Salado — which, if you ask me, is exactly what a house built about 1872 with that kind of pedigree has earned the right to be.
What the marker says
Built about 1872 by Edward R.A. Buckles, this I-plan vernacular house exhibits Classical and Victorian detailing. Its two-story gallery features Doric columns on the ground level, which contrast with the Victorian turned wood columns and balusters located above. Residing here only a short time, Edward Buckles sold the house in 1873 to Colonel Nimrod Lindsay Norton (d. 1903) and his wife Mary (Hall). Colonel Norton, a Confederate veteran, was active in agricultural activities during his residence in Salado and was a charter member of the local grange. He was also a member of the Capitol Building Commission, and donated granite for the Capitol exterior from a quarry he co-owned in Burnet County. In 1882, Colonel Norton sold the property to John and Kate (Galvin) Orgain, prominent educators in Salado for many years. John served as County School Superintendant; Kate taught at Salado College and Thomas Arnold High School and was a published author. The Orgains resided here until 1907. Used primarily as a residence by subsequent property owners, the house has also been used as a boardinghouse and inn. It remains a prominent local landmark. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1991