DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Back in 1895, a man named Greene Duke Tarlton set out to build himself a house. Now, Tarlton was a noted attorney, born in 1852, come up from Louisiana, and when he decided to build, he did not build small.
What went up was a Victorian-style home, and by the accounts recorded on that marker, it was one of the finest in town. Let that settle for a moment. One of the finest in town.
In 1895, that was a statement. The kind of statement a noted attorney from Louisiana tends to make when he's got something to prove, or maybe just good taste. Hard to say which is more dangerous.
The mantels inside were hand-carved. The windows were stained glass. And if you wanted to holler down to the kitchen from the third-floor bedroom, well, you didn't have to holler at all, because this house had a speaking tube running between the two.
A speaking tube. You could whisper from the third floor and be heard clear down in the kitchen. That's not a house, that's a conversation.
And it had a dumbwaiter on top of that, moving things between floors without a word. Meanwhile, out on the back porch, a cistern supplied cool water the whole year round. Not just summer.
All year. On the grounds you'd find a grape arbor, an orchard, and a garden. Out back, a stable and a coach house.
Greene Duke Tarlton, who lived from 1852 to 1931, built himself a world on that lot. The whole operation, the speaking tube, the stained glass, the cool water in the heat of a Texas summer, all of it. Somebody named Dana L.
Bennett came along later and restored it, and the story got its proper ending. Some houses, when they're cared for, keep right on talking.
What the marker says
Victorian style. Built in 1895 by noted attorney Greene Duke Tarlton (1852-1931), from Louisiana. House was one of finest in town, with hand-carved mantels, stained glass windows, "speaking tube" between kitchen and third floor bedroom, and a dumbwaiter. Cistern on back porch supplied cool water all year round. Outbuildings included stable and coach house. On grounds were grape arbor, orchard, and garden. Restored by Dana L. Bennett. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark -- 1972