Old Judge Allegre House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Picture a man who shows up in a Texas town in 1869 with, apparently, a whole lot going on inside him. His name was Warren Allegre, born in 1849, and when he rolled into this corner of Freestone County he didn't come in small.

He ran a drugstore nearby. He gave music lessons. He dispensed legal advice.

Now I want you to sit with that combination for just a moment, because that is a man who could tend to just about any ailment you walked through the door with, whether it was a cough, a chord you couldn't finger, or a property dispute with your neighbor. Warren Allegre was, by any reasonable measure, a one-man civilization. And the town agreed with that assessment, because they eventually made him justice of the peace, and then they went ahead and made him mayor on top of that.

Around 1895, he built himself a house to match the size of all that ambition. A proper Victorian house, the kind that announces itself. The foundations and the fireplaces were laid in handmade brick.

The stair rail and some of the woodwork were handcarved. And then, because Warren Allegre was clearly not a man who did anything halfway, two of the rooms are octagonal. Not square.

Octagonal. The house sat with that quiet confidence for decades, holding onto every bit of what Allegre had put into it. Then in 1968, Mr. and Mrs.

W. R. Beaver, the owners at that time, restored the old place.

They saw what it was worth and they did right by it. Old Judge Allegre built a house with eight-sided rooms and a handcarved stair, and somehow it feels exactly right for a man who came to town in 1869 and just kept adding angles to his life.

What the marker says

Built about 1895 by Warren Allegre, who ran a drugstore nearby. Born in 1849, he came to this town in 1869. Here he gave music lessons and dispensed legal advice. Was later justice of the peace and mayor. This typical Victorian house has foundations and fireplaces of handmade brick. Stair rail and some woodwork are handcarved; 2 rooms are octagonal. Present owners, Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Beaver, restored home, 1968. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1969