Old W. L. Nunnely Home

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just passin' it along. Way out in Red River County, there stands a home that was built in 1868 by a man named W. L.

Nunnely, and the way it was put together is worth stoppin' to appreciate. The builders took hand-hewn oak logs and laid them over bois d'arc wood blocks, then joined the whole thing with wooden pegs and square nails. Not a single shortcut in the lot.

The rooms inside run a full twenty-two by twenty feet, with oak floors underfoot and twelve-foot ceilings up above. You walk in and you feel the scale of the thing right away. And whoever did the carving, well, they had a point to make.

The ornate, hand-carved mantel carries a distinctive design that gets picked up again in the cornices and in the wainscoting, the half paneling running along the walls. The same hand, the same eye, the same intention, repeated throughout the house like a signature written more than once just to make sure you caught it. Now, the years have taken this place through more than one chapter.

From 1912 to 1927, the home served as a Baptist parsonage, and during those years it was the scene of hundreds of weddings. Hundreds. Couples stood in those tall, echoing rooms, under those carved cornices, and made their promises.

The house held every one of them. By the time Mr. and Mrs. J.

A. Strickland came to own it, the place needed care, and they gave it that care. They restored it.

A house built that deliberately, with that much intention pressed into every peg and every carved detail, deserved nothing less.

What the marker says

Built in 1868 by W. L. Nunnely. Hand-hewn oak logs over bois d'arc wood blocks are joined by wooden pegs and square nails. Spacious 22 x 20-foot rooms have oak floors and high, 12-foot ceilings. Distinctive design in ornate, hand-carved mantel is repeated in cornices and wainscoting (half paneling). As Baptist parsonage, 1912-1927, was scene of hundreds of weddings. Restored by Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Strickland, present owners. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1969