Paul and Mahala Hackbarth House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Somewhere in Sealy, in Austin County, there stands a house that is really two stories in one. The first story you can see.

The second one, you have to know to look for. Let me give you both. In 1911, a house was completed for two people the community clearly thought well of: Paul and Mahala Hackbarth.

Civic leaders, the marker calls them, and in a town like Sealy that word carries weight. Now, the house itself is something. Concrete block construction, which was not exactly standard issue for the era.

Wraparound porch. Ionic columns sitting up on piers. Large wood sash windows letting in whatever Texas light was willing to cooperate.

Vernacular architecture, the experts call it, which is a formal way of saying this building grew from the place and the people who made it, not from some pattern book shipped in from somewhere else. And here is where the second story comes in. The Hackbarths ran a lumber company, one of the earliest businesses in Sealy.

And that company did something a little unusual. It promoted concrete blocks as a building material for local construction. So when Paul and Mahala built their own home in 1911 using that very method, it wasn't just a house.

It was the argument made solid. The Hackbarth Lumber Company said concrete blocks were worth building with, and the Hackbarths put their name, their address, and apparently their front porch on the line to prove it. That house has been standing in Sealy ever since, making the case without saying a word.

What the marker says

Completed in 1911 for civic leaders Paul and Mahala Hackbarth, this concrete block house is an unusual example of vernacular architecture. Prominent features include a wraparound porch, Ionic columns on piers, and large wood sash windows. The Hackbarth Lumber Company, one of the earliest businesses in Sealy, promoted the use of concrete blocks for local buildings, and this house is a fine example of that construction method. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1991