Penn House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Out in Eastland County, there stands a farmhouse with a story built right into its walls. Literally.

We're talking about the Penn House, a Cumberland-plan vernacular farmhouse, and the man who made it happen was Velzie W. Penn. Born in 1876, Velzie didn't hire some big outfit to come put up his home.

He called on his brothers, he called on his neighbors, and together they raised that house up between 1898 and 1899. Three large rooms and a porch. That was the beginning.

Simple, solid, intentional. The kind of place built to last. And last it did.

Velzie and his wife Addie made that house their home for over fifty years. Over fifty years. Four sons came into this world inside those walls, every one of them born right there in that house.

Now, somewhere along the way the home was enlarged, grew a little as homes do when life fills them up. But here is the part that sticks with you. In 1933, Velzie Penn gathered stone right off his own farm, local stone from the land he already knew and worked, and he rocked the exterior of that house with it.

Not hired out, not brought in from somewhere else. His farm, his hands. The man who built the house in the first place came back decades later and gave it a whole new face, one that would outlast just about everything.

Velzie Penn passed in 1954. The house is still there. Some things you build just refuse to let go.

What the marker says

This Cumberland-plan vernacular farmhouse was built in 1898-1899 by Velzie W. Penn (1876-1954) with the help of his brothers and neighbors. Penn and his wife Addie, who lived here for over fifty years, were the parents of four sons, all of whom were born in the house. Originally consisting of three large rooms and a porch, the home was later enlarged. In 1933 the house was rocked with local stone gathered on the farm by Velzie Penn. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1988