DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Way back in 1912, a man named Sven Axel Philquist — Sweden native, local district clerk, and later clerk of the Texas Supreme Court — decided it was time to build a proper family home. Now, a man with a résumé like that wasn't about to hire just anybody.
He brought in F. Oscar Blomquist, a Swedish builder, to do the work. Two Swedes, one vision, and what they put up together is still standing.
That alone ought to tell you something. The house that rose from that project didn't settle on a single style — it landed somewhere between several, a transitional hybrid is what they call it, carrying influences of the Queen Anne, the Colonial Revival, and the Craftsman traditions all at once. Step inside and there's an inglenook waiting for you.
Step outside and your eyes find paired box columns, tripartite window groupings, dormers, and gables. It's the kind of place that makes you slow down and actually look. The house passed through several owners after the Philquist family, the way old houses do, each one a chapter the walls could tell.
Then in 1943, a grocer named Sam Wood bought it — and the Wood family held on to that home for more than fifty years. More than half a century in one family's hands. The original detailing survived all of it, every decade, every transition, right down to today.
Some houses just know how to endure.
What the marker says
Sweden native Sven Axel Philquist, local district clerk and later clerk of the Texas Supreme Court, hired Swedish builder F. Oscar Blomquist to build this family home in 1912. Following several subsequent owners, grocer Sam Wood purchased the house in 1943; it remained in the Wood family for more than 50 years. Today, the home exhibits its original detailing as a transitional hybrid, with influences of the Queen Anne, Colonial Revival and Craftsman styles. The interior features an inglenook, and the exterior details include paired box columns, tripartite window groupings, dormers and gables. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2003