Pickle-Mason 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 Williamson County, there stands a house with a story built right into its bones, and the man who put those bones together was named Andrew Porter Pickle. Master carpenter.

Born in 1833, passed in 1908, and in between those two years he did what any self-respecting master carpenter would do. In 1871, he built a house. Not just any house, mind you.

He built it for his family, and he built it to last. Now, Andrew Porter Pickle knew a thing or two about structure, because what he put up wasn't quite one building and wasn't quite two. It was both.

Two structures under one roof, sitting there together like they'd made a quiet agreement to share the load. The rear part is dressed in shiplap siding, sturdy and plain, the way a working man might present himself on a Tuesday. But step around to the front, and the house puts on its Sunday clothes.

Milled siding. A five-bay facade. That house had range.

The Pickle family kept it close for decades, all the way until 1913, when it was sold to Augusta K. and Sarah Zora Mason Davis. And after their deaths, it stayed right there in the family. Some houses pass through hands like loose change.

This one got held onto. Two families, one roof, two kinds of siding, and over a hundred years of somebody deciding this particular place was worth keeping.

What the marker says

Master carpenter Andrew Porter Pickle (1833-1908) built this house for his family in 1871. It remained in the Pickle family until 1913, when it was sold to Augusta K. and Sarah Zora Mason Davis. Following their deaths, it remained in the family. The home consists of two structures under one roof. The rear part features shiplap siding and the front exhibits milled siding and a five-bay facade. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1988