Porter House

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of the Porter House out on Porter's Prairie in Burleson County. Robert U. Porter was born in 1825, and when he was just eight years old, he came to Texas with his parents in 1833.

That's a long way to travel with a young child, and Texas was a very different place back then. He grew up here, put down roots, and when his father passed, Robert stepped into the role of running the family landholdings and farm operations. The land around this site came to carry the family name.

Porter's Prairie, they called it, and that name stuck. Robert Porter married his first wife, Sallie Choate, and together they raised seven children right here on this ground. Then he married his second wife, Araminta Roberson, and they had nine more children.

Sixteen children on one farmstead. You start to understand why the man needed a substantial house. And substantial it was.

The farmhouse they built here is what you'd call an imposing vernacular structure, with a double porch that reaches back in spirit to the Kentucky mansions Robert would have known in his childhood. Early Greek Revival influences, the kind of details a man remembers from the place he came from and tries to carry forward somewhere new. What makes this house something special, though, is what went into building it.

The hand-hewn oak floor joists and sills were brought in from Washington County. And family tradition says Robert Porter chose that lumber himself. He didn't leave it to someone else.

He went and picked it out. Robert Porter lived until 1899, and nearby, Porter's Chapel and Cemetery stand as further marks of a family that shaped this corner of Texas. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the farmstead still stands intact.

Some things, if you build them right and choose the lumber yourself, have a way of lasting.

What the marker says

Robert U. Porter (1825-1899) came to Texas with his parents in 1833. He took over the family landholdings and farm operations upon his father's death. The area around this site became known as Porter's Prairie. Robert Porter and his first wife, Sallie Choate, had 7 children here, and he and his second wife, Araminta Roberson, had 9 children. The imposing vernacular farmhouse's double porch echoes the Kentucky mansions of Robert Porter's childhood in its early Greek Revival influences. Characteristic elements of the house, such as hand-hewn oak floor joists and sills, were brought from Washington County, where family tradition says Porter chose the lumber himself. The farmstead remains intact at the dawn of the 21st century. Nearby are Porter's Chapel and Cemetery. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2000