Price House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just along for the ride. Now, McKinney, Texas has seen its share of ambitious folks put down roots and build something worth talking about, and Walter T. Price was cut from that cloth.

Walter married Kate Page in 1901, and the two of them settled into a life that, by any measure, was well built from the start. Walter made a name for himself as a pharmacist and real estate agent in McKinney, then shifted gears into drug sales, the kind of career that kept a man moving and a household comfortable. Kate, for her part, wasn't sitting idle.

She was deep in the civic life of the community, clubs and activities woven through her days like thread through good fabric. By 1907, Walter and Kate were ready to put something permanent on West Louisiana Street. They contracted with architect John M.

Martin to design and build a one-story home, and Martin delivered. Clean lines, a hipped roof, doric porch columns, the whole thing carrying that asymmetrical prairie style that says a family means business without having to raise its voice. Now, a lesser story might end there.

But Walter Price was not done. In 1922, he directed a significant expansion of that home. A second story went up.

Rear additions came onto the first story. New windows opened the place to light it hadn't seen before. The house grew the way a life does, deliberately, ambitiously, one considered decision at a time.

And here's what the marker wants you to sit with. Walter, born in 1875, and Kate, born in 1877, lived in that home on West Louisiana Street until their deaths. Both of them departed this world in 1956.

The house they built together, expanded together, and filled with a life together outlasted them both, and it's still standing in McKinney, Collin County, asking every passerby to slow down and notice what a couple of determined people can leave behind.

What the marker says

After marrying Kate Page (1877-1956) in 1901, Walter T. Price (1875-1956) became a successful McKinney pharmacist and real estate agent before transitioning into a drug sales representative. Kate participated in numerous clubs and civic activities. In 1907, the couple contracted with architect John M. Martin to design and build a one-story home on West Louisiana Street. In 1922, Price directed a significant expansion, including adding a second story, rear additions to the first story, and new windows. Walter and Kate lived in the home until their deaths. The asymmetrical prairie-style home features a hipped roof and doric porch columns. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK - 2023