Proctor-Green House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm going to let that story breathe a little. This is Duane, and we're talking about the Proctor-Green House in Cuero, DeWitt County, Texas. Pull over if you need to, because this one's got layers.

Let's start at the beginning, back on the coast. David Cogswell Proctor, Harvard graduate and attorney, planted his law career in Indianola, Texas, in the late 1840s. Now Indianola was something in those days, a real port of entry, a place where ambition made sense.

Proctor worked it. Then, in 1880, he opened a second firm, this time in Cuero. That decision, well.

In 1886, a hurricane came through and destroyed much of Indianola. Proctor had already moved on. Some men read the weather before the clouds even form.

Cuero was booming cattle country, and Proctor found his footing there. Same year he opened that second firm, 1880, he bought a lot from a man named L.C. Fudge, who had himself purchased the land from the Cuero Land and Immigration Company.

The chain of ownership matters here, because what Proctor was really doing was staking a claim to something permanent. Then came 1892. Proctor hired a Victoria architect named James Hull to design a two-story house on that lot.

And James Hull did not phone it in. What Hull gave Proctor was a late Victorian structure, Queen Anne floor plan, Colonial Revival details. Two interior brick chimneys, corbelled caps at the gable ends, six fireplaces fed by those chimneys.

The windows are stained glass. The front entrance is double doors with a transom above. On the south elevation there's a projecting bay with a pedimented gable, and that gable holds palladian windows dressed in art glass.

And then there's the stairway. The stairway is reversed, beginning at the far side of the hall. That detail alone tells you something about James Hull's sense of drama.

D.C. Proctor died in 1908. Three years later, in 1911, his wife sold the house to Judge John M.

Green and his family. Now Green was not a small figure either. He had once served as a state legislator, and he opened a law firm right alongside his son, Howard.

When Judge Green passed, Howard continued to live in that house for many years. The house stayed in living memory that way, occupied, purposeful. Eventually it stood vacant for a considerable time.

But the house endured. The marker notes it has been altered very little. James Hull's design, Proctor's lot, that reversed stairway and all six fireplaces, still essentially intact.

Today it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Terrell-Reuss Streets Historic District, and it stands as one of Cuero's last remaining nineteenth century houses. One Harvard lawyer made a smart move away from a coast that a hurricane would erase. He built something in a cattle town that outlasted him, outlasted the judge who bought it, outlasted the long quiet years when nobody lived there at all.

Some buildings are stubborn in the best possible way.

What the marker says

Harvard graduate and attorney David Cogswell Proctor established his law career in Indianola, Texas, in the late 1840s. He opened a second firm in 1880 in Cuero, fortunately before the 1886 hurricane that destroyed much of Indianola. Finding his place in the booming cattle town of Cuero, he bought this lot in 1880 from L.C. Fudge, who had purchased the land from the Cuero Land and Immigration Company. In 1892, proctor hired Victoria architect James Hull to design a two-story house here. D.C. Proctor died in 1908, and in 1911 his wife sold the house to judge John M. Green and his family. Green once served as a state legislator, and also opened a law firm with his son, Howard, who would continue to live here after his father's death for many years. It remained vacant for a considerable time, but in recent years it has seen recognition and commendation as a historic landmark. The house can be described as late Victorian, with a Queen Anne floor plan and Colonial Revival details. It includes two interior brick chimneys with corbelled caps at gable ends serving six fireplaces. The windows are stained glass, while the front entrance is composed of double doors with a transom. The south elevation contains a projecting bay with a pedimented gable. The gable has palladian windows with art glass. The stairway is reversed to begin at the far side of the hall. The house has been altered very little. The house is one of Cuero's last remaining 19th century houses, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Terrell-Reuss Streets Historic District.