Robert A. Horlock House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Robert Augustus Horlock was born in Alabama in 1849, and somewhere along the way, the road pointed him toward Texas. He arrived in Navasota in 1871, and Navasota, it turns out, was exactly where he was supposed to be.

He became a prominent businessman, a civic leader, the kind of man a town leans on. He put down roots so deep they'd hold for generations. He and his wife Agnes, born a White before she became a Horlock, decided early in the 1890s that it was time to build something worthy of those roots.

So they did. They had this house built, and when you lay eyes on it, you understand why it lasted. The architecture carries the influences of the Eastlake and stick styles, which is a fancy way of saying the craftsmen who built this place were showing off, and they had every right to.

There's a corner porch that draws you in. Arched windows sit beneath small gabled hoods, like the house is raising its eyebrows at you in a welcoming sort of way. And the decorative woodwork, well, that's the part that makes you slow down and look twice.

The Horlock family held onto this house for nearly a hundred years. Nearly a hundred years of Texas weather, Texas history, and Texas life, all moving around and through those Eastlake-influenced walls. Robert Augustus Horlock died in 1926, but the house kept standing, kept belonging to his people, long after he was gone.

That's not just architecture. That's a man's legacy, built board by board, and it's still standing right here in Grimes County.

What the marker says

Alabama native Robert Augustus Horlock (1849-1926) came to Navasota in 1871. Here he became a prominent businessman and civic leader. He and his wife, Agnes (White), had this home built in the early 1890s. The house, which remained in the Horlock family for nearly 100 years, exhibits influences of the eastlake and stick styles of architecture. Prominent features include the corner porch, the arched windows with small gabled hoods, and the decorative woodwork. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984