DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the Sam Rayburn Library and Museum. Now, most folks who serve in public life, when they're done, they leave behind a cardboard box and a handshake. Sam Rayburn left behind something a little more permanent.
Speaker Sam Rayburn himself, along with Dallas architect Roscoe DeWitt, sat down and designed this place — a facility built to house Rayburn's archives, his books, his artifacts. The whole of a life in public service, given a proper home. And what a home they built.
Rayburn had served Fannin and the surrounding counties for more than fifty-five years — first as a state legislator, then as a U.S. Congressman. Seventeen of those years, he held the gavel as Speaker of the House.
That's not a career, friends. That's a tenure. The kind of record that makes a building feel like the least you could do.
The library went up between 1955 and 1957, and they did not cut corners. The building is steel construction, but it doesn't look like it. It looks like something that walked straight out of Washington, D.C. — and that was entirely intentional.
The design reflects the Classical Revival architecture of the federal buildings in the capital. Out there in Bonham, Texas, they built something that would not look out of place on the National Mall. The marble façade.
The copper roof. The Ionic columns rising up to support an entablature at the main entrance. It has weight to it, presence — the kind of building that makes you straighten your collar before you walk through the door.
And inside, if you go, you'll find something that stops people cold. An exact replica of the Speaker's office. Not a suggestion of it.
Not an interpretation. An exact replica. Step into it and you're standing where power lived.
Sam Rayburn and Roscoe DeWitt built a place worthy of fifty-five years of service. In Bonham, Texas. Right where it belongs.
What the marker says
Speaker Sam Rayburn and Dallas architect Roscoe DeWitt designed this facility to house Sam Rayburn's archives, books and artifacts. Rayburn served Fannin and surrounding counties for more than 55 years as state legislator and U.S. Congressman, including 17 years as Speaker of the House. The library, built in 1955-57, reflects the Classical Revival architecture of federal buildings in Washington, D.C. The steel construction building features a marble façade, copper roof, and Ionic columns supporting an entablature at the main entrance. The building also includes an exact replica of the Speaker's office. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2008