DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's the marker's own story, the way I hear it told. On San Antonio Street in San Marcos, there stands a house that has been quietly holding its ground and its secrets for well over a century. The street itself has got some history under its feet.
Originally, it was the stagecoach road to San Antonio, and you can almost hear the wheels and the horses if you stand still long enough. Around 1913, a couple named S. H. and Annie Sanders built their home right there on that historic corridor.
They chose a style called the American foursquare. Solid. Symmetrical.
Practical. It was a common enough design in the early nineteen hundreds across the country, but here in San Marcos, local homebuilders rarely reached for it. So the Sanders house stood a little apart from its neighbors, architecturally speaking, even when it was brand new.
In 1919, Albert N. and Rosa Grosgebauer purchased the house, and their name joined Sanders in the story this place tells. Now, the house itself might have drifted quietly through history without much fanfare. But here is where the tale takes a turn.
A young man used to come to dinner here. Frequently, the record says. His name was Lyndon B.
Johnson, and he was staying in town to attend the local college. Just a student passing through somebody's dining room, somebody's hospitality. Sitting at that table, eating somebody's cooking, on the old stagecoach road to San Antonio.
Nobody sets a place at dinner for a future president. They just set a place for the young man who showed up. And sometimes, that is exactly how history gets made.
What the marker says
Built on historic San Antonio Street (originally the stagecoach road to San Antonio) by S. H. and Annie Sanders about 1913, this house was subsequently purchased by Albert N. and Rosa Grosgebauer in 1919. Lyndon B. Johnson was frequently a dinner guest here during his stay at the local college. This house represents a good example of an American foursquare design. Although a common house design in the early 1900s, it was rarely used by San Marcos homebuilders. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1992