Site of Barney B. Hart House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the site of the Barney B. Hart House in Wood County. Now settle in, because this one starts with a fine home and ends with fire, and that's a long road between.

In 1906, a builder named J.J. McLeod raised a two-story house for an attorney by the name of Barney B. Hart.

Barney was born in 1845 and lived until 1925, and the home McLeod built for him was no plain farmhouse. This was a Queen Anne structure, with an asymmetrical façade and a complex roof that didn't apologize for itself. The detailing drew from Classical and Greek Revival traditions.

Ionic volutes on the column capitals. The kind of house that made you stop your wagon and look twice. The only real change it ever saw came in 1916, when a breakfast room was added to the original structure.

After that, the place remained virtually unchanged. Decade after decade, the Hart family kept that house going. It stayed in the family through the years, all the way until 1982, when Dr.

T.H. Peterson passed away. Peterson was the widower of Barney's daughter, Pollie Hart Peterson, and his death marked the end of the family's long presence in those rooms.

Now here is where the story takes a hard turn. In 2009, soon after the home was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, it was destroyed by fire. All that Queen Anne architecture, those Ionic volutes, that breakfast room added back in 1916.

Gone. What stands in its place now is a marker, and the memory of a house that lasted over a century before the fire took it.

What the marker says

A 1906 two-story home was constructed by J.J. McLeod for attorney Barney B. Hart (1845-1925), and the home remained virtually unchanged since a breakfast room was added to the original structure in 1916. Hart family members lived in the home until the 1982 death of Dr. T.H. Peterson, widower of Barney's daughter, Pollie Hart Peterson. The home was typical of Queen Anne architecture, with an asymmetrical façade and complex roof configuration. It also featured Classical and Greek Revival-inspired detailing, such as Ionic volutes on column capitals. In 2009, soon after being designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, the home was destroyed by fire. (2014)