Taylor-Carter House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Taylor-Carter House in Mason County. Now settle in, because this one's a story told in stone, and the stone has been talking for a good long while. The first two rooms of this house, cut from sandstone rock, were probably built for a man named Thomas Lee.

He owned the property from 1870 to 1875, and those two rooms stood solid as the Hill Country itself. But the story doesn't stop with Thomas Lee. Not by a long shot.

In 1875, a two-story cut sandstone portion went up, and it went up for Mrs. E. B.

Taylor, born Crosby, an Irish immigrant and a prominent rancher in this corner of Texas. You want to talk about someone who made her mark, well, there she is. Then in 1895, the property passed to the M.

F. and Julia Carter family, Julia born a Gamel, and that family held on to this place. They held on, and held on, and held on, all the way to 1993. Along the way they built a frame addition in 1928, and in the 1930s they enclosed the second story porch, tucking it in like they planned to stay forever.

And here's where the house itself becomes the tall tale. It's built in typical nineteenth century form, symmetrically arranged around a central hall, the kind of order that tells you somebody had a plan and the patience to see it through. Those segmentally arched windows, those corbelled chimneys, they carry what the marker calls Italianate influences, right here in the Texas Hill Country, cut from local sandstone, standing in the sun.

Three families, one house, and the stone remembers all of it.

What the marker says

The first two sandstone rock rooms of the house probably were built for Thomas Lee, who owned the property from 1870 to 1875. The two-story cut sandstone portion was built in 1875 for Mrs. E. B. (Crosby) Taylor, an Irish immigrant and prominent rancher. From 1895 to 1993, the property was owned by the M. F. and Julia (Gamel) Carter Family, who built a frame addition in 1928 and enclosed the second story porch in the 1930s. The house is built in typical 19th century form, symmetrically arranged around a central hall. Segmentally arched windows and corbelled chimneys suggest Italianate influences. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark -1999