The A. B. Pierce Home

Duane's take

The official marker on the A. B. Pierce Home in Matagorda County is the story I'm about to tell you.

Now, there are houses, and then there are houses that a whole community seems to lean on. The A. B.

Pierce Home was the second kind. The house went up in 1909, built for A. B.

Pierce. And Pierce himself had a story before that house ever saw its first coat of paint. He was a veteran of the Spanish-American War, which means by the time he settled in to lay roots, he already knew something about being tested.

He and his father had cofounded the town of Blessing back in 1902, and this home he built seven years later would carry on in that same spirit of bringing people together. A. B. and his wife, Adelaide, had four sons.

That's a full house right there. But the Pierce home had room for considerably more than family. It became the gathering place for the civic leaders of the area, which means on any given occasion, you might walk through that door and find the most consequential conversations in Matagorda County already underway.

Among the regular visitors was no less than the Right Reverend C. S. Quin, Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Texas.

A bishop coming around that often tells you something about the kind of household the Pierces kept. But here is the moment that makes the house truly historic. In 1916, inside those same walls, Adelaide Pierce and her colleagues organized the Matagorda County Federation of Women's Clubs.

Founded right there in that home. And Mrs. Pierce didn't just help organize it.

She became its first president. A town cofounded. A war survived.

A home that sheltered bishops and civic leaders and, in 1916, gave birth to an organization that would carry women's voices across the whole county. The A. B.

Pierce Home held a lot of history under one roof. Still does.

What the marker says

Built 1909 for A.B. Pierce, who with father cofounded town of blessing in 1902. Pierce was a veteran of the Spanish-American War. He and wife, Adelaide, had four sons. Home was gathering place for area civic leaders. The Rt. Rev. C.S. Quin, Episcopal Bishop, Diocese of Texas, often visited here. Mrs. Pierce was co-organizer and first president, Matagorda County Federation of Women's Clubs -- founded in this home, 1916. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1968