The Allen House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it right along to you. Now, most houses just get built. Somebody hires a crew, steps back, and waits for the thing to rise up out of the dirt.

But the Allen House in Marshall, Harrison County, that one came together a little differently. The Reverend Walker Montecue Allen and his older sons, they picked up the tools themselves and did most of the carpentry and masonry work. A preacher who could also lay a course of brick.

That is a man you want on your side come Sunday and come Monday. The Reverend Allen was born in Alabama in 1819, and by the time he came to Marshall in 1876, he was already a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, an author, and a teacher. He brought with him his wife, Eliza Ann, born in 1829, and their nine children.

Nine. You think about what it means to move a family that size to a new town, and you start to understand why, three years after they arrived, in 1879, the man decided to build big. A two-story residence, and not just any style, but what the marker calls late Greek revival.

There is something quietly grand about that. A minister and teacher, raising a home with his own hands, in a style that reaches back toward pillars and proportion and permanence. The Allen family didn't treat it like a stopping point either.

They occupied that house all the way through 1942. Eliza Ann had passed in 1902, the Reverend himself in 1899, but the family held on to that place. Some houses outlast their builders by a season or two.

The Allen House outlasted its builders by decades, with the family still inside. That is not just a house. That is a statement.

What the marker says

Born in Alabama, the Rev. Walker Montecue Allen (1819-1899) was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, author, and teacher. He moved to Marshall in 1876 with his wife Eliza Ann (Handly) (1829-1902) and their nine children. They erected this two-story residence in 1879, with the Rev. Allen and his older sons doing most of the carpentry and masonry work. An example of the late Greek revival style, this structure was occupied by the Allen family until 1942. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1977