DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The Argyle. Now that's a name that carries some weight in San Antonio, and it ought to — because this place has been carrying stories since before the Civil War even got started.
Charles Anderson built it in 1859, set it up as the headquarters for a fourteen-hundred-acre house ranch. Fourteen hundred acres. That's not a homestead, friends, that's a statement.
Anderson had big ideas for this place, but the country had bigger ones. With the Civil War coming on fast, Anderson left San Antonio, and when he went, he sold the mansion to a poet named Hiram McLane. A poet.
On fourteen hundred acres of Texas. If that doesn't make you pause for a second, I don't know what will. McLane didn't just pass through, either — he lived there thirty years.
Thirty years of whatever a poet does with all that land and all that quiet. Then 1890 rolls around, and Alamo Heights comes into being, and a subdivider with his eye on that grand old mansion named it for his native Argyllshire, Scotland. So there it stood — a piece of the Scottish Highlands planted in the Texas Hill Country, answering to the name the Argyle.
In 1893, the O'Grady family, formerly of Boerne, bought the place, and that's when something changed. They made the Argyle famous — not for its acreage, not for its history, but for its hospitality and its food. That reputation grew and deepened until 1940, when the classic Argyle Cook Book was published, putting it all down in black and white for anyone who wanted a taste of what the O'Gradys had built.
From a cattle ranch headquarters to a poet's retreat to a landmark of Southern hospitality — the Argyle didn't just survive the years. It seasoned them.
What the marker says
Built 1859 by Charles Anderson as headquarters for a 1400-acre house ranch. Leaving San Antonio on Civil War's eve, Anderson sold to poet Hiram McLane who lived here 30 years. In 1890 at Alamo Heights' creation, a subdivider named the mansion for his native Argyllshire, Scotland. The O'Grady family, formerly of Boerne, bought the Argyle in 1893, making it famous for hospitality and food. The classic "Argyle Cook Book" was published in 1940. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1972