DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it straight on to you. There's a house sitting in Bexar County that carries a whole career's worth of frontier dust underneath its Neo-Classical columns — and if those walls could talk, they'd have some stories to tell. The Bullis House.
Completed in 1909, designed by San Antonio architect Harvey Page in the Neo-Classical Revival style. Stately. Deliberate.
The kind of home a man builds when he's finally ready to stop moving. And General John Lapham Bullis had been moving for a long time. Born up in New York — about as far from the Southwestern frontier as you can get — Bullis spent the better part of his career out where the land was hard and the work was harder.
In 1873, he took command of a company of Seminole Scouts. Now, the Seminole Scouts were something. Their success in tracking and combating Indian raiders drew national attention — not local notice, not regional chatter, national attention.
That's the kind of outfit that makes your name mean something. And Bullis's name did stick around. Nearby Camp Bullis bears it to this day.
So when the general finally had this house completed in 1909, he'd earned every column and every cornice. He lived here until his death in 1911. Two years in the house he'd waited a lifetime to build.
That's the thing about men who spend their lives in motion — sometimes they barely get to rest before the road ends. The Bullis House stands. He doesn't.
But the marker makes sure you know both those things.
What the marker says
Completed in 1909 for Gen. John Lapham Bullis, this Neo-Classical Revival Residence was designed by San Antonio architect Harvey Page. A native of New York, Bullis spent much of his career on the Southwestern frontier. In 1873 he took command of a company of Seminole Scouts, whose sucess in tracking and combating Indian raiders attracted national attention. Gen. Bullis, for whom nearby Camp Bullis is named, lived here until death in 1911. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983