The Connally Home

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Tyler, Texas has seen its share of fine homes rise up along its streets over the years, but there's one that carries a particular kind of quiet dignity. The Connally Home.

Built in 1906 for a man named Walter Connally, a prominent Tyler businessman who apparently had his hands in just about everything that mattered in a growing Texas town. Banking. A gin equipment firm.

Part ownership in a hardware company. When a man diversifies like that, you know he's planning to stay awhile, and stay he did. He built himself a home worthy of those ambitions, one that borrowed its good looks from Mediterranean and Renaissance Revival styling.

Picture the kind of architecture that says something, that doesn't just sit on a lot but actually makes a statement to everyone who passes by. Now, Walter Connally died in 1918, and that's where a lot of stories would end. But not this one.

His widow, Gretta, she stayed right there in that home. Didn't leave. Brought her son and daughter-in-law in alongside her, and the Connally family just kept on keeping that house.

More than seventy years that home stayed in the family's hands. Seventy years of the same name on the door, the same family walking those halls. There's something almost stubborn about that, in the best possible way.

Walter Connally built for prominence, and Gretta made sure it endured.

What the marker says

This residence was built in 1906 for prominent Tyler businessman Walter Connally. Connally's business interests included banking, ownership of a gin equipment firm, and part ownership in a hardware company. After his death in 1918, Connally's widow Gretta continued to live in the home with her son and daughter-in-law. The house, which remained in the Connally family for more than 70 years, features influences of Mediterranean and Renaissance Revival styling. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983.