The Galloway House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The Galloway House, Burnet County. Now, some buildings just sit there.

This one has been sitting there since eighteen fifty-six, and it has seen some things. The original part of the house went up that year, adobe and rock, the kind of construction that says, I am not going anywhere, and means it. At the time, it belonged to Major Hugh H.

Calvert, and Calvert ran it as more than just a home. It was an inn too, a place where travelers could stop, rest their bones, and move on. Double duty from the very start.

Then came eighteen eighty-five, and a local landowner by the name of Enoch Brooks bought the place and got to work. Major additions. The house grew.

It changed. That is the nature of a building with ambition. But the chapter that gave this house its name came in eighteen ninety-nine, when W.

C. Galloway took ownership. Galloway was born in eighteen fifty-six and lived all the way to nineteen thirty-six, and during that long stretch of years he became, by any measure, a man Burnet County took seriously.

Prominent businessman. One of the organizers of the First State Bank of Burnet. County tax collector.

And, if that was not enough, mayor of the city. He also made significant changes to the structure, because apparently Galloway did not do anything halfway. So when you look at that old adobe and rock house, you are looking at layers, eighteen fifty-six all the way up through a man who helped build a bank, ran the tax office, and ran the town.

The house earned its name the hard way, one owner at a time.

What the marker says

The original part of this house was built in 1856. The adobe and rock residence, owned by Maj. Hugh H. Calvert, also served as an inn. Local landowner Enoch Brooks bought the home in 1885 and made major additions to the structure. Significant changes were also made by W. C. Galloway (1856-1936), who became the owner in 1899. A prominent businessman and an organizer of the First State Bank of Burnet, he served as county tax collector and mayor of the city. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1981