The Isgrig House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Somewhere in Colorado County, there stands a house that has been holding its own since eighteen ninety-eight, and the story of how it came to be is worth slowing down for. We're talking about the Isgrig House, a late Victorian beauty dressed up with art glass windows, shingled gables, and ornate gingerbread trim.

The kind of place that makes you stop the car and just look for a minute. Step inside, and those rooms open up to twelve-foot ceilings. Whoever built this place was not interested in doing anything halfway.

And that right there is the heart of the story. The man who ordered this house built was John H. Luck, and he was not about to leave the lumber selection to chance.

He hand-picked the clear lumber himself. Every plank, every beam. And to bring his vision to life, he had help from Jeff Tanner, a highly respected Negro builder working out of the lumber yard of S.

K. Seymour. Now the marker makes a point of calling Tanner highly respected, and that detail is not thrown in casual.

That is the record setting the man's standing straight. The craftsmanship those two men produced in eighteen ninety-eight is still standing today, which tells you everything you need to know about the work they did. Then in nineteen sixteen, a man named B.

F. Isgrig bought the property. The house passed into his family's hands, and his descendants, including a son named Nathan Powderly Isgrig, have occupied and preserved it ever since.

Art glass, gingerbread trim, twelve-foot ceilings, all of it still there because a family decided this house was worth keeping. Some things in Texas get torn down. Some things get handed down.

This one got handed down.

What the marker says

Late Victorian house with art glass windows, shingled gables, ornate gingerbread trim. Large rooms have 12-foot ceilings. Built in 1898 of clear lumber, hand-picked by the owner, John H. Luck, assisted by Jeff Tanner, a highly respected Negro builder working out of lumber yard of S. K. Seymour. B. F. Isgrig bought the property in 1916; descendants, including a son, Nathan Powderly Isgrig, have since occupied and preserved it. Recorded Texas Historical Landmark - 1973