"The Magnolias"

Duane's take

The official marker for The Magnolias, up in Marion County, is the one telling this tale tonight. Now, let me set the scene for you. The year is 1867.

Lucy Ann, wife of a man named Dan Alley, is building herself a house. And not just any house. This is a house with handmade columns.

Massive hewn sills. Wide pine board floors. The kind of craftsmanship that doesn't apologize for itself.

She called it The Magnolias, and the name fits. Now, Dan Alley, her husband, was the man who donated half of Jefferson's townsite, so this family was no small presence in that corner of Texas. But it's the house itself that kept earning its reputation, long after the building was done.

When that marker was written, The Magnolias was approaching its hundredth birthday, and it was still carrying what the marker calls fine style. A century of Texas weather, and the place still had its dignity. But here's where the story gets a little richer.

Inside those walls, in 1881, a group of women got together and organized something called the 1881 Club. The marker tells us that makes it the oldest member and pioneer unit in the entire Texas State Federation of Women's Clubs. The oldest.

Think about that the next time you drive past a building that looks like it's just sitting there. And then, on February 22nd, 1955, The Magnolias added one more chapter to its name, becoming the birthplace of the Martha McCraw Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. One house.

One woman who built it right. And it just kept on mattering.

What the marker says

1867. Built by Lucy Ann, wife of Dan Alley, donor of half of Jefferson's townsite. Near 100th birthday, house retains fine style. Has handmade columns, massive hewn sills, wide pine board floors. Here was organized 1881 Club, oldest member and pioneer unit in Texas State Federation of Women's Clubs. Also (on Feb. 22, 1955) birthplace of Martha McCraw Chapter of the D. A. R. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965