The Mast House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm tellin' it to you. There is a house sitting in Lubbock, Texas, that has done something most houses never get to do. It moved.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The story starts in 1925, when a prominent Lubbock builder by the name of A.M. Hensley put up this home for the family of Dr.

Clarence S. Mast. Now, Dr.

Mast was no ordinary Lubbock resident. He served as a physics professor on the original faculty of Texas Tech University. The original faculty.

That means when Texas Tech was just finding its footing, Clarence Mast was there, teaching physics. And the house Hensley built for that family? It was built to impress.

Colonial Revival style, which is a way of saying it carries a certain dignified elegance. And the detail that'll stop you on the sidewalk: paired Doric columns right there on the porch. Not one column.

Paired. Symmetrical, classical, standing at attention like they know exactly what they are. Dr.

Mast passed away in 1936, but the house endured. It endured long enough that in 1981, the residence was moved from its original location, one block south, to where it stands today. One block.

Not across town, not to another county, just one block. But a house with paired Doric columns and a history like that one, well, even one block is a journey worth notin'. Some things are built well enough that the world simply rearranges itself around them.

What the marker says

This house was constructed in 1925 by prominent Lubbock builder A.M. Hensley for the family of Dr. Clarence S. Mast (d. 1936). Mast served as a physics professor on the original faculty of Texas Tech University. The home exhibits elements of the Colonial Revival style of architecture and features paired Doric columns on the porch. The residence was moved from its original location (one block south) in 1981. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983