The Montgomery House

Duane's take

The way I heard it, this one comes straight off the official marker for the Montgomery House, out in Colorado County. Let me tell it to you proper. Now, there are houses, and then there are houses that seem to carry the whole weight of the years right there in their walls.

The Montgomery House is that second kind. Go back to about 1867. A land agent by the name of A.

J. Gallilee put this place up, and he didn't cut corners doing it. The foundation is handmade brick.

The sills are native oak. The floors underfoot are pine. And the siding, the doors, the window shutters, every bit of that is cypress.

It's what you'd call a post-Civil War L-shape Empire cottage, and it was built to last, which is exactly what it did. Gallilee had it first, but in 1876 the house found the people who would give it its name. Fannie Obenchain and J.

T. Montgomery bought the place, moved in, and started a life. Five children grew up inside those cypress-shuttered walls.

Five kids learning to walk on those pine floors, scraping chairs across that handmade brick foundation, filling the rooms with all the ordinary noise and wonder of a family. And that's how a house becomes a place. That's how a place earns a name.

The Montgomery House. The Montgomerys held it, and held it, and held it, until 1919, when it was sold to Walter and Ethel Glithero. Time kept moving, as time will do.

Then in 1967, Arthur J. Willrodt bought the old house and did something that takes a certain kind of faith: he restored it. Brought it back.

Handmade brick. Native oak. Pine floors.

Cypress doors and shutters, same as Gallilee left them a century before. Some houses just refuse to be forgotten. The Montgomery House, out in Colorado County, is one of them.

What the marker says

Typical post-Civil War, L-shape Empire cottage, with handmade brick foundation, native oak sills, pine floors. Siding, doors, window shutters are of cypress. House was built about 1867 by land agent A. J. Gallilee; bought in 1876 by Fannie (Obenchain) and J.T. Montgomery, whose 5 children grew up here, giving place its traditional name. Sold 1919 to Walter and Ethel Glithero, it was bought in 1967 and restored by Arthur J. Willrodt. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1973