The Robert Allert House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Robert Allert House in DeWitt County. Now, most folks drive past an old brick building and don't think twice. But every now and then, a wall has a story worth slowin down for.

This is one of those walls. Three courses of brick, laid true and solid, make up the walls of this house. Robert Allert completed it in 1893, and he built it as his own residence.

Born in 1853, gone by 1910, Allert was a brickmason by trade, and not just any brickmason. He was a partner in a firm called Fuess and Allert, contractors who left their mark across Cuero, across other south Texas cities, and all the way down into northern Mexico. Think about that for a moment.

These two men, Fuess and Allert, were building things, real things, lasting things, across a stretch of territory that most people today would need a map and a full tank of gas to cover. And when Robert Allert finally sat down to build something for himself, something he would come home to at the end of a long day's work, he did it right. Three courses of brick.

His own hands knew the craft better than anyone. The house completed in 1893 still stands in DeWitt County as a quiet testament to a man who spent his life putting up walls that refused to fall down.

What the marker says

Three courses of brick form walls for this house completed 1893 as his own residence by Robert Allert (1853-1910), a brickmason and a partner in Fuess and Allert, contractors who built much in Cuero, other south Texas cities, and northern Mexico. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1973