W. W. Townsend Home

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out in Brewster County, there stands a cast stone house that has been holding its ground since 1908. And in this part of Texas, that alone is worth pulling over for.

A man named William Daugherty built it. Local architect, local building contractor, a man who clearly knew what he was doing, because this thing is still standing. He built it for William Wallace Townsend, born in 1833, gone in 1915, and the house carries his name to this day: the W.

W. Townsend Home. Now, Daugherty didn't just slap four walls together and call it done.

He gave this place paired front doors (not one, mind you, but two side by side), shingled dormers up top, and a front porch dressed up with Eastlake influences. That's a style with some flourish to it, some intention. This wasn't a rough shelter against the West Texas elements.

This was a residence, the kind a man builds when he means to stay. And here's the detail that tends to catch people: at some point before 1913, somebody added an outside staircase to the structure. Nobody knows exactly when, just that it was there before 1913.

It stood for decades, part of the character of the place. And then, sometime in the 1940s, it was removed. Just gone.

A staircase that climbed up the outside of that cast stone wall, vanished without ceremony. In 1920, a man named Allen H. Palmer purchased the home.

He lived there, made it his own, and stayed until his death in 1927. Seven years in a house that had already outlasted its first owner and would go right on outlasting others. That's the thing about a well-built house: it keeps the story going long after the people in it are done.

William Daugherty built something that endures. And out here in Brewster County, endurance is just about the highest compliment there is.

What the marker says

Built in 1908 by local architect and building contractor William Daugherty for William Wallace Townsend (1833-1915), this house is a good example of a turn-of-the-century residence. Allen H. Palmer purchased the home in 1920 and lived here until his death in 1927. The cast stone structure features paired front doors, shingled dormers, and a front porch with Eastlake influences. An outside staircase, added before 1913, was removed in the 1940s. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1986