DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this one. Now, most stories worth telling start with a long journey, and Hugh Waddell's is no different. He came over from Ireland, made his way to Houston in 1873, and I imagine this city looked a whole lot different than anything he'd left behind.
But Hugh Waddell was the kind of man who looked at a place and saw what it could become — because by 1882, he had himself a downtown retail business. Furniture. Carpets.
Window dressings. Refrigerators. If you were outfitting a home in Houston, Hugh Waddell was your man.
Now the business didn't just grow — it sprawled. Multiple buildings, a whole little empire of domestic comfort right there in the city. And the crown jewel?
A four-story warehouse on Sampson Street, built in 1912 by C.D. Hill and Company, an architectural firm out of Dallas. Rectangular plan, load-bearing, industrial-style masonry, flat roof behind a stepped parapet — the kind of building that doesn't apologize for existing.
In fact, the whole intention was for it to be the largest warehouse in Houston. Just let that sit a moment. Not the tallest, not the prettiest — the largest.
That's a statement. Hugh Waddell himself, born in 1842, passed in 1915, so he lived to see that warehouse rise and stand. What he built, though, outlasted him by a good stretch.
Waddell's House Furnishing Company kept its doors open for more than a century before finally closing in 1988. Over a hundred years of making Houston homes feel like homes. That warehouse on Sampson Street is still standing, and now the marker tells you why it matters.
What the marker says
Irish immigrant Hugh Waddell (1842-1915) arrived in Houston in 1873 and by 1882 he established his own downtown retail business selling furniture, carpets, window dressings, refrigerators, and other goods. The business grew to contain multiple buildings, including a four-story warehouse on Sampson Street. Built in 1912 by the Dallas-based architectural firm C.D. Hill & Company, this rectangular plan, load-bearing, industrial-style masonry building with its flat roof behind a stepped parapet was intended to be the largest warehouse in Houston. Waddell's House Furnishing Company closed its doors in 1988 after more than a century in business. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2018