Waverly

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Waverly has to say. Now, some houses just sit on the land. And then there are houses that seem to carry the weight of everything that ever happened inside them.

Waverly, out in Washington County, is one of those. Built in 1850, in that grand antebellum style, it was the work of William Leigh Tunstall, a practicing physician who called this place home from 1850 to 1854. A doctor building a house like this, well, that tells you something about the ambition of the era.

Greek Revival architecture, arched cornices, hand hewn cedar sills, native stone. This was not a house thrown together in a hurry. Then, in 1854, Colonel William M.

Sledge takes the story. He moves into Waverly, and he does not sit still. This is a man who looks out at the landscape of Washington County and sees things that aren't there yet, and then builds them.

He builds a railroad to Chappell Hill. A railroad. And if that weren't enough, in 1856, he mortgages his cotton crop to build a bridge over the Brazos River.

He puts his harvest, his livelihood, the whole season's labor, on the line for a bridge. Sledge lived at Waverly through 1860, and in that span he reshaped the ground around him. The house stood through all of it, those cedar sills holding firm, that native stone not giving an inch.

Some men leave statues. Sledge left a railroad and a bridge, and a house that's still standing to tell about it.

What the marker says

(1850) Antebellum home built by William Leigh Tunstall, a practicing physician 1850-54. Also home of Col. William M. Sledge 1854-60. Sledge built railroad to Chappell Hill and mortgaged his cotton crop 1856 to build bridge over Brazos. Greek Revival architecture; arched cornices; hand hewn cedar sills; native stone.