DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and it's worth every word. Now, Austin has always attracted people who knew a good thing when they saw it. Tennessean William Hickman Hill was one of those people.
He settled in Austin in the 1850s, and before long, he and his family had worked their way into the cultural and civic fabric of the city. That's the kind of family that puts down roots so deep they're still holding a century later. And hold they did.
A grandson — William Green Hill, born in 1853 — grew up carrying that legacy, and in 1890, he and his wife Ella Lone Sanders did something that tells you everything you need to know about a person. They had a house built. And they didn't just plop it down on the lot and call it a day.
No, they angled it — deliberately, intentionally angled it — to catch the prevailing summer breezes. Now that is a man who has thought about Texas summers. That is a man who has made peace with the heat by outsmarting it before it even arrived.
Then, around 1900, Ella's father, the Reverend Bleuford B. Sanders, retired from evangelism and added two rooms of his own to the house. A retired preacher settling in at the edge of his daughter's home — you get the sense that the Reverend earned his rest and knew exactly where he wanted to spend it.
William Green Hill passed in 1903, but the house? The house barely changed. Few other changes have occurred, the marker says, and those are words that carry real weight in a state that tends to pave over its own history without a second glance.
Descendants still occupy and preserve the place. A house angled to catch the breeze, still standing, still holding family — some things are just built right from the start.
What the marker says
Tennessean William Hickman Hill settled in Austin in the 1850's.He and his family became cultural and civic leaders. A grandson, William Green Hill (1853-1903), his wife Ella Lone (Sanders) had this house built in 1890, Angling it to catch prevailing summer breezes. Mrs Hill's Father, The Rev. Bleuford B. Sanders, added two rooms for his own use after he retired from evangelism, about 1900. Few other changes have occurred. Descendants occupy and preserve the house. Recorded Texas Historical Landmark - 1974