DUANE
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Duane's take
The official marker's the authority here, and this is me, Duane, bringin' it to you straight down the road. Now settle in, because this one starts with a number so big it takes a minute just to say it out loud. Three million acres.
Say it again. Three. Million.
Acres. That was the XIT Ranch, and somewhere on that ocean of Texas grassland, somebody decided the people running the whole operation deserved an office worthy of the scale of the thing. So in 1898 and 1899, they built one.
Right there in Hartley County. And they did not cut corners. Five railroad cars of bricks.
Think about that the next time you're loading a pickup. Five entire railroad cars, hauled in just to stack the walls of a general office building. Now, brick alone will get you four walls and a roof, but the folks behind the XIT apparently wanted something more.
They gave this building Victorian-era detailing. A wraparound porch. Decorative eave brackets.
Turned wood columns. Out there on the open range, surrounded by the working world of cattle and dust and hard weather, this building stood up and announced itself. The marker puts it plainly: it was designed to impress visitors to the ranch.
And you can believe it did. Victorian elegance in the middle of ranching country has a way of stopping a person cold. For over a decade, from the day it opened until 1912, this building housed the general offices of the XIT.
The nerve center of three million acres, conducted under those turned wood columns and decorated eaves. When the offices moved on in 1912, the building stayed. Still standing.
Still impressing. Some things are just built to last.
What the marker says
Built in 1898-99 to house the general offices of the 3,000,000-acre XIT Ranch, this building served that purpose until 1912. Five railroad cars of bricks were brought in to construct the office, which features Victorian-era detailing in its wraparound porch, decorative eave brackets and turned wood columns. Designed to impress visitors to the ranch, the building's Victorian elements distinguished it from the surrounding ranching environment. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1964