Howard House

The Howard House is one of the oldest buildings in Palestine, Anderson County, Texas. Named after its second owner, it has been known locally as the Howard House since 1851. Commissioned by Judge Reuben A. Reeves, it was built in 1848, probably by James Bunda (his name may be Bundy), a prolific early builder in Palestine. It was purchased by Colonel Howard, dry goods merchant, in 1850. The house is an excellent and rare example of East Texas Greek Revival "cottages", small in size, yet detailed on a grand scale with elegant proportions. It is unique, not only in this community, but in the state, because it retains most of its original materials and, in spite of additions, is remarkably intact. Therefore, it is eligible for listing in the National Register under Criterion C, in the area of Architecture, at a state level of significance.

Anderson County was created out of Houston County in 1846 and Palestine declared the county seat. This action culminated a concerted colonization effort made by the Republic of Texas. Prior to 1846 only two white settlements existed in the area. One was a trading post along the Indian Creek operated by Johnston Shelton and J.R. Fulton, in present day Palestine; and the other was Fort Houston, 4 miles west of the new county seat. As a result of broken treaties, and military defeats, all Native Americans were driven from the area by 1846. Due to its frontier status, the Palestine town site was only partially surveyed by 1846, and lots were sold at auction by Fulton & Bigelow until 1848. Settlement pressures were acute, and a log courthouse was built in 1847. A completed survey resulted in a building boom in August and September of 1848, and most of the new buildings went up in close proximity to the courthouse square. The early homes included log dog-trot houses and small frame Greek Revival style homes. Some extant examples of the latter are three of Palestine's original 14 homes: the Colonel George R. Howard (Judge Reuben Reeves), Judge John B. Mallard and Alexander E. McClure Houses (1848 census by Mrs. Susan Scott Mallard). The Mallard and McClure houses have been seriously modified and lack integrity. The original portion of the Colonel Howard House is remains intact and retains its integrity to a high degree. Judge Reuben A. Reeves was a justice of the Texas Supreme Court and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for the New Mexico Territory. He lived in Palestine for only a short time, and sold the house to Colonel George R. Howard in 1850. Colonel Howard was a merchant, and had served in the Tennessee State Militia (where he attained the rank of colonel), and as a county clerk in Perry County, Tennessee. He visited Palestine in 1848, along with other settlers from Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. He relocated to Palestine in 1850, and opened a mercantile business on the courthouse square. In November 1850 he married Cornelia Ann Cox, and bought this home, three blocks north of his business. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted as a commissioned officer in the Confederacy. Following his return he attempted farming, but soon returned to the mercantile business, forming the partnership of Howard, Swanson and Langston, Mercantile. After a few years he opened his own establishment, and was later joined in business by his eldest son. Over the years Colonel Howard served as a representative to the state legislature, county clerk, county treasurer, and mayor of Palestine (1886-1889).

He died in 1900. Upon the death of his widow in 1909, the house was inherited by the youngest son, Thomas S. Howard and his wife Gertrude. Gertrude Howard lived in the house until her death in 1963. All of the major additions to the building were made by the Howard family. As built, the Howard House was a Greek Revival style single pile center passage plan. The central hall flanked by equal sized rooms is a familiar and popular floor plan throughout the IJpper South. The plan is integral to traditional Anglo and European house types, rustic dog-trots, and to sophisticated Greek Revival style houses. Greek Revival involves the use of the two most basic of the classical orders, Doric and Ionic. The most dominant feature being the porch or entry defined by columns supporting an entablature and a pedimented roof or a 2-story porch. At times the detailing of the entablature is so simplified as to lose ornamentation of the frieze and/or architrave. Often the frieze and architrave are condensed into a single wide band, resulting in a simple and well proportioned entablature. Exterior detailing is found on porches, at eaves, at doorways, and around windows. According to D. Blake Alexander, foremost expert on Greek Revival in Texas, "The Colonel Howard House is one of the best examples of the smaller Greek Revival house in Texas. It utilizes the Greek Revival style in its simplest form. Although it lacks a Doric or Ionic portico such as might be found on a house built by master builders Abner Cook in Austin or Augustus Phelps in San Augustine, the Howard House is notable for its fine proportions, generous scale and careful attention to the details such as those on the entablature and pediment. The builder reduced the form and details to its basic components of scale and proportion." The entrance portico takes up more than a third of the overall size of the front facade and supports a full entablature of frieze and architrave. The entablature especially is treated with great clarity, articulated with only a single ridge (taenia) separating frieze from architrave. The entablature is supported at each corner by a pilaster corresponding in proportion to the pillars of the portico, giving the house a distinction uncommon in this region. "The proportions of the house, its end-gable chimneys and pedimented central portico are characteristic of Greek Revival houses from the Upper South. Obviously experienced, the builder of the Howard House was one who must have developed his skill in handling the style through an apprenticeship with a well established builder in one of the older states of the South. It is known that Judge Reuben A. Reeves came from Kentucky and Colonel Howard from Tennessee, where such houses abound. Bunda and his patron. Judge Reeves, would have had a clear idea of the kind of house they would build, one comparable to those they had known from their pre-Texas days. The carpenter-builder would also have had one of the accouterments of every good builder, a builder's handbook by Asher Benjamin or Minard Lafever. From this he would choose the correct proportions of entablature and pillar as well as the proper sequence of moldings for each detail. The result in the hands of a skilled carpenter would be a fine example of the Greek Revival style as seen in the Howard House." Constructed of pine, each of the original rooms has a brick fireplace, though they may not have been original. Oral history indicates that Colonel Howard took several months to move into the home in order to provide his wife with adequate heat. If the chimneys are not original, they were built in early 1851 by one of three brick masons James M. O.C. Terrell. Montgomery, William James Moore or The house has been modified over the years. Each addition and change is noted on the key to the floor plans (see page, 7-4). Though substantial additions were made to the rear of the house, they are not visible at most angles from the street, thus the front facade looks almost identical to its original appearance. The only changes made to the front include loss of the shutters (unknown date), the replacement of the wood stairs with brick stairs in the late 19th century, and the addition of iron stair railings in the 1950s. In 144 years, the Howard House has had only four owners. Two of the four were members of the Howard family and owned and occupied the house for 114 years. Howard family members are responsible for all substantive additions. The Howard House retains remarkable integrity, and is a rare intact example of a mid-19th century Greek Revival style center passage plan house in Texas. The Howard House serves as a museum today. It was purchased by the City of Palestine in 1964, after the death of "Gertie" Howard. Since then, the building has been open to the public as a museum and has undergone minor interior alterations. The museum anticipates funding a preservation plan. Among the proposed goals for the plan are to facilitate a restoration of the grounds to its original plantings, removal of three unassociated artifacts presently on the grounds, level the foundation, reinstall wood shingles, restore chimneys, and remove the 1960s improvements constructed by the City (Masonite paneling, acoustical ceiling tiles, carpets, and a "modern" kitchen). A newly formed organization, the Friends of the Howard House Museum of Palestine, Inc., has recently purchased two vacant lots at the rear of the house, facing on Mallard and Hodges streets, to provide off-street parking for visitors, making the museum handicap accessible, and eventually to reconstruct some of the original outbuildings.