Pettey House

The 1909 Pettey House retains a high degree of integrity of association, materials, location, design, workmanship, feeling, and setting. The Neoclassical building, similar in style and massing to many in the adjacent Belvin Street Historic District, an upscale historic residential area of San Marcos, represents an era of the community's history and adds to the neighborhood's historic setting. Branch Pettey built the home when he moved his family from their farm in nearby Caldwell County to San Marcos so his children could attend the Coronal Institute. The home's scale and quality of construction demonstrate his success and motivation to provide educational opportunities for his children. The Pettey House has a local level of significance as an excellent example of a Neoclassical residence. With the nearby 1908 Crookwood House and the 1909 Hays County Courthouse both also built in the Neoclassical style, the Petty House represents a time in San Marcos's history of growth, economic stability, and civic pride.

Historic Context

Because of its freshwater springs that feed the San Marcos River, the area around San Marcos has been occupied by humans throughout history. In August 1755, Spanish missionaries briefly located missions and a presidio along the river, and in 1808, Manuel Antonio Cordero y Bustamante, Spanish governor of Texas, sponsored a community named San Marcos de Neve, sited where the Old San Antonio Road crossed the river. Due to floods and other hardships, the settlement was abandoned in 1812.3 When the Texas Legislature created Hays County, with San Marcos as its county seat, in March 1848, the community had almost 400 residents. During the next decades, the growing community supported agricultural trade and numerous businesses. * During the 1880s, the arrival of the International & Great Northern Railroad and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas "Katy" line spurred additional growth and trade opportunities. In 1883, the county commissioners accepted plans from noted architect F.E. Ruffini for a courthouse. It burned in 1908, and C.H. Page & Brother designed a new Neoclassical courthouse, built by contractors Fischer and Lamb the next year.

In the decades before and after the turn of the 20th century, several San Marcos' successful and wealthy residents constructed large, two-story homes southwest of downtown, on streets such as Hutchison, Hopkins, San Antonio, Burleson, and Belvin. With materials and decorative elements widely available due to the railroad, and with the community and its residents well-established, the luxurious new homes reflect a high level of comfort and stability. Although typically fenced in and with a strong sense of neighborhood, the property lots were substantial, retaining copses of trees and other semi-rural elements that conveyed the evolving nature of settlement in the community. The Belvin Street Historic District was designated in 1983 with 18 contributing buildings spread out over 150 acres. The Pettey House and the adjacent residences sit on similarly large lots that slope considerably up from the street.

Throughout the Belvin Street district and surrounding streets, architectural styles vary and include Colonial Revival, Queen Anne, Folk Victorian, Prairie School, and Neoclassical. Although many of the homes are small in scale, the neighborhood feels grand due to the large lots, mature trees, and the number of generously sized, well-appointed homes.

Pettey Family

Branch Pettey, the son of a doctor, was a farmer from nearby Caldwell County. He also had two children who lived to adulthood, and he moved his family to San Marcos so his children could attend the Coronal Institute, which operated in San Marcos from 1868 to 1917. In January 1909, Pettey bought the site at 714 Burleson Street from J.M. Hon. The property is a large lot that was a portion of San Marcos farm lot number 15 originally of the J.M. Veramendi League number 1.3 Pettey built a large comfortable home high on the bluff side of Burleson Street on a 1.6-acre lot that slopes up from the street. His widowed mother also lived with the family.

The Pettey home's siting is like that of other properties in the historic neighborhoods of San Marcos, with the house set back from the street. The massing and style are also similar to many of the nearby historic homes, grand in scale and detailing. The house's Neoclassical styling presents a simple understated elegance; it also remains a strong presence on Burleson Street. It should also be noted that the home was built the same year the C.H. Page & Brother Neoclassical courthouse was completed on the San Marcos square and just a year after the prominent Neoclassical J.H. Wood House was built at 227 Mitchell, just blocks away.

Neoclassical Style

According to Virginia and Lee McAlester, the Neoclassical style was most common from 1895 to 1950, with two "principal waves of popularity. The first, from about 1900 to 1920, emphasized hipped roofs and elaborate, correct columns. The latter phase, from about 1925 to the 1950s, emphasized side-gabled roofs and simple, slender columns." The full-façade porch variation was particularly popular beginning in 1925, more than 15 years after the Pettey House's completion. Because of the number of Folk Victorian and Queen Anne homes in the neighborhood, many with two-story porches and elaborate balustrades, the Petteys were likely influenced by the shape and composition of porches designed in other styles, although the emphasized hipped roof and elaborate columns are in keeping with the early Neoclassical trends.

Conclusion

The 1909 Pettey House is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places as a good example of the homes built on the large lots of the early subdivided farm tracts around San Marcos. The Pettey Home retains a high degree of its historic integrity of association, materials, location, design, workmanship, feeling, and setting. It is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance in the Area of Architecture as an excellent residential expression of the Neoclassical style.