Albert & Katie Van Hook House
Marshall, Harrison County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built about 1880 as a wedding present for Katie (Allen) and Albert Van Hook, this house was designed by Katie's father, architect N. S. Allen. Allen designed many of the important homes and businesses of Shreveport for forty years. The modified L-plan structure originally featured Italianate details at the gable ends, a widow's walk and double chimneys. It remained in the Van Hook family until the 1950s. A renovation project in the 1990s restored many of the home's outstanding features, including the porch, gingerbread trim and bay window. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1999
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built around 1880 as a wedding gift for Katie Allen and Albert Van Hook, this Marshall home was designed by Katie's father, N. S. Allen, a prolific architect who shaped many of nearby Shreveport's finest buildings. Its original Italianate flourishes—a widow's walk, double chimneys, and gingerbread trim—marked it as a showpiece of Gilded Age East Texas. The house stayed in the family into the 1950s and was carefully restored in the 1990s.
Why it matters
The home reflects the confident, ornament-loving domestic architecture of the post–Civil War boom, when a rising professional class built to display prosperity and taste.
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Related people
- · Katie Van Hook
- · Albert Van Hook
- · N. S. Allen
Themes & tags
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