Hattie and Henry Sayles, Sr., House
Abilene, Taylor County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Henry Sayles (1852-1916), born and reared near Brenham, Texas, studied law under his father, noted legal scholar John Sayles (1825-1897). Henry practiced law in Galveston where he met and married Hattie McAlpine. The couple moved to Abilene in 1886. Sayles practiced law here in partnership with his father and oversaw real estate belonging to Galveston clients. John and Henry Sayles wrote and published several books on Texas law. Harrie and Henry Sayles, Sr., built this house about 1889, at a time when few homes existed on present-day Sayles Avenue. Portions of the house, including a rear addition built sometime between 1895 and 1903, were remodeled after fire damage in 1941. Extensive renovations of the house began in 1974. The house is an excellent local example of a late Victorian-era dwelling. It features finely-executed queen Anne details, including porches with turned wood posts and balusters, jigsawn brackets and frieze, shingled and decorative wood gable ends, and a decorative brick chimney. As the president of Abilene Land and Improvement Company, Henry Sayles, Sr., was responsible for the development of Abilene's Sayles Avenue neighborhood. The house remained in Sayles' family until 1974. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1995
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the 1880s, Abilene was a young railroad town on the West Texas plains, and lawyer Henry Sayles arrived in 1886 to practice alongside his eminent legal-scholar father and manage property for Galveston investors. Around 1889 he and his wife Hattie built this finely detailed Queen Anne home on what was then a nearly empty avenue. As president of the Abilene Land and Improvement Company, Sayles helped shape the surrounding neighborhood that still bears the family name.
Why it matters
The house embodies how ambitious lawyers and land developers built the residential fabric of a frontier railroad town into a permanent city.
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Related people
- · Henry Sayles
- · Hattie McAlpine Sayles
- · John Sayles
Themes & tags
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