Hensley - Gusman House
Bay City, Matagorda County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Alexander D. Hensley (1859-1947) purchased land at this site in January 1898. With his wife Maggie (1875-1960), he asked his brother, architect Henry Hensley, to design this house to catch breezes from any direction. Built in 1905 by the Alamo Lumber Company, the house is a fine local example of a Victorian-era residence, with stylistic influences of the Queen Anne period. It features a distinctive octagonal plan, with porches providing additional spaces to complete the octagon. Because of its unusual floor plan, the house's central living room contains eight doors but no windows; four of the doors open onto the corner porches. Prominent features include a cross-gable roof with wood shingled gable ends, and decorative wood brackets at cutaway corners above corner windows. The original wooden porch floors were replaced with concrete in the 1930s, but the decorative wood columns and doors remain. Retail salesman James Robert Gusman (1862-1944), his wife Bettie Amanda Harrington (1864-1948) and their children moved to Bay City from Weimar in 1911. They bought the house from the Hensley's in 1919, and it remained in their family for generations. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1993
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1905 by the Alamo Lumber Company, this Victorian-era home was designed by architect Henry Hensley for his brother Alexander with one clever aim: to catch a Gulf Coast breeze from any direction. Its unusual octagonal plan gave the central living room eight doors and not a single window, four of them opening onto wraparound porches. It later passed to the Gusman family, who kept it for generations.
Why it matters
The house shows how ordinary Texans engineered comfort against a punishing climate long before air conditioning, a small monument to vernacular ingenuity in a coastal town.
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Related people
- · Alexander D. Hensley
- · James Robert Gusman
Themes & tags
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