513 Earl Garrett Street

2011

1988 photo

This house at 513 Earl Garrett Street, now a commercial property, is said to date to 1895.  In 1988, a survey taken of the oldest buildings in town reported this house had heart pine and German craftmanship.  

This was originally the home of Thomas Wallace Anderson, a native of Oxford, Georgia, and a Louisiana plantation  and cotton gin owner. Like so many others, he and his family came to Kerrville for his health.  

The  house is two story in front with a one-story ell at the rear. Verandas were built upstairs and down on the front and across the ell at the back.  The lumber was bought from Remschel yard, and carpenters from Morris Ranch did the construction. (Daughter Jean Beall had married Charlie Morris, who ran Morris Ranch for his cousin.)  

Originally, the lot was much larger, extending 50 feet to the north and southward to the railroad on North Street.  It was an in-town farm with large barn, stables, chicken house, stables, and other outbuildings.  A windmill drew water from a well, along with a cistern on the back porch.

Anderson and his sons opened the Kerrville Mercantile Company, at the railroad crossing at Clay Street.  Mosel-Saenger bought the business from Anderson Brothers in 1908.

Daughter Lilly inherited the house.  She and her husband, A. G. Morriss, ranched on the Divide.  Mrs. Morriss and children lived in town during the school year and spent summers at the ranch.

Although the family owned the house until 1945, they didn't always live here.  In 1930, for instance, the Morriss' lived in a more modern house at 800 Wheless, and rented out the house to Marie Gentry, who ran a boarding house called the "Mary Marie". (Mary was her daughter.)

When the house was sold to G. S.  Cone in 1945 three generations of Anderson family had lived here. Cone divided the property and built four houses in the former orchard and gardens. The area today is no longer residential, but the feel of the old neighborhood lingers because of efforts to preserve these houses along Earl Garrett Street.