806 Pecan and 123 Hudson-Childhood Dream Houses Part 2

This country home was another favorite house of mine that has been up for sale nearly a year in Del Rio. Every morning on the way to school I would catch the homeowner, a middle aged gentleman with overalls, already out and working on something on the grounds. It sits on two acres and backs up to San Felipe Springs.

Peacocks used to roam the once green and lush lawn putting into my head that all large lawns should be graced with a few peacocks. I always wanted the car to slow down as we approached the house so I could admire the birds. There were always beautiful Quarter and Palomino horses

kept in the stables on the property. The entrance had lovely tall and reaching rose bushes creeping up the columns and two large trees shaded the entire lawn in the summer.

The home was built during the cattle boom in 1886. The interior contains an impressive stone fireplace and brick floor recovered from an old grist mill. There are maid and groundskeepers quarters.  My Grandparents always wanted to purchase the place but it never went on the market until recently. For some reason when I think of the lyrics to the song I Wish You Love, by the awesome Charles Trenet, I picture this place. It looks a bit fallen now. There was a time when the home was full of romance and I wanted nothing more than to sit on the porch at night and listen to a Victrola play songs from eras past.

This Spanish style house built in 1881 has gorgeous, old tiled floors, a pond and is surrounded by eighteen 100 year old trees. The oldest Magnolia tree in the state is said to live here. This house used to transport me to Italy or Spain. It was easy to feel far away from the small southwest Texas town I lived in when I stood in front of this house. It has been up for sale for several months.



These houses inspired countless stories,  dramas and romantic notions in my head as I was growing up. I wondered about the very first occupants and what they were like and how they decorated their homes. I could almost picture the photographs they took in these houses. Then I would put myself in them.