Corpus Christi History by Murphy Givens

Historic homes

One old house, hidden behind unkempt trees like an shy recluse, survives from the past, but it's in sad condition. I had thought this old place was the home of Col. Elihu Ropes, the promoter who came to Corpus Christi in 1889 and set off the biggest boom in the city's history, before he went broke in the money panic of 1893.
   This old structure, once called "The Steamboat House," was built in Ropes' Aransas Cliffs development off Ocean Drive. It was built in 1890 for Ropes' brother, Capt. James Ropes. It was moved to 802 South Carancahua in the 1920s. The old mansion is being used as an apartment house today.
   Giles-Farenthold home

The Giles-Farenthold home at 625 S. Broadway has been restored on its original site.

   Dr. H.R. Giles practiced medicine here for half a century, until he died in 1948. He was mayor from 1935 to 1937. His son, Elbert Jackson Giles, once recalled making house calls with his father when he was a boy. He would hold the flashlight during births and would sometimes run home to get forceps. The Giles home, with its rounded front entrance, was a landmark at 625 S. Broadway. The house later became known as the Farenthold home. It has been restored on the original site at 625 S. Broadway.
   Next door is the Carrie Lichtenstein home, at 615, built in 1893 by her husband S.J. Lichtenstein. It has been restored and serves as an office for Durrill Properties.
   The homes in "Blucherville" past the old arroyo were special. Felix von Blucher came to Corpus Christi from Germany in the 1840s. He served during the Mexican War as an interpreter for Winfield Scott. He was an interpreter in 1847 when a peace treaty with Comanches was signed; he drew pictures for the chiefs to mark. Blucher rode with Rip Ford's Rangers in the 1850s and again with Ford's Cavalry of the West at the end of the Civil War. He was the first of three generations of Bluchers to serve as county surveyor.
   His son Charles Blucher, surveyor for 50 years, built his stately home in 1880 at 123 Carrizo; it still exists, serving as the Blucher Family Museum. George Blucher, his brother, built his home at 211 N. Carrizo in 1904. The two-story home was built of cypress, with floors and walls made of tongue-and-groove hard pine. This magnificent old house has been restored and is now a successful bed-and-and-breakfast establishment operated by Tracey Smith.
   Forbes Britton came here as a lieutenant with Zachary Taylor's army in 1845. After the war with Mexico, he returned and went into the shipping business and owned a ranch on the Oso, at a place called Britton Motts.
   Britton built his house on the bluff in 1849. The foundation was made of shellcrete blocks. The house served as a refuge during the Civil War and at the end of the war it was used as barracks for Union officers.
   Before he died in 1861, Britton sold the house and it passed through a succession of owners. In the 1870s, James Bryden, a former trail boss for Richard King, bought the old house for his daughter, Mrs. W. N. Staples. She sold it to George Evans in 1882 and it stayed in the Evans family for half a century. This old house, still standing in its original location, is known today as the Centennial House. Corpus Christi's oldest surviving house sustained moisture damage to its masonry walls. Restoration work is under way.
   John Rabb came to this area in 1856 and settled near Banquete. Before fences were known, Rabb ran cattle on the open range under his Bow and Arrow brand. In 1857 he bought a one-gabled home on the bluff built a few years earlier (sometime between 1847 and 1854) by attorney Walter Merriman. During the Civil War, while the Rabb family was at the ranch house at Banquete and while Rabb was serving in a Confederate cavalry unit, the house was used as a hospital by Dr. E. T. Merriman. Merriman and his son Eli took the news of Lee's surrender to the soldiers in this hospital, many of them so weak they could hardly stand, but not so weak they couldn't cry.

Charles Blucher home, at 123 N. Carrizo, was built in 1880 shortly after his marriage to Mary Meuly.

   The house was known for some time as the Hampton place. It was occupied by Mr and Mrs. Wade Hampton; Mrs. Hampton was Lula Rabb. After Rabb died in 1872, his widow Martha built a huge new place on the bluff called the Magnolia Mansion. The original Rabb house has been restored and now graces Heritage Park. It's known today as the Merriman-Bobys House.
   There are others in Heritage Park that we mention only in passing. There's the McCampbell House built by Mrs. Ward McCampbell on Water Street. There's the Ben Grande house (now known as Grande-Grossman house) which was built on Artesian in 1907. Lawyers Michael O'Reilly and William Kelly restored the old Sidbury-Savage house on the bluff that had been built about 1875 by lumber dealer E. O. Sidbury. It was moved to "Irishtown" in 1949. There's the Buddy Lawrence home, built in 1892, the French-Galvan home, the Julius Lichtenstein home, the Gugenheim home, among others.

Centennial House was built in 1849 by Forbes Britton. It later became known as the Evans home. Extensive damage to its masonry walls is now being repaired.

   We should appreciate the fact that some of the city's old homes have been preserved and restored, a few at their original locations. Still, it's sad to think of the great old homes that have fallen to the sound of the wrecker's tools.
   Of course, many were lost to a necessity called progress: the Harbor Bridge complex, Crosstown Expressway and I-37 sliced through the heart of Corpus Christi and took many of the city's proud old homes. But others were torn down because they were in locations that had become more valuable for commercial purposes. Old homes that had lasted for more than 100 years - homes that showed an artistic craftmanship of an era long passed, homes that had survived the Civil War and nameless Gulf storms - were needlessly torn down. They were destroyed to make way for disposable box-like buildings that could have been constructed on any vacant lot.
   By this process, the city renews itself in an ever-cheaper, uglier way as it cannibalizes its past. Then, year by year, its vibrant history is erased and it begins to look like every other city, it's character and uniqueness gone. When we lose important structures from the past, we lose not only part of our history, we lose part of ourselves.
   Murphy Givens can be reached by phone at 886.4315 or by e-mail at givensm@caller.com.
  
  

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