Sturgis House - Waco Downtown Historic District - Waco, TX
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 31° 33.038 W 097° 08.431
14R E 676504 N 3492127
Constructed in 1887 for James N. Harris, the Sturgis House is a two-story brick home with Folk Victorian styling. It is now Teslas Café Coffee Pub.
Waymark Code: WMXQK0
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/14/2018
Views: 2
Texas Historic Sites Atlas
The house is located on Washington Avenue, along the southem perimeter of what is now Waco's commercial district. Sanbom maps indicate that in 1899, the house was part of a residential neighborhood that featured large, well-designed homes. By the second decade of the twentieth century, churches and schools began to replace these dwellings, and the commercial core began to reach southward along Washington Avenue.
The house, constructed fully of brick hand-made from Brazos River sand, is L-shaped in plan and extends two full stories. The tan brick, laid thirteen inches thick, provides both the home's structure and exterior cladding. Plaster is applied directly onto these walls to clad interior surfaces. The house is capped by a low-hipped roof with projecting eaves. A cornice lined with dentils and scrolled brackets supports the eaves. The north and south ends of the house each feature a single brick chimney, capped with corbelled brickwork.
The front facade (west-facing) is dominated by a double-height porch, elevated above grade to the height of approximately five stair steps. The porch, on both the lower and upper levels, is supported by turned posts; it is further embellished with a turned balustrade and fretwork. All woodwork on the porch is painted white. The main facade is visually divided into five bays, the center bay features the main entry, and each flanking bay is punctuated by a tall rectangular, 2/2 double-hung segmented-arch window. The interior is accessed through a double door (painted dark red), topped with a segmented-arch transom window, and flanked sidelights. Windows feature shutters, painted black. The upper floor mirrors the ground-floor configuration, with centered doorway opening onto the upper porch. Windows and doors are trimmed in painted woodwork (white, to correspond with the porch supports); this is a striking contrast to the relatively monochromatic tan brick of the main body of the house.
The house, originally owned by James Harris, was purchased by James H. Sturgis in 1912; the Sturgis family still owns and maintains this residence.