3rd Visit: Stark House Museum

The Stark House Museum

(Panoramic views)

(Front View)



The Stark House Museum is a unique landscape. As I have stated before, this is a landscape I have passed my for many years but have never taken the opportunity to appreciate the many different aspects of its design. I think this landscape is more than a museum or a former family home, but truly a piece of art work.

The Stark House Museum has been famously notated because of the Stark family heritage, the unique design for it's time and the highly manicured landscape. One particular aspect that has caught my eye are the many porches on all sides. Throughout the years, I have always notated the porch railings, bur more specifically, the many supportive spokes within the railings. What is the total number of supportive spokes? Due to the era of this house, where these supportive spokes man carved? If so, how long did it take to make them? If a machine created these spokes, was it a primitive machine and how many could it produce? All casual thoughts I wonder if there are answer to.

In regards to gender identities within this landscape, one may think I have a male perspective because of my focus on the intricate work behind the porch railing support spokes. However, I wonder if Mrs. Stark wanted this many supportive spokes to keep young children's heads from being caught in the porch railings.

(Slightly right of entry, driveway view)

As I engage with visitors about this landscape, I notice women tend to not only embrace the beauty of the unique design, but also envision on what it would have been like to have a worker bring the prepared coach under the awning for your outing into the town. Also, we spoke of clothing of the era and what it would have been like to walk along the many porches in the spring weather while enjoying iced, sweet tea.

I noticed my conversations with men tended to consist more of the grounds. Most men stated they would prefer to have gardened themselves versus having a worker updating the manicured landscape. Most specifically, the large tree to the far left is a common conversational piece. Some men stated they would have trimmed it up to match the rest of the organized, beautiful grounds. While other men stated the tree is representing the southeast Texas area of marsh, swamp land and would not change it at all.

(Side yard)

Most homes have a front yard and a back yard. This landscape is unique not only by the home's design, but also the layout. All of the Stark House Museum grounds are manicured, but it has a small front yard, left-side yard, and back yard. The majority of the grounds is located to the right of the house. This seems strange in this day because the main road is located to the left of the house. However, in the era of this home, the house once faced the major intersection of a once booming town. In the far right distance, you can see the servant quarters and not pictured even further to the right is the coach house, which patrons can visit.

Personally, I find this assignment interesting, fun and unique. I left my home town, as most of us have to attend The University of Texas at Austin. I am honored and excited to share with you a small portion of this small town that I also did not know much about, The Stark House Museum. I find it interesting that I had to leave this landscape to discover it more in great detail but I had a lot of fun sharing this experience with you all. Thank you!