The historic documentation of the home of Sam Houston’s wife, Margaret, in Independence, Texas, led by Samer Al-Ratrout, a doctoral candidate in architecture at Texas A&M University, earned second place honors in the 2004 Charles E. Peterson Prize competition.
The “Mrs. Sam Houston House” project was the 15th historical documentation by an A&M student to be honored in the Peterson Prize competition, which annually recognizes the best set of measured drawings prepared by students to Historic American Building Survey (HABS) standards.
HABS began in 1933, as one of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal initiatives. It was devised by a young National Park Service employee, Charles E. Peterson, as a way to employ one thousand architects who had lost their jobs as a result of the Great Depression. They were charged with documenting what Peterson called, “America’s antique buildings.” Today, HABS is the only Works Progress Administration program still in operation.
The Peterson Prize was established to honor the HABS founder and to increase awareness and knowledge of historic American buildings while adding to the permanent HABS collection of measured drawing in the Library of Congress. Throughout its 19-year history, historic preservation students from Texas A&M have dominated the Peterson competition, earning nine awards and nine honorable mentions — more than any other competing institution — since joining the competition in 1984.
As part of the 2004 Peterson Prize Award, Al-Ratrout was invited to participate, as the A&M documentation team’s representative, in the AIA Historic Resources Committee’s “Dialogue on Historic Preservation and Architectural Education” held last November in Washington, D.C.
The award also included $2000, which the project team donated to Texas A&M’s Historic Resources Imaging Laboratory in support of preservation education initiatives.
In addition to the Peterson Prize, the “Mrs. Sam Houston House” project received the Kenneth Anderson Award, presented annually to the best set of HABS drawings submitted from Texas. The award honors former HABS chief and Texas Tech graduate Kenneth Anderson. The project team contributed funds earned from the Anderson Award to HRIL Fellows Scholarships.
According to an entry in the Handbook of Texas Online, after Sam Houston’s death in 1863, Margaret was in serious financial straits. She moved to Independence to be once again near her mother, who had emerged from the Civil War with some money.
Mrs. Houston rented the house and labored to hold her family together. Her condition eventually eased when the state legislature voted to pay her the unpaid balance of Houston’s salary as governor of Texas.
In the fall of 1867, while preparing to move with her youngest children to Georgetown, to live with her married daughter, Nannie, she contracted yellow fever. She died at Independence on December 3, 1867.
Aggie Peterson Prize honors:
| 1984 |
Cavitt House and Log Cabin, Wheelock , Texas |
Second Place |
| 1984 |
Schmid Brothers Building , Brenham , Texas |
Third Place |
| 1986 |
Hammond House, Calvert , Texas |
Honorable Mention |
| 1988 |
Gay-McGregor-Allen House, Brazos County , Texas |
Honorable Mention |
| 1988 |
Harrington-Upham House, Millican, Texas |
Honorable Mention |
| 1990 |
Grimes County Courthouse, Anderson , Texas |
First Place |
| 1991 |
Giddings-Wilkin House, Brenham, Texas |
First Place |
| 1992 |
Coulter House and Carriage House, Bryan , Texas |
Honorable Mention |
| 1993 |
John Moore House, Richmond , Texas |
Honorable Mention |
| 1994 |
Rowell-Ware Dependency, Jefferson , Texas |
Fourth Place |
| 1996 |
Union Trading Company Complex, Fort Davis , Texas |
First Place |
| 1996 |
Harris-Martin House, Anderson , Texas |
Fourth Place |
| 1999 |
Seward Plantation , Independence , Texas |
Third Place |
| 2004 |
Mrs. Sam Houston House, Independence , Texas |
Second Place |
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