Kyle Log House

     A local historic site near my home. The double pen, dogtrot log home Lucy Bugg and Claiborne Kyle built on a bluff, overlooking the Blanco River in Hays County, still stands where it was constructed in 1850. The one-story 80X20 foot, log house was built of cedar logs, hand dressed by adze, square notched at the corners and secured by wooden pegs. There are two rooms on each side of the dogtrot, each divided by a large, double-sided stone fireplace. It may be the only remaining example of a double pen, linear dogtrot log home on it original location in Texas, probably the South.
“It (Kyle log house) continues an architectural style begun in Massachusetts and Virginia, brought through Kentucky and Tennessee to Texas during the westward movement of the 19th century,” stated Eric S. McCready in a letter to Curtis Tunnell, acting director, National Register Program of the Texas Historical Foundation. Claiborne and Lucy lived there with eight of their own children and one adopted son after their move from Tennessee.
The historic log home was restored in 1982 using the same rock grouting and caliche technique. The tin roof was replaced with cedar shingles as the original. It was Hays County’s first parkland and is open to the public on designated days. Admission to the log house is always free.