Homecoming

Rachel Lail was driving down West Bridge Street one day last year when she discovered the perfect way to celebrate her aunt’s 90th birthday: a weekend stay at the historic home once owned by her aunt’s grandparents.

“I didn’t know that it was a B&B until I drove by (last) summer,” Lail said.

The Stringfellow-Gilmartin house isn’t a B&B, per se, but is rented out to guests.

Visitors rent the entire house, not just a room. And although breakfast isn’t provided, guests – which are usually families and girlfriend groups – are free to prepare their own in the kitchen.

The Victorian guest house now owned by Vicki Risinger was built as a farmhouse in 1914 by R.W. Stringfellow and his wife, Mary. It’s just a couple of blocks from the square.

The couple moved into the home with their three children – two sons and a daughter. A third son was later born.

The Stringfellow’s daughter Mary Kate was the mother of Lail’s aunt, Mary Ted Snoddy Jones.

Last weekend’s family gathering didn’t coincide with Jones’ 90th birthday – that was back in December – but it takes time to schedule a gathering for four far-flung generations of family members.

Lail said that Jones, who used to live in Fort Worth but now resides in Colorado, was “very excited” when told that she would have an opportunity to once again visit her grandparents’ home.

“Her eyes just kind of lit up,” Lail said. “We went through the back door. She was looking at everything.”

Jones “loved” the trip down Memory Lane, according to her niece.

“I think the last time she ever saw that house, she was in high school,” Lail said. “She was born in ’28. She has such a sharp memory for 90 years old.”

Risinger said that Jones told her how the original house was laid out, before various renovations through the years. The upstairs, according to Jones, was once one big, open room. Now it has two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

“It was wonderful to hear her stories,” Risinger said, adding that Jones provided valuable information that she will be able to use during future Candlelight Tours of historic homes during the Christmas season.

DEEP ROOTS

Lail is the only relative in the group who lives in Granbury, but she said that the Stringfellow side of the family also has connections to Ketzler’s Schnitzel Haus and Biergarten on the square and the nearby Captain’s House bed and breakfast on Doyle Street.

The building on the square that currently houses Ketzler’s was once the home of R.W. Stringfellow’s widowed mother, who lived on the second floor with her three children, Lail said, “and fed the workers around the square.”

‘It was wonderful to hear her stories.’
--Guest house owner Vicki Risinger

For a time in Granbury’s recent history, a restaurant called “Stringfellow’s” was operated at that site, an apparent homage to the building’s history.

Mary Kate Stringfellow, Lail’s great-great aunt, married James Doyle, a decorated Civil War hero who built what is now called the Captain’s House in 1875. Doyle was Hood County’s first treasurer and chairman of the Granbury School Board.

The Stringfellow home on West Bridge Street was purchased by Helen Gilmartin, a descendant of several pioneer Hood County families, in 1975.

During last weekend’s family gathering at the home, Lail and her relatives ate at Ketzler’s and visited various places on and around the square.

They also paid a visit to the historic home across the street from the Stringfellow-Gilmartin House – the Painted Lady, now owned by Bob and Julia Pannell.

Lail’s mother was born in that house. At the time, the house was divided into three apartments, Lail stated.

Lail’s grandmother, Mary Kate, was the Stringfellows’ daughter and Jones’ mother.

Lail said that her grandparents’ elopement to Stephenville caused anger within the Stringfellow family, but hard hearts turned soft once a baby – her mother – was born.

“They rented that apartment right across the street from her parents and her parents didn’t speak to her for a year,” Lail said of Mary Kate. “One day (Mary Stringfellow) showed up at the front door with a pie and said, ‘I want to see that baby.’”

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