{"nrhp_refnum":"86002553","name":"Pickering House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"403 N. Glass","address_restricted":false,"city":"Victoria","county":"Victoria County","state":"TX","lat":28.80294506900003,"lon":-97.00696331099994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-12-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story wood-frame Neoclassical Revival dwelling at 403 N. Glass in Victoria, Texas, with an original house possibly dating to the 1850s and a major renovation in about 1911 designed by Jules Leffland.","why_significant":"The nomination cites architecture and commerce. The original dwelling was built for sea captain A. F. Higgs, who was behind the Texas Continental Meat Co., using materials moved from Lavaca Bay. Joe M. Pickering, a businessman and co-founder of the Anchor Lumber Co., bought it in 1908 and had it remodeled around 1911.","narrative":"This two-story frame house at 403 N. Glass in Victoria, Texas, reflects two phases of local history. The original dwelling was built for sea captain A. F. Higgs, an entrepreneur behind the Texas Continental Meat Co., using materials moved from the Lavaca Bay area near Texana or Placedo. The form suggests this may have happened as early as the 1850s. In 1908 Joe M. Pickering, a prominent businessman and co-founder of the Anchor Lumber Co., bought the property. He hired architect Jules Leffland to design a major renovation around 1911, which gave the house its Neoclassical Revival character. Features include a two-story, four-bay porch with fluted columns and composite capitals, a second-floor balcony with turned balusters, a hip roof with gabled dormers, a denticulated cornice, and beveled leaded glass in the entrances. A wooden round-picket fence surrounds the lot, and a garage/apartment stands at the northwest corner. The house is in a residential area north of downtown and remains in residential use.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Jules Leffland (remodeling)","architectural_style":"Neoclassical Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as residential in both original and present use; outbuildings include a garage/apartment and small frame structures.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:20.963983-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/35/9705/40970535/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/86002553.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86002553/c1a152ab3d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86002553/c1a152ab3d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"ProfReader","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pickering_House.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">ProfReader</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pickering_House.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40970535","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickering_House_(Victoria,_Texas)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14711245"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/victoria-county/pickering-house-86002553/"}