Eckert House

Behind the pressed tin is a brick house with nerve. Listed on the National Register in 1988, it is described as a very eclectic and unusual house for San Angelo: a story and a half on an irregular plan, a full-width porch on Tuscan columns, Palladian windows in the gables and a square corner tower under a steep pyramidal roof, all covered in pressed metal shingles. Built between 1910 and 1913, it was valued as architecture for its styling, its early date and its survival, largely unaltered.

What the plaque says

Eckert House Oscar (1856-1927) and Martha Geissler Eckert (1871-1934), both German immigrants to the U.S., purchased this lot in 1910. Oscar and his brother Henry built this residence, except for the brickwork, completing the construction in 1911. Pressed tin is a dominant architectural feature of the house. It covers the roof as well as ceilings and some interior walls on the first floor. Eckert was a farmer who also worked as a tinsmith, windmill maker, and saloon keeper. The Eckerts had seven children. (1985) Since 1937 this house has been known as the Fairbanks residence. Mr. C. A. (Doug) Fairbanks was a grocer and realtor.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Miss Hattie's Bordello Museum — 0.6 mi
  The upstairs rooms on Concho Avenue where a brothel ran from 1902 until the Texas Rangers closed it in 1952, shown on short guided tours with most of the furnishings original.
• San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts — 0.8 mi
  A free art museum on the Concho beside Fort Concho, founded in the fort's 1868 quartermaster building and known nationally for its biennial ceramics competition.
• Fort Concho National Historic Landmark — 0.9 mi
  The stone post at the forks of the Concho, headquarters of the Tenth Cavalry from 1875 to 1882, saved by a woman with a museum and now a city-run landmark of 23 original buildings.
• Concho River Walk — 1.2 mi
  Four miles of lit trails along the North Concho through downtown San Angelo, rebuilt after voters taxed themselves in 2004, with gardens, sculpture, a river stage and stocked trout.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of San Angelo — 0.5 mi
• Sacred Heart Catholic Church — 0.5 mi
• First United Methodist Church of San Angelo — 0.5 mi
• The San Angelo Standard — 0.7 mi