In the middle of Kyle, Texas, a growing city near Austin, sits a well-kept century-old house – the childhood home of Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Anne Porter. The home, known as the Katharine Anne Porter Literary Center, is recognized by the Library of Congress as a National Literary Landmark.

Born Callie Russell Porter in Indian Creek, Texas in 1890, Porter was relocated to the small house in Kyle after the death of her mother. The house belonged to her father’s mother, a woman known for her strength of character. Her grandmother, the first Catharine Ann, would tell young Katherine and her siblings stories of the Civil War and her past. Upon her death in 1901, the house was sold for $10 and Katherine ended up living in San Antonio.

Thanks to funding from the Burdine Johnson Foundation, and other donors, the home was meticulously restored in 2000. Owned by the Hays County Preservation Associates, a non-profit organization, the home is leased by Texas State University and used as a home for their writer-in-residence program. Each resident is able to live in the house for two years. The current residents are Michael and Stephanie Noll, and because it is their home, tours are available by appointment only. 

The wood-frame house has several entrances, but was originally only three rooms. The main entrance leads into a living area that was originally the kitchen – a hole for a stove-pipe in the ceiling still exists. Off to the right is the main bedroom, the bedroom that served as the room for Katherine’s father and grandmother. Beyond that, what is now a decent-sized bathroom, was the sleeping room for four children – which would have been a rather cramped area.

Much time was spent on the porch, Michael said. And no wonder, with the Texas heat, no air-conditioning and a large family, the inside would often have been sweltering.

The home has been added on to over the years, and nearly doubled in size. There are two additional rooms – each successively a kitchen – as well as what now really is the kitchen at the back of the house.

When Katherine left the house, she turned her back on her Texas heritage for many years. At age 15, she married for the first time, to a cruel man who beat her. After 10 years she divorced him and changed her name. That’s when she became Katherine Anne Porter. She traveled the world as a journalist, living in Mexico and Europe, and all over the United States. She became a master at telling stories, both on paper and in her own life. For example, she often told people she came from a southern plantation in Kentucky. A beautiful woman, she married three more times – the last time to a man 20 years her junior. Noll says that even though Katherine had prematurely white hair due to a near-fatal bout of influenza, it still took her last husband three years to realize how much older she was than he.

The publication of her only novel “Ship of Fools” in 1962 bought financial security. The book was later made into a movie starring Vivien Leigh. A copy of the book sits on a shelf in the house.

She became known as the ‘greatest woman writer’ at the time. She resented the qualifier of ‘woman’, and claimed to be the ‘greatest writer’ period.

A mounting stone still stands in front of the house from the time period she resided there. An additional building, the seminar room, has been built behind the house. It is used for classes and readings from visiting writers and is available for community groups. A list of upcoming readers is on the website, http://www.english.txstate.edu/kap/.

Tours are free and if you choose to go, call for an appointment, 512.268.5537. To get there: take I-35 to Kyle, exit 213 (Center Street). You can only turn one way to get onto Center Street. Go through downtown past the Baptist church on the right. The Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center is the next house at 508 Center Street.

Christie L. Smith is a freelance writer living in Kyle, Texas.

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