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On Sunday, September 14, 1997, the Hays County Preservation Associates, Inc., and Southwest Texas State University held a social at the Katherine Anne Porter Home/Museum in Kyle, Texas. The purpose of the event was to publicize the efforts underway to help preserve the Katherine Anne Porter Home/Museum and to inaugurate a fund-raising campaign.

Shortly after Kyle was founded in 1880, Catharine Ann Porter, Miss Porter's widowed paternal grandmother, built the six-room house, at 508 West Center Street. She lived there alone until 1892, when her son Harrison, Katherine Anne's father, moved in with his four children after the death of his wife, the children's mother. The six of them lived there until sometime after the death of the grandmother in October 1901.

In 1942, Joe and Bertie Maude Strawn bought the house, reputedly from the Porter family. The Strawns repaired the house and added a bathroom and running water but did not alter its basic structure during the fifty years it remained in their family. In 1992, Mrs. Strawn sold the house to Ann Vliet, whose dissertation on Miss Porter was completed in 1968. In 1994, Yana and David Bland bought the house, opening it as a museum in 1995. The Blands advocated that the house be treasured as a gem of local, literary history. A group of Hays County citizens, under the name of the Hays County Preservation Associates, Inc., together with Southwest Texas State University devised a plan to purchase the house, make the repairs still needed, and use it for combined historic, cultural, and educational purposes.

The group plans to purchase the house, make necessary repairs, and turn it over to Hays County. The county will give a one hundred-year lease to Southwest Texas State University, which will oversee its upkeep and use the living quarters for a Katherine Anne Porter fellow. The Porter fellow will teach part-time in the university's creative writing program and also give talks and workshops for area youth who are interested in writing. The parlor and dining room areas will continue to display Porter's works and memorabilia and to be used as a meeting room. The creative writing competition, begun by the Blands two years ago, will continue.

The total needed to purchase and restore the house is $150,000, which will be raised through contributions. In addition, through grants, the university will seek to raise a $750,000 endowment to provide for perpetual maintenance of the house and for the operation of the Creative Writers in Residence Program. Mr. Carroll Wiley, Director of Development and Estate Planning at the university, has actively advocated saving of the house. He and Professor Tom Grimes of the MFA Program in Creative Writing are working with the local citizens committee, the Porter House Preservation Project, in conjunction with Preservation Associates, Inc., a non-profit corporation whose board includes prominent Texans. Advisory Committee members include Liz Carpenter, former U.S. Representative Jake Pickle, and U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett.

All contributions are tax deductible and should be made to the Friends of the Hays County Historical Commission--Preservation Associates, Inc., and designated "For Porter House Preservation Project." Contributions or inquiries can be mailed to 1717 North Burleson Street, Kyle, Texas 78640.