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As was often the case in twentieth-century Victoria, as members of the local elite inter-married, ranching dynasties merged. Thomas O'Connor, a grandson of the first Thomas O'Connor of Refugio County, and a nephew of Thomas M. O'Connor, married Kathryn Stoner, whose father and grandfather were Victoria County ranchers. The O'Connors built this solidly proportioned Spanish Mediterranean house. With its curious entrance portal of graduated arch shapes and its studied planarity, the house looks more monumental than it is. Kathryn O'Connor's love of things Spanish matured as she became a serious historian and supporter of historical scholarship and preservation (see GB15).