Sidbury-Savage House

The house carries a husband's name, but its owner for three decades made the money. Born Charlotte Cook in 1830, she ran her first husband's ranch near Beeville after his death in 1867, then married lumber dealer Edward Sidbury in January 1875. When he died in August 1881 she took over the lumber business, and by 1891 she was worth more than $200,000. She directed the Corpus Christi National Bank and gave to her Methodist church and the Aransas Pass Railroad. In 1893 she built two rental houses on the Bluff; one stands in Heritage Park.

What the plaque says

Sidbury-Savage House Edward D. Sidbury (1838-1881), a native of North Carolina, migrated to Corpus Christi in 1867. Soon after his arrival, he opened a lumber business. He later built a commercial wharf at the end of coopers alley, served by a line of the Texas-Mexican railroad. Sidbury constructed this greek revival residence prior to 1875, when he married Charlotte (Cook) Scott (1830-1904), the widow of rancher John Wesley Scott (d. 1867). It was originally located on north Carancahua Street in the bluff addition to the city. Charlotte continued to live in the house following Sidbury's death in 1881. She took over management of the family lumber company and later became a prominent business and civic leader of Corpus Christi. In 1904 the home was inherited by her grandson Rayburn Savage. He lived in the residence with his family until his death in 1941. Five years later his wife Alice (Ricklefsen) (d. 1949) had it moved to this location, part of the old irishtown neighborhood. The property was the site of her parents' house, which was destroyed by the 1919 hurricane. Additions and interior alterations to the home were made by later owners in order to provide a larger living area. (1980)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Art Museum of South Texas — 0.4 mi
  Philip Johnson's 1972 museum on the Corpus Christi bayfront, joined in 2006 by Ricardo Legorreta's Miller Wing, holding more than 2,000 works mostly from Texas and the Americas.
• Mirador de la Flor — 0.6 mi
  Corpus Christi's bayfront memorial to Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, the Tejano singer from this city, killed in 1995 at twenty-three, visited by about thirty thousand people a year.
• Texas State Aquarium — 0.7 mi
  A nonprofit aquarium on the tip of Corpus Christi Beach built around the Gulf and the Caribbean, with the largest coastal wildlife rescue center in Texas behind the exhibits.
• USS Lexington Museum on the Bay — 0.8 mi
  An Essex-class carrier of 1943 moored off North Beach, the Blue Ghost that Tokyo Rose kept reporting sunk, and the Navy's training carrier for nearly three decades after.

More markers nearby

• Irishtown — steps away
• McCampell House — steps away
• Jalufka-Govatos House — steps away
• Theodore Merchant Lawrence (January 16, 1861-August 10, 1941) — steps away