Site of the Home of General Sam Houston and Family

Sam Houston wrote in September 1853 why he bought here: he thought no town, Austin included, offered the same advantages for educating his children. He paid $4,000 in short payments for about 200 fenced acres and 165 of timber, on the hill left of the road out of Independence. The family lived on it until 1859, while he served in the Senate and lost a race for governor. The house was rented out after his election and again after his death in 1863. It was demolished in June 1897.

What the plaque says

Site of the Home of General Sam Houston and Family Site of the home of General Sam Houston and family; Original house built in 1837 by Thomas Barron; first occupied by the Houstons in 1854; torn down and rebuilt in 1897 by James Dallas.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — steps away
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 12 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 12 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Navasota — 16 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.

More markers nearby

• John Prince Coles — steps away
• Dr. Horace G. Clark — steps away
• Female Department of Baylor University — steps away
• Columns of a Building of Old Baylor University — steps away