Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum

The Goodman-LeGrand House, at 624 North Broadway in Tyler, was built in 1859 as a one-story, four-room house on nine wooded acres. Its first owner, attorney Samuel Gallatin Smith, called it Bonnie Castle. He sold it in 1861 when the Civil War began, became a Confederate captain and was later killed in battle in Louisiana, according to the City of Tyler.

Dr. Samuel Adams Goodman, a retired country doctor from South Carolina, bought the house in 1866, and his son Dr. William Jeffries Goodman, who served in the Civil War, bought it from him. The family held it for 73 years across four generations. They added a second story around 1880, wired the house for electricity in 1891 and put in plumbing in 1903, and a 1926 remodel gave it the circular porticos and two-story columns of its Classical Revival look. Sallie Goodman LeGrand, the last family member to live there, died in 1939 and left the house and its furnishings to the city on condition that it become a public museum. It was the first Smith County property listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed Sunday and Monday. Entry is free with a suggested donation of $3, and groups of ten or more must book ahead. Original Goodman furnishings remain inside, including a family guitar from about 1850. Outside, the LeGrand Gardens cover nearly a city block with shade trees, azaleas and roses.