Sam Houston Memorial Museum

The Sam Houston Memorial Museum is at 1836 Sam Houston Avenue in Huntsville, on 15 acres that include two of Houston's homes. Texas Highways says Houston and his family lived at the Woodland Home periodically from 1848 to 1858, while he was a U.S. senator. He hoped to buy it back but lacked the money, so in 1862 he rented the Steamboat House, which Rufus Bailey had built in 1858 and modeled on a steamboat. Houston died there of pneumonia on July 26, 1863, after he had refused to swear allegiance to the Confederacy and left the governorship.

The household included people Houston held in slavery. The Handbook of Texas says Joshua Houston was raised enslaved on Temple Lea's plantation in Alabama and brought to Texas in 1840 by Margaret Lea when she married Sam Houston. In fall 1862, the Handbook says, Houston freed the people he enslaved, and Joshua and most of the others asked to stay with the family. Joshua later served as a Huntsville alderman and county commissioner and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery a few yards from Houston.

The grounds are free every day from dawn to dusk. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sunday from noon; adults pay $6, and the ticket also covers the Walker Education Center gallery at 1402 19th Street. Lake Oolooteka, the duck pond, allows picnics but not fishing.