The museum began with a campaign. In 1955 members of the Brenham Chamber of Commerce formed a Texas Independence Day organization to stage the March 2 celebration and raise money for a museum at the birthplace of the Republic. A statewide drive faltered, but in 1965 State Representative Gus Mutscher of Washington County carried a bill for $800,000 for a "worthy museum" that would be "a star upon a star," and the Houston Endowment and private donors added more.
The building is star-shaped, with two levels and 22,000 square feet, and was finished in 1969. Blinn College in Brenham ran it at first, and it was dedicated and opened on March 1, 1970. The Texas Historical Commission now runs it for the state.
Its subject is the Republic of Texas, from 1836 to 1846, and the people who lived in it. A thirty-minute film, Independence: A Lone Star Rises, opens the visit. The galleries draw on a collection of some 7,500 objects, from furniture, clothing and firearms to farm and transportation tools, and on manuscripts and maps gathered since the 1970s, to tell immigration, politics, war, farming and trade before 1850. The same ticket covers the townsite, Independence Hall and the Barrington farm nearby.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour