Thomas Gibbs commissioned this house in 1862 and a builder named W. M. Barrett put it up, in Greek Revival because that is what a prosperous Southern merchant built in Texas at the time. Gibbs was a storekeeper and a landowner, and he was close enough to Sam Houston, who lived about six blocks away, that Houston named him first executor of his will. Houston died the year after the house was finished. It is now the Walker County Museum, run by the county historical commission under lease since 1984 and furnished to the period. The Gibbs name is worth following past the house. Thomas started the firm in 1841 with a partner who died three years later, and in 1847 his brother Sandford paid five hundred dollars for a half interest. It moved out of retail into land and timber and is still trading. Sam Houston was a customer. The company describes itself as the oldest business in Texas under the same ownership on the same site, and the state historical association carries that carefully, as reputed rather than established. A 1963 marker to the old store, the first brick building in the county, stands a hundred and fifty yards away. What the house is good for is scale. Huntsville in 1860 was a town of 939 people with a prison, a college and a courthouse, and this was one of its substantial buildings. The interstate runs a mile east of the front door, and almost nothing on it knows the house is here.
Getting there
30.7240, -95.5527
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
