Centennial House
Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Forbes Britton (1812-1861), a Virginian and graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, came to Corpus Christi as an army captain in Mexican War, 1846. He returned as a civilian, and with his wife Rebecca (Millard) had this classical revival house built by the contractors Gravis, Berry and Yates, 1849-50. Britton ranched, was a partner in shipping firm of Britton, Mann and Yates, and helped form first company to obtain a deep water channel for the city. He served 1857-61 in the Texas senate. As Adjutant General, he was personal emissary of governor Sam Houston to U.S. president Buchanan in 1860. His grave is in the state cemetery in Austin. Left with servants during civil war (a confederate hospital in 1862), house became hospital and officers mess for federal army, 1866. It was citizens' refuge in raids of desperadoes and indians while home of James and Janet Bryden, 1870-78. The family of George and Cornelia (Moore) Evans owned the property, 1880-1936. Southern Minerals Corp., Maston Nixon, President, owned, restored and preserved the place, 1936-65. Recognized as oldest existent structure in Corpus Christi, it was designated centennial house in 1949. Since 1965 it has been owned and preserved by the Corpus Christi area heritage society.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Forbes Britton, a Virginian and West Point graduate, first came to Corpus Christi as an army captain during the Mexican War of 1846 and returned as a civilian to build this classical revival house in 1849–50. He ranched, ran a shipping firm, helped fight for a deep-water channel, and served in the Texas senate, even carrying Governor Sam Houston's word to President Buchanan in 1860. During the Civil War the house served as a hospital for Confederate and then federal forces, and it is recognized as the oldest surviving structure in the city.
Why it matters
The Centennial House links the Mexican War, early statehood, and the Civil War in a single surviving building, embodying the founding era of Corpus Christi.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the late 1840s, Corpus Christi was a raw young settlement on the Gulf Coast, freshly caught up in the momentous events of the era. Just a few years earlier, the area had drawn national attention as a staging ground on the eve of war with Mexico, and Texas itself had only recently traded its independence for statehood.
This was a coastal frontier: a place of ranching, shipping, and grand hopes for a deep-water port that could turn a shallow bay into a gateway of commerce. Fortunes and futures depended on whether the town could connect itself to the wider world of trade.
Into that hopeful, unsettled landscape came a Virginian and West Point graduate named Forbes Britton, and the classical revival home he built would stand as a witness to nearly everything that followed.
People & events
Britton (1812–1861) first arrived in Corpus Christi as an army captain during the Mexican War in 1846. He liked what he saw enough to come back as a civilian, and with his wife, Rebecca Millard Britton, he had this classical revival house built by the contractors Gravis, Berry, and Yates in 1849–50.
He threw himself into the life of the young town. Britton ranched, took a partnership in the shipping firm of Britton, Mann and Yates, and helped organize the first company formed to win a deep-water channel for the city. From 1857 to 1861 he served in the Texas Senate, and as Adjutant General he carried a message from Governor Sam Houston himself to President Buchanan in 1860 — a striking sign of the trust placed in him. He is buried in the State Cemetery in Austin.
The house outlived its builder and lived through the Civil War in remarkable fashion. Left with servants during the conflict, it became a Confederate hospital in 1862, then served as a hospital and officers' mess for the federal army in 1866. Later it sheltered residents during frontier raids while it was home to James and Janet Bryden from 1870 to 1878, passed to the family of George and Cornelia Evans from 1880 to 1936, and was owned, restored, and preserved by the Southern Minerals Corporation under Maston Nixon from 1936 to 1965.
Its place in the American story
Few buildings carry as much American history in their walls as this one. Its very timeline runs straight through the pivotal decades of the nineteenth century — the war with Mexico that redrew the map of the continent, the anxious years of early Texas statehood, and the Civil War that tore the country apart and then had to be stitched back together.
The house's wartime service captures that national trauma in miniature. That a single home could serve as a Confederate hospital and then, just a few years later, as a hospital and mess for federal troops is the story of a divided nation compressed into one address. Buildings like this one absorbed the war on the home front in ways battlefields never show.
Recognized as the oldest surviving structure in Corpus Christi, it was designated the Centennial House in 1949, marking a century of standing witness. It endures as a rare physical link to the founding generation of a Gulf Coast city — and to the larger American drama of expansion, war, and reconciliation.
If you visit
Approach it as what it is: a survivor. This is the oldest existing structure in Corpus Christi, and part of its power is simply that it is still here after everything — wars, raids, changing owners, and more than a century and a half of Gulf weather.
Take in the classical revival lines, the kind of dignified, symmetrical design a mid-nineteenth-century builder chose to signal permanence and taste on a coastal frontier. Then let your imagination fill the rooms with their many lives: a family home, a hospital for two opposing armies, a refuge in dangerous times.
The house is owned and preserved by the Corpus Christi Area Heritage Society, which has cared for it since 1965, so it stands as a deliberately kept piece of local memory. It's a fitting stop on any trip exploring the founding era of the Texas coast — a single building where the Mexican War, early statehood, and the Civil War all leave their mark.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Forbes Britton
- · Sam Houston
Themes & tags
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