Hill House
San Felipe, Austin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first known person to occupy the land where the Hill House is located was Judge Robert M. "Three Legged Willie" Williamson. During his ownership, the community of San Felipe de Austin was burned to the ground by order of Moseley Baker, a garrison leader under the command of Gen. Sam Houston's army during the Texas Revolution. By May 1836, families returned to San Felipe and began rebuilding the community. It is believed that at this time Williamson or the subsequent landowner, E.W. Johnson, constructed the original structure of the Hill House. Prior to 1842 the property was sold to Col. David Young Portis, who married Rebecca Cumings on Dec. 28, 1842. The home changed hands several times during the next fifty years. Sometime between 1880 and 1893, the home underwent changes that included the addition of a second floor. Henry and Anne Josey Pitts enlarged the house using material, including the staircase, from Anne's father's home, which was demolished that same year. Henry Pitt's uncle, Jacob Hill, bought the home in 1899 and presented it as a wedding gift to his son Jacob Walter Hill and his new bride, Carrie May Elder. For more than a hundred years, descendants of Jacob and Carrie Hill have maintained ownership of the house. The two-story, wood-clad home was built using cypress lumber and its unique construction, a result of the two-story addition, is representative of 19th-century vernacular architectural styles in Texas. It features three brick chimneys and simple Queen Anne-style gingerbread porch supports. The home was completely restored in 2009. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This land near San Felipe de Austin was first held by the colorful jurist Robert "Three-Legged Willie" Williamson, whose town was burned during the Texas Revolution as Sam Houston's army fell back. As families returned in 1836 to rebuild, the earliest part of the Hill House rose from the ashes. Passing through many owners and gaining a second story in the late 1800s, the cypress-built home stayed in one family for more than a century.
Why it matters
Standing on the ground of Stephen F. Austin's colonial capital, the house embeds the story of Texas's founding and rebirth in vernacular architecture that endured for generations.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Robert M. Williamson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Near This Site Stood a Town Hall
San Felipe, TX
Near this spot in the old capital of Anglo-American colonization stood a town hall built about 1830 that became a cradle of Texas self-government. Within its walls met the Conventions of 1832 and 1833 and the Consultation of 1835, and the provisional government operated here until Texas declared independence in March 1836. As the Mexican army advanced weeks later, the building and the town of San Felipe were burned to deny them to the enemy.
J. J. Josey General Store
San Felipe, TX
Built in 1847 by John Crutcher on San Felipe's Plaza de Commercio, this was the last store raised in the town after it was burned by military order in 1836 during the Texas Revolution. Dr. J. J. Josey bought it in 1867 and ran it as a store until 1942; the much-relocated building was eventually returned to its original site and moved to Stephen F. Austin State Park as a museum.
Stephen F. Austin
San Felipe, TX
This monument honors Stephen F. Austin, the 'Father of Texas,' who between 1823 and 1828 effectively governed the young colony and planted the famed 'Old Three Hundred,' settling more than a thousand families across his colonies. Erected by the State of Texas in 1936 with federal centennial funds, it marks the San Felipe region where his colonizing effort took root. His own words—calling the prosperity of Texas 'the idol of my existence'—serve as his epitaph.
Early Roads to San Felipe
San Felipe, TX
When Stephen F. Austin was planting his colony in the mid-1820s, travel meant following wagon ruts and notched trees through the Texas wilderness. Within a decade San Felipe had become a crossroads from which eight or more roads radiated, tying into great arteries like the San Antonio Road and the Atascosita Road to the United States. Yet even the main routes were dust in summer and impassable bog in winter — a reminder of how hard-won overland travel was before the modern highway era.