San Felipe Town Hall
San Felipe, Austin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Successor to 1828 hall used by "Ayuntamiento" (town council). Conventions of 1832, 1833, and Consultation of 1835 -- leading to Texas Revolution -- met there. Burned during Revolution in 1836. Two story section of present structure was built about 1842 and may have served as county courthouse until 1847. It was joined to a one story school after 1900; moved to this site, 1915. By old custom, council meets each Saturday before full moon. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1970
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
San Felipe was the capital of Anglo colonization in Mexican Texas, and this town hall succeeded an 1828 building used by the ayuntamiento, or town council. In its predecessor hall the conventions of 1832 and 1833 and the Consultation of 1835 met, steps that led directly to the Texas Revolution, before the town was burned in 1836. The two-story section of the present structure was built about 1842, may have served as a county courthouse, and by old custom the council still meets on the Saturday before each full moon.
Why it matters
It stands at the political birthplace of Texas, where colonists debated and organized the government that would carry them into revolution and independence.
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Related people
- · Stephen F. Austin
Related events
- · Convention of 1832
- · Convention of 1833
- · Consultation of 1835
- · Texas Revolution
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
San Felipe de Austin Cemetery
San Felipe, TX
Founded in 1824 as the capital of Stephen F. Austin's original Anglo-American colony, San Felipe de Austin set aside this ground for its dead in its very first Mexican charter, chosen by Austin and the Baron de Bastrop. The cemetery grew into a fenced Anglo section of some 370 graves alongside a separate African American section of roughly 200, at least three belonging to former slaves. Many of the colony's earliest pioneers and leaders lie here, in soil that predates Texas statehood.
San Felipe United Methodist Church
San Felipe, TX
After San Felipe de Austin—the capital of Stephen F. Austin's colony—was incorporated in 1837, the town built a multi-purpose cypress building on Constitution Square to serve as town hall, school, and church. Methodists worshipped there by evening, a second floor added in 1847 hosted a Masonic lodge whose painted "eye of God" ceiling survives, and by 1880 the structure became a dedicated church with a steeple and bell. The congregation still meets here and lights its historic oil lamps each Christmas Eve.
Hill House
San Felipe, TX
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.
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.