Sidbury House
Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Charlotte Scott (Mrs. Edward D.) Sidbury (1830-1904), the builder of this house, was born in north Carolina and came with her parents to sterling Robertson's colony before the Texas Revolution (1836). She married John Wesley Scott in 1848; they moved to Nueces county, where he died in 1867. In 1875, she was married again to builder Edward D. Sidbury. A civic leader and bank Director, Mrs. Sidbury became manager of her husband's lumber company after his death in 1881. This structure was part of the expansion resulting from the ropes boom of the early 1890's. Colonel E.H. Ropes of New Jersey planned to make Corpus Christi a deep water port. He began dredging a channel across Mustang Island but ran out of money and abandoned the project. One of two rent houses originally constructed by Mrs. Sidbury about 1893 in the bluff addition on upper north Broadway, this victorian structure featured a two-story bay surrounded by elaborately decorated galleries. It was occupied for several years by Padre Island Rancher Patrick Dunn (1858-1937). Later sold by Mrs. Sidbury's descendants, the house was moved off the Bluff in 1926 to this location in the historic "Old Irishtown" neighborhood.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Charlotte Scott Sidbury (1830–1904), a North Carolina native who came to Texas before the Revolution, built this Victorian house around 1893. A civic leader and bank director, she took over her late husband's lumber company and constructed rental houses during the 'Ropes boom,' when Colonel E.H. Ropes tried and failed to dredge Corpus Christi into a deep-water port. The elaborately galleried structure was later home to Padre Island rancher Patrick Dunn and was moved to Old Irishtown in 1926.
Why it matters
The house testifies to a nineteenth-century businesswoman's success and to the speculative dreams that eventually made Corpus Christi a port city.
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Related people
- · Charlotte Scott Sidbury
- · E.H. Ropes
- · Patrick Dunn
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Sidbury-Savage House
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