Site of Robson's Castle and Columbus, Texas, Meat and Ice Company
Columbus, Colorado County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Robert Robson (1804-1878), one of many Scotsmen seeking fortune in North America, came to the Texas Republic in 1839. On land he owned at this site, he built a concrete "castle," using native lime and gravel. It had running water, pumped from the Colorado into a tank on th roof, then through wooden pipes to its many rooms. It also had a roof garden and an encircling moat, with drawbridge. From Bastrop to Matagorda, it drew guests to Champagne suppers, card parties, and balls. Undermined by an 1869 flood, it became a ruin and was razed when site was put to new use in 1880s. Columbus, Texas, Meat & Ice Company built its 3-story plant on this site in 1884. It was then one of three packing houses in Texas. Established to process at place of origin, the plant could handle 125 cattle a day. Some of its beef went to Queen Victoria's London. Robert E. Stafford (1834-1890), a wealthy trail driver and rancher, veteran of Civil War service with famous Hood's Texas Brigade, owner of a private bank and extensive Colorado County properties, was president, and major stockholder in the packing house. In the early 1890s, after Stafford died, the plant closed. (1973)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1839 the Scotsman Robert Robson came to the young Texas Republic and built on this Columbus site a concrete "castle" of native lime and gravel—complete with running water pumped from the Colorado River, a roof garden, and an encircling moat with a drawbridge, where he hosted champagne suppers and balls. An 1869 flood undermined the fantastical structure, and it was razed in the 1880s. In 1884 the Columbus, Texas, Meat & Ice Company built a three-story packing plant here, one of only three in the state, whose beef reached as far as Queen Victoria's London before the plant closed in the early 1890s.
Why it matters
The site layers a Republic-era eccentric's dream against the industrial ambition of the Gilded Age, capturing how a frontier river town reached for both grandeur and global commerce.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Robert Robson
- · Robert E. Stafford
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Dick-Gillette House
Columbus, TX
After a 1907 fire destroyed his family home, retired dry goods merchant Leon F. Dick oversaw construction of this Classical Revival house in Columbus in 1908, complete with a full-height portico and Ionic columns. Dick was known for his hospitality, hosting Governor Pat Neff during the city's centennial in 1923. The home passed to his niece Alma Dick Gillette and remained in the family until 1976.
Simpson-Williamson House
Columbus, TX
Friench Simpson came to Colorado County as a young Virginian in the 1860s and rose to become a farmer, banker, Columbus mayor, state senator, and published poet — a portrait of Gilded Age ambition in a small Texas town. In 1882 he built this ornate house, its Italianate and Eastlake milled woodwork and roof cresting advertising the prosperity of the era. After 1916 it passed to physician Dr. C. A. Williamson, whose family kept it until 1968.
Toliver-Cone House
Columbus, TX
Native Texan and Civil War veteran James A. Toliver, a civic and political leader in Columbus, is said to have built this house around 1870 using the finest pine and cypress from his own lumber yard. Its two-story wrap-around porch and jig-sawn woodwork mark it as a showpiece of the era; Sallie Cone bought it in 1916, and it stayed in her family until 1974.
Stein-Girndt House
Columbus, TX
Merchant Edward Stein and his wife Angalla built this Columbus home in 1897, hiring the local Wirtz family of builders who raised several of the town's houses. After Edward's death the home passed to relatives, the Girndts, who kept the place as a working household — H.H. tending bees and dabbling in animal folk medicine, Annie running cows, chickens, and a milk route. The family held it into the 1970s, and it still wears its original Queen Anne finery of spindlework and fishscale shingles.