The Armstrong Ranch House
Sarita, Kenedy County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This residence was begun in 1897, after John B. Armstrong moved the headquarters of his ranch from the Chicago pasture (7 mi. SE) to this site. Built in stages, the house was completed about 1900. The first portion was made of adobe and plastered over. Later a frame wing was added. Changes were made to the front porch after the destructive hurricane of 1919. This structure exemplifies the evolution of a South Texas ranch headquarters.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Texas Ranger John B. Armstrong moved his ranch headquarters to this site in 1897, he began a residence that grew in stages until about 1900. Built first of plastered adobe and later expanded with a frame wing, the house was altered again after the devastating 1919 hurricane reshaped its front porch. Its layered construction traces the evolution of a South Texas ranch headquarters.
Why it matters
The ranch house embodies the making of the great South Texas cattle empires, whose headquarters grew room by room alongside the fortunes of their founding families.
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Related people
- · John B. Armstrong
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Armstrong Ranch
Sarita, TX
This land, part of the Spanish "La Barreta" grant, was purchased in 1852 and became home to famed Texas Ranger John Barkley Armstrong after his 1878 marriage to Mollie Durst. Armstrong had ridden with Captain McNelly to bring order to South Texas and won national fame for capturing the outlaw John Wesley Hardin. On this ground—once a camp for Zachary Taylor's army and a stage stop between Corpus Christi and Brownsville—he built one of the legendary cattle ranches of Texas, still run by his descendants.
Brooks County
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